a couple of weeks ago ap had an article on this, and i'm looking at different newspapers picked it up including the indianapolis business journal. and there was one comment if that was intriguing, right? just to to get a meal at a mcdonald's for one person is close to $10. like you said, you can get better food elsewhere, mcdonald's used to be the spot i could e spend $1-5 per person. their quality hadn't gotten any better. looks like management heard that because corey and others all said it, today mcdonald's, according to reports or, prepared to launch a $5 meal deal at its u.s. restaurants to draw more of the inflation-hit customers back to its outlets. now, this is according to bloomberg who cited a person familiar with all of this. now, the deal would include a mcif chicken or a mcdouble with fries and a drink. franchisees hate this idea. it's been brought up already this year. they rejected it, but they have no choice. no one has a choice because inflation does not go away. all right. that's it for me. over to ashley who's in for liz

claman if. [laughter] ashley: i'll take the mcdouble any day, charles -- [laughter] hey, i tell you what, we love it. thank you, my friend. have a good weekend. i'm ashley webster, of course, in today for liz claman. welcome to the final hour of trade. stocks, well, just a little mixed. just over 59 minutes left in the session. the dow up, as you can see, about a quarter of a percent. on pace, by the way, for an 8-day winning streak. that's pretty good. the s&p up about a tenth of a percent, but the nasdaq down a tenth, and the russell also down almost 1%. it is a mixed, muted bag, that's how we're going to put it. but for the week, the dow, s&p 500 and nasdaq all remaining in the green as rate cut optimism continues to boost buyers. they're not going to give up on that. today's economic data though throwing a small wrinkle in that bullishness. as you can see, the markets this week all in the green, some modestly so.

but you know what? consumer sentiment fell to its lowest level since november as the one-year expectations for inflation actually jumped to 3.5%. that's the highest level in six months. well, bond yields spiking in response to that report. the 2-year yield, as you can see, at a one-week high. the 2-year up 5.7 basis points to 4.87. meanwhile, the 10-year also a up 5 basis points, right around 4.5%. investors also digesting a slew of comments from the federal reserve. they've all been yapping away. chicago fed president austan goolsbee says he's hesitant to focus too much on recent inflation data. he says adding that they have made a lot of progress. dallas fed president lori logan, on the other hand, said it's too early to think about cutting rates. she also said that u.s. monetary policy might not be tight enough. yikes. minneapolis fed president, mean

tile, neel kashkari adding that the fed has got to get inflation down. so what's been the response? well, fed funds futures for september showing now right around a 61% probability for a cut as compared with 67% before this morning's consumer sentiment report. so dropping a little bit. all right. let's get right to the floor show, discuss the latest data and all the action today. joining me now is max and money founder and ceo mark matson and carnivore trading ceo dutch masters. gentlemen, thank you both for being here. great to see you. mark if i, i -- mark, i want to begin with you because gold is having one of its best weeks in five weeks. you are telling investors, don't touch it with a 10-foot pole, avoid gold and commodities of all types, in fact. explain why. >> yeah. well, look, thank you for having me on the show. the thing that's affecting investors right now is fear.

so there's fear about the economy, fear about inflation, fear about the wars going on. and when people are afraid, they make really bad decisions. gold historically hasp only had a 5% rate of return, but the standard deviation, the volatility of stocks which has historically averaged over 10, commodities, on the other hand, you don't actually buy the commodity, you buy an option on a commodity, and they expire. so for the last 15 years the real return on commodities has been zero. so you have assets that are highly volatile, have low expected returns, and it's speculating and gambling. for a family trying the cash in on their american dream, it's a bad deal. don't ever gamble with your money. stick with equities long term. don't focus on the next 20 minutes, you've got to be focused on the next 20 years. ashley: very good. all right, dutch, fed president neel kashkari saying that the fed is interested in a.i. because it contributes to product it. we know -- productivity. we know it's a huge investment theme these days, so my question

