operate. >> small, medium or large you're seeing a transition to more people working from home other maces. >> all right >> obviously, growth in experience >> always good to see you, rick. >> great seeing you. thank you very much. >> thank you >> thank you for watching. see you tomorrow "closing bell" starts right now. >> it certainly does welcome to "closing bell." stocks higher now. gaining through the day. the nasdaq leading the charge. let's have a look at what is driving the action tech names back in the lead with the name like facebook, netflix, microsoft, all up about 2% tesla crossing the $2,000 mark that has been on a strong run of late that's helping offset weak economic data. hurting some of the cyclical stocks on the coronavirus front, we're finally seeing a sustained decline in cases across the country. and j & j announced plans for a 60,000 person vaccine trial due

to start in september. the s&p 500 is therefore positive though not at a record. we're 59 minutes left to trade >> and we have two big exclusive interviews coming your way on today's show delta ceo ed bastian will join us with the latest view from 30,000 feet on the state of the airline industry and his company's announcement today to keep middle seats blocked until at least the end of the year. plus, we'll speak with marc short about stimulus negotiations or the lack thereof. china trade talks and the latest signals on the economy you don't want to miss either of those conversations. let's get to the big stories we're tracking a volatile day for the lows we have a look how the economic recovery hasn't benefited everyone but we begin with the fast moving developments surrounding

uber and lyft in california. >> fast moving indeed. we found out just moments ago that uber and lyft have won a delay for converting drivers to employees. the i was about to come on tv and tell you that both apps were going to go dark tomorrow. lyft already said in a blog post telling riders and drivers that they're not able to have ride sharing in california tomorrow this is a major turn around. an 11th hour turn around for the courts that ruled just two weeks ago that uber and lyft had ten days to treat all of the drivers as employees with all the benefits and protections that would be afforded regular employees we have calls out to both of the companies. we do not know at the moment how long this will last. remember though, this all relates to ab 5, the economy law that came into effect in january that retires the ride sharing companies and other companies to

make sure the independent contractors are treated as full employees. so this is a big and dramatic moment for the gig economy as a hole in california with very important ramifications and other markets across the united states other states look at similar legislation. and i just go the to say, what a turn of events they were planning a protest to protest uber and lyft. i wonder if they've had time to digest this news they're setting up it only began just a few moments ago. we're expecting lots of drivers to go by in cars as well so we will see if we can talk to some of them on the ground but it's unlikely they'll be happy about this move. remember, as of midnight tonight, if ub eastern lyft had

to comply, drivers have to be treated as employees or the app was shut down. we'll bring you more certainly as we get it >> is precedent like this? what do we know about how the ride sharing companies, what will happen to them based ond where this has happened before >> right there is a good case this happened in austin a few years ago. i believe 2016, uber and lyft didn't like legislation put in place to require more stringent background checks. it was similar similar standoff uber and lyft backed out of that market for i believe about a year this order will be delayed the question is up in the air. will uber and lyft have to treat

drivers like employees we'll see this battle continue it will go to voters in november but again, at issue here is a question for the gig economy it's about uber and lyft in the future, it will be will door dash and post mates and others. >> so interesting. what i was going to say and still applies, was that 2020 weirdly, august 2020 weirdly was somewhat of a gift for these companies. and this action coming into play right now. it's not like they had a hunl amount of on going revenues in august this year that they were sacrificing by saying we will us is spent our services altogether if this was a normal year, you would probably -- the tradeoff of we'll cancel altogether would have been tougher for the companies to stomach it's interesting by making that threat, it tilted the balance a little bit in terms of public opinion. do they side with the lawmakers who are trying to protect workers or side with the company? ultimately, people need to have the service.

perhaps in places like l.a. more than any other city across america. that is a very, very good point n this moment in time, we know that ride sharing has fallen off a cliff due to the pandemic and for a company like uber which pivoted to food delivery that's not aekt iffed about i this latest preliminary injunction so the stakes could have been a lot higher last year when ride sharing levels were much, much higher but still, it does at this point go to the public if ub eastern lyft do us is spent their operations, lyft in the e-mail which now seems premature, sorry, the blog post earlier saying they would be us is spenting service at 12 tonight. they said it is possible to flip a switch and make all the drivers employees. fwh but this is a conversation issue going on for years they had lots of notice.

and perhaps this now delay gives them more time to make the drivers employees. but i don't think that's going to happen. i think is a battle that will continue to play out in the public. >> interesting it's not dissimilar from the situation in london. the issue there is different with uber. it is more on background checks and safety of drivers as opposed to making all employees full time employees but it led to the same kind of standoffs with the mayor's office and uber saying they're going to be banned all together. as soon as that threat of removing a service that customers like so much in full comes about, it led to the pendulum swinging back in favor of the company things are not sorted fully in london yet >> it's a great reminder that this isn't just happening here in the united states it's happening in london it's happening in south america. and uber, unlike lyft is a global company that has this regulation battle to fight in many different places and the

pandemic raising the stakes. >> absolutely. great stuff. thanks so much for that let us know if there are any more developments in that story which wouldn't be too much of a surprise. we'll have more on that throughout the show. meantime, let's get to the broader markets. what's been a volatile session for the major averages, uber's chart similar not that it moved the market similar in shape to the s&p 500 and intraday chart. >> that's right. loet is at the open. you're right, surprisingly volatile for mid august. that is pretty volatile given you don't usually get that move in the muddiddle of august. not a lot of new highs out therther apple is at a new high the usual five suspects moving the market forward surprising there is more new highs. a few tech names intuit, adobe, target. some of the consumer names

sthen then is a small number. stay at home continues to do well zoom hit a new high. these generally do well on modestly up days not a lot else out there movie theaters are up a little bit today. the upgrade from sin mark got an grade today. there is hopes about modest reopenings so that's a group that is moving a little bit not moving at all is the regional banks we had a little mini rally ten days ago, three, four days they were all up. now for the last five, six, really seven days, there's a down trend in the regional banks. again, this group has no energy at all guys, back to you. >> all right thank you so much. on the data front, not much p for the bulls to love. jobless claims climbing back above 1 million last week. this is new warning signs emerge about the inequality of the recovery in america. steve liesman has that story

the divide seems to be growing as the market continues to see the gains. >> great observation wall street is living the dream of all time new highs, what is happening on main street is call it a nightmare if you look at data that is prepared for us by the company which put together time shift management, what you find is that small businesses are closing at twice the rate, 10% versus 4% of larger businesses we talked to the senior vice president there. owe sees a long slow bleed of companies, 18 months, he believes this will play out over and companies will eventually, many, many main street companies are going to go out of business. we'll see a long slow bleed. it's going to take 18 months or so to play out a lot of this has to do with the

lack of capital going to small business we talked to jacob walford you're not seeing capital coming into small businesses. it is flowing in droves to the big companies. he told us you're not going to see capital coming into the sector long term, this has implications for the economy. small businesses and innovation in the economy and also they employ a lot of people and i don't know main the follow up is for me but maybe it's for you what's going on in washington right now when it comes to additional relief for small businesses in that relief package? >> steve, you talked about the fact that some 60% of the

