Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer. Today on Squawk Pod, home improvement retailer Lowe's launching a new subscription service. CEO Marvin Ellison sits down to tell us all about it.
For $99 a year, you get two home visits from a Lowe's associate working in the local stores. This is not a third party. It's not a contractor. How Lowe's aims to address the trade skills gap in America's workforce and why it is critical to do so.
This is, I believe, not only a need for the construction trade. I mean, this could be a national security issue because of all the infrastructure repairs and work needed over the next decade.
Plus housing affordability crisis and the next generation labor market.
What I do know is AI can write code, but AI can't climb a ladder and it can't fix a hole on your roof.
The Iran war taking a toll on LVMH's luxury sales, but our wealth reporter Robert Frank says there's good news for the likes of Krug and Dom Perignon.
In this wine and spirits business, people are drinking less but drinking better.
All that today with our eternal optimist Joe Kernan.
I just think a lot of times the consensus is wrong on everything and it's always darkest right before the dawn.
I'll be sure to be more dismissive so that it can continue.
It is Tuesday, April 14th, 2026. SquawkPod begins right now.
Good morning and welcome to Squawkbox here on CNBC. We're live at the NASDAQ market site in Time Square. I'm Kelly Evans along with Joe Kernan this morning. Becky and Andrew are off. How many push-ups today? Um, none.
Because I had done three days in a row and then I did in here.
I was gonna ask if you were sore.
No, no, I don't get sore anymore, but um you're chipper cuz it's Tuesday.
I think I'm overcompensating.
No, tomorrow. Tomorrow there's a reason the killer. It's called hump day. You'll see. Tomorrow is going to be tougher for you. But thank you for being here.
Thank you for having me. And we talked about the turnaround yesterday that we saw in the markets in the great up 300 on the Dow. Goldman recovered but was still down 17 points. So add that.
Yeah, that's like another 100 on the Dow. We would have been up 400 probably.
Yeah. Treasury yields by the way always worth keeping an eye on. But again, crude prices have moderated. There's the 10-year 4.2896.
They didn't have crypto in the for you to do. And I go no make her do make her do Bitcoin. Um because every time you talk about it like at 27,000 when you were laughing at me.
You were laughing at me at 20. Okay.
Was that a few years ago?
What? Last year I don't I can't remember now, but you're right.
Yesterday it was under 70 and now it's 74.
It was under 70 yesterday.
Well, it might have been 71, but it had a nice...
I'll be sure to be more dismissive so that it can continue.
Please. And they were So you bought Ibonds.
Oh gosh. I it's $10,000. It's so you get what kind of interest? What with the interest you can go to dinner?
But don't get an appetizer, you know. And at the time it was free money. It felt like the one way you could benefit from the inflation surge during the Biden administration and it turns out...
What did I tell you? You should have bought at 30 at 30.
Oh. Oh. Versent you work for the company.
I never said it was a bad idea. I thought it was a great idea.
It's the only stock you can buy. the only...
I'm not even sure we can buy it. But see, you're...
What do you mean you're not sure we can buy it?
You could if you buy I don't think anyone's gonna give you a hard time about it. But if I buy it, I'm going to be the one person who gets in trouble because...
You can own the We could own Comcast. We could But...
I don't you you're fine. Me? I don't know. I black and white.
I'm so powerful.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby reportedly floating the idea of a combination of his company with American Airlines. Reuters says the United CEO pitched the idea to President Trump during a meeting on February 25th. And he told Trump administration officials a combined United American would be a stronger competitor in international markets. That's the pitch. The tie-up would create the world's largest airline. United American and the Department of Transportation did not comment on the reports, but in an interview with CNBC last week, I believe on Power Lunch, fabulous afternoon show, by the way, Secretary Shan Duffy indicated that the Trump administration is open to airline M&A.
Yeah, who knows who's going to match up, right? There's always chatter, but is there room for some mergers in the aviation industry? Yeah, I think there is. But I think here in the United States Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Delta is number one.
I would love it because I love United because of Newark because I use it all the time. I have had some mixed experiences recently with American and people that I know have had some mixed experiences. I think they could use a you know I don't I am not an investment banker but I'd like to be able to have all of Americans routes or roots whatever it is come out of Newark then and be under the United umbrella.
