decline at threatening another setback in the return to normality. the seven-day average rose 9.5% to more than 57,000 on wednesday, the biggest increase in more than two months. the number of cases is still well below the peak in mid-january. president biden has doubled his target of vaccinations for his first 100 days. the president wants 200 million doses administered by the end of april. he says the u.s. is on pace to meet the goal. the president says the united states is in talks with mexico and expects to stem the flow of migrants. thousands of families have traveled to the united states border in recent weeks, hoping to be allowed to stay. families are being expelled under a public health order invoked by the trump administration but mexico is unwilling to accept all of them. in georgia, the governor signed into law a controversial

overhaul of state elections. the measure includes new restrictions on voting by mail and more legislative control over how elections are run. democrats say the law will make it harder for people of color to vote. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. >> welcome to "bloomberg markets ." >> we are pleased to welcome our bloomberg and bnn bloomberg audiences. another day and still no movement at the suez canal, the block stopping a vital avenue

from -- for global commerce, the attempt to reflow to ever given. plus, the fec takes a closer look at spacs, we will discuss the inquiry into the market for blank check companies and one year into working from home. we will speak to the ceo of prezi about the company's growth during the pandemic. amber: let's take a look at the markets ahead of all of that. boyd to end the week on a high note, a strong rally -- poised to end the week on a high note, a strong rally. tech stocks helping to lead the gains on the s&p 500. the best day in a couple weeks for the s&p 500 since march 11. there is the impact on that suez logjam on the price of crude oil. you can see brent prices rising

about 4% right now as we see that container ship jamming the suez canal, that is about $10 billion in goods that are being backlogged in that number is rising, everything from crude oil, auto parts, natural gas, even instant coffee. let's bring in jessica summers, who has been following these dynamics. let's start with where things stand right now. jessica: thanks. we are hearing that dislodging the vessel will take until at least wednesday of next week if not longer. the ship is really wedged in, the attempt earlier today to be float was not successful. -- to refloat was not successful. if rescue teams decide cargo needs to be unloaded from the vessel to dislodge it, this could last at least two weeks,

potential several weeks. matt: i am amazed that they are not just going ahead and doing it now. i feel like they should already have two more tugboats and be unloading the ship. in any case, this is going to take a long time and we are seeing freight prices rise, aren't we? jessica: that is exactly right, we had being -- we have been seeing vessels -- freight rates have -- some of the largest container carriers have said they are considering sending ships around africa, but to put that cost into perspective, rerouting around south africa could lead to an additional $300,000 in fuel costs. it is costly decisions they are having to make. amber: it is a costly decision

and impacts all kinds of sectors. initially, we were focused on, what does this mean for the oil market, but as we are learning more about the kinds of goods that go with it is canal, what kind of plan b are some of these companies being forth to look at at what companies are speaking out about this? jessica: right now, about 250 are waiting to pass to the canal, not much movement there. we are seeing how the backlogged is impacting global supply chains. our sources are saying caterpillar expects delays of a week or more on shipments from asia to its facilities in europe. it has been floating the idea of airlifting its products off vessels if necessary. also, ikea has said there are containers waiting to the pass through the canal and its supply chain may be affected. this is impacting multiple industries, goods on the board

waiting to pass through, including wood, machinery, frozen beef, oil. it is a global issue. matt: since irad -- i read this morning that caterpillar was considering airlifting freight, i was thinking about the huge helicopters that would be necessary. i assume they are not yet assembled. jessica summers covering this for us. i think we can expect to hear more throughout the next few days. this is not expected to be cleared up until wednesday. even then, there is going to be a backlog of ships that need to get through. coming up, we are going to talk about the sec's spacs probe. mark roberts of the blueshirt group joins us next. for what it is work, we work is finally going public almost two

years after a high-profile sales listing, the agreement will emerge. wework, the company valued at $9 billion, rather than the $47 billion valuation you saw in 2019. this is bloomberg markets. ♪

matt: this is "bloomberg markets ." spacs have been the hottest thing on the public market, or they were, since the pandemic started. now they may be cooling off, although in some hot water with

the sec. amber: absolutely. the sec is requesting information on a voluntary basis about the spacs, the fundraising process, and we know a lot of them potentially taking a different route than the regular ipo process. let's bring in mark roberts of the blueshirt group. maybe you can start us off with what would be the point of inquiry for the sec? what is the starting point of the kind of information they are going to be asking for? mark: it is a great question and it is an evolving situation, but if you think about the spacs market in general, last year was a record year, almost 250 spacs ipo's, and already in q1, we have them raising $90 billion.