business that's closed during the pandemic closed permanently. they're suggesting that unemployment could still be around 10% at the end of the year so if those businesses don't come back, what chance is there that unemployment was at the level it was before. >> it would be a very long road as employees basically shift industry and businesses. obviously shifted from small business to large business sector the you're citing data that came out recently that said 59% of businesses closed in the pandemic have closed perm nemently that's suggests that you have a very, very serious really recalibration, reorganization of the economy going under way. this happens in all recessions but this is a particularly bad one when it comes to the impact on small business. the and what you see in the stock market in part is the market stocks, big companies

picking up really market share >> no one can argue against the two tier economy that we're seeing with that and how unfair it is on certain smaller companies. i'm interested in that data point. i think that this will take 18 months to fully take hold. and i guess the question is two or three months. and one of the questions are short. and in the short term, maybe we won't get that stimulus out of washington and plateau at the level we're at at the moment right up until election day that's an interesting horizon. they ask that question what you have is you have some businesses coming back come back strong the problem is how many people will be going to restaurants how many movie theaters will be

needed how many, you know, music halls with a particular industry with close to my own heart right there. how many music halls are going to close down? and folks will make a go of it you know, the small business owners are incredibly energetic. they're livelihoods are on the line they'll try to make it go for it they'll borrow from their sister and broernls in law and try to remain open. as long as the stock market is high, there is no urgency to get this relief bill done. >> is the music industry really closer to your heart than the economics? surely not >> they're both actually interrelated there is a book called roconomics that i recommend to all of you i interviewed in the book about how nutty the idea is of playing

music relative to economics: >> they with go. very close to my heart >> on point and educated answer as always. the should have been expected. the steve, great stuff thank you. >> pleasure. >> meanwhile, after the break, we'll talk more about the latest developments surrounding uber and lyft with an early uber investors that has advice for the company.

sfwlp so just hours before that deadline, a judge has just granted them an emergency stay the law in question would require the companies to reclassify all of their drufrz drivers as employees instead of outside contractors. bradley tusk joins us. bradley, i don't typically like to quote a guest's notes to us

before an interview to them. but first line you put was this is likely too little too late from uber and lyft i guess you're surprised to be proven wrong there >> well, i think it's overall still probably too little too late in terms of using the shutdown to get the voters to pass prop 22 and overturn the original law passed last year in california so, yeah, they got a stay of execution today. that's good. but ultimately, what they really need is to either find a way to defeat this thing once and for all in california and then come up around the rest of the country too or as we discussed a few weeks ago, embrace this model and use it to really heighten competitive advantage >> to your point of trying to defeat it once and for all in

california, should they given this worked a little bit, should they say, no, we're not going to continue tomorrow. we need this off the table for good clearly, my point is that this move did start to sway public opinion as voters realize, gosh, we definitely want the service one way or another so maybe we have to force the politicians to cave to the company. >> if we were not in a pandemic, the answer is absolutely issues are like classifications, they feel very concept tulle and on tus on t obtuse to people the market of people would want to use uber right now is smaller than it used to be and that was kind of the too little too late point which is

uber and lyft really waited too long to get aggressive on this campaign and had had they been willing to take risk like this a year ago when they were deeping this, they might have been able to defeat the bill and not be in this position at all >> bradley, both uber and lyft have hundreds of thousands of registered drivers in california and given the yoyoing of the headlines today, what is the risk that some of them just don't show up for any of these rides if they say well i'm just not going to drive this week or next week because i'm not sure whether this company is operating. >> yeah. i mean, to a certain extent, that risk always exists. they're independent contractors. at least according to uber and lyft not the state of california. it's up to them when they do work and when they don't work. but at the same time, look, this is why the movement to turn drivers into full time employees has had success which is it's a really hard job. right? it's one thing if you're a

college student and you're for uber or lyft to pick up a little extra spending cash. but when this is how you support a family, it's a really tough job. drufrz need to maximize revenue. the they're still focused on that than most of them if there is work to be done, they're going to take it. >> we always talk about uber and lyft as a two player market now in the u.s. in terms of ride hailing. but to what extent have traditional taxi companies or alternatives caught up with uber and lyft in terms of having reasonably good smart phone applications such that let's say uber and lyft did go into hibernation tonight at midnight that in fact consumers wouldn't really miss the services much as everyone thinks they would >> that's a great question ten years ago when uber or lyft got started, threats got made and they were very effective taxi was still so far behind they have improved

but, you know, i live in new york city. the if you take that as an vam am, the technology now to be able to get a taxi is a lot better than it has been. hasn't it materially changed from now from what i can tell. >> i agree with that if you're tall, you can't fit in the back of them as well. >> actually. >> slightly feel like you're being put in the back of a cop car and arrested, no the that i know what that's like. anyway st bradley, thanks so much for joining us great discussion as always we got 37 minutes left before the close. nicely high near the session highs. just paired back a little bit. tenth of a percent on the dow.

33 3383.6 is where we are for a record close after the break, what happens when cash on the balance sheet isn't actually cash at all the surprising findings of a new study after the break. ♪ come on in, we're open. ♪ all we do is hand you the bag. simple. done. we adapt and we change. you know, you just figure it out. we've just been finding a way to keep on pushing. ♪ now t-mobile has thousands more. locations across the country. we've just been finding a way to keep on pushing.

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corporate treasure chest helped a number of companies weather the coronavirus crisis a study finds that holdings listed as cash may not actually be cash at all leslie picker has been digging into that story what did you find >> that's right. corporations are helping other companies. that is according to columbia business school. they poured through the footnotes of the filings to find that a large portion of corporate america is essentially running mini bond portfolios within their ranks take apple, well known for being cash rich according to apple's latest filing though, only 14% of apple's $200 billion in cash

was actually cash or cash like securities 42% was tied up in corporate bonds. the the other top holders of corporate bonds include microsoft, apple, oracle, cisco and at&t now corporate bonds are popular investments coming for yields and tax efficiencies there is little transparency over the risk levels of the holdings and the market shock earlier this year revealed some systemic problems. guys >> for sure, i think balance sheet of the companies i would imagine would never stay cash. it would say cash and other cash like securities. i think it's really interesting. it is a big factor in march that

fed is needing to respond to even though unshort dated commercial paper type assets from investment graed companies we're starting to see a spread widen. that is one of the factors that fed got incredibly nervous about. ut is liquidity in general but for smaller companies that need to free up some cash in order to fund their operations is things grind to a halt erie they are year. it was really difficult for them to do so according to the researchers. the they weren't able to get out of the securities. the corporate bonds they were holding. and topped the bond market they wound up issuing debt of their own. and they didn't have to, you know turn to alternatives. >> leslie a lot of people and trend and a lot of the big

