so over the next few weeks, as time goes on, more and more path will become clear on how we can have an early attack on the virus when somebody is infected. >> thank you very much, we wish you well good luck with the opening >> thank you. >> operates a number of finantn centers. we'll learn a lot more in the next couple weeks. while you've been talking to him, l brands has been halted for volatility, then opened and halted again as they're seeking to terminate the victoria's secret deal we know what a long standing story this has been as l. brand tries to restructure its business model but that's a fly in the ointment if this is right. >> women's wear daily put out an article saying this deal could be in jeopardy

it came before the coronavirus headlines started to impact the u.s. and as a result l brand, which owns victoria's secret, bath and body works, has had to close stories, lay off employees and this was sort of a lifeline to l brand to unload it because they weren't able to turn it around so if they get stuck with it again, it's pressure on the retaile retailers. l brand is a prime example, one of the worst hit. >> indeed. we'll see you later this afternoon, sara. welcome to "squawk alley," you see the bounce today after two days of losses as we get some progress regarding rescue packages from the senate to the house. got a bunch of discretionary companies raising capital through various means, secondary and so forth

and the earnings not bad when you look at snap, chipotle and netflix last night. >> interesting when we look at netflix and snap which had interesting positive metrics in their earnings we had ibm the day before talking about a pause in some customer spending. we're just starting to get the data on the past quarter that gives us a sense how that quarter was wrapping up as this crisis really started to set in and impact business. and we'll have to see how it continues to impact business, right, morgan? >> that's right. you can't talk about the balance in equities today and not talk about the balance we're seeing, all be it modest, in the energy complex, you have wti crude up about 30% right now. keep in mind they're still trading around $15 a barrel. you had the eia weekly data last hour as well even though we're seeing the

storage builds continue in places like cushing. you are seeing the production numbers come down in recent weeks and that's helping lift and that lift the energy sector, which is the best performing of the s&p with every sector in the green right now. jon? >> yeah, and we were just talking about netflix and snap got to mention snap, first of all is up 27% this morning netflix not as much. let's kick off with netflix lower after conservative guidance, the company did see a jump in scriubscribers john blackledge is with us to break it down. good morning >> good morning. thanks for having me. >> let's break it down i want to look at the quarter and understand the puts and takes. on the one hand a lot of new subs and that looks positive but

is this an acceleration of cord cutting and sustainable or more short lived because the lack of a library at netflix relative to say disney plus is going to hurt them eventually because of the lack of production >> let's unpack it so first quarter, great results. they added a record nearly 6 million subscribers. crushed their guide of 7 million. management said they were piecing ahead of march and then you had the pandemic and stay-at-home orders globally and sub spiked in march. their guide for 2g, 7.5 million adds last year they did less than 3 million, it was impacted a bit by pricing changes but it was also their smallest quarter so that guide is massive they did say it was a bit of guess work, given the uncertainty around the pandemic but really the guide is rooted in where they're tracking early

in the quarter so the trends continue to be good into april. as you alluded to or mentioned they did temper expectations on the back half of the year saying the lockdown likely pulled forward the multi-year trend from tv which could result in slower sub growth in the second half but taking it all in, we raised our sub forecast significantly, price target went to 485 from 445. stocks down a little bit, but going into today was like at all time highs, up 30%-ish for the year and maybe that call temporary in the second half is having an impact from our vantage point, the bullish view, near and longer term, netflix in our view will have long term gains and the temper expectations for the back half, it's there, but remember, their 2020 content

slate is entact, which we talked about. their competitors, particularly linear, are more impacted with the production shutdown. also with the olympics postponed and potentially limited sports in the second half the set up remains very good, despite the incredible sub growth in the first half. >> to button things up for my question, john, i want to ask, advertising versus subscription models, which one is better positioned in this environment on the one hand, advertising there's certain areas, packaged goods, food, et cetera, digital, that's doing pretty well as we see from snap. and then on the subscription side there are going to be some consumers out of work and looking to cut cost. who's bet erpositioned in the streaming game, those relying on ads or subscription? >> subscription, john. at the end of march we cut our u.s. ad forecast to down 11% for

