too. oil with a nice lift today and brought some stability to the major averages we have been well into the green for the entirety of the session thus far dow up nasdaq is once again the outperformer with a gain there's the russell an enthere's crude at the bottom up 20% kelly evans picks it up right now. scott, thanks. hi, everybody. as scott mentioned, the stocks this afternoon are back in rebound mode and rallying for the first time in three days now. it's a reversal higher in oil and better than expected earnings all boosting sentiment. the dow up 418 1.2% the nasdaq up almost 2%. the s&p up 2%. oil is the story of the session. story of the week, really. back up by 20%, 2 bucks. just below $14 a barrel.

august at 24 bucks a barrel. the price of oil the front contract plunged 43% yesterday, came roaring back and still way down from the $60 a barrel let's get to all of it with bob pisani this afternoon hi, bob. >> hello, kelly. good to see you. on the surface this looks like a powerful rally it is about 3 to 1 advancing to declining stocks but the strength is collective, actually let's take a look here we are not far from the highs of the day. off a little bit here but i see big moves in technology stocks, good moves again in energy for the second day in a row holding up pretty well and a lot of underperformance here. i see health care, i see industrials underperforming, consumer staples, i see particularly banks underperforming, some of them actually negative. some regional banks are actually negative on the day.

where's this strength coming from this is a mega cap rally mostly in technology and consumer discretionary. look at this thing facebook up 7% here. alphabet up 4% microsoft is strong. apple up amazon's up almost 2%. this is huge these are the five biggest ones. look at the next five, 9 of the 10 biggest companies up very big today. berkshire, johnson & johnson with an upgrade today. walmart strong united health is strong. when you get 9 of the top 10 stocks up 2%, 3%, 4%, even 7%, the s&p will move up rather aggressively 3 to 1 is nice but not an enormous rally mega caps is the story today. >> is there a reason why the mega caps would be rallying today? do we typically see that pattern playing out for any particular reason or do you think there's something here at play with earnings and the rest of it?

>> no. the market is trying to bet on the ones that they think survive and do the best. and the recently the biggest winners in the last ten years in the mega cap space have slowly become either technology stocks or let's not call them consumer discretionary stocks but technology-based companies that happen in the consumer discretionary space and run on technology so they're betting on the companies that i think that are going to survive proctor and gamble, johnson & johnson are beneficiaries of the coronavirus disaster to one extent or another. it is dangerous to play in the small cap space and dealing with the s&p 100 right now. that's the stuff that's moved the most since the coronavirus stuff moved in go down from there 500 to mid cap and small cap, each rung down you go is a greater amount of underperformance in the market.

>> that's a great -- like the s&p 10 right now, bob. >> yeah. if we had an s&p 10 that would be the one to look at. >> for sure. good point we appreciate it washington also providing a lift to stocks today the senate passing another massive $484 billion relief package. while fannie and freddie say they'll pay loans. joining me is mike hennessey and michael kushma neil, just starting with you, you know, would you like to see more on the way here >> not necessarily you know, i think you have to take a step back, kelly, and look at a total situation and understand what's happened to the economy and companies. it's material to say the least but it's not terminal. most of the companies are in very good steadfast. the s&p 500 companies have over

$5 trillion in cash. there's plenty of good companies out there but the volatility's given the investor the feeling that every company on the new york stock exchange or any exchange is going broke. and that so far from the truth but to hand out money i think we have to be careful on this the banks are making a tremendous amount of money on the ppp loans, just somewhere as i was reading somewhere between 1% and 5% of whatever the loan is, the government's paying them the banks are just getting stronger in this and taking no risk we have to take a breather saying we can't be just keep passing out money. >> well, i know, meekal, you disagree saying more government support is coming, call it phase three and a half as much as it takes. how much more do you expect or do you think needs to be on the way? >> i think what needs to be done is what needs to be done and our view on how policymaking is