companies are buying other companies but buying the debt of their competitors. i'm curious about the names. and the bonds and the tech giants rinne vesting in. so that's what is fascinating here and learning to other lenders and other lenders & clear chain of what is going on. that is not really known there are income statements and so forth all they really invested in $86 billion. and they're detailed in that they don't say whether x proportion is investment grade and junk bonds i mean they don't get any details. you are don't know if they're invested in the debt of their peers:that is a big issue. tlst is really no transparency here >> the final point i'll mention, guys, is that a lot of companies

that drew down their credit facilities at the peak of the fear in march and april but then never had to use it, obviously, have i higher cash balances than they would have done as well it increases pool of money in general that applies to this sort of thing with very few homes to go to to any type of safer interest great story, leslie. thanks so much >> thank you time for our daily coronavirus update the total number of cases in the u.s. crossing 5.5 million with more than is 173,000 fatalities. 12 states saw increases in the seven day rate of hospitalizations, vermont, hawaii, and iowa parts of europe still battling outbreaks. france and spain reported record new daily cases since coming out of lockdown. germany recorded the highest

number of new cases since april at 1,700 governments are working to curb the spread by a crackdown of house parties. a hollywood mansion was shut down after they wouldn't stop hosting parties. a global ban on parties at the listings and occupancy cap of 16 people 15 would still be much, much bigger gathering than i've been any part of for quite some time. anyway, still ahead, don't miss our exclusive interview with delta ceo ed bastian we'll discuss the company's decision to extend the middle seat and thoughts on business travel stimulus and much more as we thoed a break. here is a look at bonds. i like liberty mutual.

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welcome back to "closing bell." we go to sue herrera for an update >> good to see you here's what's happening, everybody. one day after president trump called for a boycott of the company, goodyear says it is clarifying its policy letting employees know they can wear clothing on the job that supports law enforcement but it is apparently not changing its policy asking employees not to wear anything supporting a particular candidate or party that may not satisfy trump's

complaint that hats are not allowed. hours after appearing on "squawk box" this morning, bill cassidy's office announced he tested positive for covid-19 the test was done after he was told last night he had been exposed to someone with that virus. the louisiana senator who is himself a medical doctor says he is following the advice of medical experts and quarantining for 14 days. and yet another big school is moving to online instruction for the fall semester. north carolina state is blaming covid-19 cases resulting from large off campus parties you are up to date i'll send it back to you >> as always, thanks so much we got 25 minutes left of the session. here is where we stand set for another record close

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we'll pick up there. i think we lost connection to kayla. shares of apple are higher after being the --

>> shares of apple higher after reaching a $2 trillion market cap. what can drive the next leg of growth joining us now on the news line is tom forte from d.a. davidson. the fact that apple hit a $2 trillion market cap amid the pandemic, what does that tell you about its ability to outperform when the economy returns to normal? or something closer to normal? >> thank you for having me on. the fact that they were able to achieve hay $2 trillion market cap without selling one 5-g iphone is remarkable it speaks to the hardware portfolio during the pandemic, tablets and lap tops with a billion consumers working remotely and a billion learning remotely but it's this potential that 5-g will cause a multiyear upgrade cycle and turn a head wind to a tail wind as far as unit growth and smart phones that could drive the shares to three trillion in our view >> tom, so that's the

fundamentals for the stock clearly you're bullish on the fundamentals, what do you think about the risk to the down side when you consider not so much just the technicals of the share price but what the sort of psyche might be if people that have held this and made so much money in it that if we do see bate of a pullback whether an apple shares or the broader market, whether it becomes a key source of profits for investors just more broadly and that once the tide turns a little bit, whether it can pull back significantly? >> yeah. so excellent questions there unpacking that quickly so on the psychology front, i think the share split could benefit to that extent so consumers may be -- or investors may be less likely to opt out with the pending share split. as far as risks, the biggest risk is china. 15% of the sales come from china. and to the extent that they they have a prolonged u.s.-china

trade war, i see that as a biggest risk to the share fund ally >> in november could be something of a binary event for u.s.-china trade and apple has long been in the cross hairs of that the expectation is that the saber rattle against china will ramp up and policy actions will, for the most part, be on hold until afterwards so would you say about owning april after the election if that is the case? >> so i do think that china is one of those policies that there is united, you know, anti-china stance from both the reigning president and the democrat elect. i do think if joe biden becomes president, it doesn't mean the china issue will go away for apple. it may mean the tariff issue goes away. this is a risk they're going to continue to monitor recordlegars

who have is in the white house. >> my point really is whether people have counted it too much as a positive and that the runup we've seen in the last month or so which did come as well, of course, after strong quarterly earnings has that been a big factor in the runup and unwind as quickly as it's risen? >> that's an excellent question. i think stock splits have served as a short term catalyst much like they did in the tech boom days the i think the june quarterly earnings were so favorable and they have so much momentum and they have still to sell one 5-g iphone i think there is a lot of good news ahead for shares of apple >> tom, forte, thank you so much for seeing you my bad >> all good. thanks a lot after the break, american airlines cuts service to 15

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14 minutes left in the trading day. we're now in the "closing bell" "market zone." coverage of all the action going into the close here to break down the crucial moments of the trading day, stephanie link and global strategies president i'll start with you. we didn't get great data this morning. the market keeps marching higher why do you think that is is there a clear thesis here wez have parts of the economy that are struggling. initial claims, jobs, travel, leisure, smbs, certainly they need help. but on the other side, you have such good data coming out of housing, auto, and even the consumer this week so housing, starts up 22%.

permits up 19% sentiment the best since 1998. i feel like i say i don't know if it can get any better in housing. it is super strong that is 10% of the u.s. gdp. it is important oochlt global sales are rising like nvidia, and then you also have the onsumer the tl are the haves and have notes for sure the haves are a relevanty crushing it. home depot and lowe's and costco, they're dominating the consumer they have the product. the they have e-commerce they put investmentes in place they're seeing rewards and so the consumer is spending. they're just very choosey. i think that is healthy. overall for the markets, the liquidity continues to be the theme. but i do think over the next couple of weeks we probably are going to be side ways for a bit. we have to get through a few things like elections, like

fiscal debate, like more economic data. i think the trend is higher. >> how concerned are you that the initial jobless claims change direction again to rise back above a million >> i'm very concerned about it i'm not surprised. i'd be looking for august to be a bad month. i think august when the employment numbers come out on september 4th, it will turn out to be a bad month indeed so i'm not surprised in that sense. what is causing the stock markets to continue to go up is one there is no breadth in the market there are a few companies which are leading the entire index up. second, stephanie said that some sectors which are hurting and we're going to see that become even more pronounced during the rest of this year. when i say that august is going to be a bad month and i'm