the year we have digital down 7%. we have tv down 12%. with the looming negative macro environment, and despite snap had a great quarter like you were saying, it's going to be tough on the advertising side. whereas ourview for netflix is and other maybe we'll throw disney plus in there, too, i don't cover it, my colleague does, but it's the last thing that's going to go, in our view. >> a difficult macro particularly given like the nature of this unfortunate pandemic where people are at home, they're not going to moves, not doing things. so i would say, no doubt in my mind the subscription side better than advertising in this environment. >> i get that the numbers were strong for netflix and certainly much better than either wall street or the company itself expected in terms of those internal forecasts but how much of this is pull

forward and how much of this, more importantly from an investor's standpoint is baked into the stock it's up 32% year-to-date even as we've seen the broader market sell off tell me about valuation and why it's compelling in terms of increase you made to your price target >> there's certainly pull forward, obviously that's why i think they tempered expectations for the back half of the year. but the long-term trend is intact like they are -- their value prop, the consumer value prop is better than linear so if they pull them forward a little bit because of this pandemic, you know, that's fine. it was going to happen anyways and, you know, that is kind of the factor for a long-term model. we have a ten-year model, when you increase the sub trajectory, that has a positive impact on cash flow over time, and that led to the -- you know, going to

485 from 445 >> john blackledge with head room you see for netflix from here thanks for being with us. >> thank you we mentioned them before but to get back to it, crude oil prices rebounding this morning brian sullivan has been following the wild price swings. he's going to join us now with more hey, brian. >> thank you it has more twists and turns than an episode of "tiger king" maybe i'll make a documentary about oil. let's talk about it. going to the numbers and the numbers are grim you referenced that eia data at the top of the show. let's dig in refinery reutilization refineries fell again 69 to 67%. 182 operating refineries in the united states that process 18 million barrels of crude oil a day.

you're looking at 12.5 million barrels of crude a day we've basically gone down 6 million barrels a day of refinery needs, you're talking 180 million barrels a month effectively that are not used but still largely being produced that's what we have to remember. these opec plus cuts that were so famously made they don't start until may 1st. the texas rail commission yesterday, they punted on weather a decision to have quo quotas they said they didn't know if they had legal authority so now it all builds up. look at the pricing sheets every night everywhere in america -- by the way, everywhere in the world storage is filling up. this is true in norway and denmark and turkey, they're l k looking at caves

kind of like our spr is four separate a venn systems, they ta you canning about putting oil in caves. so yes, it's up today about 15 bucks. i said it today, we're paying to take oil out of the ground, we're paying to move it, and now we might be paying to put it back in the ground we're paying for the same oil three times. the only solution is to not pull it out of the ground, not my opinion, that's anybody you talk to is going to tell you that they have to stop producing so the industry may survive, otherwise there will be blood. >> such a key point, brian and one that's going to be in focus after the bell when we get earnings today also, csx, which moves a fair amount of crude by rail at a time we hear about rail cars being used as storage, too

very unusual times thank you, brian >> probably the only user of diesel right now in the world besides the trucks getting us the supplies we need thank you to the truckers and rail operators conjunction junction that's your function >> so true, brian, thank you after the break we'll have an exclusive with snap ceo evan spiegel. stay with us

shares of snap are one of the stars of the morning and now julia has a special guest. morning, julia >> good morning, to you carl thank you so much. we're joined now by evan spiegel, the ceo of snap thanks so much for talking to us this morning on the better than expected results >> morning, thanks for having me and the great coverage during this time. i've been watching every morning. >> glad to hear it you showed growth around new user and growth of engagement. how much of that growth is due to people having time on their hands because they're stuck at home during these coronavirus lockdowns and how long do you think that kind of growth will continue >> our growth is calculated as an average over the quarter. a lot of what you're seeing is momentum starting from the beginning of thequarter. then obviously a lot of engagement growth around some of the stay-at-home orders and