anytime there is that level of increased activity, i think the sec wants to make sure that things are still going the way they should be. best practices are in place. i think that helps everybody from spacs to target to investors. matt: is the scrutiny going to squeeze the pipeline a little bit? are we going to see less issuance in spacs? mark: i'm not exactly sure if it will squeeze the issuance, but if you think about the spacs market in general, i think of it as the front end where management teams, celebrities, sports people are raising capital to be used at a later date, hopefully in an intelligent manner, and on the backend, you have companies getting acquired.

blueshirt has worked with almost two dozen of those acquired companies and i think from a diligence perspective and regulatory perspective, i can tell you that those processes are pretty in-depth and all of the eyes -- i's are being dotted and t's crossed. amber: think of an example like wework which was essentially rejected by investors, in part because of the valuation, but also because questions around the business model, things like self-dealing. it is now going public. that kind of scrutiny by general public investors is not taking place this time. i understand it is a different company, but the old wework could have come public via this process and none of those issues would have been unearthed. mark: it is a great point and i would point you to the three

main attributes of the spacs process. you get a company like wework, it has certainty on valuation, certainty on cash raised, relative certainty on timing, and those three things can help accelerate a business model. obviously, they went through a rigorous due diligence process. i looked to see who their investors were, they seem to have some experienced, long-term investors that seem to believe the story. matt: a big pipe piece. the private investment in public equity part of this deal, we have seen it with a number of others. is that going to continue to be an important signal that this is a serious spac? mark: i think it will. i think the pipe market currently is pretty stretched.

i think there are 45 processes ongoing. investors are going to become a little more selective. i don't see them leaving the market, but i see them being more selective and in certain instances, they may be erring on the side of scale. amber: what are instant red flags for you? are you seeing commonalities on companies that are posting those ref fl -- red flags? mark: it comes back to where you started this discussion with diligence. i think having a credible partner, having a credible story on the target side eliminates a lot of risk. what happens, if people are moving too quickly and not doing their diligence, mistakes can be

made. i think the market is evolving and people are improving practices all the time, so with regards to red flags, i think they get taken care of earlier in the process before it comes out into the pike market and gets announced. matt: your firm has represented over 100 ipo's and spacs in the last 10 years. do you see this trend as sticky or you think it is going to subside through 2021? -- or do you think it is going to subside through 2021? mark: two or three years ago, spac was a four letter word, now, i don't see it going away. you have good companies choosing the spacs path for those three main reasons that i mentioned, and i think the institutional investors and even retail

investors are getting more comfortable with the product. as it involves and continues to improve best practices, i think this will remain an attractive potential pathway to the public markets for private companies. amber: celebrities wrap themselves around these spacs, it has an element of -- i know you say diligence is important, but if it is a product gear towards retail investors and you are throwing these celebrities around, visibly -- presumably the only reason you want any when attached to this is not for their history of investing, it is because they are a name that is going to attract interest. doesn't that pose some risk to the everyday investor? mark: you always want to encourage every type of investor to do as much diligence as they can with the public documents that are available. you do have availability, the

ability to look at a lot of the information. with regards to celebrities and sports personnel that are getting into the spacs space, and some instances, it may make sense. if they can lend their brand to accompany in an area, be it sports or entertainment, that could increase value for the target company, so it could be a high-value addition that would help the target company succeed quicker. amber: all right, mark roberts, thank you for joining us. you are going to take a quick break. it has been one year that most of us have been working from home in the next company we are going to talk to has pivoted their brand to help make the presentations you now have to do on zoom a little more exciting. we are going to talk about what the future of work looks like and how prezi has benefited from this shift when we return. ♪