looking forward and thinking that the coronavirus impact, you're going to have a secondary wave of it,en that is going to cause an increase in the unemployment rate, none cof whih is factored into the equity prices we're getting closer to third. the way it's going, even if president trump concedes the election if he loses, i don't expect a result for at least a week after november 3rd. and that is going to be very negative for the equity market so it takes a while for the equity market to come to that realization. and i think we are headed there eventually >> just going to mention quickly. we're at session highs up 16 points on the s&p 500. 3390 that is enough for a record all time closing high on the s&p 500 if we stay there with 11 minutes left american airlines shares under pressure after halting service phil lebeau has details. >> the service cuts won't kick in until october 7th

there say possibility they won't happenal all if if there is another c.a.r.e.s. act passed in washington as part of a stimulus package. take a look at shares of american the 15 smaller cities that they said they will suspend service to starting october 7th, this is what we're going to see in the industry from a number of carriers they have to become smaller if they're not going to have the money to guarantee jobs. that's the bottom line here. is there going to be another job guarantee act passed in washington well, the kusht one expires on september 30th p that means 75,000, approximately 75,000 employees at various airlines are facing layoffs come october 1st the unions and the airlines that they represent, they want another $25 billion. also take a look at shares of delta. delta has said today that they will be blocking the middle seat on all of its flights through january 6th. at the same time, raising the number of people onboard from

60% cap up to 75% cap. we'll be talking to ed bastian that xomg up i know we'll be interested to hear what he says about the state of the industry and whether or not there is another c.a.r.e.s. act in washington. >> absolutely. we'll be hearing from the vice president's chief of staff marc short, too, to link that together in terms of the delta announcement to your point about increasing the load factor while guaranteeing the middle seat will be empty, to what extent are people suggesting that is on t open opportunistic because they get to keep that plenl and which other airlines of the key rivals haven't got the same pledge in terms of keeping the middle seat empty? >> look, you already have southwest and jetblue that said we're going to keep the middle seat empty i think the guarantees go through early to mid october it could be extended if we continue to see low levels of people flying. the question that folks have is

how much demand will the airline industry see for the holidays? if it gets to be a point where, you know, let's say there is a couple positive breakthroughs when it could toms covid-19 and people say, yeah, you know what? this is the time to fly. does delta sit there and say, a., do we add more flights or do we say to people, look, we're seeing a surge in traffic. we're going to have to, you know, bring down this guarantee that middle seat stays empty >> or if there is a collision course with a bad flu season, paern passenger traffic get worse? but on the american announcement, the majority of the places that american was flying to that it canceled, it was the only carrier to actually service the routes is there an antitrust case or a regulatory case that the government to make to force americans to keep the routes open >> remember, they worked out a deal with the dot back in april when they said, look, we want to be able to drop a number of markets where they had to work with the dot and the dot said, look, as part of the c.a.r.e.s.

act, you have to guarantee service. they allowed the combination, if you will, of a couple of carriers in certain markets. they could say, okay, one airline can still fly there. so we're guaranteeing service to that particular market if there is no c.a.r.e.s. act, i find there is no antitrust argument here. the airlines are going say we can't afford to fly to certain markets. we have to stop the service. that's what they're saying in the case of american >> phil, thank you so much for that reminder to everyone. delta ceo ed bastian joining us in 10 or 15 minutes. stephanie link, where do you stand? do you think if you saw another government stimulus bill that would change your mind >> no. i just -- i never really owned the airlines i've always viewed them as kind of trading vehicles. and that's just not my forte i just don't think that they have managed their free cash flow positions, businesses, in

the upturns let alone in the down turns and so if i'm going to own cyclicals, there is a lot of other names i would rather own in terms of the news today, i'm not that surprised global flights are down 49% last week that is better than down 80% in april. we're just not seeing the recovery i think it is going to be a delay for a while. if i'm going to own the airlines or anything in the air, i'm owning boeing. i do i own boeing it's a special situation just given that their capital position has improved with the debt offering that they did a couple months ago. and also i do believe they're going to get the 737 max recertification at some point in the coming weeks/months. that should be a catalyst. the stock is down huge on the year i view that one as the better quality play for the long term >> meanwhile, shares of shake shack rising today after web bush upgreated the casual chain to outperform. the focus on digital growth and investments in multiple store foreman mats is a reason it will grow we have the analyst on with that

call with us right now the nick, what is the case here? why do you think shake shack is going to raise further >> i think by necessity post covid-19 they've had to address and excel the digital steps they're making that should have been on the plate a year and a half or two years ago like chipotle had done as they come to fruition, my analysis at least indicates that the legacy units are likely going to see 10% plus tax of sales. once normalization occurs post covid-19 on top of that, again, because of necessity, they're exploring, you know, multipleformats including a drive through. the first one we'll see next year that expands effectively the addressable market and so previously, you know, the target was 450 units i'm estimating that it could be as much as 1300 units now.

and even if i'm being aggressive, you know, with my estimate, even half that number is still means they're going to have a four to five years of growth beyond just the 450 units. >> they always prioritized prime locations for their restaurants. do you think in five years that will will look very different and in the short term how long are the leases how long are they tied to the relatively more expensive rents? >> i he don't actually think it's going to look that different. i just think that, you know, the various formats that they're exploring now is still going to be similar you know, medium household income, demographics still similar number of households they're not going to be tied to shopping centers i don't necessarily think they're going to go into dem graphics that look very different. than the demographics of the

current storage. i think there is going to be an opportunity to, you know, maybe go into areas that they would have felt not as secure going into in the past zblfr nick, thank you so much for joining us shake shack up 2.5%. we just pulled back off the session highs. not currently set for a record close. shares of tesla hitting new highs. and now more than 40% since they announced stock split just a couple weeks ago over $2,000 relentless rise higher, stephanie. what is your take? when you see this type of move, does it worry you about the scale of pullback and the way it could affect the broader market if that ever does materialize? maybe it won't >> well, look, you can -- look, this is a cult stock, right? it's an esg play for sure. they have a phenomenal product the i think they have kind of a questionable management team they have been able to execute

and so i can see why it goes up. people can adapt to what they offer. in my opinion -- look, i missed this i do worry the split will get even more people involved in the name but if they can deliver, they're going to deliver i happen to own apple, the other company that is splitting. i'm happy with that one. to be honest, the rise in this stock really is extreme. it is a little bit worrysome >> what are your views on tesla at this valuation? those who have tried to make the short case for this stock all year have been wrong but would you actually own it at these levels >> yeah. i do not look at specific stocks, kayla. i say the overall area and clearly tesla is part of the overall runup reminds me very much of what we saw in the dot-com boom in the second half of the 1990s and then when the crash came in the year 2000, it was pretty

massive. so in the case of tesla again after a period of long period of relatively low levels, we have shot up in recent weeks h i wonder when reality is going to set in so the question about whether i'm concerned, yes, i'm concerned. not about tesla. i own it but i want the tech socketectora whole. >> we have one minute left in the session. the nasdaq leads the charge today up 1.1%. we'll have another high. the s&p 500 was just ahead of the required level about ten minutes ago. just below it as we stand. it's up 12 points on the day need to be up 16 points to get the record close still up 0.4% on the session and near the own session highs in terms of sector performance, real estate and tech lead the charge communication services also bottom energy and financials and

utilities. energy in particular down a healthy 2% crude oil down. >> pete: .75%. banks suffering as well. at the close, the nasdaq at a record closing high. up over 1% on the session. the s&p 500 up 0.3%. just shy of a record close as we said, a decent final hour of trade green across the screen for the three major indices. >> and welcome to the "closing bell." i'm in for saraeisen along wit wilfred frost. at this hour, we have the dow close be up 47 points just shy of 0.2%. the s&p 500 closing up 11 points the nasdaq at a new record closing at 11,264.