going to be done is we are going to wait and see how things respond when the market and economy reopen economy for goods and services the there's no point of spending when people can't travel, can't spend and right now it is about supporting income, supporting the people's ability to buy food, pay rent and do those things while we wait for the health situation to improve and that's when people start going back to work the question is how much will consumer confidence have been departmented will people resume the previous habits or will consumers hold back consumer spending is 70% of the economy. consumers retrench significantly post reopening of the economy we'll see weakness i think phase four is going to be outright stimulus to stimulate spending and the economy. consumers won't spend. the government will spend. >> yeah, no. i know it seems to be headed that way neil, we spoke with bob about how the -- what we were joking

calling the s&p 10 outperforming today, the biggest stocks in the market the names you like are ncr, itron. why? would you lean against the big cap trend or kind of ignore it >> well, i try the look at value and quality and look at the three companies, in different sectors but they're all needed people will need financial advice a simple, especially in volatility times with lpl. if you look at ncr, in the scanners and stores or self menus an at airports, you are going to need more of those because people want more distancing itron is smart meeters for gas and electricity and water. so these are good, solid companies with low price to sales ratios, very good profits and a lot of room to raise dividends or initiate dividends so when i try to look at the market and especially equity market, i said what do you want

to do? would you rather own a dow jones 30 companies for the next 30 years yielding almost 3% or 30-year u.s. government bond yielding 1.25% >> that's perfect -- >> doesn't take a genius to figure this out. >> michael, as the global fixed income guy, how do you make the pitch for fixed income >> the pitch is that the results of what happened in march has created lots of dislocations and credit markets so absolutely u.s. treasuries are providing no income and close surrogates to that also providing very low yield and very little income so that's not going to be a place to invest, to create wealth or generate income over time. the state of 10-year treasury as a policy instrument of the fed, the rates driven down and i think 50-basis point as low as we're likely to go barring further disastrous news on things but as that driving down of the yields is an attempt to

drive down and stabilize credit markets so you can get still 4% to 5% on investment grade corporate bonds, companies which should do just fine over the next five years. no doubt that certain sectors of credit markets are dangerous energy is one. no doubt dislocations on there to take significant time to sort out but in terms of other opportunities whether it's in securityized credit, mortgages not generated by the agencies, non-agency mortgages, can find 4% to 6% yield in reasonably high quality things. >> okay. >> which is not bad in the current situation. >> yep, no i take your point. either way, there's more yield than people thought was out there. appreciate you both being here today. thank you, guys. >> you're welcome. >> thank you. let's move to oil now. the price of crude continuing the come bs back today up about 27% right now. just above $14 a barrel and

whipping around. a lot of volatility and we are a far cry from the $60 price of january. this collapse has led the texas railroad commission which regulate it is industry to consider cuts and though now holding off on a vote. for more i'm joined by the chair of the texas railroad commission, wayne christian. the longer you wait, the less you can help, frankly. >> kelly, that's somewhat true but the other thing to do something wrong is more damaging we want all the information, all the answers that we possibly can get, 10 1/2 hours of testimony a week ago as we talked earlier about that the industry and all the interested parties to testify. so it's a lot to go through and the railroad commission reviewed that, try ied to inject as many changes to policy as we are allowed to to meet the needs of the industry and we are just negotiating federally with our role in that venue and looking

at a decision makes sense and facts to present this is too important. >> yeah, no. we spoke to the energy secretary yesterday, who said we had spoken to your colleague ryan sitton saying he was in favor of proration and wanted other states to be looking at cutting back production. the energy secretary said he's not sure if that's legal to cooperate across state lines is that what you're referring to if that is okay, would you sign on to commissioner sitton's plan >> if it were a successful plan, the entire united states came together, i agree with the energy secretary and follow the lead of the federal government we're federalist government here and which means the states have the responsibility and individual roles and when they put an entire nation together, that's several states. we are negotiating i visited with the friends in north dakota, oklahoma with moves towards considering a capping. but texas will stand alone and decide what's best and if we can benefit working together but at