things like that huge growth in gaming, content consumption but ultimately snapchat is for helping people stay close with friends and family and that's never been more important than this time. that user growth is really momentum carrying over from the beginning of the quarter before we saw that engagement growth impact >> yesterday netflix warned he thinks once people get back to work, leaving their homes again, they'll see their user engagement and subscription growth drop off. do you fear you'll see the same thing in the second half of the year >> we believe that staying close to friends and family is important no matter where you are, at home or in the world, we're hoping the change continues. there's a chance people are watching less content because they're staying home less but we'll see how that evolves in terms of user growth people

want to be connected to their friends and family we feel and this time is a bit of a reset, where people are reprioritizing what's important to them >> your revenue grew faster than expected but you are reporting 15% revenue growth in april, down to 11% this week. how much more do you expect the revenue numbers to fall? what's your outlook for that going forward? >> there's so much uncertainty, it's hard to say looking forward. we are pleased we're continuing to grow and a lot of that is driven by direct result advertisers. so there are many businesses who can be really successful serving their community while they're at home at home exercise or some of the beauty folks, gaming, and they're leaning in to these, seeing a lot of success and increasing their spend we're seeing success with advertisers, we're optimistic it

could improve as some of the stay-at-home orders are lifted but there's too much volatility we don't want to guide into the future yet >> i want to ask you more about the direct response ads. for our users not as familiar as this world, this is different than a brand ad. this is showing someone something they can click to buy or click to go somewhere else. a lot of these i understand are direct to consumer brands. is there a risk these advertisers could fall off as well if the economy continues its downturn. >> certainly there's some direct to consumer brands, they may be better poigs positioned given they don't have a retail presence and they can redirect money into advertiser and positioning their brand where people are managing out. rather than a mall right now, people are spending time at home with their friends online. i think some of the brands are well positioned to accelerate in

this environment >> evan, it's jon fort thanks for being with us i want to ask you something that you pointed out along the same lines on the earning call. you talked about bright spots, among those advertisers, you pointed out exercising with beauty and gaming that are potentially strong but who's holding steady, if anyone, not maybe particularly strong and what are you seeing that's especially weak? you're giving us one of the first looks we see at the health of the digital ad market overall. >> i think there's a good opportunity here for cpg brands, mostly because a lot of consumers are changing their consumption patterns during this point in time and friends want to be there for that transition and journey. we're seeing a great campaign from dove about courage, they're running commercials on snap.

that's a way on how they're making a difference. so i see an opportunity as consumer behavior shifts the obvious ones, the travel folks are struggling right now, people can't travel but that's an opportunity for us to go deep and build with those folks so when people do start traveling again we'll provide the same down tunnel opt mags we were able to provide e commerce folks. >> great to have you on "squawk alley. i think historically snap has always been a company that's been associated with gen z and millennials. looking at the user numbers you reported yesterday, how are the demographics of that base expanding and why? what products specifically within the snap universe are driving it >> demographics continue to expand with us, mostly because everyone enjoys talking with their friends and family and doing it with our camera is a

lot of fun our 2-year-old is video calling with his great grandmother and they're using lenses and having a blast together so i think snapchat crosses all generation and we're seeing growth across our demographics. >> it's carl, i have two questions, one on expense control, how much of a focus is that going to be for you guys going into the second half and secondly, are you interested at all in using your technology to help a broader sort of nationwide testing facility, tracing facility, if, in fact, we get that far as a country >> yeah, so, i think at a high level apple and google seem to be well positioned to work on tracing, that's something they're investing in right now, we'd be happy to support those efforts if at all possible and it seems the way they're thinking about that is protecting user privacy. your first question? >> just on expense control this year obviously the guidance, if it's