the russell 2000 is the only average down .5% that is the small caps it is sitting at 1564. coming up, we'll ask delta ceo ed bastian about whether the airline will be forced to furlough or lay off more employees if the airline industry doesn't receive more coronavirus stimulus from the government that is coming up in just a few moments. but joining us now to talk about the market day, we're rejoined by stephanie link, chief investment strategist at hightower. we are also joined by reggie brown. principal of gts reggie, we start with you. nasdaq at a new record dow and s&p 500 reversing the losses of earlier today. what do you make of the afternoon session? [ no audio ] >> the tech stocks are on a terror you look at gold also. it is following a trend of more stimulus you know, followed by warren

buffett's buy into the gold industry and then also look at small caps they're about to run to the upside i think that all signs are pointing up. >> stephanie, what's your level of confidence that we can continue to be led by these big tech names or whether it's time to prepare for a bit of a rotation >> well, you know i have been trimming taking some gains because i think that's the prudent thing to do. the i did trim facebook. i did trim amazon. i still own amazon in a big way. i do think along the way you can trim i was tempted to trim nvidia into the print up 107% year to date is a little scary. i think i step back and say where do i want to be? i want to be two places. i want to be in secular technology stocks. we talk about the total addressable market opportunities. i think staying from home, working from home is only going to increase the total addressable markets for several companies. so we talked about internet of

things the could be a trillion dollar total addressable market by the end of the decade. cloud, same thing. wearables, $55 billion in two years. i think there is upside from all of those end markets and that's why i want to be involved i don't know if i'm chasing them here, quite frankly. because i do think they have had a nice run they're overloved. at the same time, i want to offset that with my barbell strategy and own cyclicals not so much value per se i believe the economy is going to get better in the second half of this year because of the fiscal and monetary policies put in place i think you'll see awe better 2021 you want to have exposure to the companies that will benefit. so that's what i'm doing right now. the i'm not doing too much else. i'm just watching at this point. but, you know, if tech keeps going up, i might continue to trim a little bit. >> stephanie, give us a road map for retail with ross stors reporting later on today

consumers have showed us how choosey they are when it comes to where they want to spend money. they were not spending at t.j. max. they were spending at target do you think ross is going to see some upswing after a pretty bad quarter last time around >> well, i think that space is really hard. if anything, i thought t.j. would be down. the reason i thought they would be better is because they have housing, right home goods and home sense. so that one i thought would have done better. since they didn't do better, even though expectations are really low, i think, you know, when you depend on store traffic and people visiting your stores, i think it's challenging the reason why walmart and target and costco are doing well is because they have essentials. they have what the people want the reason why home depot and lowe's are seeing 20% and 30% comps is because that's what people want. they're do it yourself kind of companies. and they're benefiting ily to stanley black & decker in there too. they have 30% of the tools

business is exposure to home depot and lowe's i can find pockets for new consumer i think this there aere are the have notes >> what do you make of the move we have seen in yields in the last week? it looked a couple weeks ago like we were breaking out higher in terms of yield. but they pulled back again quite significantly quite fast >> yeah. i think the bond market is giving a better signal of what is going on to the economy i do not see a recovery in the second half of the year. i see it worsening in the third and fourth quarters. that is the message that you're getting from the ten year treasury yield refusing to stay at the higher level. we hit about 71 1/2. and then we're back to about 64 1/2 and my expectation is that you're going to get a new low, new record low forever before the end of this year and that is saying to you that

there is no vaccine yet for the coronavirus. that is second and the recession is continuing because the $600 unemployment payment has ceased. there is no thing in -- nothing in sight in terms of what is going to replace it. and they are much more of an impact in terms of what is going on on the consumption side st consumption is 70% of gdp and you can expect it, the so-called have nots to dominate over the haves during the rest of this year and they're going to drag it down because the low income and middle income people are the bulk of the population luxury purchases simply cannot keep the economy up. all of that is coming to you in terms of the skepticism that the treasury market is suggesting compared to the euphoria in the equity market. this is not unique:we saw that before the 2001 recession.

we saw that before the great recession of 2007 to 2009. i like to point out that two months before the great recession began, the s&p 500 reached a record high in october of 2007. if you build the stock market, it will let you down really sharply over the next 12 months. so you have a message here and the macro mess anl that is coming from the two markets simply cannot be ignored so while i think you need to cut back on the tech stocks, i think you also risk yourself in terms of equity as a whole and go as i said earlier, look more closely at gold. treasuries are going to do well. the german bond. and you're going to look for safe haven rather than look for risk during the months to come >> yeah. that said, of course, we have had already huge monetary stimulus which we haven't had yet by 2007 which can also

explain that difference between the bond and the stock market. shares of uber and lyft surging after a judge granted a temporary reprieve an hour ago the we have the latest >> it was certainly a remarkable 11th hour twist that avoids a ride sharing blackout in california tonight at midnight now the order could now be delayed until the issue is brought to voters on that november 3rd ballot provided the ride sharing companies ub eastern lyft follow procedures that the court outlined. onest conditions is a demand from the court that uber and lyft submit sworn ceo testimony that they can commit if they lose their appeal. and then that november ballot measure. this is almost certainly to avoid the standoff that california legislators and the companies have found themselves in this year culminating in what was a dramatic countdown to midnight tonight. now as california faces wildfires, power out anls and

recessions, this development could be seen as the courts blinking first and deciding that now isn't a good time to limit transportation options but they are perhaps putting the pieces in place so that they will have the upper hand when this battle inevitably heats up again in just a few months back to you. >> thankses so much for that steph, is this a big turning point for the likes of uber and lyft >> no. i think it's a temporary, right? we can see what the outcome is going to be. we know the costs are going to go a lot higher. i think that uber is well positioned though with uber eats i love them. i love that transaction. i do think that the ceo made a very compelling case on cnbc about profitability in a year's time i felt better after hearing him. this overhang makes it tough to

own the stocks there is too much uncertainty. we have so much uncertainty and stocks and sectors that are better positioned longer term. i think i'd choose those than play around with this for the time being >> when we look at the broader markets, this is the oem averages in the red. you're bullish on small caps why is that? where do you think they can go >> i think first of all, my clients that trade, they're goal is to receive nothing but rotations and commodities goal and small caps i think that leads for a window about the future about improving the economy. yes, there are parts of the economy that are strained particularly suma and leisurely industries i think the bet is the economy will get better over time.

