momentum in an economy that gets more and more unequal and it's very hard to reverse. >> okay. mohamed el-erian, thank you so very much for joining us on what now is a historic day. jane fraser becoming the ceo and first woman to -- ceo of citi group and first woman to run a major bank on wall street. make sure you join us tomorrow, "squawk on the street" begins right now. ♪ good thursday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer david faber has the morning off. futures do go green here as jobless claims are roughly in line, stocks trim about a quarter of their losses from the last three days. our roadmap begins with that roller coaster, though, tesla and technology continue to rebound. citi, as andrew said, naming the first woman to lead a mega bank, jane fraser set to replace michael corbat in february and astrazeneca saying it should know before the end of the year

if its covid-19 vaccine is effective. jim, i know that citi news popped for you. >> yeah, i candidly mike and donna are friends of mine and friends of my executive producer so i have to reveal that because i say it's not about friends it's about money this is jarring for those of us older than mike who is 60 but he did work there for 38 years, not retiring until february, but how great. when i spoke to him this morning, how great, jane fraser coming in. the glass ceiling in banking maybe a is finally cracking and it's a great legacy for mike a period where net income increased from $7.5 billion to $19.4 billion, tangible common equity 12.0 to 12.5% and returned 80% in capital during mike's reign all those numbers haven't necessarily led to great performance a of the stock but they are great numbers mike is a much loved figure as

is donna, his wife and i regard them as a team and i know he wants to do many, many things in life and this is a soul searching time, he appointed jane last year, he made it clear that this could happen, but for those of us who know him we're thinking, wow, we're jealous mike has rethought his life, wants to do something big, maybe we should all think like that. congratulations to jane, congratulations to mike, congratulations to donna he is expecting a grandchild, also great >> that's all interesting color, jim. she does run the consumer bank, a 16-year vet. she will have not only the business to contend with but there's other headlines this morning about citi asking how many employees want to come back to the office and if they do get some response on that, sounds like they will limit in-office capacity around 30%. so she will have those logistics to worry about, too. >> we're getting a lot of talk about how people come back, darius adamczyk talking about he

wants people back. i think this is one where we all want people back but we are faced with the notion could people want to come back both because they've rethought their lives but also because of health concerns a lot of people act as if this thing is beat. i lining to think let's wait until we get a vaccine before we start talking about coming back. mike a soul searching guy, i'd like to see what jane says about coming back. this is revolutionary and we can't deny it. when ben retired over at clorox and appointed a woman i said maybe this is the beginning of the recognition that it's important that women get top jobs as a father of two daughters who are asking who are the women that run companies it's all one hand that you can name so maybe this is a really good sign mike, thoughtful man. >> yeah. yeah not just that, but adding to the board as well. >> right. >> so that's going to be key to watch. it would be great news if we could start to broaden out

diversity of leadership. as for the reopening here, jim, of course, nfl tonight i know we will talk about indoor dining in new york beginning at the end of the month and your concerns about capacity inside, once you couple it with the outside, there is a look at arrowhead where capacity, jim, 22%. we will actually get some fans watching the game live >> it's interesting. the eagles are letting no one in 22%, it's really an issue, i don't want to be too crass about it, but it's an issue of the bathrooms. are the bathrooms capable of handling it. i got this from -- there's been a number of studies about that's the real weak link i know that all of us who are waiting for the vaccine find that some of these things as maybe questionable, particularly because what happens under the sanitary conditions. people want to get back, they don't want to miss the game, they have to hurry people, they have to get back, halftime i just find that let's hope it goes well. carl, i think it's okay to do what the phillies do which is

have a lot of cutouts, it looks pretty exciting. >> yeah. we'll see, jim there's a lot more chatter about the way in which infection new case rates not only come down in new york, tri-state, it's down 95% and hasn't spiked again. i mean, the concern now continues to be college. do you think it was time for cuomo and de blasio to finally open up indoor >> well, yeah, but when you do 25% instead of 40 which was what we were opening as an owner of a restaurant and co-owner of another it just doesn't work look, there's -- it doesn't work when we lose the outdoor space because of the cold, i don't know how to stay open. unless you just want to lose money until a vaccine and it's -- i'm hanging on meg tirrell's words more than i'm hanging on cuomo's words because you can't take the beating we have just taken a beating and, look, i fortunately have good luck and good fortune, there are many people who are very close to the edge this is the push over the edge

when it gets cold. >> goldman has a new survey of small businesses, jim, 10,000 they survey. 65% think their business will survive. a third say they will lay off if there's no more additional rest could you packages from congress and, of course, the senate will hold a vote today on the slimmed down gop proposal. need 60 votes on a procedural, it will be tough to get there it looks like. >> it looks like it's dead on arrival. ppp is so necessary just to be able to get a bridge i had kupa software on today, it's the hospitality industry they predict it could drop off as much as 50% i wish they would just target the industries that can't make it we are a mexican restaurant, so is chipotle, we don't have chipotle's balance sheet they will survive. we can't survive look, we will do well by our employees, but we have to see.

25% and they're talking about having no people at the bar. we are a bar we've been closed -- i say we, everybody on the block, everybody around, manhattan has reasons why you want to go there as destination, brooklyn not that many. this is nationwide you look at darden stock it's been a rocket. yum stock has been a rocket. why? because they are going to survive. we are going to return to a period where there's only going to be a few restaurants in the country and that's what we have to accept. there's casualties, it's not like the government did it, it's not like the regulations, the government didn't create the pandemic but in new york the government is responsible for tremendous amount of dislocation. >> yeah. yeah it's been interesting, jim i mean, we've talked of course for months about the shift from mom and pop to public companies, not just in restaurants, but this travel and all that, and yet, you know, yesterday we had ual add some new trans oceanic

routes, today jetblue is adding a couple dozen new routes and pulling planes that are temporarily parked not to say we're getting back to pre covid levels but it is directionally positive. >> i think the airlines have done a good job of late making sure everybody wears a mask. they will be testing now i have the abbott apps which will allow me to be able to in a few months waive it and you will be on the plane because you have just been tested i have no fear of flying, i'd rather fly than be in a lot of buildings, but people have to wear masks and people should wear gloves. i think people even should wear goggles the airlines are no longer the incubators as opposed to cruise ships which are struggling with that and restaurants i have stopped going to restaurants because every time i go the tables are next to each other and these are things that we all know are conducive to getting sick

i love the fact that the numbers are down, but, carl, you and i both know cold and flu season is coming up and we don't know what that's going to be like when it comes to covid i get the reticence and reluctance of governments but i also know that there are going to be casualties and the restaurants are probably going to be number one >> of course, dgx to your point about testing is up 4% premarket, raising their guide looks like testing volume has recovered faster than we think maybe testing can act as somewhat of a bridge until we hear more from some of these trials. >> testing and masks i have the honeywell mask. happy anniversary, honeywell, but that's what caused these numbers to go down there is a group of ideal logs who thinks these things haven't mattered and testing hasn't mattered they may believe in things that are not empirical but we're making progress. i got tested yesterday here, it's great, we get tested once a week the viral load is such that the