the lead of our energy department. >> if your attorney general in texas ken paxton say that is this is okay, would you vote for prorating oil production >> i haven't made up my mind yet. it is still an issue on the table. quite frankly, there's arguments in the debate that don't seem to be coming out as presented, saying little folk against the big international companies and oil production and i'm not seeing that when the evidence is reviewed and just finding there's a lot of questions and we are still trying to put the answers together and as fast as possible because we don't need to let the markets continue to be uncertain on what's going on with oil and gas texas will rise to the occasion. 100% of the time this nation has been under attack and every means possible, i've been a financial investment adviser for some 40 years and taking it 100% time america comes back stronger and so does texas.

>> you have a task force to assemble it looks like they're looking at every aspect as you've said of the oil industry, operations, per mitting, timelines, pipeline capacity, market access barriers are these kind of looking at other tools that might be used to curb production or, you know, help the industry, you know, offer more storage and that sort of thing if prorating isn't the answer >> yes what i did is appoint a task force of the different organizations, the associations, from large to small, from landowners, royalty owners, all the different organizations to come together and to tell us how we could best assist the free market industry as a governmental agency rather than the government, big brother, tell free market what to do. the industry in texas and in the united states has built the most successful industry of oil and gas and energy in the history of the world. and why doubt now that when we have a crisis almost a war-like

situation where government should play a role i want -- i appointed the task force for them to tell us the best part to play and then decide whether government goes big. i think we have experimented with socialism a little bit. i don't think it's feeling good in america today. >> i would hardly expect texas to be the state to lead the way making this so interesting final question, senator cruz suggested that he would turn back the frlotilla of saudi oil headed your way. do you have a plan about what to do about this? talk about making a bad situation worse right now. >> well, again, i visited with senator cruz yesterday, senator cornyn i visited with the department of energy and again the state of texas takes care of texas business coming to negotiation of different things internationally, i think it's inappropriate for us as a state agency to tell the united states of america how to negotiate dpo foreign affairs.

i have expressed the concern of the flotilla so i trust president trump, the administration to take care of international affairs. >> all right wayne christian, always good to check in with you. thank you. >> thank you coming up, chipotle earnings top estimates but store sales still plunged. when's ahead speaking with the company ceo brian niccol. the tide turned from stock buybacks to issuance what it could mean for the next bull market. we'll look at what steps companies should take to secure a successful opening stay with us here on "the exchange."

welcome back not just when and how that states have to consider, in terms of opening the economies, also the what. what are people willing to do to make this reopening happen cnbc's new states of play poll shows one thing is a clear priority and that is privacy to get a better idea of what steps people are and aren't willing to take to get back to work, bring in kayla tausche. >> the concerns on the coronavirus are largely shaped by political affiliation and clear take aways on voters in critical swng states view the economy. according to the latest

exclusive cnbc and change research poll of late last week. respondents say they don't feel that the federal government is too extensive and pouring trillions of dollars into the economy, 52% of voters in these 6 battleground states that the federal government should be more aggressive. while concerns are shifting toward the long term economic impact, still voters are more concerned about their family's health, worried that people aren't taking social distancing enough and economies opening too soon and worried the's not enough tests available to that end, more than half of respondents say they would be willing to take a test and share the results 0 of that test with their employer once they go back to work. they're willing to have their travel restricted, 61% were okay with that. two thirds of respondents are willing to wear masks and have temperatures checked and respondents balked at providing location data to have their contacts traced but, kelly, that

might be a part of our future here the cdc says it's creating an alternative workforce of displaced government employees to begin trying to trace some of these contacts so they can notify people if they have been close to someone who's become infected kelly? >> companies will be part of that effort, too we appreciate it thank you very much. some states are starting to reopen the economies this week and doesn't mean things go back to normal. a lot of companys have to change the way they do business and joining me now is chloe dimravski. you were made for this good to have you do you have a pandemic playbook? >> we certainly do, kelly. shutting down businesses was difficult. reactivating them is harder but what is important is there's things businesses can do to prepare and they have had a little bit of a quiet shutdown period in order to start