cloudy for all the companies reporting but i wonder how much safety you're building into expenses for the second half >> we're lucky we focussed on expenses and building more efficiencies in our business the last two years that's positioned us well going into this situation. we see a path to full year adjust to break even around 25% year over year revenue growth. so too early to say what will happen but we see that path. the balance we're trying to strike, because we're seeing so much momentum in our business, lots of usage and engagement growth we want to lean into that, we're hiring, and working on building cool new products. we still see a path to full year profitability, that's something we're working towards. but we have to be thoughtful about the balance because we think we can emerge from this a lot stronger >> evan, it's julia again here i want to get a sense of what you think your business is going

to look like moving forward. i know we've shown a lot of images of your lenses on the screen next to this conversation but how do you see augmented reality becoming more of a revenue driver, especially in your work with advertisers >> i think the most important step is augmentled reality to become a utility today it's still considered entertainment but we're seeing the use cases evolve one example might be beauty testing and sampling that's something that's happened with physical products but increasingly, because of the risk of transmission, beauty brands are looking at doing that trialing and sampling virtually. we're seeing a lot of cases with try on trying on a new pair of shoes using augmented reality. so a lot of this will be helping brands build the 3d assets necessary to power experiences, but we're seeing there's a lot

more interest using augmented reality to drive businesses that's what we believe is going to increase mon at theization down the road. we're on the path. all the engagement increases we're seeing on augmented reality right now are spilling over and lifting sponsored augmented reality experiences as well we're seeing 18% increase in play time, so that bodes well i think for the future of ar what about your discover content section. you've been investing in originals, how will the shutdown of most product impact and the engagement around it >> there will be impact to some of our shows we've been excited that people have been created and able to produce daily shows from home. that's great for the communities to stay in touch with those brands on a daily basis. some of the shows, production we believe could restart in july and if it does, the rest of the

shows will rerelease towards the end of the year. we'll see more releases in the fall >> it's jon fort again i want to ask you a question that really looks at you as a business leader, as well as the leader specifically of snap. the l.a. startup ecosystem, like every system has to feel this in a really difficult way what are you seeing, advertising other entrepreneurs during this time is snap doing anything to offer assistance to other companies in the startup ecosystem? are you looking at acquisitions or other sorts of support? >> it's certainly a really challenging time for everyone. we're running our yellow accelerator program virtually that supports local startups and we're talking as a team about how we can expand that we're talking to all of our partners and other startups in the ecosystem to see if we can offer support whether it's

through investment or other forms of partnership we've been able to share with many of our content partners, and that's supporting them through this time. we think there's a lot of ways to support our partners. another important piece of this is trying to work together across the business community to envision what reopening looks like we're trying to help our community that way as well by sharing our planning, how we're thinking about it. there's a team effort across los angeles, in conjunction with the government, to try to have a safe, thoughtful plan for reopening, and in the meantime supporting businesses that are really struggling. >> evan, morgan here misinformation has been a big issue across social media and other types of platforms in recent weeks where coronavirus is concerned what are you seeing in terms of that misinformation campaign and how are you responding to it >> we work with a list of publishers we choose we cure rate the publishing

partners that show up on our platform and that's been a huge asset for us at this time when receiving accurate information is really a matter of life and death. so our publishing partners have risen to the occasion, put out great information, we did a campaign across augmented reality as well as our filters to reach hundreds of millions of people so we're trying to make a positive impact here by providing timely and accurate information to our community but our business model really lends itself to that. >> i hope you won't mind one non-snap related question. i know you're a watcher of media trends we're seeing a rapid evolution of the theatrical window, the way movies are distributed around the country as a result of the pandemic, how much of those changes do you think stick once people are allowed to go back to work are you seeing any lessons from countries like italy, austria, denmark, germany, where they are

past the peak? >> it's hard to say what will happen i think fundamentally consumers are going to be fearful returning to confined spaces around other people, at least for a little while i think what we need to do together as a business community is to show how deliberate and thoughtful we're going to be about reopening to protect the health and safety of everyone around the world if we can execute on that as a business community people will feel more comfortable over time returning to things they love, including going to movies with friends and family, there's nothing like that big screen experience so we need to work together as a business community to create a safe path towards reopening. >> julia here again. you talked about how you're working with various local authorities to figure out paths to get your employees back to the office our last interview was in your office with lots of open space when do you plan to get your