first 24 hours you can go i have it to other people and it comes on rather quickly, but you need to get tested and tested and tested to be able to get yourself out of the workforce so you don't infect other people. that's why i have a mask contest, giving away a million dollars only a few more days for 15 to 24-year-old people to get involved because we need people to not enjoy masks, that's impossible, but at least recognize that that's what's made things better >> yeah. >> kind of empirical. >> the other question is kind of what's happening in europe france hospitalizations one month high. >> yeah. >> icu in france highest since june so hopefully we don't replicate whatever is happening or appears to be happening in the uk and france. >> yeah, and madrid bad. i mean, i think that they let up soon and there's -- italy did not. italy is locked down i have two businesses in italy there's nothing. i mean, you can't get there. they will turn you right back. you go there, they will send you

right back but madrid is a real problem, uk is a problem we're better than a lot of these places now but of course we went state by state and everybody can check "the new york times" every day, it's the colleges that i'm worried about. and i'm worried about people being sent home and being trojan horses everybody has to be on their toes i see someone making fun of me talking about goggles flying why make fun of people who are trying to protect themselves that's stupid. i want to live kind of rational. >> your competition on masks has been great. >> thank you. >> anybody that wants to know more can follow your twitter feed. >> thank you. >> you mentioned astrazeneca and our meg tirrell this morning does have more on what the ceo said this morning about the trial and the pause. good morning, meg. >> carl, well, that pause does remain in effect after that unexplained illness and one participant in ast zen can a's covid-19 vaccine trial in the uk, the ceo of astrazeneca

speaking at an event this morning saying that if they are able to restart their trial and depending on when he believes they will have results by the end of the year and could potentially file for approval so a vaccine would be available around then or early 2021. now, with he also noted that they are still awaiting the official diagnosis for this woman and the trial restart date is unknown the decision about that is in the hands of an independent safety committee here is how he put into context this kind of event in a vaccine trial. >> it is very unusual more vaccine trial to not stop like we did it's very common, actually, and many experts will tell you this, the difference with all the vaccine trials is the whole world is not watching them, of course, so they start, they study and they restart what happens here is not uncommon. >> so sore joe saying the whole world is watching these vaccine

trials and that is true which is why eyebrows were raised when information about what caused the -- a private investor call arranged by jpmorgan which was reported on by stat news where pascal revealed that the participant had received the covid-19 vaccine not the placebo. this doesn't mean we know that the vaccine caused this event but it was a detail that we didn't have among others with he should say jpmorgan's analyst has written up a synopsis of that call which we have, we still do not have a transcript of that call. meanwhile, of course, there is skepticism about vaccines in general and the pace at which they're being developed. kaiser poll out today shows 80% of people they polled don't expect a vaccine will be approved before election day and, guys, if one was approved that early, 54% say they would not get it back over to you. >> meg, this seems like total

amateur hour made it sounds like, look, it's really possible this could be an event. i pulled out of the moderna trial, canceled. i just think that when -- they had the lead, no you it sounds like they're going back. this gentleman breaks the news, jpmorgan conference, i'd like to see about reg fda problems there. meg, what is it about this decision that has total amateur hour written all over it >> the decision about the communication? >> yeah, the communication i mean, this is the most important news when it comes to vaccine, i'm going to get it from a jpmorgan conference and select dissemination i get it from stat i get it from you? the story is different in each case we need 30,000 people for these tests and suddenly people just say, wait a second i mean, i can't think of a worse -- i'm trying to debate a worse way to handle this but i haven't come up with it yet. >> i think you hit the nail on the head, jim. i mean, pascal said it himself

this morning, the world is watching these trials and so while i have heard the argument that the information he shared on the call was not material, i mean, if you look at the stock price yesterday, they held this call at 10:00 a.m., the stock had declined the day before and after hours by as much as 8% it had already recovered significantly way before 10:00 a.m. so, no, the call did not move the stock, but -- and other people say the information, you know, we're treating this as such a huge event but some experts say trials are always stopped. so we should not be treating this as a huge event until we know more about it that's the devil's advocate argument if you're going to share that information and it's going to then get out and it is so closely watched it might increase the fear that people have around this trial and the transparency of the communications and anything along those lines is damaging in this environment right now >> meg, i'm trying to remember if azn was one of the nine companies that said they would vow to stand with science and if

you had any color not just on trial results by the end of the year, let's say, but also the possibility of an eua in the nearer term. >> yes, astrazeneca was among the companies to issue that what they called a historic pledge earlier this would he can to put safety first and hold the scientific integrity above all else in developing these vaccines so quickly. i didn't hear him comment on the possibility of an emergency use authorization here in the united states he was giving end of the year as the timeline they were expecting. previously the timeline for ast jen can a was as soon as october, they were really out in the lead with these trials so it's potentially pushed back a little bit but he didn't comment specifically on the regulatory accelerated pathway. >> okay. something to watch big news this morning, as early as people woke up. meg tirrell. take a quick break here. a lot of individual names to get to, z scaler, jcpenney, tiktok

plus uptrades of names like spotify, bed bath & beyond and glil yad when "squawk on the street" comes back you should be mad at forced camaraderie. and you should be mad at tech that makes things worse. but you're not mad, because you have e*trade, who's tech makes life easier by automatically adding technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean. don't get mad. get e*trade's simplified technical analysis.

lookentertainmentour experience: xfinity x1. it's the easiest way to watch live tv and all your favorite streaming apps. plus, x1 also includes peacock premium at no extra cost. this baby is the total package. it streams exclusive originals, the full peacock movie library, complete collections of iconic tv shows, and more. yup, the best really did get better.

magnificent. xfinity x1 just got even better, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. no strings attached. time for a mad dash this morning as jim is watching rh. >> wow, what a quarter gary friedman will be on "mad money" tonight, delivered a quarter that i didn't expect for at least maybe a year, it was that big of a surprise

they had great operating margins, too, everyone is raising their price targets. he owns -- he starts his conference call with quoting emerson, talking about how you don't want to follow a path, you want to blaze a path this is typical of gary, a bigger thinker than many of the analysts he's saying it's about taste those of us who are members of the rh club know that what he has done is create for those of us who don't have taste, taste he's got it going, he's going to england, he's going to france and, get this, carl, he's going to have a yacht that you can rent, i will inquire about that tonight, maybe get some -- maybe get mike core bat and donna core bat to go down, take it down, hopefully you can get in it. what i loved about this quarter more than anything else in the world is the fact that gary said he could get to $5 billion in rev. now he's going to $20 billion. he is the biggest thinker in the industry he is no the constrained by being an omni channel, he's got