preparing for them. >> what does that look like? are we talking about tests are we talking about surveillance, having your blood drawn at your place of work? infrared scanners for your body heat i read that volkswagen in europe testing its workers blood oxygen levels. >> i think we are going to be seeing these measures and what that business is able to take on, large businesses are obviously going to be able to put a lot more in place than smaller businesses or franchise locations but what we are going to see is overall customers demanding not just assumptions of safety but visible steps and measures that companies are taking on behalf of employees, customers, the general public to ensure their safety and that could be temperature checks at doors. it is obviously going to include things like continuing with the social distancing even in sectors where we are not used to seeing it an seeing personal

protection equipment on all employees and customers to walk into stores are wearing masks, that we're going to have to see reductions in person to person contact and hard to do in a hair salon but in restaurants they can start toput up plexiglas barriers, measures to take so we'll start to see them sort of experiment with the things as they go but hopefully the businesses will have put in place some planning in this down time that they have had. >> it's a bull market for plexiglas, that's for sure but for retail which is an industry that's really affected by this and difficult to reimagine that, what does retail look like in the post-covid world? how much are companies having to spend at a time that the budgets are squeezed >> well, kelly, certainly there are no testers on the floor i should hope. sometimes the obvious things can

escape people so it's important that even if they're used to putting out samples like at sephora. >> ulta, yeah. like their business. >> they won't be able to do that and offer that kind of service to people unless they do individually packaged things, for example. so every business will have to think about that sort of thing with clothing or other types of things that -- where they can distance more it will be a little simpler and what they should all be doing is paying attention to essential businesses to figure it out in realtime like grocery stores and learn as they go because, for example, you can bet that if a grocery store chain was behind others in terms of mandating that their employees wear that personal protection equipment there have been posts on mess and boards, social media saying, hey, they're not being responsible. consumers track that also the regulators will have to be clear about what they expect in terms of public health but also in terms of privacy as you

mentioned very importantly in the previous segment. >> we're focusing on the physical work space. the schedules of whether you have child care for your kids or if they're in school or not, you know, it is going to be a complex and like you said i think you put it best at the beginning, as hard as it was to shut down it will be harder to open chloe, we appreciate it. thank you for joining me today. still ahead, the president says he is ready to support the u.s. oil and gas industry and will only delay the reckoning potentially. we'll look at whether that's a good idea. a look at what may be happening of the large supply of tests and the reality this people can't get them. remember, you can always watch or listen to us live on the go on thenb cc app. "the exchange" is back in two minutes. woman: my reputation was trashed online.

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get your free reputation report card at reputationdefender.com. find out your online reputation today and let the experts help you repair it. woman: they were able to restore my good name. vo: visit reputationdefender.com or call 1-877-866-8555. let's get the very latest in the coronavirus pandemic over to sue herera for the headlines this hour.

sue? >> hello, everyone here's what's happening at this hour new york's governor andrew cuomo says his state is in a better place with fewer hospitalizations and the lowest daily death toll since april 1 but stresses that does not mean restrictions can be relaxed yet. >> 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. stanford university has pulled its request for coronavirus funds under the c.a.r.e.s act saying the priority is to aid schools with more dire circumstances but stanford is seeing a significant impact on its own finances. we'll have more for you next hour including new numbers as always, go to the coronavirus coverage at cnbc.com back to you. >> thank you very much. congress setting aside $25 billion for testing in the latest relief bill, this comes

as a crucial component of reopening for states across the country. for the very latest, bring in meg tirrell. what will the funding accomplish >> well, it's great to see you, kelly. it is hoped that this funding will enable increased capacity and testing in this country and we have seen capacity ramp up but not plateau at around 150,000 tests per day in the u.s. we have now tested more than 4 million people but the research grouch of harvard suggests it needs to be three times higher before we can safely start to reopen the economy a major issue is the supplies needed to run the tests. and one of the major entities doing these tests are american medical colleges and teaching hospitals and the association of american medical colleges wrote a letter to dr. birx from the white house's coronavirus task force last week essentially trying to lay out the issue