It'd be good for you I guess if you didn't care if you were price insensitive but I just find I guess they blocked Spirit and Frontier. Was that before this administration? Must have been.
So if they keep to Dallas home, I'm sure I American.
We have new data on how American small businesses are feeling. Steve Leeman joins us with those findings. Hi, Steve.
Good morning, Kelly. The NFIB small business optimism index for March plunging to the lowest level since the Liberation Day tariffs in April 2025 underscores how the Iran war and the oil price surge are hitting confidence levels for both consumers, data we had earlier, and for small businesses. The National Federation of Independent Business their optimism index falling to 95.8 down three points, the biggest drop since April when Liberation Day tariffs were announced. The outlook for earnings, net negative 25%, that's down 11 points. Those expecting the economy to improve, net positive 11, but that's down seven points, and a zero on plans to increase in employment in part because of pessimism, but also difficulty in finding workers. Overall, eight of 10 categories declined, two unchanged on the month. An Iowa retailer quoted in the survey saying, 'The overall state of my business is good at the moment. However, with all the uncertainty in the economy, tariff search charges, higher freight charges, skyrocketing insurance rates, and the war with Iran. I feel to cover the increased cost, I may price myself out of the market.' The report showed the percent raising selling prices remains elevated, but little change from the prior month. Plans to increase prices, they actually fell. A possible sign of concern that consumers will reject higher price tags. The separate uncertainty index rose four points to 92, the highest level since September. It's been a feature of the Trump presidency that optimism is higher among small business owners than under Biden. But uncertainty has also been elevated over that period of time. The good news is the optimism index recovered from the April lows after President Trump backed off his harshest tariffs, but it has not regained the levels that accompanied his election. For now, small business owners, well, optimism goes along with the plunge in consumer confidence as a fallout from the war. Neither may be decisive for the economy, but both bear watching, guys.
That's a pretty bad reading. Obviously, and you know, we get all these Yesterday we were talking about CEO confidence, Steve. that was at what do you say it was like all-time high or it was up significantly something to that extent.
But consumer sentiment was low. I it's just when you said liberation day I was thinking maybe this is a great indicator you know if if that's what it was a great time to buy in terms of stocks you know what I mean I mean if you think it's good policy Joe to scare the be Jesus out of small business owners.
I'm not talking about policy you talk about policy I'm just talking about buying you know just not panicking when you shouldn't be panicking talking about you when you buy something when everyone else is selling you would have made how much money buying on liberation day Steve you can you know you can complain about policy all you want but I'm just talking about you know during COVID everybody was selling in March and April of that year and the S&P went to 2300 and now it's at 7,000 so oh that was horrible yeah it's horrible and maybe the policies are bad I'm just making the point that maybe that tells you we've got a V in right now on the S&P. I don't know whether it lasts and we could go to new lows, but if you look at an S&P chart right now, we're almost back to 7,000, Steve.
So, Joe, could I make I'd like to make one point on that and sort of incorporating what Kelly said, which is that the executive survey that Kelly's talking about is largely talking about big businesses. The stock market you're talking about is largely big businesses. I think what we're talking about here is small businesses and their ability to cope with the uncertainty that's out there and the changes in policies and tariffs and all that other stuff. I think it's worse for small business and I think there's a longer term erosion and difficulty that they have.
I feel I hear Barry Knapp here. He was here with us recently, but his whole thing is it's not just K-shaped econ. It's K-shaped for business. It's exactly what you're saying. That's why he thinks the rate should come down, you know, sell a balance sheet, steepen the curve, whatever. But he thinks small businesses are, you know, so it's not just policy. It could be rates, too.
Yeah. I mean, the things that are driving the economy right now is a big business thing. You think about the AI investment and all that stuff. That's just big big big big business. And that's not something and the way that small business is coping, some are getting through. If you lose that generation of jobs that comes with small business, I'm not saying you'll lose it, but you saw that the plans to hire are zero. You saw you can read in the commentary that they're affected by the immigration rules that are out there, the ability to find skilled workers. So, but Joe is right because the investment thesis is one based on big businesses and I guess you would make money as I cover the macro economy and the whole economy. I guess this is a warning flag and a flag to think about what's going on with the small business level.
