send coronavirus vaccines abroad in june including for the first time shots authorized for domestic use. the president has decided to export 20 million doses of the vaccine from pfizer, moderna, or johnson & johnson, on top of 60 million astrazeneca doses he had already planned to give to other countries. supplies beginning to outpaced demand in the united states. meanwhile, there are encouraging signs the coronavirus pandemic in the u.s. is continuing to ease. the u.s. recorded more than 16,000 new covid cases sunday, the lowest daily total since the early days of the pandemic in march of 2020. that is according to data compiled by johns hopkins university in bloomberg. in january, after a holiday-fueled surge, the u.s. was averaging 250,000 new cases a day. in the u.k., officials are warning a highly transmissible strain of covid-19 that

originated in india could lead to a major surge in cases. this as the u.k. lifts more restrictions and continues to emerge from its latest lockdown. the country is accelerating its vaccine rollout to people a 35 and older in an attempt to contain the new variant. 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. ♪ matt: it is 1:00 in new york, 7:00 in berlin, 1:00 a.m. in hong kong. i'm matt miller. welcome to bloomberg markets. here are the top stories we are following for you from around the world. megamerger monday. the details on at&t's and

discovery's $43 billion deal as a telecom company sheds its media assets less than three years after acquiring them at an eye watering loss. president biden announces he is sending vaccines abroad. we will hear from him in a few moments on his plan to send 20 million additional doses to other countries that need it most. and we will discuss how businesses will handle the relaxed mask mandate's, with dr. sabra klein of the johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health. a quick check on what is going on in the market today. a steady drop of about half a percent in the s&p 500 this afternoon. we have seen this throughout the session. u.s. 10 year yields up slightly at 1.6352. the bloomberg dollar index falling a little bit to 1119.

new york crude coming up to 66.34. a little movement to the upside and in other risk assets to the downside. it is a big merger monday today. at&t confirming a deal with discovery to combine their media assets, valued at $130 billion including debt, and create a new entertainment company. joining me now is the u.s. media analyst at bloomberg intelligence. as we know, there is no such thing as a merger, so who is buying what? >> thank you for having me. this is a combination of at&t's warner media, which have been bought by them 4.5 years ago. they are now divesting it in order to focus on their core telecom operations. they are merging it with

discovery, so this catapults discovery and hbo max to a first-tier potential streaming platform, potentially challenges to netflix and disney. matt: discovery is buying these assets from at&t? i think the term "merger" is misleading, i've never seen a merger, it is always an acquisition. >> you could say that, yes. at&t gets 43 billion dollars for contributing to the warner assets, to this new company. matt: interesting stuff. some really well-known, household names, including hvn coming together with home & garden television. thanks very much for that. for more on the big discovery deal and more m&a opportunities,

we are joined by chris pultz of calendar capital -- kellner capital, along with our deals reporter ed hammond. what can you tell us about the -- first of all, in the media universe, was this deal expected, do you see more consolidation coming? chris: thanks for having me and good afternoon. this is a dissolution of a merger that came together only a few years ago and shows how difficult it is to merge the content and distribution sides of the business. both sides are very capital-intensive. at&t, in order to roll out their 5g platform, needs a lot of cash. this is a great way for them to monetize the time warner assets, probably at a loss, but a way to get cashback to continue the rollout.

we have seen a lot of mergers over the last several years between content and distribution, and we may see some unwinding of those as we go forward. matt: earlier, we discussed, it was a loss of a $100 million. better to cut your losses then throw good money at bad. where do you see the most m&a activity in 2021, how heavy is this year expected to be? christopher: we see three areas where we could see continued activity, and we are at record activity now. we had our third consecutive quarter of over a billion dollars in transactions. one in health care, the changing laws, so there will be continued consolidation there. filling in the pipelines. we saw that with the astrazeneca transaction, $40 billion

