Hedge fund billionaire David Tepper said the Federal Reserve could cut rates a bit more, but then risks more inflation and other dangers to the economy and markets if the central bank goes further than that.

In other words, be careful what you wish for.

“If they go too much more on interest rates, depending what happens with the economy … it gets into the danger territory,” Tepper said Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “You’ve got to be careful not to make things too hot.”

His comments come after the central bank lowered interest rates by a quarter point Wednesday, the first cut this year, while signaling two more reductions are coming this year. Fed Chair Jerome Powell characterized the cut as “risk management” rather than something more directed at shoring up a weak economy. President Donald Trump has been pressuring the chief to slash the fed funds rate quickly and aggressively.

Tepper feared that if the Fed lowers rates while inflation hasn’t been fully tamed, demand can pick up faster than supply, reigniting price pressures. Meanwhile, too-easy monetary policy could potentially create asset bubbles as investors keep flocking into riskier corners of the markets.

“My view has been that one easing or two easings or even three easings don’t matter because we’re still in a little restrictive territory with a little bit too high inflation, even without the tariff-induced inflation. So they should be a little bit restrictive,” Tepper said. “Beyond that, you’re really risking a lot of things, a weaker dollar, more inflation and those sort of things.”

‘Don’t fight the Fed’

The founder and president of Appaloosa Management noted valuations are high, but he wouldn’t bet against stocks yet while the Fed is still in easing mode.

“I don’t love the multiples, but how do I not own it?” Tepper said. “I’m not ever fighting this Fed especially when the markets tell me … one and three quarter more cuts before the end of the year, so that’s a tough thing not to own.”

The S&P 500 is trading at almost 23 times forward earnings, near the highest level since April 2021, according to FactSet. Valuations for some of the megacap tech names have become sky high. Nvidia‘s price-earnings ratio is at 30 times, while Microsoft trades at nearly 32 times forward earnings.

“I’m constructive because of the easing right now, but I’m also miserable because of the levels,” he said. “Nothing’s cheap anymore.”

Tepper, also the owner of NFL team the Carolina Panthers, revealed he’s been trading his Nvidia position. At the end of June, Appaloosa held about $277 million worth of the chip stock, owning it as the fund’s seventh-biggest bet.

“I do own Nvidia, but I go back and forth a little bit … trade a little bit,” Tepper said. “We’ve always had some Nvidia position, but not the same size.”

Click here to watch the full interview.

23andMe has officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which means its assets — including its vast genetic database — will soon be up for sale.

The company continues to sell its at-home DNA testing kits, allowing consumers to get insight into their family histories and genetic profiles. DNA data is particularly sensitive because each person’s sequence is unique, meaning it can never be fully anonymized, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute.

If genetic data falls into the hands of bad actors, it could be used to facilitate identity theft, insurance fraud or other crimes. 23andMe has been plagued by privacy concerns in recent years after hackers accessed the information of nearly 7 million customers in October 2023.

As part of the bankruptcy process, the company said it will seek a partner that shares its commitment to customer data privacy, and that there will be no changes to how it stores, manages and protects data through the sale process.

“Our users’ privacy and data are important considerations in any transaction, and we remain committed to our users’ privacy and to being transparent with our customers about how their data is managed,” the company said in an FAQ page about the bankruptcy filing. “Any buyer of 23andMe will be required to comply with applicable law with respect to the treatment of customer data.”

Still, experts and officials are urging 23andMe customers to proceed with caution. California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Friday issued a consumer alert, encouraging residents to consider deleting their genetic data from 23andMe, which is based in his home state.

“Given 23andMe’s reported financial distress, I remind Californians to consider invoking their rights and directing 23andMe to delete their data and destroy any samples of genetic material held by the company,” Bonta said in the release.

Adrianus Warmenhoven, who serves on the security advisory board at NordVPN, described genetic data as the “blueprint of your entire biological profile.” He encouraged consumers to delete their information and be mindful of the companies they chose to share it with going forward.

“Monitor your digital footprint regularly, and you can also sign up for credit monitoring or identity theft protection services,” Warmenhoven said in a statement to CNBC. “Revoke permissions you no longer require, shut down any account you don’t use, and learn about how your data is used.” 

23andMe said customers can still delete their account and accompanying data. Here’s how:

Delete your genetic data from 23andMe

• Go to 23andMe.com and sign in to your account.
• Click on your profile in the upper righthand corner of the site, then click “Settings.”
• Scroll to the section at the very bottom of the page called “23andMe Data” and click the oval button that says “View.”
• Check the boxes of any data you would like to download and click “Request Download.” This step is optional and can take up to 30 days. Pending downloads will be canceled if you  delete your account.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the red button that says “Permanently Delete Data.”
• You will receive an email with the subject line “23andMe Delete Account Request.” Open it, and click the button that says “Permanently Delete All Records.” Your data will not be deleted unless you complete this step.

At this point, your personal information and your account will be permanently deleted from 23andMe, according to the deletion email from the company. Additionally, your data will not be used in any future research projects, and any personal samples the company was storing will be discarded.

Correction: A prior version of this story had incorrect information about what happens to downloaded data if you delete your account.