everything going it's incredible that you could in a time of covid with a nonessential company do these kinds of numbers my hats off to gary, he is very different from every other retailer oh, boy, is he good. >> yeah. yeah upping their long-term view on margins, jim we know he was well ahead of the curve on supply chains out of asia and they're already so well-positioned for consumers who not only have saved a ton of money by not traveling but are spending a i lot more time in their home. >> he says it's indefinite how long you contrast darius adamczyk from honeywell, dimon from jpmorgan, this he all expect -- jamie thinks we are all going to go back. gary is not making that bet. gary is saying, listen, your house is going to be your office, your house is going to be your life and it's got to be better than it is. he's talking about the exit from urban to suburban, second homes. gary is a very big thinker, most of the people in retail are

trying to figure out how to close stores to grow, gary is thinking about how to open stores to grow and he blew people away. i'm glad you mentioned the operating margins, margins in this business have historically been terrible but that's because it's not a business. this company is not a furniture retailer this is a company that has taste and allows you to be part of that taste every time i buy something from -- my wife lisa buys something from rh i send a picture to gary. gary always comes back and he knows, i mean, anyone has been to the -- i don't even know if you can go to the outdoor -- where he is in terms of opening up the new hotel, new guest rooms downtown in the meat packing district, but gary inspires and the stock is inspirational. we have a better return than every one of the faang stocks including i think today amazon and he bothers to mention that, too. gary is a warriors fan

sorry. >> no, those are definitely growth-like numbers right there for the last couple years. >> real deal. >> what an amazing story we will talk more about that and a lot of the other individual names. also this morning an exclusive with former fed chairman greenspan, we will talk to him about long-term trajectory of the economy, the fed's new inflation strategy ahead of eeeir meeting next wk. that's later on this morning don't go away. i can't wiat to share at&t's big 5g news... (shouting through the glass) at&t has nationwide 5g? yup! and that's faster?

faster, yea! but is it reliable? ah huh and secure! you should consider making a big deal about it! bigger? i said bigger! oh, big-bigger deal bigger than what i'm doing? it's not complicated. a 5g network needs a 5g device. now everyone including existing customers can get a free samsung galaxy note20 after trade-in. a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. that's the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management. for skin as alive as you are... don't settle for silver ♪ gold bond champion your skin

coming off the best nasdaq gain since april 29th. futures looking about as strong as all morning long. tesla, google, amazon, netflix all in the ge.am we will get the opening bell in five minutes we know business keeps moving.

and however we connect, whether it's over the phone, online, or in your office, we're here to listen and provide solutions that help you run your business better. because the decisions you make have far reaching implications. and a relationship with a corporate bank like pnc can provide just what you need.

as one of the nation's largest banks, pnc brings customized insights and a local approach. to make informed choices now and in the future.

>> announcer: the opening bell is brought to you by nuveen. a leader in income, alternatives and responsible investing. just a couple minutes to the opening bell, jim. among the upgrades today and there are several, we've got two for spotify, one of telsi the other out of credit suisse credit suisse ups their target by 100 bucks. >> spotify is controversial because you either believe in podcasts and think it's the best thing going, the actual business spotify, many of us have it, share it, but it is the podcasts that make it so that the stock has legs i like the call, i've liked the

stock since it came public the company has smart people this joe rogan podcast they think is going to be really, really big over at credit suisse he has a lot of followers. whenever you hear somebody say you are going to be the next joe rogan, let's see how joe rogan does, but podcasts are far more popular than those of us who are in general media realize unless you are in a car or go somewhere. so i like the spotify call, i think it has a lot of energy to it being international, a lot of ai to it, it's not that netflix feel and it's rolling. >> yeah, the podcast debate is pretty fraught right now. >> yes. >> given some of the uncertainties about the long-term payoff, but between that and the marketplace offering there's quite a bit of enthusiasm around spot you were talking rh a moment ago and we had the discussion about people investing this their home bed bath up five as well as wedbush takes it to best ideas

i don't know if you're going to do that far. >> john duskin an activist so to speak for retail has been saying over and over again, look, this is the real deal this is the real turn. it is an expensive stock, want you to contrast what they're doing with what gary friedman says at rh is that you can't cut your way into success. it's a controversial stock but i think it has better management even if it ultimately isn't going to be the best thing since sliced bread, bed bath has room to go higher. >> jim, talked about the price action yesterday, you did say in the morning that it was time to stop selling i guess given the way in which the buying bee got more buying during the session is it time to start buying >> look, i think a lot of companies at 5:00 when brian was on this morning looked like they were going to be down big and i was going to say here we go again.

pick up z scaler because it was an unbelievable quarter. go in and buy back some zoom if you haven't gotten that. there we go right off to the races again. "wall street journal" had a piece saying tech book is lower. tell that to the people buying nvidia, tell that to people buying salesforce. the z scaler quarter a lot of people think that these companies are overvalued but if they actually are making a lot of money and are not cheap, i know some people will hate this but on 2023, 2024 business, but z scaler and crowd strike are companies that make it so that if you work at home you are not hacked work at home a lot easier to hack and people also half of you playing video games and they steal your chips and there are -- it's just been heaven for the hackers and crowd strike is a cloud native company, z scaler, octa, we have toth mckinnon do a great job. if you want on prem and cloud you have to be looking at palo

alto which also had a magnificent quarter. >> jim, trucking continues to be fascinating. nava star is up big this morning as vw this unit boosts its bid for the company from 35, they're going to 43. this is a storied name, been around an awful long time. >> yeah, i mean, look, construction company whether it be cat, whether it be volvo, seeing a lot of business ag by the way i know that stephanie link has been saying deere, deere, she's right. i think that this is a sustainable turn i think that people are very reluctant to buy cyclicals because they think how does it possibly happen, but the numbers are the numbers and trucking has been -- the makers of trucks, they're doing quite well yesterday caterpillar hit a high nobody could figure it out it could very well be this last night we had 7% plus in

rails. we have had negative, negative, 7% carloads up, that's intermodal, that's truck that's a win >> jim, here come the cruise lines, some of the retailers, kohl's, gap, carnival, norweigian, royal. so that trade is rearing its head again. >> that trade is back. gap stores it's so funny people talking about@let at that having ooth 6% growth versus lulu, that is back. the robin hood crew loves the cruise lines, i wonder if they're actually taking any. no, because you can't do it. norweigian has two years of cash hanging around if you want to be able to go in one that has staying power it would be norweigian if you think there's a vaccine i know because i -- cruising is pretty cool, my wife has gone on good cruises, you get so the great deals. i think you should take down 20 -- they won't let you do this

i don't think but take down like 20 state rooms because the deals are so great this is a hope trade all threes companies are incredibly well-managed at the issue is can they get covid under control. if they can you will see some very, very big numbers out of norweigian this time next year >> right and then we see some other companies, jcpenney is the most obvious example this morning, jim, where they're going into a truly different chapter here as simon gets involved if david were here he would probably give us a little more color on where lvmh and tiffany may go, but lvmh did file their lawsuit in delaware and said they were surprised by the other direction suit out of tiffany. >> mall based not that good, but then again i look at simon properties and what they're doing with stelter doing with brookfield and it's original again, i defer to gary friedman because his stock is up the most rh saying you can't close your way into growth, but maybe some people think that david simon is