announced at the end of last year. that should complete sometime in the third quarter. that was a pipeline deal that they were trying to fill holes in. technology, always cost-cutting going on to stream product lines. big deals we are looking at our nuance and microsoft and slack with salesforce.com. those are two murders in the process now. in the banking sector, a flurry of deals over the last several months with the new administration coming in. with the prior administration's relaxing of regulatory rules, there is a fear now, that those regulations will return, which makes bank mergers harder, so they are trying to do that before the new administration gets its footing here. matt: what do valuations look

like right now? nobody wants to end up like randall stephenson and blow a cool $100 million to only realize it three years later. christopher: we have been in a long bull market for a while, so valuations are always stretched at this point. we are still seeing she talked -- strategic transactions. they will be the head scratchers like time warner and at&t a number of years ago that will be unwound, but the vast majority are solid transactions. matt: what kind of money is around out there? outside of the strategic buyers, we have seen so much cash in private equity. that story has not changed. 1.5, $2 trillion out there that needs to come in. doesn't that blow up prices?

christopher: absolutely. $2 trillion to $3 trillion in unlevered capital. we know that companies do that. there will be constant battles for all of these assets out there, not only from the strategic side but from the private equity side. that will stretch valuations even further. matt: a rising rate environment, not historically good for the environment, but it looks like we will see new records in m&a notwithstanding, right? christopher: if you look back at the two tightening cycles over the past decade -- because there has not been one in a while -- in both, rising interest rate environments, m&a activity increased. we expect that to continue as well going forward. matt: how important is the

vaccine rollout and reopening? are you still watching that? by you, not personally, but the industry, betting it is in the bag? christopher: for our business it is not really that important. it is important that everyone gets back to work but we are focused on the activity going on. with the rollout and reopening of business and everyone getting back to work, that should only be good for businesses going forward, generating cash flow, and more deals happening for us. matt: so you will continue to be busy. mike mayo says jobs will be lost in the finance industry over the next decade as things slow down, and processes are automated, but not at kellner? christopher: people realize they can work from home, so there will be some efficiencies brought up by some of the large banks.

but we are happy with our employees, we have no future layoffs planned. matt: i just meant to point out that you have a lot to do right now. a lot on your plate. thanks so much for joining us. christopher pultz, portfolio manager at kellner capital. crypto prices were sent on a wild ride this weekend and landed pretty much at the bottom after a few tweets from elon musk. we will dig into coinbase, which is off 6% in today's session. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i'm matt miller. time for our stock of the hour. coinbase is falling victim to the swings with bitcoin imposed by elon musk, his comments forcing the coin down, additional currency. now the stock of coinbase is slipping below the reference price set by its direct listing last month. dave wilson looks at the move and its implications. dave: it just goes to show you, last month's treasure can be this month's trash, at least in relevant terms. bear in mind, the reason we are talking about this reference price, $250, they had a direct listing as opposed to an initial public offering. the stock jumped on the first day of trading, but it also happened to be the day that bitcoin peaked. we have seen the stock come down

along with the cryptocurrency. over the weekend, comments from elon musk, suggesting at one point that they were either selling or thinking about selling their currency. he later said they had not done so. nonetheless, you see the glow go away in some extent in terms of digital currencies. that is coinbase's business, the ability to buy and sell these. you see just how much the valuation of this company has swung over time as we have the reference price, initial trading , and then the way it has come down. matt: of course, there are investigations, renewed allegations that digital currency is used for illicit gains. after the pipeline hacking, online concern that dogecoin is a hustle.

our other stocks following coinbase down today? dave: no question. what makes coinbase stand out is how big it is, even after pulling back. smaller companies for the most part, with the exception of square, the financial transaction company. they do allow customers to buy and sell bitcoin. that one kind of jumps out. certainly, they have been swept up in the demand for bitcoin and other currencies, and then come right back down over the past month or so as things of god in the other direction. we have seen that play out especially with coinbase. matt: day wilson, thank you for joining us. i want to get to something that caught my eye and everyone's eye on wall street. banking analyst mike mayo, one of the most famous out there,

making a call that the u.s. banking industry could slash as many as 200,000 jobs in the coming decade. he cites slowing revenue growth and the pandemic accelerating automation, the adoption of digital services as well. to be clear, this is over the next 10 years. but the point is, automation, along with competition from outside the banking industry, is going to reduce jobs drastically on wall street or on general u.s.-wide wall street. still ahead, businesses grapple with mask policies after the new guidance from the cdc. we will speak to sabra klein, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the johns hopkins school of public health. this is bloomberg. ♪ ublic health.