saying widespread and uneven shortages in one or more of the components have resulted in a situation where few labs able to maximize the testing capacity of any one machine, platform or test dr. skorton joining us now to tell us more about the letter and seeing in the member labs. doctor, thank you for being here tell us about the shortages, how big of a problem are they? how much are they hampering capacity to increase for testing in this country? >> well, thank you for having me on what you just mentioned about the numbers, there's some people that think that number per day has to be maybe a million or 3 million a day and first thing to talk about is why we need so much testing we need it not only right now to deal with the crush of the pandemic, but as we begin to reopen as a country, which, of course, we have to do eventually, we need to have a lot more testing in workplaces

as earlier segment talked about and other areas so we had done some very good interaction with the task force and appreciate dr. birx reaching out to us and others to oversee laboratories as many intuitions do and we believe just three things to be done to help move things along. >> so tell us about those three things i understand you laid them out in the letter. what are they and what kind of response did you get from dr. birx >> well, the first thing is we are trying to develop our -- suggest the government develop a web portal so there's in one place organized by the federal government a look across the country to see where there are these supply hang-ups. number two, the federal government with the broad transnational view is the right body, the right area to develop a better feel for the supply

chain and actually to make differences in the supply chain to help manage the supply chain and then thirdly you mentioned the letter more transparency to that labs can see where there are issues coming up in supply chains i think that a big step forward yesterday was the senate passing this bill that was roughly $480 million, about -- billion. about $25 million for testing and in addition to the money in the bill is a development of a strategic plan roughly in the next month to move the things along and we are in contact with the task force we believe things are going in the right direction but need more coordination from the federal level. >> we had kari from iceland and talked about the inability to increase testing capacity and said that the strength of the

united states is university system should allow us to be leading the world here on per capita testing how much more capacity could your members add to the system if they were able to run at full throttle. >> oh, the system has to be a collaborative effort of big labs that can do high through-put testing and also the university labs who not only do testing and develop testing and so once again it has to do with the broad national view from the federal government of where we have hang-ups in the supply chain and when we know where the hang-ups are and the federal government to help manage the supply chain i believe the combination of the commercial labs, high through-put efforts as well as efforts in the laboratory we can get to this 1 million to 5 million a day and we need to do that and i'm concerned as we are beginning to open up that we need to move this along faster and faster so we're not caught in a situation of not being able to have the

evidence on which good decisions can be based about opening up and staying open. >> well, doctor, thank you so much for joining us. i think everybody agrees that we need to be moving faster we appreciate your time. kelly, back over to you. >> thank you so much appreciate you all joining us. coming up, chipotle says online sales soars but foot traffic tanks. how are they preparing for potential reopening? we'll ask the ceo. brian niccol joins us straight ahead. look at shares of delta lower after reopen -- reporting the first loss in five years ceo speaking with cnbc today to explain why it takes a long time to get people back on planes >> it's not just physically safe it is also financially safe because we have to consider the -- what the impact in the markets have had and the economy has had on discretionary spending, as well. but once that happens and may take two to three years to build

it back, people will come back

welcome back to "the exchange." dow's up 446 let's head over to dom chu. >> kelly, stocks are looking to snap that two-day losing streak and seeing 2% plus gains for the s&p, dow and nasdaq. you can see here at the highs of the day the dow up roughly 481 points we're near the highs of the session right now. taking a look at the sector heat map behind me, the gains are broad based. you have financials and industrials and consumer staples the laggards so far. some of the notable stocks on