employees back to your headquarters and what will that look like? >> it a's going to be a slow process for us and based on each individual's comfort level we're blessed that our team can execute and build on the business from home we're excited about the progress we're making right now while everyone is working from home, taking care of little kids or dealing with the loneliness of working by themselves. but we want to provide the option to return to our offices when it's safe we're working with the government, understanding how they're thinking about the timeline for reopening it's different around the world. we have 20-some offices around the world so we have to work across many different governments, different places. we're making changes to our floor plan thinking about how we're going to be testing folks maybe for their temperature or other -- through a survey, through other health conditions. we're thinking about our micro conditions which provide snacks to our employees, what snacks can we provide

do we have to get rid of ice dispensers so many cases we have to think about. our team has been trying to get ahead of the curve so we could provide it as an option for people that would like to return to our offices but this is going to take time and we don't want to force it. >> i know you're almost out of time here. but i want to ask with the olympics because you had a partnership with the olympics and nbc universal and wondering what the impact you'll feel from impact shifting out of this year what will that mean to you >> it's been a great partnership for us we're excited about the olympics next year it seems like that will be a really exciting moment for the world. grateful for that partnership. as it contains to our business and content consumption this year and our advertiser mix we're much less reliant on large events even though they do drive revenue for us, largely because of the shift to direct response that now makes up more than half

of our revenue and has in for some quarters. the olympics in particular aren't going to make an outsize impact but, you know, for the world it's a bummer that we're going to miss out on bringing everyone together but we're looking forward to that next year >> great, evan spiegel, thank you for joining us this morning on those better than expected results. we hope to have you back for an interview in person in not too long jon back to you. let's get the latest on the coronavirus outbreak sue he ra ra has that for us. >> i do. good morning everybody here's what we know at this hour german regulators have approved human testing of a potential covid-19 vaccine 200 healthy people will get the vaccine in the first stage of those tests. the first u.s. covid-19 death was weeks earlier than previously thought according to medical officials in santa clara county, california, autopsies show two people died on february 6th and the 17th, that was a week

earlier than the february 29th fatality in kirkland, washington the u.s.s sns comfort will leavw york city and return to virginia its medical staff have treated few patients and less than 100 of the 500 beds have been occupied the mayor of new york, says the city is working with maisys, the sponsor of its annual fireworks show to find a safe way to celebrate the fourth of july the display will be a celebration of the city's strength and honor front line workers. that will be a very welcome sight. as always you can get more on the coronavirus coverage by heading to cnbc.com. morgan, back to you. >> i imagine a lot of people are going to tune in for that. sue, thank you >> you got it. we'll take a quick commercial break taking a check on the markets before we do the dow, s&p and nasdaq are up

for the first time in three days the dow up 1%, s&p 2% and nasdaq up 2%. stay with us [horns honking] birthdays aren't cancelled. hope isn't quarantined. first words aren't delayed. caring isn't postponed. courage isn't on hold. and love hasn't stopped. u.s. bank thanks you for keeping all of our spirits strong. we've donated millions to those in need and are always here for our customers and employees.

markets bouncing today as the earnings picture begins to fill in a little bit better. job less claims more predictions we'll continue to trend lower tomorrow and states like georgia can they build a case it is time to reopenhe eno tcomy when they start that on friday we're back in a moment don't go away. life isn't a straight line.

and sometimes, you can find yourself heading in a new direction. but when you're with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward. confident financial plans, calming financial plans, complete financial plans. they're all possible with a cfp® professional. find yours at letsmakeaplan.org. welcome back our next guest's research shows that the spread of coronavirus could be much larger than we think. dr. mary ann matis is the cofounder and ceo of bio bot, a company that studies waste water. thanks for joining us today.