to you is, how are you playing it? >> well, we did a nifty little trade on soun ahead of earnings, so, you know, what we like are the big stocks like nvidia and microsoft if and the a.i. space. they're really the ones that are going to win. but the other way we're play being it really is in the cloud computing, networking area, networking equipment. so there's really three stocks this there. one of which you all can see today, anet, arrest that network is killing it. we are personally in vertiv and powell which are flat out just, you know, the next shortage that we're going to see out there is this electronic cloud computing equipment. and so they are just firing on all sill. ener thes. so those are the two many that sector. and our returns have been up around 250 year to date. we're up around 99 already -- 999% already this month, and

we -- 9% in this month. and we did on the back of those two stocks and transmedics which is a revolutionary medical device company that's solving some problems. and finally, av, aerovironment which they make drones. our military is becoming much her more dependent upon drones, and so those are the four stocks that have really taken us to the levels that we have so far this year. ashley: very good. mark, let me bring you back in. we talk a lot about the fed. where do you think the fed stands right now with a consumer sentiment9 number -- i mean, it could be an outlier, but does it mean that inflation is perhaps heading in the wrong direction at least from the consumer's point of view? >> well, you know, many people have the misconception that the fed actually controls interest rates. the fed base eically follows interest rates around. interest rates are very consistent on a global basis. monetary departments for all the governments are doing vastly different things, but i want to touch on what our previous guest

said. look, you don't want to play the market, you want to own the market. and stock picking and track record investing is gambling and speculating. and anyone that does recent city buy as whereas and hindsight bias and follows the crowd, it's a dangerous thing for investors. so if you're concerned about your long-term prospects of meeting your dreams, don't gamble on individual stocks. it's a loser's game. ashley: we get the message. very quickly, dutch, mark doesn't like gold and the commodities, but you think bitcoin in the crypto space could have another leg i. >> well, yeah. we think that, we call the pullback from 68 to 58, and now we think it's on a next leg up, that by the end of the year we might be as high as 1000-1250,000 which would put ibit which is the etf somewhere up, it's currently 35, it could be around 65-70. and, by the way, investing in individual stocks is exactly

what america should do, because it's the most democratic -- >> you know what? and bit cohn is the worst thing you could possibly do with your money. [laughter] there is no there there. there are no assets, there's nothing backing it up -- >> well, what do you like then? what do you like? what do you like then? >> i like diversified investing in -- >> diversification is for fools. if. >> -- offsetting -- [inaudible conversations] i feel sor sorry for you, and even worse, i feel or sorry for your clients. ashley: oh, my goodness. now, now, let's keep it nice. it's a friday afternoon. we don't need a pay-per-view wrestling -- >> yeah, what's -- ashley: dutch, thank you. that went downhill pretty quickly. gentlemen, thank you very much. thank you very much. let's move on. take a deep breath. chicago federal reserve president austen goolsbee just gave a pretty bleak outlook for

inflation particularly in the housing sector. he says housing inflation remains, as he calls it, a significant puzzle and a challenge. on the other hand, there is some relief for home buyers as the average rate as on a 30-year mortgage just fell for the first time in four weeks. according to freddie mac, right now falling to 7.09% from last week's 7.22 president rate. not a huge drop, is it? a gallup line up poll shows that 76% of americans still think it's not exactly a great time to buy. . kelly o'grady joins me now. >> reporter: one in five people think it's a good time to buy a house, but over three-quarters of americans really disagree, and that same poll underscores why many americans are feeling so concerned. take a look at some of these numbers. 8 of americans can't concern 88 of americans expect that home prices are going to rise or stay

the same, just 11% think they're going to decrease. and look at a the median price for a home in the first quarter, it was over $420,000, far above that though in certain areas if you think, like, cities. and supply is a huge issue. so prices are high, buyers aren't even finding options that they're liking. so what happens? more and more people decide to represent. but partly because of that demand -- or that increase in demand, prices are going up. ashley, you mentioned austin goolsbee's comments on shelter inflation. the most recent cpi report showed rent year-over-year came in at 5.7. that is well above the average inflation rate we're suing -- seeing. and zoom in on a few popular cities. for a two-bedroom, it costs over $5,000 a month in new york, over 4,300 in boston, l.a. comes in fifth at a cool $2,9900. you're seeing young renters seriously consider leaving cities, nearly 60% of young renters want to leave l.a.