being desperate. i know david simon, he is not a desperate guy, he is a cold, hard thinker, but malls are doing bad. star wood had some bad i would love to hear from barry before i comment directly with what's going on with his malls. he is a terrific businessperson. i see no turn in the malls but i do think simon properties is doing original thinking about what to do with that empty mall space. >> in general, jim, do you think -- we just had the fastest correction off an all time high ever for the ndx is it possible that that gets unwound this four sessions i mean, is this the precursor to maybe a more medium-term duration of volatility >> i think it's a precursor to more medium term the last half hour yesterday was actually pretty bad for the s&p. we didn't talk about it. for the dow it was really bad. i do see that the numbers are good and that's what people aren't thinking about. when you go over z scaler, a

cybersecurity company the numbers are extraordinary. goes from being an expensive stock to being cheap if you look at nvidia, this stock was selling at 20 times earnings in '20 if you back out what it was doing at the end of 2018, 20 times earnings. all i ever heard was bubble, bubble, toil and rouble. if you go back it turned out that the company earned far more than people expected if you execute well, salesforce, it turns out your stock isn't that expensive next week we have adobe. this stock looked incredibly expensive a few years ago and it turns out when they did the numbers they executed. carl, if you can execute, if you are on the internet, if you are digitizing you're doing the numbers. if you are in trucking you're doing the numbers, if you are in 5g you are doing the numbers it makes it so that you have stocks that people come on and say are bubbles. well, the bubbles aren't bubbles, they turn out to be stocks that they actually have earnings, earnings per share and their multiples if you look back weren't that high and that's what a great growth stock does

>> right especially in the early innings of a new bull market especially. >> exactly. >> we will see what peloton and oracle say tonight jim, we started the hour talking about the nfl, but rosenblatt does initiate penn at a buy 80 target, up another 9% this morning, that's an all time die. dkng about a two month high. >> i love the penn nat quarter from rosenblatt. if you go through it what is the standout in they're going to own bedding. david portnoy and barstool, well will david spend as much time talking about stocks i don't know i spent a lot of time talking about nfl so it's entirely possible but the unthing i like is that jay snowden who is the engine behind the penn nat barstool deal wants to own gambling now that 33 states make it legal i think he understands exactly where things are going someone was recommending mccal, casinos, give me a break penn nat doesn't have china, penn nat has gambling.

this is the opening night of -- i've got to tell you, carl, i see more people doing fantasy and more people wanting to gamble, i of course can't gamble in my contract, but, wow, penn nat is the place and that is a very inexpensive stock if they get it right >> what a move that has been >> remember the stock was at 3 it was at 3 in march. >> historically the view has been that baseball gave you the most frequency of bets, obviously just because of the game count, but nothing -- nothing matches -- nothing matches the attention that the nfl draws. i hear that al michaels is going to be on the half today. >> that will be fantastic. this is, what, the chiefs are favored by 9 one of the things that's happened is people talk about the line they never talked about -- even the late jimmy the greek, unfortunately sad 30 for 30 on him, was reluctant to talk about the line i think that that's going to be what people are going to have to start doing and if you are

reluctant to do it i think there's going to be pressure to do it given the fact that 33 states find it legal >> jim, some interesting color on disney today. stocks up 1% but reuters has a piece about sort of the reaction within china to "mulan." >> yeah. >> quoting some sources that says the government is trying to get media outlets not to report on the film given the controversy around the production cfo did give an update on "mulan" as much as she could yesterday and said it has driven streaming, but we won't know more about the quarter. >> she's a totally heavyweight i would point out that big analyst meeting coming up, people want to get out of that stock, they're absolutely nuts i think that you have to take a long-term view i love that call we had the other day about maybe espn being spun off espn, natural place where we all -- those of us my fantasy league is on spooeb, many others are. i think disney has many, many irons in the fire. it's the ultimate open trade

it is going to be i think benefited by a lot of different tests that will be instant and when you have an instant test you waive your cellphone, get in, stop fearing and you have a great time i think disney is a phenomenal stock to own if you think things are coming back. >> meantime, as far as tiktok goes, jim, again, more headlines yesterday about whether or not there could be some effort to hand over management of essentially of the asset if not ownership as it does look like the deadline, the initial deadline is not going to be met. >> i want to hear from oracle. there was a lot of venture capital money, a lot of pe money, i'm sorry, that wants to team up with oracle to do a bid. larry ellison likes to drop in on those calls, run by the fantastic safra catz i had ed siegel on twitter he is the cfo and said they're

incredibly interested. no one seems to be interested in the fact that he is interested i do think there are a lot of people who want to be involved in this. people were thrown off by the president saying he wants money, too. there is a level of uncertainty about what goes on here, but oracle will give us real clarity tonight. that's a deal -- that's a quarter you want to watch because people keep saying that they're eating oracle's lunch but i don't know here it's up 10% and the stock is almost at 59 high where it was just beginning of september. i don't know whether oracle is that dangerous at 14 times earnings with the very big buy back >> indeed, jim finally we didn't get to gilead, oppenheimer takes it to outperform i think i remember you saying yesterday that on the spectrum of pharma that's working on treatments this was not one of your favorites. >> no, and remdesivir its checkered. this is in my cramer covid-19 index, the worst performer since we started in the last week of april, down 17%, it's been a

complete bust. counterintuitive for people who thought gilead was the one to own. all the drug stocks have been disappointing it's not just gilead, but gilead is the worst performer even though it's the one that got the most publicity when they did the remdesivir trials. decent follow through on yesterday's session, although energy has is there independent into the red, let's get to bob pisani this morning, hey, bob. >> perennially neg slipping into the red right after the open, happens all the time tech is leading and we've got work from home stuff, zoom, electronic arts doing a little bit better today, the travel stocks are helping, the consumer discretionary sector let's just take a look tech is leading as i mentioned, consumer discretionary strong on some of the travel stocks doing better than expected overall banks okay, slightly on the upside, industrials and health care doing fair, not a big leader the important thing is the mega caps are still leading today, apple is up, microsoft, all the

big five mega cap stocksmoving to the upside, all still down for the month, apple is down maybe 8% for the month so far. playing some catch up. i think the question is where are we right now, and despite all the rocky move in some of these tech names i don't think the conditions are particularly there for long-term drop we are sort of in a garden variety modest 5, 6, 7 percent move to the down side. if you look at the major indices from the 52-week highs, s&p 5% from the 52-week high, the equal weight s&p 7%, the nasdaq 100 only 8%, we've got about 10% down, that's about as far as we got, and the russell 2,000 is 11% from the highs but the highs were way back in january for the russell 2,000 so that's been a laggard all year the most important thing for stocks earnings have been rising, with he emphasized this the end of last week, again the beginning of this week for the third quarter for the first two months the earnings estimates are going up, up about 2.6% that's a little unusual normally estimates come down because the analysts are too