the move today, intraday, you have shares of snap up around 30% after the parent company of social media company snapchat reported a surge in quarterly revenues driven by user growth you have moving in the opposite direction l brands down after sick mother partners filed a lawsuit and then las vegas sands off fractionally and could be more active in the afterhours session and reports earnings and then could give a glimpse, kelly, into the gaming activity in the greater china region as that economy tries get back do normal amid the big coronavirus pandemic we'll send things back over to you. >> the snap rally just keeps going as you point out up 30% now wow. crude oil rebounding after a historic 48 hours leading up to the expiration of the may contract trading deeply

negative overall, down 27% on the week. the industry facing down oversupply and global storage quickly filling up let's bring in mike summers, ceo of the american 3rd troll yum institute. welcome. what can be done here to support oil and gas right now? >> it is great to be with you. i'll tell you. it is a concerning time for the industry of course, you see the supply issues but the demand issues are the most important issue today there's a report that suggests that oil demand is down about 31 million barrels from the highs of 100 million barrels before the crisis began so, of course, this is a really difficult time for oil and gas we're talking to the department of energy about some creative solutions, particularly on the storage side. >> right. >> we are very concerned about a storage wall that we are going to hit in late april or early may. >> i mean, if they're turning the relief ship away from new

york city, filled with crude oil? what happens to the industry is that the tanker ships fill up because people want to store oil somewhere. is that a potential solution here to find further places to be able to put crude that decline in demand isn't for a year but for a day. >> yeah. we are looking at creative solutions. looking at february, there were ten tankers that had oil filled with them. now we're looking at about 60 tankers filled with oil for storage purposes so we are looking at creative solutions. we applaud the department of energy so far in opening up the spr. for storage. leasing. we want to make sure that they continue to do that and then we want to make sure that the temps are flexible enough on that storage so that producers participate in the program >> how much? we talked to the energy secretary yesterday suggesting a million barrels of oil how much capacity is there

currently? >> yeah. so there's about 77 million barrels available in that capacity right now so we're looking at other options, as well you know, new commercial storage coming on to meet the demand and we would be concerned about any policy proposals that would propose keeping oil in the ground and paying producers for not producing. >> why do you have to pay people not to produce yesterday jeff c rurie said it's expensive to cap a well and sometimes damaged in the process but, i mean, how expensive is it really is there something more significant that can be done to just say, stop producing >> well, real answer here is what the price is today. no one's making any money at current prices so we believe that the market is providing the best signal for producers to not produce at this time when you have american production going down from 13 million barrels a day in the month of february and going down

probably to 11 million barrels a day, you know? through the end of this year, we think the prices are giving the appropriate market signals to producers and we don't think that it's appropriate for the government to get involved with this industry right now. >> that include texas? you don't support any action there to restrict production >> absolutely not. we think the proposals in texas would do a lot more damage to this industry and the long temp than anything that's going on now so we're very concerned about a new quota system or, you know, what we would call tex opec in the state of texas. >> interesting thank you. >> thanks so much. speaking of oil, some positive news in the auto sector out just now jd power said retail sales showing signs of recovery in april. they're saying all u.s. markets with a stronger pace they're checking the auto stocks general motors fractionally lower and ford and toyota are

slightly higher on the session today. still ahead, strong digital sales helping chipotle beat on earnings but profits are down. ceo brian niccol joins us to talk about and the new normal for his business and the industry as economies reopen we're back in two minutes. every financial plan needs a cfp® professional -- confident financial plans, calming financial plans, complete financial plans. they're all possible with a cfp® professional. find yours at letsmakeaplan.org.