this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i'm matt miller. new york is the latest state to announce it will follow cdc guidance and lift mask mandate's for fully vaccinated people. mask requirements remain in effect for schools, on public transport, and in health centers. but many businesses are grappling with how to handle the new guidance. joining us is dr. sabra klein, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health. michael bloomberg also supports this research. dr. klein, thank you for your time. the main question that has to be answered here is, how likely are people who have been fully vaccinated to get coronavirus

and pass it on to others who, we assume are wearing masks, if they themselves are not wearing them? dr. klein: if vaccinated individuals are not wear masks, the data is available and that the cdc used for this recommendation suggests that vaccinated people are significantly less likely to acquire the infection, and also, if they were to become infected, rcep in the vacantly -- are significant a less likely to pass on the infection. this is afforded to us from the vaccination from not only the wuhan strain, but some of the variants that i know many of your listeners, know about, hear about, have been concerned about. through the millions of people

who have been vaccinated, we have ample data to show that we are, in fact, protected against infection and transmission. matt: what are the big concerns then? as long as people who are vaccinated are the only ones de-masking, and that is what the guidelines state is allowed, won't that be ok for businesses to allow as well? dr. klein: it should be. i think a lot of the decision-making will fall to the individual, both the individual person as well as individual businesses. often for businesses, that will be based on the mindset of their employees, the fears of their employees, are there employees vaccinated? if they are not, is that by choice or health conditions, or other reasons? so, you can see how this does become complicated.

but for those of us who are vaccinated, i think feeling safe and confident not wearing a mask is i think what the cdc. matt: president biden is approaching the podium. we have to go to him live but we appreciate the time. president biden: the new milestone in our progress against covid-19 here at home, steps we are taking to fight covid internationally, and an important tax cut for families with children under the age of 18. that is where i will start. today's tax day, when everyone's taxes are due. no one likes to pay taxes, i know. my dad used to say it is a small price of living in this country. but i want to tell everyone with children, why, as they are filing their taxes, they should

know that a new tax cut will be coming their way for working-class and middle-class folks very soon. as everyone knows, i firmly believe, we firmly believe we need to make the tech system work for the middle class. that is why i think we should ask corporations and the top 1% to start paying their fair share, and why we should crackdown on millionaires and billionaires who escaped taxes by cheating. i also think we need to give ordinary families a break, a tax break, to help some of the cost of raising their kids. most people don't know it, but for families with children, we put that tax cut into the american rescue plan, which was signed not long ago. i signed the tax cut into law in march. 90% of the families, middle-class, working-class families, will get this tax cut. it is a one-year cut that reduces your taxes by $3000 a

year for each child you have under the age of 18. two kids, a $6,000 tax cut. if those kids are under the age of six, they will actually get $3600 per child. as you file your taxes today, know that your tax cut is coming, but here is the great news. you will not have to wait until next year's tax return to get that break. i am announcing today that on july 15, on the 15th of every month thereafter throughout the year, you will get deposited into your bank account half of your tax cut at least to her $50 per child each month, a direct deposit into your account. if you are a working family with two kids, you'll get $500 a month in your banking account on the 15th of every month starting in july. and we are getting you a tax cut this year, now, when you need

it, and not have to wait. if you get your taxes refunded into your bank account automatically, this will be put into your account automatically. if not, it will be mailed to you. in addition to helping working families, experts have told us this will cut child poverty in america in half. this tax cut sends a clear and powerful message to american working families with children. help is here. now, let me talk to another milestone, our long battle with covid. today, and for the first time since the pandemic began, pandemic cases are down in all 50 states. first time. that's right. thanks a lot to the hard work of so may people, covid cases are down in all 50 states. i cannot promise that will continue in this way.