because of these rent and housing pieces x. if each those who own a house, they are getting squeezed. i'll leave you with this, there's a new report that finds 1 in 37 mortgaged homes are seriously. underwater, so that means their outstanding loan is 25% more than the market value. so actually if you're renting or owning, it's a really tough picture right now. ashley: it certainly is. you just don't want to be underwater, for sure. kelly o'grady, thank you very much. really interesting stuff. okay, moving on. coming up next, the company backed by silicon valley star sam altman making its debut on the new york stock exchange today. they believe they have the especially answer to massive power demands needed to support the growth of artificial intelligence. the ceo is here to tell us how his nuclear reactors will power the a.i. revolution. and, by the way, the vaneck uranium and nuclear power etf, ticker symbol nlr, up more than 44% over the last year.

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jacob, wonderful to have you here. i'm sure you're not real thrilled with the price right now, but let's move on from thatjust talk about what this company does. it's basically commercial ifizing nuclear fission which is the reaction, of course, that fuels nuclear power plants. you're just wanting to do this on a much smaller scale. can you explain to our viewers how you do that? >> are yeah, of course. i'm thrilled to be here, very excited about, you know, the outcome of this process. we're pretty excited, right? we're working on next generation nuclear technologies that are well suited for different sizes with different opportunities with things on the data center market in particular but a whole broad picture of the energy transition space. we're bringing forward technology that unit loses a different approach than what the vast majority of our plants today do. we use liquid metal as a cooling, really good can at hate transfer, and allows us to take advantage of the end meant

benefits this technology gives us in term it is of design simplification and broad economic potential which is fantastic. it's also really cool because you can recycle used nuclear fuel with in this technology, and it's really well suited for what we see happening right now in the energy land scape and that a.i. is driving so much new demand. it's going to need power to be coe-located and and located adjacently with these data centers, something we've been purposefully designing this company to do for a long time. ashley: so, jacob, where and when do you hope to build your first small scale reactor? >> yeah. we've been excited to have announced several sites, first in idaho. we've got two more in ohio we're pursuing. we recently announced some exciting partnerships on the data center side e as well as on the actual energy side including diamondback energy where we're looking at building out at least 50 mega megawatts in the permian basin to help electrify their operation, which is pretty cool. idaho, we expect to bring on

line in 2027 with a massive opportunity in the pipeline developing behind that. we see a lot of data center needs in growth looking at power needs out in the '27, '29, 20311, 2033 time frame, and the numbers can be staggering when you hook at them, so we are very excited about what the opportunity looks like. ashley: now, if i'm right, in 2022 the nrc denied your mix for that idaho facility. -- application for that idaho facility. i'm assuming you're going back again, and if i read, if it's correct, you're going to try again early next year. why was that denied, and what are you going to do differently this time with the application? >> yeah, you know, we've taken a very forward-leaning approach. we were the first of this wave of op non-light water reactor technologies to start formally working with the regulator back in 2015. i'm very confident we're going to be successful in bringing forward the new wave, and we've got to take an it rah rahtive approach.