optimistic but they've been too conservative, they were conservative in the second and third quarter. hard to argue for a big drop in stocks when earnings estimates are moving to the upside i'd like to see the move up for the fo rt quarter, but if we keep getting the economic data i think that will happen as well earnings estimates rising big reason to argue against a big drop in the stock market doesn't mean stocks can't get frothy if you look what's been moving these tech stocks the factors behind them the most important thing is revenues have been accelerating because of the work from home. that's why these prices keep going all over the place we've had the stimulus on top of that, we've had the reopening narrative doing a little bit better than expected, we've had all these new momentum players like the robin hood people in it is it any wonder it's really hard to figure out what's the right multiple for these technology stocks. the market can't decide. it's all over the place. have you noticed, i'm sure you have, some of these big tech names in the last few days just in the month of september, look

at some of these names like docusign and salesforce. docusign moved from the high to the low this month 40% that's crazy that's a sign the market can't figure out what the right price is for these stocks, what the right multiple is. salesforce 40% from a high to a low in september seven or eight trading sessions, way fair 30%, apple 27% move from the high to the low price this month and even nvidia 23% these are established big names. you would think like we have a pretty good idea because there is a long history but you can't can't quite figure it out because of all of their various factors that are moving things around including the new robin hood crowd that are out there that are buying a lot of the momentum names the bottom line is stick with the idea when earnings are generally rising expectations it's hard for the market to have a really big, big drop guys, back to you. >> all right bob, thanks very much. we did get some data this morning on claims and ppi. let's get to rick santelli hey, rick. >> hi, carl.

indeed, you know, claims basically were lateral moves both on initial and continuing i'm not sure that's a good thing, we'd like to see more progress made on bringing joblessness down but the inflation numbers were a smidge hotter which will make thomas consumer price interesting more interesting. intraday of ten firmed up right back into the zone of crowded trades that we have between 70 and 74 basis points, we want to with a much if we get above three quarters of 1% a month to day of bund yeels same scenario, they keeping moving up towards minus 40 but for the most part it's also somewhat of a lateral month with regard to rates. something that hasn't been lateral is their currency. christine lagarde and the ecb met today and they didn't really change policy and they are not really addressing or targeting or spending much time talking about the recent strength of their currency whether it's against the dollar as you see on this intraday which is getting close to levels we haven't seen since may of

2018 or whether it's against the yen as you see on this intraday chart as they once again get close to extreme levels of april of 2019 and i could show you against the chinese currency there's been improvement as well so the euro seems to be having some strength. they adjusted some of their forecasts but for all practical purposes whether it's the ecb or our central bank they are trying to monitor covid and they don't really have any more facts than anyone else does carl and jim, back to you. >> all right rick, we will see you in a bit rick santelli. as we said earlier, coming up, lots to talk about with former fed chair alan greenspan in an exclusive interview about inflation, the economy and the fed itself in the meantime it's now the best two-day gain for the s&p since the end of june. april for the nasdaq and the dow has gone higher for the week stay restless

with the icon that does the same. the rx, crafted by lexus. lease the 2020 rx 350 for $409 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. that's the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management. it's made for this guy a veteran who honorably served and it's made for her she's serving now we made it for all branches and all ranks whether they served one tour or made a career of it. we also made usaa for military spouses and their kids usaa is easy to work with and can save you money on auto, home and renters insurance. become a member today. get an insurance quote at usaa.com/quote

usaa. what you're made of we're made for makes it beautiful. state-of-the-art technology makes it brilliant. the visionary lexus nx. lease the 2020 nx 300 for $339 a month for 36 months.

experience amazing at your lexus dealer. zblrvegts as we mentioned the nvrl season kicks off torrennig. fans are allowed inside arrow head it's reduced capacity to about 22%. new protocols. fans are required to wear masks at all times including while seated you can chaff the texasens and chiefs tonight it's going to be quite a game. who do you like? >> i like the chiefs i love andy reid

those of us who live and die fantasy though there's some exciting new players, a new running back for the chiefs. but it's mahomes mahomes is the only quarterback drafted in the first or second round in fantasy the rest of them are pretty much the same i think this is a very big statement game for the chiefs. i think they could win big how about the second half of the super bowl wow. football back is great >> he had a great near last year another one personally this year obviously he's getting paid which he deserves. do you forsee any kind of hiccups the way we saw early on in the baseball season >> they've only had one person apparently since the training camp began that tested positive. they test, test, test, test, test they have done tens of thousands of tests obviously once you get on the road there could be some hiccups, but these guys, this

has been done very well. they have lots of money. they've figured this out i know there's still a lot of people who feel it cannot be a complete season, but -- and they're not like adam silver in terms of the dome, but they've done a great job they really have done a great kn job in the nfl training camp went well. >> do you think it's a spring board for more advertising we saw data yesterday that said advertising in general is down 19 that was in the first half but i wonder if you think this portends broader gains in advertising and media stocks >> michael nathanson had a good piece showing the decline, but and we're also in a period where there's so much sports but the nfl, gambling is big obviously the -- when you do fantasy, you watch the fourth quarter. that matters tremendous city

it's been hard to reach people when i deal with someone like mary dillon at ulta, she wants to use the web you come back to digitizing, adobe reports. commerce is on the web shopify, the instagram shops are powerful the clorox ben odor, a leader in getting consumer packages to the web. the only thing that held it back has been a boycott i think that's diminished. it's the web it's amazon and it's google. that's where people want to be amazon is streaming the game it's pretty important. >> yep by the way, a xios said it's the 20th ever sports equinox >> i love it look, this is -- i mean, there's seven double headers every time you turn around. the basketball season has been

great. i do feel that nfl will prevail. >> later on today as we said, al michaels will be a guest with the judge. 12:30 p.m. eastern te.im squawk in the street is back in a moment every curve, every innovation, every feeling. a product of mastery. lease the 2020 es 350 for $359 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. that's the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management.