we know there will be advances and setbacks. we know there are many flareups that could occur. but if the unvaccinated get vaccinated, they will protect themselves and other unvaccinated people around them. if they do not, states with low vaccination rates may see those rates go up, may see this progress reversed. ultimately, those who are not vaccinated will end up paying the price. the vaccinated will continue to be protected against severe illnesses, but others may not be if you are not vaccinated. given the vaccination is convenient and free, it will be a tragedy, and they need this one, to see covid cases among those who do not get vaccinated go up. we are not done fighting these fires. we still have tens of millions left to vaccinate, but we are making significant progress. in fact, when tomorrow's vaccination numbers come out,

they will show that 60% of americans have received at least one shot. every day, the light at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter. this vaccination effort has been an historic logistical achievement for our nation. i want to thank the scientists and the researchers, the companies manufacturing the vaccines, the national guard, u.s. military, fema, the nation's governors, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and i want to think the american people, who have stepped up to do their patriotic duty and getting vaccinated. in less than four months, we have gone from less than 6% to 60% of adults in america with at least one shot. we are seeing the results in people's lives and in their livelihoods. deaths are down from covid by 81%, and also at their lowest level since april of 2020.

as a result of our prompt action to roll out the vaccine and boost the economy, we have gone from stagnation to an economy that is growing faster than it has in nearly 40 years. we have gone fromcreation to rer a new administration, none has created as many jobs in this timeframe. the progress is undeniable but we are not done yet. some of the hardest work is ahead. we are losing too many americans and we have too many unvaccinated people. last week, the cdc announced that if you are fully vaccinated you do not need to wear a mask. the science now shows that your vaccination protects you as well as being masked, or better than being masked. you can protect yourself from serious illness by getting vaccinated. or, wearing a mask until fully

vaccinated. either way you are protected. as i said last week, some people may want to continue to wear a mask even if they are fully vaccinated. that is a decision they can make. some businesses may want to continue to require wearing a mask. let's all be kind and respectful of one another as we come out of this pandemic and respect those who want to continue to wear a mask. above all, let's work together to meet the target i have set of 70% of adults with at least one shot by july 4. seven states have already done this. getting vaccinated has never been easier. we have 80,000 locations where you can get a shot. 90% of you live within five miles of one of those locations. you can find a vaccine site near you by texting your zip code to 438829.

you will get all the places near you. many places do not require an appointment, just walk in. it is free. everyone 12 years and above is eligible. if you need help getting your vaccine, getting to or from your vaccination site, lyft and uber are offering free rides to take you to the site and bring you home between may 24 and july 4, anyone who wants to get vaccinated. i have called on employers to do their part as well, offering their employees paid time off to get vaccinated. we have set up a program nationally to reimburse those businesses for the cost of given -- giving employees the time off. now is your time to get the shot.

we have the vaccine. we have secured enough supply to vaccinate all adults and children above the age of 12. i repeat, now is the time to get your vaccine. over the past 118 days, our vaccination program has led the world. today, we are taking an additional step to help the world. we know america will never be fully safe until the pandemic that is raging globally is under control. no ocean is wide enough, no walls high enough. rampant disease and death in other countries can destabilize those countries and pose a risk to us as well. new variants can arise that put us at greater risk. we need to help fight the disease around the world to keep us safe here at home and do the right thing helping other people. it is the right thing to do. it is the strong thing to do.