we've got to see and drive the regulator forward, and at the end of the day, you've got to work together. we lean forward pretty hard in trying new things. unfortunately, a lot of those were really built on this in-person audit had to review on a modern digital application if all built and purpose-built for this streamlined next generation structure infrastructure that was all built for in person. unfortunately, then the pandemic took all of the in-person dynamic away, and it really pushed us back on some things. what's been good is after the denial, the nrc made it clear, hey, we see a path on what we can do, we just need information in these areas, we've engaged with them in person starting back in april 20202, as soon as we could, to start working through those items, and we're excited about this coming year, we're doing a readinesses assessment in the next few months like a dress rehearsal review of major parts of the application from which the feedback we can take into the application. it's optional, but it's a great way to get feedback to make sure

we've closed out all the items they wanted information on. and a lot of the points are largely built on the challenges induced during a review, during a can covid pandemic, right? [laughter] so we feel pretty confident we can navigate those, successfully and already have made a lot of progress which will set the stage for our first application to go in after that, early next year, followed by a subsequent or, you know, number of them to support sort of the demand we see. ashley: right. >> but at the end of day, this is a very navigable process, but we strongly believe you've got to lean in to doing things in a new, modern way, and we've been quite pleased with the response to that. ashley: we wish you the very best of luck are, jake, with your endeavor, and we'd like to check back in. thanks for joining us today. very interesting stuff. >> my pleasure. thank you. ashley: thank you. okay. change of subjects, radically. look out k-pop. british singer song writer jay shaun setting out to disrupt the industry with a plan to give new artists a platform to perform on

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ashley: well, we've all heard about companies shifting manufacturing to india these days. apple recently announced it assembled $14 billion worth of iphones in the country in the last fiscal year, doubling its production as a it looks to expand outside of china. corning setting up a factory there and vote name has is set up a $2 billion facility to make evs. now the global record label bringing music from india and south asia to the world. global music superstar jay sean blasting onto the u.k. music scene in the early 2000s and topped the charts with hits like down and do you remember. for now he is starting his own record label, it's called3 a.m. entertainment in partnership, by the way, with the virgin music if group. great stuff. and joining us now in a fox business exclusive, cofounder of 3 a.m. entertain. , jay sean himself. jay, great to have you here. >> so nice to be here. ashley: and i've been looking at

your videos, great stuff. you're a heck of a dancer scwhrflt oh, i don't know about that, but thanks. [laughter] ashley: you're welcome. hey, or listen, how did the label come about, and what are your goals for it? >> yes, absolutely. well, when i started off 20 years ago, this year marks the 20-year mark of my career, this weren't people that looked like me in the music industry, there just weren't. there weren't south asians who were performing on mainstream platforms, on mainstream television channel, it just didn't exist, and i found myself pretty much alone. over the last 20 years, i've been looking for that to change, and it made no sense to me because we as south asians are the largest dem graphic on planet earth. -- definitely graphic on planet if everett. and i'm looking and i'm going, if there's that many of us, how are there so few of us in the music industry doing mainstream music or even singing in our own mother tongue? and because i didn't see it change around me, i needed to be that change. and when the spotlight's not on

you, sometimes you need to put that spotlight on yourself. and so that's why i created 3 a.m. in partnership with virgin music group and range media and set it up with two of my very, very close friends and musical collaborators because we want to change that. we want to see more diversity and more inclusivity in the music industry. arkansas ash so how's it going so far? have you signed any new artists to the label? >> we have, actually, we've seened a -- signed a couple of artists, and i discovered the first one on tiktok. [laughter] yes, absolutely. because before we didn't have these platforms. there was so much talent out there, but how would you see them? you had to to go to a showcase somewhere. that might not even been -- be in the cub that you're in. so that's what a i've been doing, going on tiktok and finding amazing, incredible talent, getting in touch with them, and we're off to a great