>> thank you for the invitation. >> waste water, how are you testing waste water in regards to covid-19 and what are the results that that process is yielding right now >> our company's analyzing waste water, looking at the concentration of the novel coronavirus in waste water because people who have the disease shed the virus in stool, and it makes its way into the waste water where we can then collect it and test it to look at how many people are infected in the a particular area our results in massachusetts primarily show there could be many more people infected with covid than we know today according to the confirmed clinical cases and the discrepancy between our numbers was orders of magnitude, greater than what's been confirmed >> interesting so are you sharing the data that

you are yielding right now from some of these sites with governments, with others and if so, how is it helping to shape some of these decisions that states and local municipalities are making as they look to reopen the economy? >> we share the results of the waste water analysis directly with the waste water treatment facilities, and many of them are now communicating those results up to their governor's office, their mayor's office people really using the response so they can have a new piece of information on when to reopen cities the waste water data we're collecting already represents about 10% of the u.s. population that is being sampled every week and it's a completely new type of data, independent from all of the testing happening at hospitals to inform where to

deploy resources and ultimately when to open cities again. >> this is fascinating and i've got to ask, based on the type of information that this type of testing can provide over time, why isn't it something that we should just be doing constantly in every city all the time so that when something potentially arises we see it early and are able to track its ebbs and flows from the very earliest point? >> weimagine that in the futur every city in the u.s. and in the world will have this type of infrastructure and this type of technology in place. and we'll be constantly on the lookout for new outbreaks. and using it, really, as an early warning system in fact, it has already successfully provided information to countries fighting polio virus outbreaks you see the polio virus in the waste water before you see it in the clinic

i think that's what we could also be providing here with covid if the virus kind of comes back in a second wave or having a seasonal pattern, we will see it first in the waste water before we see it in the clinic as well. >> when you see study findings like the one out of california that suggests the infection rate is actually 50 times what we think, how anecdotal is that what conclusion can we draw from that broadly do you think it's statistically sound? >> so the california is still being reviewed by experts in the space. i think that, in general, any new type of survey or technology, we just need to be careful as to how we interpret it but i think, in general, what we're learning from all these different efforts, like random

testing or ser rollgy there could be a larger portion of the population so i think it's worth to start putting together all these pieces of information and our team is actually working with a group of experts, both in science, as well as public health, to understand how to piece together all these sources of data into one model that allows our leaders to be empowered to open cities in a smart way. >> that's such a key point right there. i think it continues to reflect back on why things like effective, successful, antibody tests are so key to this process as well when you talk about the possibility there's a larger population asymptomatic. finally just to finish this up, the cost of eachtest what woul

it take for these different localities that don't already use your services to implement them now >> so our company is pro bono, actually, we are funding the work through grants we have, as well as a new round of funding that we have raised let by a boston based fund called "the engine". but the work, we're only asking waste water treatment plants to support with the shipping cost which is about $120 per sample i want to encourage anyone who wants to join our national campaign to do so. right now we have over 100 waste water treatment plants participating already and we have about 4 to 500 ready to start whenever our international capacity grows so please, go to our website and just get in touch. >> dr. marianna matis, thank you

very much. new york state is out with its latest numbers on coronavirus and covid-19 governor cuomo unveiled them moments ago. >> we're in a relatively good place. in down state new york, the curve is on the decent the question now is how long is that descent is it a sudden drop off, is it one week, two weeks, three weeks, six weeks, we don't know. but better to be going down than to be going up, right. let's keep that in mind. and we are going down. how fast, we'll find out but we're in a better place. hospitalization numbers are coming down. intubations are coming down. number of new people going into the hospital every day is still

troublingly high but better than it was but still, problematic number of lives lost is still breathtakingly painful and the worst news that i have to deliver every day and the worst news that i've ever had to deal with as governor of new york but at least it's not going up anymore, and it seems to be on a gentle decline but make no mistake. this is a profound moment in history. our actions are going to shape our future and you're not going to have to wait for a ten-year analysis, a retrospective to find out how our actions affected our future. what we do today, you will see the results in three, four or five days. okay you tell me what the people of