in march, we shared over 4 million doses of astrazeneca vaccine with canada and mexico. at the end of april, we announced we would provide another 60 million doses of astrazeneca vaccine overseas. remember, this is a vaccine that is not authorized for use in the united states yet, so we are going to be sending it to folks once the fda has reviewed this and said it is safe. this all the astrazeneca vaccine produced in the united states that we sent to other countries. today i am announcing we will also share u.s. authorized vaccine doses of pfizer, madura, and johnson & johnson as they become available with the rest of the role as well

be put in americans. i the end of june, when we have taken delivery of enough vaccine to connect everyone in the united states, the united states will share 20 million of those doses with other countries. this means over the next six

weeks, the united states will send 80 million doses overseas. that represents 13% of the vaccines produced in the united states by the end of june. this will be more vaccines than any country has shared to date. five times more than any other country. more than russia and china which have donated 15 million doses. there's a lot of talk about russia and china's influence in the role of vaccines. we want to lead the world with our values, with this demonstration of our ingenuity and fundamental the -- fundamental decency of the american people. just as in world war ii, america was the arsenal democracy in the battle against covid-19 come our nation is going to be the arsenal vaccines. we will share these vaccines for the service of ending the pandemic everywhere and we will not use vaccines to secure favors from other countries. we will work with covax, and other partners to ensure that the vaccines are delivered in a way that is equitable and follows the science and public health data. we made the announcement to share 80 million doses, that is our next step as we ramp up efforts to respond to covid-19 around the world. in the weeks of head -- weeks ahead, we will coordinate a multilateral effort to end this pandemic. i expect to announce progress in this area at the g7 summit in june. this is a unique moment in history and it requires american leadership. i want to be clear, beating this

pandemic globally is beyond the capacity of any one nation, even the united states. the united states will continue to donate our excess supply as supply is delivered to us, but that won't be enough. we need to lead an entirely new effort, an effort that involves working with pharmaceutical companies and partner nations to vastly increase supply. to create the capacity that can beat this pandemic worldwide. in a way that creates jobs at home and saves lives abroad. this will take longer than our immediate work to donate from existing supplies. we are going to be asking other nations to share the cost. doing this will help us beat the pandemic and leave us with a manufacturing capacity to

prepare for the next crisis, the next vaccine needed. i am putting our covid team to beat the virus in the united states. jeff will be working with our national security council and the talented and dedicated team that has been set up across our in government that will include gail smith, and experts for development and the department of health and human services as well. we are going to bring the same whole government response to the global effort that made us successful here at home. we have enough -- we have secured enough supply for all eligible americans, all-americans 12 years old and older. we still have work to do, though. hard work. but because we have done so much

here, because of the power of american companies, research and manufacturing, we can continue to do more to help with the rest of the world. this is a rapidly changing world and it is a mistake to bet against democracies just as democracies lead the world in the darkness of world war ii, democracies will lead the world out of this pandemic. america will leave those democracies as they work to bring greater health and hope to the world. think back, four months ago was an audacious goal we had to put one million shots in the arms in my first hundred days as president. we did over 220 million shots in that timeframe. back then, most adults were not eligible yet to get the shot. now, everyone 12 years or older is eligible.

tomorrow, 60 -- by tomorrow, 60% of all american adults will have received at least one shot. look at what we have done. look at what you have done, america. there is not a single thing beyond our capacity to do in this country when we decide to do it together. we can do whatever we set our minds to do if we do it together. that is exactly what we are going to do. solve the problem here in the united states, which we are doing, and help solve the problem for the world by organizing the rest of the democracies in the world. i want to thank you all, god bless you and may god protect our troops. >> [indiscernible] >> [indiscernible] pres. biden: i will be speaking with the prime minister in an hour. >> [indiscernible]

>> that was president biden speaking about a number of issues, starting with millionaires and billionaires that he says are cheating the system. going onto individual families who are going to get a substantial chunk of their taxes back now, depending on how many children they have. he then moved onto vaccinations. in number you can text to get the vaccination location nearest you and said you will get a free uber or lyft. he said he would then pass out vaccinations to other countries who need it. an additional 20 million doses on top of the 60 million that have been earmarked to go outside the country. finally, ended there on what is going on in israel, although he

was not his -- although he was not taking questions, he said he would spoke to the prime minister. president biden talking about a range of topics. we welcome our bloomberg audiences, as we do each day, and my coanchor amanda lang. what do you think about these markets? >> we were watching markets a little mixed today. the reopening of the economy will be a factor. president biden addressing the milestone america hit, 60% of americans now have the first dose of the vaccine. that is a key milestone that has allowed reopening to happen and it is happening on wall street today. the nation's largest bank has its employees back to work. ritika gupta it is there. it feels like an important moment. jp morgan tried this before and it did not work out well. we are at this critical level of vaccinations in the u.s., it