start. ashley: that's fantastic. you know, the music industry, jay, is so different these days. you've got spotify, the streaming services. you don't seem to make an awful lot of money on those services and many artists say these days you have to go on tour, you have to sell the merchandise. is that pretty much the state of play right now? >> i mean, yeah. the royalties are not fantastic. let's put it this way, i think on spotify a million streams equates about $4,000 so, you know, when you with look at a it like that, it's not how it used to be. yeah, exactly. i come from an era, i'm a radio artist. my songs got plaid over -- play played over a billion times on u.s. radio as well, and those royalties are good which is why i'm able to set up a record label to help the future generation. yes, there's ways around it, but we can't fight where technology is going. we have to get onboard. we can't be dinosaurs and pretend, oh, back in the day it used to be like this. it's not like that anymore. we have to figure out how to

monetize in this climate. yes, it is really important for writers to literally be face to face with their fans selling merch, giving them personalized experiences, meet and agrees, perhaps exclusive content. it has become a different dynamic now, for sure. ashley: yeah. you know, the k-pop genre has done incredibly well, as we know. are you trying to create something similar to that but from south asia? >> right. i mean, you hit the nail on the head. i look at it and go, well, this isn't impossible, what we're trying to achieve. if you see the way that k-pop artists and latin and afro-beat artists have managed to cross over into mainstream, i hear it all the time, and i'm, like, i don't understand the language are, but i like this music. i'm looking at it going why can't that be the same for south asian music? we saw, we are seeing some change, recently a perform -- an artist was performing at coachella which was ground

breaking because we hadn't seen anything like that before, singing in punjabi at a such a mainstream platform. and that made me proud because i thought, well, maybe this is the beginning of change here. ashley: it's terrific stuff, jay. very quickly, you live in london still or have you moved to the u.s.? >> i'm not. i've been living in america legally for -- [laughter] about 16 years now. [laughter] yeah. ashley: you're kidding me? up in the northeast? >> i'm actually just a hop and a skip away from the stewed wrote right now. so very, very close -- studio. ashley: i thought i could hear a little bit of new jersey sneaking in -- >> ha, come on! [laughter] ashley: no, not one bit. jay, thank you so much. thank you so much for being here and wish you all the success in the world. be nice to check back in with you down the road to see how you're doing. >> absolutely. thank you for having me. ashley: oh, our pleasure. jay sean. great stuff, thank you. all right, breaking news for you as we move on, shares of exponential fitness just resumed trading after being halted for

volatility. as you can see, down 32% if after the company removed ceo anthony guiseler from his duties. the fitness company disclosing an investigation by the united states attorney's office in the central district of california. the company says it is cooperating with the securities and exchange commission. it that has appointed brenda morris as the interim ceo, but the stock taking a pounding, down 32%. meantime, mcdonald's shares moving higher after a report that says the fast food chain is going to launch a $5 meal in the u.s. to help draw in the more budget-conscious customer. according to bloomberg, the deal could include a mcchicken or a mcdouble with fries and a drink all for $5. the stock up 2.5%. sweet green also adjusting its menu by adding steak to its protein options. shares of the salad chain soaring to a 52-week high after it beat on top and bomb lines,

revenue jumping 26% year over year. sweet green also raising its full-year revenue outlook by $5 million and lifting same-store sales group projections to rise by 4-6%. look at that stock go, up 34%. and novavax rocketing high or and on track for a record increase after strike thing a $1.22 billion licensing deal with sanofi for its covid vaccine in exchange for a stake in the biotech firm. the deal allowing vaccine maker sanofi to develop a combo shot with novavax. and a different story for another vaccine maker, moderna. the stock falling today after announcing the fda has delayed the approve -- approval of it rsv shot, investors hoping for the approval to offset recent losses from its covid shot. moderna down 4%. all right, now this, israeli soldiers aiming to take out the remaining remnants of hamas terror network in rafah if despite the tiff with president

biden. general keith kellogg will be here to tell us how he thinks the rafah operation could play out. as we head to the break, let's take a look at the dow 30 heat map with the dow up 145 points. you can see at the bottom there, well, we've got boeing and nike. meanwhile, mcdonald's at the top. but nike, as a you can see, down 2.5% at $91. "the claman countdown" coming right back. ♪ ♪ i stand by these promises. as a fiduciary, i promise to be the financial steward that you and your family need. i promise to put your long-term financial well-being above any short term transaction. everyone has a big picture. my job is to help you invest in yours. [announcer] charles schwab is proud to support the independent financial advisors who are passionately dedicated to helping people achieve their financial goals. visit findyourindependentadvisor.com