this state and this country do today, you will see the results in the number of hospitalizations in just a few days we get reckless today, there are a lot of contacts today, unprotected contacts today, you'll see that hospitalization rate go up three, four, five days from today. it is that simple. and it's that pressing that every decision we make is going to affect how we come out of this, how fast we come out of this so in this moment, more than any other, truth, not what you would like to see, what you hope to see, not emotions, truth and facts. truth and facts. that's how we operate here in the state of new york. truth and facts. give me the truth and give me the facts. and that has to guide our actions. period

we had a productive meeting at the white house yesterday. product visit. everybody says productive visit. very few people come out and say unproductive visit, right. what does that mean to me productive visit to me a productive visit means we spoke truth, we spoke facts, we made decisions and we have a plan going forward and that was accomplished yesterday and i feel good about it. >> we're going to take a quick commercial break with thmae jor indexes near session highs stay with us save hundreds on your wireless bill

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welcome back we want to get to courtney reagan with news on l brands hey, court >> hi, there, morgan so according tothere, morgan so according to a filing filed in a delaware court today, sycamore partners is seeking to terminate the deal to buy 55% of victoria's secret from "l" brands that deal was announced about february 20th. so not so long before the pandemic and the virus outbreak really hit here in the u.s so when you look back through the original merger agreement, there was a very long section that is called the material adverse effect clause. and the word "pandemic" is, indeed, mentioned in this part of the original agreement. of course, though, because this is a court filing, this could be a court battle it does not automatically mean

that the deal is off but "l" brands shares are down sharply, about 21% here on this news after they had been halted originally and then reopened not to mention that there were a lot of changes "l" brands was going to put in place upon the close of this deal, including ceo and chairman les wexner would be sort of stepping aside, becoming chairman emeritus, along with a number of other executive changes within "l" brands that is all now potentially a big question mark. we, of course, have reached out to "l" brands and have not yet gotten their statement on what's going on here, but we can confirm this filing in the delaware court system did happen here today and is the reason for this downward move of "l" brands back over to you >> yeah, court, it's really interesting. essentially, sycamore is arguing that the actions victoria's took to save themselves, essentially, furloughing employees, cutting

executive comp, being unable to get rid of a lot of merchandise and not paying rent were all in violation of the transaction agreement. >> exactly and obviously, these agreements are complicated. they are detailed. i am sure that "l" brands is going to try to fight back on this i think we all know the trajectory of victoria's secret was not going in the right direction. and so this was a deal that was going to be helpful for the parent company and they are probably going to argue otherwise, carl, that all of those actions that they took were necessary, were sort of to the best of their ability under the circumstances. i imagine the lawyers are getting very busy already trying to figure out exactly what's going to happen here and remember, "l" brands was still going to retain 45% of victoria's secret, so this w wasn't a complete sale this was a majority ownership situation. so perhaps that changes somehow in the eventual outcome, as well maybe it's not so black and

white. >> yeah. we'll look for the action on the reopen here, courtney. quite a story. courtney reagan, we'll talk to you in a little while. thank you. in the meantime, covid-19 is still impacting the sports world, as you know, with a lot of leagues on hold what would a reopening plan look like joining us this morning is mlb super agent, scott boras it's taualways good to talk to u >> good morning, john, carl, and morgan hope you and your family are all well >> and our thoughts are with your family as well. it does sound like maybe viewers shouldn't be surprised, but it does seem like of all of the sports that are beginning to think about this, football, baseball, golf, you think baseball is going to lead us out. >> i think right now, there is a dilemma in america and that is compliance with the public health issue and the requirements of isolation. and also the demands of