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welcome back shares of chipotle up more than 12% after a jump in digital sale that is offset some of the damage done by the pandemic. kate rogers joins me with a look at the numbers kate >> same store sales rose by 3.3% even as social distancing requirements hit the broader industry hard. digital grew 81% accounting for more than a quarter of sales in q1 digital sales more than doubled in march that's more important as covid-19 impacted in store arrest rant sales and mostly

inside malls and shopping centers. joining us now is chipotle ceo brian n kiccol. thank you for being here. >> great to be here. >> congratulations we know it's something that you have focused on during your tenure at chipotle so far. i'm l curious how much you think the pandemic will alter consumer behavior moving forward and if those customers will really stay and continue to interact with the brand that way digitally. >> yeah. so look. obviously as you mentioned, we have invested quite a bit over the last couple of years for the digital access point and consumer behavior because of the pandemic okaccelerated the adoption of the digital xhanchas and i think that behavior is one that people like the experience where they can order ahead, select a pickup time, and really the convenience and the

contactless nature of the occasion, i think always going to be valued for those occasions going forward and optimistic that new people are getting this new experience and it's going to be part of their occasions going forward. obviously, i do think as we start to bring back the dining rooms, you get a little different level of customization when you're able to come into our restaurants and order down the food line but i think people are going to be staying with our digital access as evidenced by just the tremendous amount of people that signed up for the rewards program. >> you just mentioned reopening up some of the dining rooms, how are you e having waiting if and when it's safe to start doing that who will you be taking your queues from and how might chipotle look different? >> yeah. obviously to reopen the dining rooms, it's really going to be a partnership with the local

government folks, as well as the state and federal. and obviously, you have to be informed by the data and the science that's coming out and working with folks like the cdc, as well. we are fortunate we have got a leader over food safety and wellness, she is very much connected with all the data, the science. we're going to do everything we can to get people confidence that it's a healthy environment and an environment if they decide they want to dinein the can have confidence in that experience we'll be adopting new practices, probably a lot of things behind the counter and people will have to request them so when they get them we're able to sanitize them before it gets reused and, you know, we'll continue to adopt accordingly. >> it is a time for great

uncertainty at the restaurant industry at large. what do you foresee as the biggest challenge for the brand moving forward and getting people back into the stores? >> yeah, look. i think it is consumer psychology of how they -- access restaurants going forward and i believe once we get beyond really the anxiety around the current situation consumers will go back to some behaviors, you know, as they get back to going to work. you know they'll be in the cars more, out and about and i think present opportunities for occasion but don't exist today but based on the consumer research we have done i think consumers are going to be willing to go back to restaurants, to have that dine-in experience the pace at which that comes back i think will really be dictated by what we see as far

as the za data and each individl community gets up to speed on the impact of the virus in their community. so that's why i think it's really critical to continue to stay focused on getting people access through these digital channels like order ahead, delivery and giving them the confidence that all these occasions done in a healthy way and a very, you know, delicious way, as well. >> definitely delicious, brian it is kelly in the studio. i had my own -- it is a godsend in the days you guys are open and i was crazy lady in new jersey trying to get the food. i won't go into the details. my question is, first of all, i enjoy being able to drive up an have the food brought curbside i'm curious if that's profitable enough to stick around long term and i wonder if your stores are at 50% or less capacity for a while, are you guys going to make money what's that break even level of capacity that you're targeting >> yeah.

fortunately for us, you know, the bottom it appears was about a negative 35% in same store sales and that's roughly right around where we break even in our restaurants on cash flow and the most recent most recent trends that we've seen have improved from there. and the most recent couple of weeks in april, we saw sales in the negative high teens. you know, i never thought i would be really excited about negative high teens, but what that does for us is it now presents positive cash flow coming out of those restaurants, which really gives us the liquidity and the confidence to continue, you know, to invest in the business accordingly and i think we've been really consistent with how we've chosen to invest to date. the first priority has been investing in our people, our culture, and our values. and then, you know, from there, obviously, the digital and the opportunity for us to continue to grow our business through new real estate opportunities. but we're very fortunate with our balance sheet and the

liquidity situation we have. >> that's impressive you can base your break-even is minus 35% same-store sales and i assume you're hoping we're above there by the second half >> yeah, you know, look, if the improvement continues, obviously, you know, that will be a really positive thing for the business and the point i want to make is, at that [ inaudible ] obviously, we are investing above and beyond that. so we are spending cash on capex and additional employee compensation and g&a but the good news is the cash burn becomes less and less as our sales continue to recover from that negative 30, 35 standpoint >> absolutely. brian, thank you so much for joining us today kate, thank you, as well our kate rogers with the ceo of chipotle, brian niccol coming up ahead, 2019 was the year of the buyback. the second biggest year on record but this year, companies are issuing stock instead of buying it amid the crisis

and that could have implications fuhebu markets we'll explore after this quick break. save hundreds on your wireless bill