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daughter: what are you doing? dad: i'm gonna clean the fence. daughter: it's a lot of fence. dad: you wanna help me? dad: aim at the wall, but get closer. daughter: (gasps) what the?! daughter: alright. dad: side to side. when you work with someone who knows a lot and cares even more... you can do this. ...you're unstoppable. (♪) wow... are you kidding me? you can do this. at truist, we believe the same is true for banking. ashley: a all right, let's take a look at shares of paramount, pretty much treading weather at this hour as rumors about the company's future -- which continue to swirl -- an acquisition by either skydance or apollo would likely result this a break-up of the company. but there's also a real possibility of paramount rejecting both offers and going on alone. this is the a soap ap rah that's

been with -- soap op. rah that's been playing out for quite some time, and charlie gasparino joins us now with the latest. charlie. >> ashley are, i can tell you speaking with some people that are close to sherry redstone and are attached to the deal from her side of the balance sheet, so to speak, they think they still have a shot at doing the skydance deal. i mean, here's how they're essentially describing what's going on now. they want to do the skydance deal. they believe the skydance/redbird bid keeps the entire thing together. it's also, you know, apolo joe -- a apollo and sony would break it up, and that's not what she wants. shari redstone wants to preserve the legacy of her father, and on top of that they think there's enough regulatory hurdle on the sony/apollo deal that they can tinter down9. but right now they're going to give it a look x. and part of that is to do their due

diligence so when the inevitable shareholder lawsuits come they can say, listen, we rejected it based on material, on material grounds not, you know, personal fortune grounds. shari redstone would be handed a check for $2 billion under the skydance/redbird deal. unclear how much money she would get if it was just a straight purchase of everything which is what apollo and sony want, they're seeking to purchase it for $26 billion. that would immediately pay down $14 billion in debt and then, you know, she does have, she does -- i mean, everybody else gets a chunk after that. it's unclear just how much she would get after that, but she gets a cool $2 billion under the skydance deal, that's for sure. and plus, she gets to preserve her father's legacy. so that's kind of with where we're going here. and there from what i hear x this is just on shari's side, so just take it from the source, they think that the regulatory hurdles are insurmountable on

the apollo-sony, and we can go through tata real quick. sony is a japanese company. that's a problem, right? you have to go through cfius. you have to to get approval. if it's the biden administration, it's probably a 0% chance. if there's a trump administration, a little more friendly but still, you know, not totally friendly on big mergers. you know, does donald trump want to give a u.s. company over to the japanese? he may not want. to i mean, nationalism has been part of his economic policy from the beginning. apollo will be a minority investor in this thing, in this new company, but aapollo owns local cable stations, local tv stations. so they're going to have to divest of some of that stuff. you've got to get licenses from the fcc because it's foreign ownership. skydance, in terms of a regulatory component, is pretty seam eless. it's all american, it's all american money because they've got redbird, not the am if i part that jeff zucker runs which has some saudi money in it, but

just redbird private equity fund. it's american money. it'll be american management. so it's regulatorily seamless. the problem with the skydance deal is it doesn't give much benefit to shareholders, and when i mentioned that, they said, listen, you knew that going in. if you want to buy a dual class stock, which this is, what you're looking at right now on the screen is the common stock, shaarely red estone -- shari redstone owns what's known as the controlling shares. she owns it through this controlling shares mechanism. but you knew that going in. you knew she wasn't a common shareholder, you meaning warren buffett, mario gabelli, all these big? sers, so don't cry now. -- investors. then there's one other possibility. they think it's so messy that nothing happens, and i can tell you, when i was at milken, i ran into several top media executiveses that said, you know, there's a good shot