♪ ♪ ♪

hopes for a continued economic reopening lead as three of the top s&p gainers are cruiselines. we'll get more on isth and more when "squawk on the street" comes back a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations.

that's the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management. is the people you share it with. t-mobile's new offer on iphone better so right now switch and get two new lines of unlimited for only $90 and get 2 iphone 11's or 2 iphone 11 pro's on us. all on t-mobile's most powerful signal that goes farther than ever before. hurry into t-mobile now and get two iphone 11' s or two iphone 11 pro's on us. only at t-mobile. to deliver your packages. and the peace of mind of knowing that important things like your prescriptions, and ballots, are on their way. every day, all across america,

we'll keep delivering for you. everything we have, we've earned. the unmistakable lexus is. get zero percent financing on the 2020 is 300. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.

it's time for jim and stop trading. >> there's an hindenberg short report they do a lot of work, and they have a piece out today saying nikola, says how to parlay a partner of lies -- they are short it i think what matters here is you need to hear from the other side of the trade i'm sure that they would agree one of the things is they're open here's what we're doing. we're waiting to hear the other side and now is other side is quickly saying it's just a pack of lies. but i do -- that's milton, got to get back on right now got to find out what he says about the hindenberg piece about fraud and lies what matters is there are a lot of people in this thing, and they've got to know as much as

you can. so carl, it's being crushed because of hindedberg which owns a short position in nikola >> yep milton tweets. i guess everything is fair game in war, eve an hit job i know who funded it now give me a few hours to put responses to their lies. this has implications not njus f nkla but gm as well. >> it's too long for me to say i digested it. there's thauroughtful research. i like to learn the other side of the trade, whether it be j 2 global or there was recently -- i don't want to mention it because it was negative, a gardening stock that involves cannabis but do your homework do your homework >> yep >> jim, you're sticking around with us this morning we're grateful for it.

good thursday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." jim is going to stick around to talk citi, big story over there today. first inventories with rick. good morning, rick >> good morning, carl. our july final read on wholesale inventories means the minus 110 is tossed out and replaced with minus .3 and that sequentially follows minus 1.3. this is improvement from that low water mark at minus 1 .3 from june. now, if we look at july on the sales side, it was a nice number, up 4 .6. this follows a revised 8.8 up to 9% what's notable is that's the highest level ever for the 1992 series of wholesale trade and sales at 9%. so pretty much as expected although the replacement on the inventory side a little bit larger which calls into question all the inventories and what

happens when demand picks up and supply chains. these are questions we'll have to be answering a few months down the road. carl, back to you. >> okay. rick, see you later. rick santelli. our road map begins with the shakeup in the citi c-suite. jane frazier, the first woman to lead a megabank. and alan greenspan joins us for his first broadcast interview since the pandemic began. and finally the ipo craze. previewing high profile companies set to go public next week jim, we'll start with citi we talked about the historic nature of phraser's appointment earlier in the morning talk about what you think she might bring to the bank and your personal view. given the fact that she's coming from the consumer side >> i think this is great i always get the weakness in citi was the consumer side they do great m&a. we talked more about business

and talking about race i think that the leader has been there for 38 years and is a visionary. he was abject. he -- he's been grooming a woman, also the most talented person who happens to be a woman. mike wants to figure out what he wants to do next he's 60. he looks 45. i always joke to him about that. it's almost like 60 is the new 70 retire now while they have time. mike has a grandchild coming he's a family guy. donna is important his family is fantastic. he wants to spend more time with them who doesn't. has the pandemic made him be more soul searching? he's been there eight years. it's been tough to be a bank ceo. i know the chart may not look like he's created a lot, but the net income increased he's brought a great deal of

stability. wish him well. he's not going out until february, but he's a fellow who will be thought of i think now as the person who cracked the ceiling by putting jane in and jane has been around in a number of areas. incredible resume. like many women, but this one managed to crack it. i think that's also joining the board. that's because she's great, but also because i think mike wanted it that way. and halleluiah others should think about it too. >> yeah. people are starting to parse various industries where women have managed to get to the top defense is one area. some argue exchanges as well with the cunningham and friedman at nasdaq. it would be nice to see if financials follow. >> think about it. lin linda randall was put in clorox who buys clorox? guys give me a break. it's about time some of the

consumer package companies are run by women it's a natural who does most of the work in the finance in the house it's the woman it's about time all these companies stop becoming old boy. congratulations for thinking i don't want to just think about it i want to do it. >> we remember the site in april of 2019. all the ceos of biggest banks. the seven were dragged in front of congress. they were asked would any of you commit to making a woman or person of color your successor none of them raised their hand do you think today's move will spur other banks to do something similar? >> i think there's an undercurrent where it could have happened otherwise maybe mike just moved first. jpmorgan i think it will. i would love to see it happen

one day, morgan stanley. i think they feel the heat from the motion that how could they have made this thing an all boy's club for so long cov corbat didn't like it. i joke he would have been a high draft pick, but he and donna are a team, and i know that they feel it's a must that this suite things good for them. good for them. fantastic. >> yeah. that's fantastic jim, what's on mad tonight besides rh >> rh. i mean, you can't get bigger than that. look at that stock then we have ncino that's a cloud-based banking company. and by the way, number one ipo of the year. and jeff jonas he's been working against

depression for a long time it's been impossible to crack. let's talk about whether he can crack it there's not many drug companies that can deal with something that causes suicide. >> jim, thank you. talk to you later. let us stick with citi and bring in a veteran bank expert good morning roger, a few ways to try to interpret this initially here. obviously we've been talking about the significance of the first female ceo also in a sense, it's a transition from to some degree the global financial crisis era leadership at citi goldman made this pivot as well, but you have a lot of other ceos out there that kind of date back to that phase. what are your initial take aways? culturally and strategically for citi >> well, i think culturally and strategically, this announcement assures a smooth transition.

mike, and i agree with the comments just made an outstanding record. he signalled for some time he was nearing the end of his term. jane was the apparent successor when she became president, and i'm sure that citi like other institutions go through a very searching process. so i think the idea of doing this transition in this way is critical obviously it is george h.w. b--u could call it ground breaking as opposed to ceiling breaking as a woman to be the ceo of a major bank in the united states. having worked with and known jane for a long time, she would have been the in my view, the obvious ceo whether she were a man or a woman

she's just an incredibly talented person, and i think, again, strategically what you see is she has had experience in all faces of citi over the years. i remember the first time being vo deu introduced to her a long time ago, one of the executives saying this is the real up and comer in the organization. this is 13 years ago, and it was not the up-coming woman. it was the up-coming really, up and coming individual in the organization >> having known her over that period of time, what would you expect to be her priorities in terms of not to say reorienting citi, but what would be the areas of emphasis? she obviously has experience not more recently in the global consumer bank but also on the institutional side >> right i think she will remain committed to the global strategy

which is if you look at the numbers, it seems to me has paid off. she will clearly continue with what she is doing now to deal with the fallout of covid-19 she will in a highly regulated world have as a high priority working with the regulators. and so i think mike has left this in a good place citi was not in a good place when he took over in 2012. he has left jane in a good place, and i suspect she will try to build on what he has done >> roger, to that point, there's a pretty well-known phenomenon called the glass cliff where companies tend to promote women during times of crisis obviously we don't really have a clear view of how the pandemic will play out, what it will mean for the economy. what kinds of challenges do you

think jane is looking at in front of her in order to avoid that very famous phenomenon known as the glass cliff >> that's a good term. i think the fortunate part for jane is she's been head of the covid-19 response. so i think it begins certainly, and is most fundamentally a question of credit and making sure the credit is strong or strong as it can be in the environment. every rank has to work its way through the impact of the negative interest environment. but it really is credit. if credit stays relatively sound, there's a lot of room here and then she will have to work as i think every bank ceo will with the challenges that are coming from competition outside the banking industry >> what about the challenges

that you might see coming potentially on the regulatory side of things this is not unique to citi, certainly, but the idea, perhaps out there if there is a change in administration, this fall, is that going to be something the banks are going to have to navigate >> i think every bank has to consider we have not really seen major changes in the past unless the banks can be held directly responsible for the problems so after the financial cry situation in 2008 there was obviously major regulatory reform, because banks were held responsible. back in 1933, the same situation. you can never tell in advance. you don't know whether the fed would turn over, how quickly, but right now i would not see a

major change in the fundamental structure. could you tweak here, could you tweak there? inevitab inevitably but a change in the fundamental structure does not seem to make sense when banks have done as much as they have to help support the economy during covid-19 >> thank you very much for your thoughts this morning on this big transition >> thank you take care. and still to come, alan greenspan joins us in his first broadcast interview since the pandemic began you're not going to want to miss his comments stay with us stay restless with the icon that does the same. the rx, crafted by lexus. lease the 2020 rx 350 for $409 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. that helps you master your backhand... ...then you should be able to get a bank account that helps you master your budget.