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there are no term contracts, no activation fees, and no credit check on the first two lines. get a $50 prepaid card when you switch. it's the most reliable wireless network. and it could save you hundreds. xfinity mobile. companies are raising cash however they can these days. netflix, the latest to announce it plans to raise capital. united airlines, darden, and carnival have all announced stock offerings to raise a combined $2 billion. what kind of hangovers should we expect from all of these cash grabs. i'm joined by michael santoli is here as well brian, i'll just start with you. do you think we're going to see a whole lot more of this to come >> oh, definitely. once the fed opened up the corporate bond market at the end of march by stating their intention to buy corporate bonds, we saw a near record flow of money almost double

so there's a tremendous amount of money going into companies. i think that's a short-term positive and a longer term negative >> how much of a negative? because we -- you know, love them or hate 'em, stock buybacks was an important part of the last bull rally and it sounds like we're not going to have them >> almost every time i've been on you, i've talked about debt money going for stock buybacks in the next cycle, there's so much debt going, i think we're going to have to focus on debt buybacks and that's probably a negative for economic growth. i think it's going to be a slow economic recovery based on that. and mike, how would you evaluate the trading ranges for the s&p, the strength of this recovery, the letter shape it might take given all of this? >> obviously, the market with the 28% rally, i think, in less than a month's time to friday's highs did suggest that the market felt as if the capital markets were refreshed by the fed's actions and the openness to corporate bond issuance it was not going to be a big meltdown on the corporate bonds side that has helped bolster the

ideas that the companies that we already knew were well positioned before, which drive the s&p 500, have remained so. they've remained in favor. the big growth companies i don't know exactly how it's going to shake out with this equity race going on in many companies. obviously, it's bolstering the aggregate balance sheet and it's diluting some parts of the market i'm just not sure exactly how else to extrapolate into what behavior is going to look like in the next couple of years and companies are going to deleverage >> i think that's an interesting question, too. can they come with higher debt levels or how much urgency will companies have to raise debt, as opposed to leaving it there h g hanging there. >> one of the new bond markets, taxpayer money to work with amd and gm, but you get your money first before that

happens. >> i wonder if the fed realizes that could hurt the economy more than help. >> and trying to learn -- there's going to be obviously, a lot of pressure. my final thought here, i guess like brian said, the takeaway is we can view these as a short-term positive and just wonder about the hangover. >> without a doubt, i would sort of caution to go back in 2009, you also had a lot of equity raises you also had the same kind of dynamic, no more stock buybacks. the market did okay, because it could look ahead to a further growth cycle, but the sectors that raised all of that equity were not really the leaders in that next bull market, meaning banks. >> great point >> and another reason to watch who's up to what this time around >> thank you, both, mike santoli and brian reynolds, great

discussion >> tyler mathisen will join us on "power lunch. we'll keep digging in on the ppp program and the billions that aren't going to small businesses rather to publicly traded companies and at least one billionaire. stay with us one thing you can be certain of. the men and women of the united states postal service. we're here to deliver cards and packages from loved ones and also deliver the peace of mind of knowing that essentials like prescriptions are on their way. every day, all across america, we deliver for you. and we always will.

welcome back, everyone welcome to "power lunch" and welcome to my kitchen. i'm tyler mathisen and our breaking news coverage of the coronavirus and the tumultuous markets continues right now. stocks, for a change this week, at least, bouncing back a little bit after that strong two-day sell-off the dow, near the highs of the session up about 450 points right now, as the government once again steps in with more relief for small businesses. hospitals, as well