amber: this is "bloomberg markets." so much has changed in our lives over the past year, but there is one thing we can count on, wall street bonuses. wall street bonuses unaffected by the pandemic, a new report saying they are up 10% from last year with the average being $184,000. matt: a lot of our viewers are hoping there is one thing we can count on and that is wall street bonuses. a lot of bloomberg clients are waiting for that money every year to be able to do things like pay for private school for the kids or pay for the lease for the year, even by a new house. up, but 10%, i'm not sure how that compares with previous years.

and i'm not sure how that spreads either. you could see a huge chunk at the top and lower levels not getting as much. it is an interesting figure, but i think you have to dive deeper into it to be able to judge how it really worked out. let's switch gears to something that a lot of wall street executives and even back office workers have been doing a lot of , that is videoconferencing. joining us now is jim that prensky -- jim szafranski, ceo of prezi. you may have used it. this year, you definitely have seen it because it has become so popular. it is like a powerpoint for a zoom conference. am i describing at the right way? jim: yes, exactly.

what prezi does, it allows you to bring your content onto the screen with you while you are presenting on a screen, like zoom. it is a way to basically come back some of the challenges of screen sharing -- combat some of the challenges of screen sharing. amber: what kind of growth have you seen? i know prezi existed well before the pandemic, and now those in person presentations now being made over zoom, what kind of quick adaptations that you have to make to make that a viable product over zoom? jim: we were lucky in that we had a vision prior to the pandemic that online presenting was going to become more important to professionals both in business and in teaching. we launched this product in 2019. it put us in a position to help our users. the growth we saw last year was

5000% growth. it has been used in 20,000 organizations, over half of the u.s. school districts. phenomenal growth we see continuing as we start this year. matt: i wonder about that. how sticky is this is the question we ask a lot, particularly in this area. we have become accustomed to doing things via skype, via zoom. i won't stop using it as we open back up. i'm sure a lot of schools are going to continue, a lot of banks are going to continue. do you see your growth leveling out after we open up or do you think there is still a chance that you can increase -- i mean, 5000 percent is already amazing. can you continue to grow? jim: i think we are going to continue to grow because when we

talk to our customers, where they are investing is in a hybrid office model and what they are investing and specifically that is relevant to us are these digital workspaces that would allow their employees to be present and productive, whether they are working remotely or whether they are in the physical office. to be able to move between those locations with the same sort of workspace in front of them. as our customers invest less in real estate and more into digital workspaces, we believe we will be able to help them through that and sustain the growth we are seeing. amber: there are so any questions, how much of this is permanent? it sounds like from your window, the clients you have, you are saying a lot of this is here to stay. it is going to be hybrid indefinitely. jim: kind of an analogy to think about this, let's say the pandemic has forced on the

workplace, it has forced us into a netflix model where everything is straining. now we are going to go back -- streaming. now we are going to go back and that back that we do is more like watching, say, cheers at 8:00 p.m. on thursdays. i don't think we are going to go back to that model. we benefited from the idea that things are streamed and that employees can join them live or employees can play them back. let's say i joined a new project that has been going on for three months and i just come into it now. if i can playback those key moments over the last three months, i'm going to catch up faster, we are going to have less meetings catching me up. matt: i'm going to catch up on cheers this weekend, euro my did me of an important part of my childhood.

-- you reminded me of an important part of my childhood. what does your exit look like? is that on the horizon? jim: for us, we are well-capitalized and prezi has this amazing ability to grow organically. our users bring us more users to us, so right now, we are funding through growth, scaling through partners and partnerships with folks like zooms and webex. we are in a fortunate position right now. matt: thanks so much for your time. jim szafranski, the ceo of prezi. this is bloomberg.

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at the suez canal on sunday to help with efforts to reflect the massive container ship stuck in the waterway for days now. the blockage has wrecked on global free trade, raising the specter of high inflation as ships are forced to take a longer route around africa. the official death toll stemming from protests in your warehouse