virtual wallet® for digital banking from pnc. it's time to get more from your bank. virtual wallet® for digital banking from pnc. as business moves forward, we're all changing the way things get done. like how we redefine collaboration... how we come up with new ways to serve our customers... and deliver our products. but no matter how things change, one thing never will... you can rely on the people and the network of at&t... to help keep your business connected.

♪ if i could, baby i'd ♪ how can i, when you won't take it from me ♪ ♪ you can go your own way ♪ ♪ go your own way your wireless. your rules. only with xfinity mobile.

rbc with a new note this morning on facebook citing three new product initiatives. mark joins us to talk about it >> good morning, carl. >> you talk about marketplace and shops and reels and then you point out some -- one potential head wind as it pertains to the apple identification of ads in the app store which the company talked about just the other day. >> yeah. i think the real new new thing in our report is the facebook marketplace. it's been growing under the hood for the last three years it's something that i haven't spent a lot of time on in the past it didn't seem like it was gaining traction when we did a recent check, we

think they have over a billion users. it makes them two times the size of e-bay and 12 times the size of craigslist. this is a massive global marketplace. when we look at the product, they made it easier to buy and sell products. it's lightly monetized it's rare you see an asset like this with a billion user segment that's almost completely unmonetized. that was the big so what for us. we continue to think this is a great year for social commerce this year has been 2020, has been known for the acceleration in online retail and also in social media usage for a variety of reasons i think that's created the social commerce opportunity which facebook outside of marketplace is still really well positioned for we think reels is probably going to be taking advantage of the whoas of titiktok. this is an opportunity for reels. there is a head wind with idfa we think it's less than a 1 %

revenue impact this remains one of the top picks in large cap internet. >> would you argue the reels narrative is in the infancy and what would it take to show it is benefits from whatever happened to tiktok? >> i think the win for facebook is going to be whether this leads to rising engagement tiktok has proven something clearly. there is dramatic massive demand for short form user content, mobile first video it's captivating and it's captured a lot of attention. reels has a product that in our opinion is competitive with. it's by no means better than tiktok you give it a couple iterations, it can be just as good as tiktok they certainly have the day to to feed to make your experience reels just as personalized as tiktok's has become for a lot of people and there's an open question about what's going to happen to

tiktok it's either acquired or cut up and one of the things that's going to come up is a sometimemying of innovation. the indoor is opened that wide, it's an opportunity for facebook to catch up. i think that's underappreciated as well. >> you mentioned the marketplace business is lightly monetized. facebook is not really looking to extract a lot there in terms of the take. do you expect that's going to change in other words, does the company intend to monetize it more intensely down the road? what would that mean for i guess the competitive dynamics and can it move the needle relative to advertising in the overall mod snl. >> yeah. those are the right set of questions. i think to their credit, facebook has been driven by growth i think they get some criticism for that, but this is a management team that's hyper focussed on growth revenue growth here you have a new asset that i think is going to be relatively

easily monetizable they already have some ad unites in there they can take signals. what your searching for and put relevant ads in front of you when you're on core facebook or in instagram and then look, in some marketplace model there are dozens of these out there in the market and they can through listing fees, final value fees, payment fees, this may be the asset that really allows facebook's pay product to really take off you put all that together, you can get a 5% take rate we call that a marketplace light model. you could do that and you can see a pathway to billions in incremental revenue in two or three years. it's not that hard if you have an asset with that much commercial intent. it's a marketplace, and with the kind of tonnage of traffic that facebook with direct over it >> do those monetizing models offset some of the issues surrounding reputation risks, boycotts by big brands

there was a report out showing big brands were withdrawing ad spending on the flat form since july over issues surrounding hate speech, disinformation and so forth 1100 brands joining that boycott. does that make a difference? do some of the newer monetizing models help offset the models? >> there's one of two wild cards in the near-term for facebook. one is whether they definitely handle this political pressure around moderating cutting off hate speech on the platform. so the news is kind of died down that's in facebook's favor but this stuff could quickly flair up the other unknown issue is this election that's coming up. the way facebook handled foreign intervention in the marketplace four years ago led to almost a two-year brand discount, if you will, brand damage discount on the stock.

a couple multiple points the same thing could happen this time if they're not careful. if we're five months from now talking about who won the election and how facebook was manipulated again like it was in 2016, you're going to have another overhang on facebook shares there's two near-term facebook wild cards for facebook. >> good summation of your note appreciate it very much. good to see you. >> thank you, carl 2020 has seen 111 u.s. ipos raising over $37 billion the most since 2014. airbnb among one of the biggest names to hit the public market by year end. joining us is kathy smith. thank you for joining us in speaking with sources all i hear is it's going to be a very, very busy month. the pipeline is strong maybe bleeding a little bit into october, but it seems like companies are looking to take advantage of relatively high

valuations for their comparative peers in the market. as well as maybe getting out ahead of some volatility induced by the election. what do you think is really causing this surge of issuance right now? >> well, it starts with good returns for investors who are in the ipo market, and the returns on the indexes have been very strong many ipos are the new economy companies. they fit in well to the profile of what investors are looking for, and it certainly doesn't hurt to have the fed keeping rates low and as long as inflation is not in sight, we're looking at growth companies that are being valued at very high multiples because the discount rate is close to nothing so we're in kind of a perfect environment for these kinds of companies that are going public, and it's good to see they're coming out and it's smart to do that, because there's a lot of locked liquidity in the private market, and they're now moving

forward to tap the public market in many different ways >> speaking of performance, you all did a report recently looking at spaks and the performance compared to traditional operating company ipos and found they offer lower returns to traditional ipos. everyone focussed on spaks says no, but this time is different this spak 2 .0 it has more high profile big name investors at the helm do you think things are different this time in terms of performance for spaks? is this whole spak wave here to stay or a year from will we look back and say maybe we shouldn't have plunged into that pool? >> well, we think the jury is still out. i mean, the returns have to be there, and they are trying to improve the structure. but our study shows the returns on the spaks that have made acquisitions have been negative over the period that we studied