feels different now. it feels like it is time to reopen for wall street. ritika: this is a different scenario. we have more than 200 million doses of the vaccine administered here in the u.s.. jp morgan ceo jamie dimon tried to do this back in september 2020. it didn't really work. today's a big day. i am outside their new york headquarters. their office has been open for some time and it has been busy here. we have seen patagonia vests in full force. it is across the u.s. now that offices are going to be open voluntarily for employees. as you mentioned, they are going to be expected to go back in july on a rotational basis. this is significant. a lot of other banks watching this, the first major bank in the u.s. to have a mandate to get all of its employees back. other banks are definitely going to be seeing how to go forward. matt: what about the businesses around jp morgan? street meet, coffee, cafes, are

they all open? ritika: it's got quite a buzz around here. this stretches way beyond just the businesses and organizations that want their employees back. this is important for all of the local coffee shops relying on people to come out in their coffee breaks to give them business. it feels like i am starting to see a bit more life back in the city. pretty important to the local economy as well. amanda: riddick a group to come a great to have your insight on the ground. i appreciate that. albeit, bloomberg businessweek events underway. today, a close-up on the cannabis industry with the exact of chair of --, boris jordan. >> people making $50,000 a year

are having citibank accounts closed because they are working in cannabis. this is the largest job creator in the united states at the moment. we pay an effective tax rate of 65%. we are classified as more dangerous than cocaine under u.s. regulatory rules at the fda and dea. it is incredible that cannabis is -- at the federal level, but at the state levels they are approving it and allowing more innovation and the industry is turning profitable in a situation where both hands are tied behind our backs. we cannot trade on u.s. exchanges. canadian cannabis companies can trade on u.s. exchanges. u.s. cannabis companies, the ones that higher u.s. employees and create jobs in the united

states cannot trade on u.s. exchanges. >> given there is a lot of preference by consumers for this to become legal and for this to become an established product category, do you think that is going to help push along legislation? right now, the safe act would allow more level playing field when it comes to banking and financing for this industry. >> we could use any help at the moment from the federal government to at least lift tax burdens and restrictions to bring the cost of capital down. one of the issues facing this industry is social justice. the inequities, which were there. the war on drugs. you can't help finance these groups if your cost of capital is 15% and you have to pay a tax rate of 55%.

matt: that was the executive chairman boris jordan speaking at the bloomberg businessweek event with james ellis. stay tuned for a great lineup of guests throughout the week which include kathy wood, a-rod, byron allen and more. for the second week, the crypto market is being ruled by tweets from elon musk. the tesla chief tweeted, clarifying the company has not sold any holdings of bitcoin after he tweeted cooking -- smoking speculation that he had dumped the entire $1.5 billion holding. i think that is the more important to tweet, it drove the price of bitcoin down. joining as -- joining us now is perianne boring, president and founder of digital commerce. the initial response tweet that

musk sent to some digital currencies analysts seemed to confirm that because the bitcoin community has been unhappy with him he decided to dump his entire -- tesla's entire holdings. not surprised that would move the markets, but had -- but it has not come back since then. why? perianne: do as i say, not as i do. bitcoin is volatile. digital assets are volatile. volatile is not inherently a bad thing for investors. you need volatility for the price to go up. it's not great when volatility is working against you, but in the dish -- in the digital asset ecosystem it is normal for bitcoin to fluctuate between 30% and 40% in any given month. we expect volatility to become -- to level out as it becomes more institutionalized. that is already happening.