nothing happens here. there's an office of the chairman right now, ashley, three people running the show after bob bachus got shown the door. what do they call it, the three-headed monster? ashley: yes. >> running paramount for a long time. if they don't, they're going to be called the three stooges pretty soon, i've got news for you. [laughter] ashley: oh, boy. as paramount turns, the latest chapter in the soap opera. charlie gasparino, great stuff, as always. thank you very much. paramount, as you can see, essentially flat on the day. weaver going to have more on the con -- we're going to have more on the conflict in the middle east with general keith kellogg, plus, he's going to give us his take on u.s. weapons aid to ukraine. we'll be back right after the break. ♪ if. ♪ ♪

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xmas damage -- nasdaq also up three weeks in a row, so the strength still there. let's move on now. israel still moving forward with its mission to take out hamas in rafah in southern gaza is. so far there has not been a full scale assault as the biden administration has threatened to withhold weapons if israeli forces make that push with civilians in the line of fire. the israeli military says it has destroyed some hamas tunnels and secured the main border crossing with egypt in that area. joining me now to talk about all of this is former national security advisor to vice president mike pence, retired army lieutenant general keith kellogg. general, great to have you here. let's get right down to it. how much of an impact would it have on israel and its aim to eliminate hamas if, in fact, the withholds weapons? >> yeah, ashley, thanks for having me. it's certainly significant, because the reason they're using the bigger bombs is because

they've got to penetrate buildings and get to the tunnels. it takes big bombs to do it. the other thing they're basically holding up, we call it joint directed air munitions, it's a targeting can kit that you strap on to a dumb bomb that has no guidance to it and hows you to hit a target within 10 meters of what you're aiming at. and that a allows you to have much more precision than you do normally. and that cuts down on collateral damage, civilian casualties. that's what they're trying to do. and i think what happened is they're using the issue of weapons to try to send a message of moral equivalence, and there's not. there are good guys and bad guys in this fight, and the good guys are the israelis. they've tried very, very hard to cut back on collateral damage. and when you look at statistically, they've done better than a lot of armies have ever done in combat in cities which is always hard, always tough because it's floor to floor and door to door, you know? and, ashley, you're going to get

accurate corral damage, that's just the nature of city fighting. it's hard to say, but that's the way it is. ashley: i understand. now, the israelis have said that the biden directive, if you like, is basically just encouraging its enemies. is that a win for hamas? >> sure it is. aye always said you never if -- i've always said you never give your adversary a seem or a gap between allies, and this is a seam and a gap that a we've created, we, the united states, between us and israel. so hamas and all our allies basically capitalize on this, and it's in the world of public opinion that you see this coming out. so of course you never want to do that. if you have a problem with an ally, pick up the phone very quietly and talk about it, but you don't do it publicly. we've done it publicly. and what we've actually done, we've had some moral i give case meaning whether it's good or bad on both sides. no, there's not. hamas invaded israel. they killed over 1,000 people. they took hostages as well.

oh, by the way, ashley, they killed americans, and there are american hostages, and we still don't know how many hostages are still alive. started at 100, then we were at 44, down to 30. we don't know who's alive and who's dead because hamas has not allowed anybody to show proof of life. so there's a moral if issue as well. and my recommendation to this administration is you stepping back, kind of look at yourself and say you need to go in full out and say to the israelis, we are behind you until you eradicate hamas leadership. you're not going to get can every terrorist, but get the leadership. ashley: general, before we have to let you go, a i've got to talk about russia-ukraine which it just continues to grind on, of course. how do you think this plays out? we're talking, you know, talking about a russian offensive coming up, ukraine getting some more help from the if u.s., but how does the play out? because it seems like it's a long, traub-out slog with littlh

