Carl on Call

Carl Quintanilla has spent decades translating the markets into plain English for CNBC viewers, often in real time. As co-anchor of "Squawk on the Street," he’s had a front-row seat to the volatility of Wall Street, the shifting winds of CEO sentiment, and the sometimes awkward dance between corporate America and the White House.

I caught up with him this week to talk about how he’s covering this latest bout of economic uncertainty, the business world’s uneasy relationship with a second Trump term, and whether M&A dreams in media are still alive for the media and tech sectors. We also got into the fear now creeping into C-suites, the persistent disruption in the media business, and the future of CNBC’s new parent company, SpinCo.

Below is our conversation, lightly edited for style.

Oliver: The markets have been anything but stable over the last few months. How do you approach covering the chaos every day?

Carl: It might feel like “chaos” (in fact, I know it feels like chaos), but markets are pretty good at absorbing high-frequency information flow. For myself, it’s a reminder that you have to stay as “plugged in” as possible all day—knowing that a headline at 6am might well be rendered moot by noon. The biggest downside is: there’s less bandwidth to talk about new ideas, innovations. Everything’s about reaction.

You talk to a lot of CEOs. How would you characterize the business community’s mood under Donald Trump’s second term, especially among media and tech bosses who had once hoped for a more friendly environment after the Joe Biden years?

I keep thinking about what Stanley Druckenmiller told us in January—that CEOs he knew were “somewhere between relieved and giddy.” We’ve definitely eased up on the giddy thing. Earnings conference calls are getting more downbeat. I also think there’s a stages-of-grief “bargaining” thing going on. For a while it was, “The tariffs are a negotiating tool and they won’t stick.” Now that’s dead and it’s more, “If we eat our ‘vegetables’ on trade, we can move on to ‘dessert’ and tax cuts."

There was an expectation that Trump 2.0 would be a green light for M&A, particularly in media. Still think that's a possibility? Or is there now a sense of buyer’s remorse in the corporate class that backed Trump?

Every election is a binary choice, and honestly, I don’t hear a lot of CEOs saying they wish they could go back and root for Harris. The banks we cover insist the M&A pipeline is warming up. There’s still enthusiasm for deregulation in banking, in crypto. But M&A? There was a great chart this week looking at M&A volume and CEO confidence; they track pretty tight, and right now CEO confidence is moving lower.

Has the fear of political retribution become a real factor in how companies make decisions now—especially in media and tech?

Not initially, but the pressure on law firms, in particular, this week really hit a nerve. It was one of the first times I heard folks who advise companies express fear, at least privately. From a news standpoint, no one has told us “You can’t do that story” or “You shouldn’t have said that on-air.” I don’t believe CNBC bosses would ever say anything like that to us.

We’ve seen a parade of media and tech CEOs, in one way or another, show deference to Trump. But none of it seems to have paid off much. Mark Zuckerberg, for example, has repeatedly made moves to enamor Trump, but the FTC is still aggressively pursuing Meta. Was it a mistake for the CEO class to think they could seduce Trump?

Oh, I think Facebook would probably tell you they’re quite happy with their efforts. The president's been complimentary in public, they’re not part of the tariff noise. Managing all of that is one less thing on their to-do list. By the way, Facebook stock is the only Magnificent Seven name holding above its long-term moving average.

A lot of our audience—obviously—resides in the media sector. Do you ever foresee a time when the industry will stabilize? How long will the story be about disruption and cuts?

I don’t think we’re anywhere near being done with “disruption” and “cuts”—because of A.I. The human effort involved in writing, producing, curating and distributing news (particularly TV news) is going to look so different in five years. It’ll be great for the industry’s economics, but it just won’t need the bodies.

I can't let you go without asking about SpinCo. What do you think the future is for the new company? In the end, will most of the cable assets eventually merge into one super company to achieve the scale necessary to compete?

The “super company” thing is a great parlor game. I don’t know. I’m personally psyched because, selfishly, the CNBC brand gets more “juice,” more freedom to refine the brand and manage our own destiny. I’ll miss 30 Rock, though. I spent years as an NBC correspondent working for “Today” and “Nightly News” and going to work in that building never got old.

• The White House Correspondents' Association canceled plans for comedian Amber Ruffin to headline the annual dinner, which has come under increased scrutiny with Donald Trump back in the White House. [CNN]

  • The WHCA ditched Ruffin after the White House and MAGA Media targeted her for saying on a Daily Beast podcast that the Trump administration are "kind of a bunch of murderers" and "shouldn't get to feel" like human beings "because they're not." [Daily Beast]

  • The move to do away with Ruffin’s comedic act at the annual dinner prompted some backlash, with some accusing the group of caving to MAGA pressure. But there had already been discussions to forego her performance before her podcast comments gained attention.

• More bad news for WHCA: After taking over management of the pool, the White House now plans “to impose its own seating chart in the briefing room,” which has long been managed by the WHCA, Mike Allen reported. [Axios]

• The NYT—for some odd reason—conducted a softball interview with Megyn Kelly in which she said she is "in favor" of Trump's attacks on the free press: "I share his feelings… I have a healthy amount of loathing for a large portion of the media, and they are fake news." [NYT]

• Adam Wren reported on how Biden world is "bracing for a steady march of no fewer than four books dropping over the next few months that promise to excavate and relitigate not only the historic 2024 presidential campaign but the former president’s own physical and mental condition before dropping out." [POLITICO]

• Trump commuted ex-Ozy Media chief Carlos Watson's nearly 10-year prison sentence, just as he was about to start serving it. [The Wrap]

• Brendan Carr officially opened his probe into Disney, alleging the company "recently went all in on D.E.I." [Variety]

• "Saturday Night Live" spoofed Signalgate by adding a group of teenage girls to the chat. [YouTube]

  • "Weekend Update" roasted Will Smith's new album, saying "ironically it doesn't slap." [YouTube]

• Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez confirmed they'll be married in Venice, while going out of their way to bash "fake news" about the ceremony—an odd phrase for The WaPo owner to associate himself with. [AP]

• After Elon Musk amplified a post on X accusing the "Adolescence" creators of "anti-white propaganda," one of them fired back at the "absurd" accusation: "We’re not making a point about race with this." [Deadline]

• Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav has "started meeting with candidates who could replace film studio heads Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy," Thomas Buckley reported. [Bloomberg]

• Max updated its app icon, changing the logo from blue to black. [Threads]

• YouTube turned off advertising revenue for two popular channels using A.I. to create fake movie trailers after a probe by Jake Kanter. [Deadline]

• "A Working Man," the action flick staring Jason Statham, fought its way to the top spot at the box office, with $15.2 million in receipts.

• Meanwhile, "Snow White" declined 66% from its already sleepy performance last weekend, falling to $14.2 million. Yikes!

• Elsewhere, "The Chosen: Last Supper" pocketed $11.5 million; "The Woman in the Yard" $9.5 million; "Death of a Unicorn" $5.8 million; and "Captain America: Brave New World" $2.8 million.

[Data via Box Office Mojo]