certainly people wanting to function, wanting to return to work and there's strong considerations for the social determinatives as to reasons for, you know, getting back to a normal life. and i think what we have to do is create a control. i've talked to a lot of medical experts and certainly physicians and immuneologists and epidemiologists and the platform by which we can do that is that we have to do things responsibly. and do things with a low mortality rate and we think that the population that can lead in the unemployment area to do this is people that have the lowest mortality risk and that is for major league baseball players, their age, their first class medical condition and the fact that they have long-standing medical histories is certainly bringing them to an unemployment environment and setting up a control where it's phased in and done so, maybe a model for america as to how we support the

needs of the public health concerns but also create what i call a functional isolation program to return employees to work >> that's a great point. athletes are surrounded by doctors all the time, which sort of reminds me of what dr. fauci said in an interview last week, which was, you get players -- you isolate them in a hotel, you test them upwards and downwards, as much as you possibly can. and you create a bubble in which they can play. does that sound reasonable and is it something that your clients are interested in doing? >> well, certainly, my -- there's a lot of compassion and empathy that baseball players have for what's going on in america. and that is that they know they want to create a return to normalcy and certainly our national pastime is a sign of that. and we also want to create employment environments that we know are safe.

and by phasing in, we might bring pictures and catchers in first. we have them tested on arrival you create categories of those who have had the virus, those who have never had it, and if anyone is positive, you have an isolation area and certainly the players, my players that we've spoke with are willing to take and be a model for this and be isolated for 30 days or so and be away from their families. and remember that baseball players are not being paid to do this this is just training. and so they're willing to do it to create, i think, an early arrival of the game we'll play without fans in our studies, we've done, for example, this virus has many, many different impacts on different parts of america we've got 17 ballparks in nine states that may account for only 15% of the virus and we have six ballparks, when you account for six states, that amount for 61% of the virus.

so the mortality rates differ dramatically from state to state and california, it's 3 per hundred thousand and in new york it's 90 per hundred thousand so the game has to look at this, but at our spring training sites, they have low mortality rates, the players have the lowest of mortality rates and risks. so i think it's an opportunity where i know my players are willing to create this control and go forward >> hey, scott, it's john i wonder, what are the concerns that the players still have. what are you hearing from them about what this time away from the game has meant for them and what their concerns are. >> you know, i think baseball players are, you know, these men are -- they're very active, they're committed to what they're doing. and right now, they're like every other american, they're living a life of abnormality and they're to the point where,

you know, they're prepared to do things that they know are relatively safe for them they understand more about this disease. we've gotten a lot more clear data data that's applied to america and that data, i think, has been very helpful as to how we understand, you know, are there mild strains, are there more severe strains and we've seen certain areas of the united states that where, you know, in california, we had our first case in january. and we didn't have a total stay-at-home program until march the 19th and yet, in new york, they had their first case diagnosed in march. and yet the dramatic differences in what went on in new york state and what's going on in california, as far as mortality rates is dramatic. and so we understand there are safer places we understand that, you know, the factors that relate to the

employee can create the lowest of mortality rates and i think with that data, you know, they're prepared to move ahead. they're prepared to go and train. i think for baseball, they should probably get their athletes ready, show everyone, mayors, governors, the fans that this is a very safe environment. we've got a very healthy group of players that are ready to go. and when we made that determination, then we can maybe set a schedule and provide america our national pastime >> that would be great and then we can start talking about ways to integrate, i don't know, production crew and fans and the like down the road, scott. but this is one of the more hopeful things we've heard in terms of the world of sports please come back, talk to you soon scott boras joining us there talking some baseball and a potential for a reopening. meantime, giit's going to be a busy afternoon

chamath happen twill join us onf and morgan, csx tonight we'll get some more rail news. >> it will be interesting to see what chamath is up to. the last time we talked to him it was that merge with virgin galactic >> and we'll watch for claims tomorrow let's get to the judge >> carl, thanks so much. our breaking news coverage of the markets continues right now. welcome to the "halftime report." i'm scott wapner good to have you with us today stocks bouncing back today after a couple of big sell-offs. and in a few moments, we'll be joined by chamath happ pete najarian, carrie firestone is the ceo of res asset management nice to see all of you