>> all right we'll leave it there thank you so much. we will see where we go in at the after market mean while, let's get a news alert on facebook. >> hi. cnbc learned that facebook ceo mark zuckerberg testified at a hearing before the federal trade commission in connection with that agency's antitrust probe of the social network the testimony was conducted under oath remotely over two days this week first reported by "politico. the ceos testified before the house on antitrust issues last month. and that case the issue of facebook's acquisition of what's unand also instagram came up >> interesting and, of course, you did reveal that they bought those companies at the times they were looking at also copying some of the services so interesting if it was that testimony that sparked it.

thanks so much up next, we'll ask delta ceo ed bastian whether more cuts and employee furloughs could be on the horizon when government stimulus terms expire in just over a month weav we're back in 90 seconds we renovated the guest room, so you can live with us. i'm good at my condo. well planned, well invested, well protected. voya. be confident to and through retirement.

the $25 billion in federal aid allocated to the industry which prohibits layoffs is set to expire at the end of september. a number of airlines and airline unions pushing for another $25

billion in the next stimulus package to help save jobs through to march next year delta ceo joins us now in an exclusive interview. et, ve ed very good afternoon. thank you for joining us >> good to see you >> we get to the potential for government stimulus and potential for layoffs in a moment but you made an announcement today that you expending the blockage of middle seats on delta planes is it dangerous not do that? >> well, we started this pandemic putting our customers in our employees at the center of the recovery and building confidence back in air travel. and we believe blocking those middle seats is critical to continuing to restore confidence we announced today that we're going to continue to extend the block middle seat policy through the end of this year as we get towards the end of the year, we'll evaluate if it we keep it rolling forward. it's a important factor in customer decisions distance is important.

relative to health safety and in the face of a pandemic it's been helping our customers get more confidence as they're traveling on delta >> the same time, we had a bit of a discussion with phil lebeau about half an hour ago, ed i know some of your team is e-mailing me i'm quite sure what the error might have been. i want to ask the question did you at the same time increase the load factor, ie, despite the one could argue arbitrary factor of it being a middle seat not full but the planes will be fuller going forward? >> the planes will be somewhere between 65% and 70% full by blocking the middle seat i think it was reported at 75% that's not accurate. but somewhere between 65% to 70%. every configuration on each plane is different >> ed, i'm in washington good to see you again. i want to ask specifically about the government aid facility specifically for the airlines. treasury announced on july 7th that delta is among a number of airlines that signed a letter of

intent to potentially tap $29 billion in loans to cover some expenses have you received any of that money? >> so i think ed's shot frozen hopefully we get it back great question so many more questions that we had. i think just getting an update we have not got ed back quite yet. what we're going to do is take a very quick break and hopefully by the time we come back we'll have the delta ceo ed bti wasanith us don't go anywhere. "closing bell" back in just a couple of minutes. you say that customers make their own rules.

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welcome back we're back with ed bastian you ed, i'll restate my question delta signed a letter of intent with the treasury department to access a piece of about $30 billion in loans to fund your rags rags operations. you have received any of that money? >> we have not this is a second traunch of the original cares act we have not made the decision whether we're going to access that loan or not yet

is. >> so the group of republican senators pushing for another $25 billion in payroll support that, would be free money. that would be a grant program. i know a lot of critics are saying why should the airline industry specifically receive more aid if it hasn't exhausted all options available to it? should they get more help if washington if they have not tapped the loans yet >> first, it wouldn't be free grant as the first grant was it was 07% grant, 30% loan. the first grant is incredibly successful they kept the 750,000 workers employed through the face of the worst of the pandemic for the first six months gave us a chance to understand with what we're dealing with and then have an orderly plan to go forward with. as a result of that, the pandemic is not yet where we

thought it would be at this point in time. so, yes, i think it makes sense if the government was to continue to extend this. this is money that's going to our workers to keep the workers under payroll. the alternative will be you'll find tens of thousands of employees across the industry that will be furloughed effective october 1st. >> ed, no one can argue it's been successful in the short term i think inherent in kayla's question is whether or not it's unfair on all sorts of other sectors that have not received the same benefit and i guess my question is do you feel uncomfortable when you look at retailers, for example, that may well have done less buybacks than you in the years earlier that may well have been less indebted than you in the years earlier? and they still are not getting the same level of government assistance do you feel that's been quite unfair on other sectors? >> i can't evaluate the different sectors.

that's the role of government to decide which sector they want to prioritize and where the funds will be deployed the airline industry we know is essential to the recovery. to opening the economy back up and n. a safe way. not just in the u.s., on ain't national scale as well delta was in great financial position prior to the pandemic we got our unvestment grade rating back. the industry was buying back shares so we're very responsible stewards of cash i don't know how you can build a big enough safety net for a pandemic i think it's logical for the government to consider the extension. >> i think that is fair. certainly relative to your own history and relative to a couple of the other airlines that your level of indebtedness had improved 4% i think of your market capitalization at the end of 2019 but that's not low and absolute terms. similar argue wait a moment apply i think to your buybacks

from 2015 to 2019. just this year, you raised $21 billion just over that over half of that was directly from the market. so putting aside even the government aid, do you regret doing any single dollar of those buybacks over the prior five years given you've had to fundraise at a share price significantly lower than you bought back stock over the prior five years >> it's great to be a monday morning quarterback with a benefit of a pandemic in hindsight. the reality is over the last decade, delta generated $100 billion of operating cash and the amount of buybacks were less than 20% of a billion dollars. so the vast majority of the money that we invested went back into the business to improve the quality and experience of the customers to pay profit sharing to our employees and get the debt levels down to the point where we did get our investment

grade raiding back >> what is the harm in taking a loan from the u.s. government don't want to continue harping on this but it is a pot of money that has not been tapped and in lieu of system laus programs, what is it about this that is leading you to shy away from actually taking it? is it the ban on buybacks? is it the restrictions on executive pay? what is it that airlines and carriers don't want from this program? >> i think all airlines will make their own decision around that second traunch of the loan. for dealt yashgs lta, we haven'e decision yet i don't want you to suggest that we're not taking it. we're looking at finding alternative sources of capital the treasury will require collateral for that loan and looking to see if there say better form of financing as we ought to as a private enterprise to use that as the financing

vehicle. comparing the second traunch of the loan to the psp is two different things if we did take the loan, there is no requirement -- [ no audio ] >> might have lost the delta ceo ed bastian again there i'm hoping he does come back we have a couple more questions that we definitely want to get on to. particularly on the outlook for demand and travel and business travel in particular going forward which delta is skewed to just checking if we're getting him back we don't have him quite back yet. we'll try though in the meantime, pivot a little bit to -- a lot, pivot a lot to a totally different story. we have the latest for us on that steve bannon story from earlier today. >> steve bannon has now pleaded not guilty in federal court to charges he defrauded donors as part of an effort to raise more than $25 million to build the border wall. there are reports that bannon's attorneys and prosecutors have agreed to a $5 million bond