i would also encourage you to look at -- volatility at the actual rate. short-term volatility has increased almost 50% since february of 2021. longer volatility has also decreased as well. also, look at trading volumes. there is a 24 hour trading volume of bitcoin is up 54%. they are still helping metrics in the market. it was an entertaining weekend on crypto twitter and this is not unusual, just highly publicized. amanda: it is also kind of highly publicized is the degree of uncertainty around regulation in this space and whether retail investors are fully apprised of all of the ramifications. one place shows up is the tax bill. do you think there is enough clarity, or is that one place where we see laws lagging behind

reality? perianne: it is tax may last tax day. to celebrate, the chamber has issued a letter to the irs -- not having enough guidance. the issue has not issued comprehensive guidance for digital assets since 2014, 7 years ago. they have issued two pieces of guidance in the whole crypto industry. one was 2014, 1 was 2019 and they were very basic. on the other hand, the irs has not been shy to engage in enforcement activities. they have issued a number of subpoenas to u.s. companies including crafton and circle, and tens of thousands of letters to u.s. taxpayers. the treasury's inspector general has criticized the irs for not providing comprehensive guidance. in a time like this where there

is so much growth in this industry and there are so many retail investors entering the space, it is imperative we have comprehensive guidance and we are advocating for that. we think this is possible but it has to be done in a way where the industry and policymakers can come together because this is a unique and complicated space that requires a dedicated effort. matt: thank you for joining us. perianne boring, president and founder of "the chamber of digital commerce." talking to us about the wild move and the regulation that is not really comprehensive quite yet. coming up, major u.s. retailers are set to report earnings this week. we discuss the health of the consumer of -- with adrienne yih of barclays next. this is bloomberg. ♪

amanda: we are waiting for some

retailers to report earnings. retail has been solid as consumers got back to spending in the u.s.. what will the season ahead look like? adrienne yih, analyst, great to have you with us. we know that for many, the pitcher may look good -- the picture may look good for weeks and months ahead but we are starting to look past that to the forecasts of what happens as things stabilize. are you expect them to start to see discipline from investors in the longer view? adrienne: i do not. i think really strong economic backdrop for the consumer continues all the way through the back half of the year. we are right about to enter one of the strongest -- one of the strongest prints on a quarterly

basis. this is the beginning of a four to six quarter successful run for retailers. we are going to see it with the frontline retailers at the onset and that is going to be what builds the first half of the year. and then we will transition to off-site retailers and wholesale manufacturers at the back half of the year. i could not be more sanguine about the process, given there is more child stack -- child tax stimulus on the way. matt: beyond sanguine, i would say jazz. we saw friday, some people saying retail sales have stalled, but i do not think they were taking into account that the number was month-to-month. it was coming from april when we had an 11% jump and it was on par with that, which means basically retail spending is supercharged at this level. how long does it hold here?

adrienne: the term i like to say is "off the hook." matt: i like it. adrienne: you are going to see sales that are up 70% to 100%. we are getting reads from early reports that they are costing over 2019 pre-pandemic levels. not by a little bit, but by 10% to 15%. averaging of retails are anywhere between 10% and 25%. might i add, this is all under the backdrop of constraints and supply because the supply chain is backed up. imagine if we are able to get every piece of inventory we like , one could only assume that is going to be even higher. even that backdrop, i would say that at some point you are going to see retailers have to -- initial retails to stem the flow of how hot the demand cycle is.

matt: i was waiting for amanda to jump in with a buster blues quote. adrienne yih, thanks for talking to us about retail sales that are off the hook. for amanda lange, i am matt miller, this is bloomberg. ♪

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>> president biden plans to send

it additional 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccine abroad, including shots for domestic use. speaking at the white house, the president said the u.s. will export the 20 million doses of vaccines from pfizer, moderna, or johnson & johnson on top of 60 million astrazeneca doses he had already planned to give to other countries. supply is beginning to out some -- to outweigh demand. let's get back to life. those words from governor andrew cuomo see announced the state will lift its mass mandate wednesday. the governor says the move is in line with national guidance from the cdc as covered vaccinations approach 50% of the states residents and cases and hospitalizations ebb. the governor added, "all of the arrows are pointed in the right direction." the u.s. supreme court will consider rolling back the constitutialig