little end in sight. >> yeah, you know, you're absolutely right. unfortunately, they're in what's called an aa tradition war, and with russia, that's a really hard fight because they've got manpower and equipment. frankly, the russians were on their back foot about a year ago, and i think they had some opportunities to basically beat them, and they were slow with arms deliveries. now the russians have got energy, and the true russians are moving forward. the russians have a lot of confidence because they believe they're on the offense, ukraine's on the defense. very honestly, ashley, this is not good, and this is going to be a hard summer, i believe, for the ukrainians because the russians are going to keep trying to provide some type of offensive capability. and here's the place i'd tell you to look at, watch kharkiv in the north. it is a so close to the russian border, it's a major city, and that is a place i would not be surprised if the russians want to make a major effort in ukraine. it's going to come there. if. ashley: wow. well, you know, bit by bit they have certainly, you know, they're taking that that land.

we're going to have to leave it there. general keith kellogg, always great to talk to you. appreciate your input on this friday. thank you, sir. >> thank you, ashley. thanks for having me. ashley: oh, our plrchl all right. well, you know what? we've got a common theme emerging here when it comes to the markets. investors are scooping up data center-related stocks as a way to play the a.i. boom. and if you've been watching this slow shade -- show lately, everyone is picking up on one particular marriages vertiv holdings -- name, vertiv holdings. it's hitting a record high. it's down a little bit today, but it's the been on quite a tear. if our countdown closer or is also buying the stock. joining me now i with his rationale and how much meyer this stock can go is senior portfolio manager thomas martin. thom, look, this stock -- thomas, look, this stock has been on a tear, but do you believe it e still has room to run? >> well, it really has been on a tear, and it never feels great

to recommend a stock that's up as much as it is the because with you're going to say how much more can it go. but this one really is at the forefront of a very important part of of the a.i. data center growth. you've got data centers which are probably growing at 3x through 2028 and a total addressable market that is also growing. and what veritive specializes in is two things really. it's the power management and also the thermal management, and that's about a 75% of their revenues. they hold high market shares in all -- well, not all, but in many of the products that they offer. in one particular area that they're strong in and a leader in, liquid cooling. so you have these densities of compute that keep on increasing and that are necessary for a.i., and you have -- they throw off

an enormous amount of heat. and air cooling is less effective and efficient and more costly than liquid cooling which has a factor of about 3,200 times the ability to cool. so that's the thesis there, is that vertiv has the technology there. they have the leadership. they work with the chip companies. so it may not be a non-bumpy if ride, but there'll probably be -- they'll probably be around for a while. ashley: so, thomas, put a.i. aside, is there any other areas of this market that you particularly like? >> well, you know, we have been buying recently a couple of other companies, and it's mainly based on reports. what we're seeing right now with the earnings reports in general and with companies is that really earnings growth and earnings reports and and continued expectations are the thing that are driving stocks. so it's more of an idiosyncratic

market than a macro market because you've had interest rates fluctuating fairly wildly, but yet the market has more or less been up without very much of a correction lately. and we're back at the all-time highs. so we're looking for companies that have those idiosin accuratic things. vertiv is one of those. another one that we've purchased recently is one that folks maybe aren't as a familiar with called fresh pet which is in the consumer area. consumer area. this is upward mobility that had language for awhile. it's also up a bit now. but they've been having good reports and they've sort of turned around on both the sales growth and margin expansion and they're a unique company and nobody else sells pet food in re-individual rated end caps

at -- refrigerated end caps at various retailers to this segment of the market. that's one we like too. ashley: people spend billions on pets and i'm one of them. fresh pet is getting a lot of conversations these days and i totally understand that. thomas martin, thank you, sir, so much for joining us on this friday. awes good stuff. >> thanks for having me on the show. ashley: our pleasure. heading towards the closing bell in about 25 seconds from now, we should point out that all of the major indexes higher for the week. my oh my, that's it for the claman countdown. kudlow -- lauren: hello, folks.

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