package. bannon appearing in federal court virtually after being arrested this morning aboard a yacht. he appeared in a jail cell with his hands cuffed in front of him as he presented himself before the judge for this hearing the judge was also appearing virtually. bannon's attorneys were told were over the phone. but again, steve bannon officially pleading not guilty now to fraud >> all right thank you. according to tom winter from nbc news, he appeared quite tan after living on that yacht with an exile chinese businessman for the last several weeks let's get to our news update >> good to see you again here's what's happening at this hour uber's former security chief is facing federal obstruction of justice charges. the government accuses joe sullivan of trying to cover up the 2016 hack of uber's computer systems which exposed information about 57 million drivers and passengers

uber paid the hackers $100,000 to keep quiet and didn't notify the government of the breach a spokesman tells "the new york times" the executive acted with approval of uber's legal department. a group of major news organizations including "the new york times," "washington post" and cnbc is joining the fight against the fees apple charges to put apps in its store in a letter to the company, the group says it wants to pay less than the 30% of subscription revenue apple gets for first time researches made through ios apps and some encouraging medical news for you new research indicates that the virus that causes covid-19 is not trans mitted through breast milk from mother to her baby you are up to date that is the news update this hour i'll send it to you. >> sue, thank you so much for that senate republicans plan to propose a skinny coronavirus stimulus deal which would include money to help solve the post office problems

up next, we'll ask marc short whether the house democrats will 'ral tt that bill. wee sorying to get back the delta ceo. i had saved up some money and then found the home of my dreams. but my home of my dreams needed some work sofi was the first lender that even offered a personal loan. i didn't even know that was an option. the personal loan let us renovate our single family house into a multi-unit home. and i get to live in this beautiful house with this beautiful kitchen and it's all thanks to sofi.

jacking above 1 million. still, joining us now on a cnbc exclusive, marc short, good afternoon to you thank you for joining us >> i want to ask about the level of divergence we're seeing >> moving in the wrong direction. >> there is a stock market how much is that going to count.

>> i think we're anticipating where we're headed the we're continuing to see cases falling. there is a lot of stimulus put into the economy and we see that the unemployment claims have come down. >> and we continue to see america open and we're encouraged by that do you think it's a important swing factor do what extent it will alter the urgency. anticipate stimulus measures if we did see a more meaningful change in direction which wl that's on the economy or the stock market >> i think we're grateful the way that congress came together initially with the first cares act and provided support to the

secretary brought forward in the ppp program. i also think that right fwhoun of our on going challenges has been that we want to make sure that unemployment insurance is provided for we hear from a lot of people particularly in the hospitality industry that express concerns that the level of this $600 a week check is also a deterence for some people coming back to work so that i think is -- it was necessary to provide but at the same time, we want to make sure there is growth policies we were unable, obviously, to get cooperation from democrats on that. so the president took the executive action and we believe that those sort of pro growth measures are beneficial to making sure that the rebound continues. we know that this president's policies created 7.5 million jobs in the first 3 1/2 years. we look forward to continuing the low tax, low eregulatory

policies >> until we get the august jobs report, it's hard to see the full snapshot after the first stimulus package ran out swhafr going to be agreed on between the white house and capitol hill will be a so-called skinny deal. what are the white house's must haves in that deal is it ppp? eviction protections what are the items if you had to pick two or three that you're really going to go to bat for, what are they? >> i think that it has been mondayicers as a skinny bill it is another $500 billion pricetag so i don't know that we accept it skinny relative to what i think the democrats put forward as a $3.5 trillion bill to bail out state and local governments. i would say that liability protection that he is advocating for is something we hear from business owners that they think is essential to make sure they

can bring the workers back to the workplace. additionally, snag we add voluntary cases for additional funding for schools. we have to make sure that we're able to reopen schools for children >> kru the chief of staff going to capitol hill later this weekend to try to broker some sort of deal i mean, what are the odds he's going to be successful and what are the odds liability reform is in that final deal >> well, mark is a good negotiator he had a lot of success before we have confidence that he'll find a pathway forward democrats had a pricetag that included measures that were outside of the mow shueasures oe coronavirus.

they're also pushing for access for pot farmers to have access to banking, things of that nature that we never were part of coronavirus so i'm confident that he'll find a pathway forward as we continue to negotiate here at the end of the summer and into september. >> marc, what's your view on the president's call for americans to boycott goodyear tires? >> well, i think that the president expressed concerns that i think our first amendment concerns when company has policies that say you're allowed to wear one kind of attire but if you're expressing your first amendment rights xrunt a blue lives matter t-shirt. i think that is concerning to a lot of people. i think you are seeing goodyear expressed change in policy this afternoon. so i think that is a step forward i think the president is also continuing to advocate for american made products you heard him say that yesterday. there is plenty of options for tire manufacturing we hope that goodyear continues to alter the policy in a way that includes protections of first amendment.

>> i guess that was partly my follow up. there are not that many u.s. options. we've got a graphic that we're going to show. a lot more availability outside of goodyear of foreign manufactured tires how could this backfire by threatening a company with thousands of potential voters in a key state of hire employed by goodyear is that a risk for the president and administration >> i think that americans know that this president brought back 500,000 manufacturing jobs prior to the pandemic. that's why they continueto get a lot of support they know he is devoted to the jobs i think that he's going to continue advocate for the manufacturer >> marc, chinese state media reporting that washington and beijing will hold a check in on the phase one trade deal in the coming days. what is your view on how tiktok

and wechatt will figure into tht discussion if they believe that they've been in compliance with that trade deal? >> obviously that is a matter for them there is some elements we can't discuss. our concern is this president is going to make sure the american consumer is protected. and the communist party of china has a policy that with its companies they share data. so any information that tiktok has would be shared data collection with the communist party of china that is a great security concern for this administration. i will will say that i find it, you know, interesting that here we are last week, the vice president was in iowa and there were record numbers sales in corn and soy beans china is anxious to try to fulfill the obligations under the phase one trade deal which is an encouraging sign but the whole trade situation with china is one of the biggest challenge cons fronting our nation

this president has addressed policies that were avoided for decades frankly. i think made substantial improvements and changes in the last three nights in the democratic convention, china is not mentioned one time not once >> all right that dialogue will certainly figure prominently in the discussions going forward. thank you for your time today. we appreciate it. >> thanks. thanks for having me on. >> the post master general luis dejoy will be on the hot seat tomorrow as he gets grilled by congress why democrats are planl to hit him over potential conflicts of interest involving his investments in competitors and ties to president trump. that's up next on "closing bell."

the post master general is one of the most highly scrutinized people in america right now. a lot of focus is also put on his finances we have been digging in and is here with more >> well there is growing pressure on post master general luis dejoy to step down not just because of the way he's manage the the post office but also over concerns of conflict of interest related to his vast financial holdings according to the disclosures, xpo which does business with the post office is worth between $25 and $50 million and it's unclear how much he has divested he held shares of ups and amazon he told amazon stock and purchased call options instead days before he took the job. he is also a top gop donor since 2016 he has given $1.3 million directly to the rnc.