WATCH: The rise and fall of 23andMe

BEIJING — Huawei spinoff Honor announced Tuesday it plans to launch smartphone sales in Indonesia by the end of March, becoming the latest Chinese company to enter a market that has banned Apple’s iPhone 16 over domestic production requirements.

Indonesia requires that for smartphones sold in the country, 40% of their components must be domestically sourced. That rule has prevented Apple from selling its newest phone in the market, where it is reportedly negotiating a $1 billion investment.

Honor has an office in Indonesia and is working with one local manufacturing partner, Justin Li, the Chinese company’s president of South Pacific operations, told reporters last week. He said a folding phone will be among Honor’s first set of locally sold products — 10 items in the medium to high-end segment.

The company aims to offer around 30 products from phones to tablets in Indonesia by the end of the year. The Southeast Asian country is home to the world’s fourth-largest country by population, just behind the United States.

“Although 80% of the market is dominated by devices priced under $200, as Southeast Asia’s largest and fastest-growing economy, Indonesia presents immense potential for long-term growth,” Canalys analyst Chiew Le Xuan said in an email.

“Indonesia is emerging as a key market in Southeast Asia, driven by rapid economic growth and an expanding middle class,” Chiew said, noting the country accounts for 35% of smartphone shipments in the region and can serve as a strategic regional hub.

As of November, Oppo, Xiaomi and Transsion — all China-based — held the top three spots in Indonesia by smartphone shipments, according to Canalys. Shenzhen-based Oppo in November held its global launch for its flagship Find X8 phone in Indonesia, where the company also has a factory.

Samsung ranked fourth in Indonesia with a 16% share, tied with Vivo, another Chinese brand, the Canalys data showed.

Excluding China and Japan, just under 8% of Apple’s sales come from Asia-Pacific.

Li claimed the decision to enter Indonesia was independent of Apple’s presence in the country, and was confident in Honor’s ability to compete. He said Honor had observed the Indonesian market for years, before doubling down on expansion efforts in the last half year.

While he declined to share a current breakdown of Indonesian to Chinese staff, Li said Honor is still hiring in the country and aims to have a predominately local staff in the future.

Honor plans to open at least 10 of its own stores in Indonesia this year, in addition to selling through a local retailer, Li said.

Outside of China, Honor primarily sells in Europe and parts of Southeast Asia. Its phones are not directly sold in the U.S. The company claimed that in December, more than half of its sales came from outside China for the first time.

Honor, which is planning to go public, was spun off from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei in November 2020 after the parent company was hit by U.S. sanctions. Huawei said it does not hold any shares in Honor or have involvement in business decisions.

Russia is still obtaining large volumes of Western technology critical to its war in Ukraine, even as sanctions show some sign of taking hold, new analysis shows.

China, Hong Kong, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates have been increasingly important in funneling critical components to Russia, according to new research, as supply chains have adapted in response to export controls aimed at choking off Moscow’s military machine.

In response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, a Western coalition of allies including Japan and South Korea imposed a series of sanctions restricting the sale of certain goods to Russia, including advanced technologies for use in the military.

Yet Western-origin technologies still accounted for almost half of all Russian imports of critical components and “high-priority” battlefield goods in the first three quarters of 2023, according to research from Ukrainian think tank KSE Institute and the Yermak-McFaul International Working Group, which promotes sanctions against Russia.

Such products are typically designed by companies headquartered in Western coalition countries, but manufactured and distributed abroad — often making their supply chains harder to police. Earlier CNBC investigations indicated that these third-country intermediaries are generally based in countries without direct sanctions on Russia — primarily China, as well as Turkey and the UAE.

Moscow imported more than $22 billion worth of critical components between January and October 2023, Russian trade data shows. Over the same period, it also imported almost $9 billion worth of “high-priority” battlefield components, which Western authorities have specifically sanctioned.

Such goods include microchips, communications equipment, computer components, bearings and transmission shafts, and navigation and sensor devices — which can be used in a range of military equipment including drones, radios, missiles and armored vehicles.

The trade flows mark an uptick from the first six months of the Russia-Ukraine war, when Russian imports dropped off dramatically.

When compared to pre-war levels, however, the figures point to a downward trend, with Russian imports of critical components and battlefield goods down 29% and 10%, respectively.

The report’s authors said the data suggests that some export controls are working, and that Russia has been unable to find reliable substitutes for many Western components. They noted that more needs to be done to bolster enforcement and clamp down on remaining loopholes.

“We are finally starting to see this slow but somewhat positive trend,” Olena Bilousova, senior research lead at KSE Institute and one of the report’s authors, told CNBC. “Sanctions are not a measure you can enforce and expect to see the effects tomorrow.”

The findings mirror comments made Tuesday by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said that there were “clear signs of a slowdown” in Russia’s defense industry. Zelenskyy did not provide evidence for his assertion, and Russia has separately said that its production of military equipment has stepped up.

The report’s findings highlight the continued challenges faced by the industry in monitoring its complex supply chains. In a January 2023 blogpost, the Semiconductor Industry Association, which represents around 99% of the U.S. semiconductor industry and around two-thirds of non-U.S. chip firms, highlighted the issue, but said the industry was “deeply committed” to working with the U.S. and allied governments to address the “illicit diversion” of its technology.

Chinese shipments to Russia of CNC tools have increased tenfold since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to an FT analysis of Russian trade data released last week.