and $1.2 million to the trump victory fund in a statement, he told us - but, guys, i'm pretty sure that democrats are going to have a lot more questions for him once those hearings begin back to you. >> he had that information in his financial disclosures and would not have been able to take the job if the ethics review didn't clear so the do you think that any of these calls for him to step down will actually land >> a couple points there you know, our understanding is that the office of government ethics has received a disclosure but it appears they have not certified them yet so there could still be more information coming there the other thing is that usps tells us is that dejoy is not required to divest any assets to take the job but that if any conflicts of

interest arise, he may have to take steps to deal with that so what we hear from government watchdogs is that, you know, even though he didn't have to sell anything to take the job, in order to do his job, it seems clear he would have to get rid of some of the stakes. these are the issues that are going to be discussed in a more full throated fashion during those hearings over the next few days >> thank you so much for that. >> up next, capitalizing from the work from home trend they're cashing in on the craze. but how long can it last we'll discuss th t cpa'swiheomny co-founder after the break

could work from home be here to stay s the latest data says that 61% of u.s. employees prefer working from home and 46% say they're just as productive working virtually as being in the office one company benefiting from the work from home is belay. they saw the revenue grow by 3% in the second quarter and july

joining us now for more is the belay co-founder brian miles to what do awe tribute this trend in staffing and what types much companies are propelling you to this rise in revenue? >> thank you for the opportunity to be here of i would say that what we're finding with businesses today, they're dealing with issues where they can't get work done without pushing their folks home for obvious reasons. we're seeing growth in several different verticals, one being consulting our small business and including nonprofits >> so of what types of workers are you placing through your platform are these part time? are these full time? are they gig workers describe the average employee that you're placing at the average company that requests your services. >> sure. we target stay-at-home moms and dads around the country and the united states. we look for folks that have a lot of business experience to come alongside our clients right now we're hiring for virtual assistants, book

keepers, social media strategists and website support people >> what's been the change particularly in 2020 to the prior decade of your business of offering these sort of services? and are there any identifiable trends of what people want to get that extra help in terms of remote help? >> well, you know, one thing is for sure after march 16th, no one has to ask how do you work from home? we've all been forced to do that but, you know, what we're seeing especially when i'm talking to business owners around the country, a lot of them literally can't go back in the office and they're struggling to put people in their house that's haven't traditionally worked from home so we're seeing an uptick in business because of that >> and brian, we hear from so many commercial real estate companies who have a vested interest in office culture say that office life will come back. by mid 2021, people will be back in the office. everything will return to normal do you see it that way

>> possibly it could be that way. everybody i'm talking to that is a business owner or key leader in the organization, they're not talking like that. in fact, i'm talking to several where they're looking to abandon the lease or they're in a situation where they're looking to only bring just a happenedful of critical people back into the office because so many people are really just enjoying working from home. >> in terms of all the hundreds of thousands of people that you employ on behalf of other clients, are there any identifiable trends of the type of place that's they look to base themselves now that they don't get tied to a particular office or metropolitan center? it is very much based on rural versus urban or is it tax rates of the various states and cities that they base themselves in >> well, when a client works with us, basically they're make ag contract with us. and then our contractors are all over the united states and what we have found, there are some contractors that are leaving larger markets to, you know, go to a place where they might feel a bit more safe

you know, from the virus and really from the unrest that's going on but, yeah, we are seeing that some of our contractors are moving to more rural markets >> brian, the unfortunate reality of our current economy is there are tens of millions of people out of work due to the pandemic and collecting jobless benefits for people considering a career change or wondering how to get back in the workforce, where would you direct them? where do you think is the highest growth or most accessible part of the economy right now? >> right now what we're seeing at least in our business is that there is a great hunger for people that they need to scale the businesses or their organizations and they're looking for people that they can roll up the sleeves and work really hard to figure out what means to work from home. and they communicated that right now especially, a lot of people are hurting they need jobs but the things that you did in an office yale do translate the working from home. >> brian miles thank you so much for joining

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the measures that we're taking are extensive i actually think that our theaters have never been cleaner. i think dirty movie theaters is something that people have been anxious about for decades. well, not anymore, because we simply cannot afford to operate our theaters unless you could eat off the floor. >> that was adam aaron on closing bell yesterday amc theaters' ceo. they're reopening hundreds of domestic locations and have plenty of procedures in place and a 15 cent price tag for certain movies contessa, we'll get into the actual story in a moment i nknow it was a fake bucket of popcorn you just had i was thinking yesterday as well, but i miss that hot,

inhealthy, salty popcorn so much >> reporter: you think that was fake you think i would do fake news i will not do fake news. i mean, come on. you can't buy this kind of professionalism. 15 cents will buy you a movie ticket it will buy you $5 popcorn here and an incredible hunger it appears to get back to the movies >> we came to see sonic the hedgehog we've been waiting like six months to see the movie. >> reporter: it's a momentous occasion for these families who headed back inside some drove an hour and a half from new york city to get to the theater. they said, hey, we haven't been out in ages out there. but they're going in, masks on, guests and workers alike

they have enhanced sanitization. they have lots of rows blocked off so you have social distancing with everybody. capacity is limited to 30% so the moviegoers make reservations ahead of time and pick their seats that dad you saw with that little girl, his digital reservation when he went to see sonic the hedgehog didn't work, the movie was sold out the 3-year-old comes back crying we had drama in real life here at the movies. any guess to what the drink is filled with? >> coke? lysol or something in a tease, you said dozens of people are back, which i guess would be a disappointment. have they hit their capacity which i know is reduced anyway >> reporter: yeah. "the goonies" is playing today, sold out people who wants to go to "the

goonies" couldn't go because of those 30% capacity restrictions. we had a semifull parking lot for the afternoon movies on a thursday you know, you don't normally see that, but 15 cent tickets, that's appealing >> at one point, why not make it free 15 cent tickets, you're not making any money just let people in the doors i don't know we'll see how it goes. >> reporter: you would think that there was one family that did shell out $50 for their snacks even at $5 popcorn they're still making a little money. >> it's like an honor bar. we're excited to hear how the rest of the weekend goes contessa, happy hour starts in just a minute so we won't judge you for whatever's in that cup i regret that our interview with ed bastian ended early

the one question i did want to ask him is about a federal mask mandate. we'll save that for another day. >> ed must have also heard the german shepherds as well throughout the interview i agree. it was a shame that got cut off. it was an enjoyable interview, great show "fast money" starts now. i'm brian in for melissa lee once again this is "fast money. welcome. guy adami, tim seymour, karen finerman and steve grasso. tonight, a big bet on the little guys small cap. one top strategist tells us where he is finding opportunity as stocks hit all-time highs mall madness, the one chart that could tell the real story about the health of retail it will surprise you later on, we are serving up your call of the day with a side of