when regular way ipo returns have been positive now, they get a lot of attraction because there's been some moon shots that have come out that possibly couldn't have tapped the regular ipo market. draft kings, nikola, virgin galactica. as a rule they have not performed well for investors you need to be very quick exiting before an acquisition is made a good active manager, in other words to play this asset class collectly from the investor side >> you mentioned the companies as perhaps not having access to a regular way ipo. why would you say that's the case for things like draft kings and virgin galactic? >> well, because these companies generally have a hard time showing investors models and having investors appreciate the

value market the best example we have is we workers. no one would figure out where they were going financially and how they came up with the valuation they did there's a lot less scrutiny on spacs. it's an easier way for a company to withstand a test. this is why these vehicles have always been the second area of an ipo market, these blind pools. they haven't been really good vehicles now, i will hold out that they keep trying to change the structure and perhaps we will get to a better place. at this point, it needs to show in the numbers and it doesn't. >> another kind of round about way people have been going public is through direct listings i guess not round about but bucking the more traditional process of going public through direct listings. recently the sec approved a new york stock exchange request to allow companies to raise capital

with direct listings which prevented companies who needed the money from going that direction. do you see that as a mechanism that could open the flood gates? do you think there are necessary investor protections in place if that were the case >> well, i'm not -- as a general rule -- this is -- this is all about the benefit to the seller here because it's how we go public at the highest price, and have no restrictions on insider selling. now, that kind of equation doesn't work when you're on the other side of the table. investors aren't buying ipos for liquidity. they want to see their stock prices rise. again, i think if you go to the numbers and the -- what we've seen and the two ones, the

significant ones done so far have been spotify and slack. if you look at the stocks one year from their direct listings in the -- after the first day, they've both had negative aftermarket pmplerformance you could say it's because the business thing or we got to know other things, but in general they had extremely high valuations when it came out and it's taken a while for the companies to produce the kind of returns you need to make stocks rise on increased earnings at more reasonable valuations so it's -- it tells us having studied these two that the ones coming up, palentir and assana, there's no reason to rush into a direct listing take your time and look at it and let the stock price settle in it's likely it will be priced as

high as it can possibly be and insiders are liquidating at the time >> it will be interesting to see the lockup changes with palantir another company going another traditional route is snow flake. that company i guess got a vote of confidence from berkshire hathaway what do you think that sayings about the ipo market and perhaps a different type of investor that might be interested in it during these unprecedented times? >> should we all be trying to do an ipo with warren buffett as an investor snow flake is probably going to be the most highly valued ever software company at the time of the ipo. they're targeting a $28 billion valuation, and the company has

around 400 million in sales. the growth is incredible the notable is very high for this company, and if it weren't for maybe some of the other sale of approval of warren buffett, you have to look at this and say gosh, i'm really buying at nosebleed territory. but 100% year over year growth, investors will like that all eyes will be on snow flake >> it's 2020 anything can happen. kathy smith, we appreciate you joining us >> thank you and now for our etf spotlight. taking a look at the chip stocks ticker smh with a nice pop they're up more than 20% for the year still down almost 8% from the record high. that's a day after the smh's

best daily performance in a month. most of the top holdings in the lead we're going to take a quick ayitusbrk. st wh ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ you know limu,g after all these years ♪ it's the ones that got away that haunt me the most. [ squawks ] 'cause you're not like everybody else. that's why liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. what? oh, i said... uh, this is my floor. nooo! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. that's the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management.

makes it beautiful. state-of-the-art technology makes it brilliant. the visionary lexus nx. lease the 2020 nx 300 for $339 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. welcome back here's your news update at this hour at least three people have died

in california as wildfires there continue to rage through states along the west coast 20,000 people have been issued evacuation orders in just three california counties. india is leading the world now in new covid-19 infections and a record with 95,000 cases confirmed in the last day. india also reporting nearly 1200 deaths taking that country's death toll above 75,000. a huge fire in beirut's port state media saying this fire was at a warehouse storing fires and a fire on lesbos no injuries fired. thousands are without shelter after a larger fire earlier this week you're up to date. i'll see you back here in an hour "squawk on the street" is back in a moment.

wisconsin is shaping up to be one of the toughest battle ground states in the presidential race. our latest poll of the swing states found for the top issue for the voters there, it's the economy. in focus for wisconsin voters is the plant that was supposed to be cranking out giant video displays and employing thousands of people by now it hasn't worked out that way. and scott cohen is joining us to look at the potential political implications scott, with the election just a few months away, what's going on over there >> it's a big battle ground within a battle ground, and an important area of the state of politically as well as economically we all remember the promises, the voters in wisconsin do president trump proclimbing the eighth wonder of the world, cranking out giant video displays at a plant. and the state and local governments pitching in some $4 billion, a staggering amount of

subsidies to lure the manufacturer there of the 13,000 jobs that were ultimately promised. at this point at least as of the end of last year, only 550 have been created that's short of the targets. this election year there are some signs of life at the site there are some -- the company is now saying it will occupy the main manufacturing building this month. that's still behind schedule and it's a far cry from production and some 2600 people are involved in construction while this isn't advanced manufacturing, they are turning out covid-19 masks at the site and they also are building ventilators in a joint venture metropolitan racine is third in the nation for wage growth that probably has more to do with labor shortages in the area in our states of play poll, 43% of likely wisconsin voters say

they're feeling positive about the economy. that's a little better than the 40% figure nationwide, but does that trickle down to president trump or create a benefit there? no, according to the poll. vice president biden is building his lead in the state in our latest poll. on the question of who will be better at putting people back to work, biden and the democrats hold a slight edge state economic development officials in wisconsin are also a bit skeptical about fox con. they tell my they have not yet approved the credits they were claiming for the hiring last year, and they say they are still trying to renegotiate that massive $4 billion incentive deal carl >> that's incredible, scott. what a story, and one that's going to potentially have increasing relevance as we get closer to the election when we come back, former federal reserve chairman alan greenspan on the economy, the fed, tasy,reur inflation, china, you name it. in a moment.

jean, did you know geico is now offering an extra 15% credit on car and motorcycle policies? that's great! that's 15% on top of what geico could already save you. so what are you waiting for? john stamos to knit you a scarf? all finished, jean. enjoy! thank you. i give. the stitch work is impeccable. it's just a double fleck pattern with a reverse garter stitch. no big deal. is your hair this soft? softer. geico. save an extra 15% when you switch by october 7th.

with uncertainty over a stimulus package one investor lays out his top picks on trading nation more "squawk on the street" coming up.

♪ 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. ♪ joining us this morning in a cnbc exclusive is alan greenspan. it's his first broadcast interview since the pandemic

began. great to have you back welcome. allen, c al alan, can you hear me? i'm not sure we'll have to work on the check in or whether that's an audio problem or not dr. greenspan, can you hear me this morning okay we'll take a break and try to sort this out in a moment. "squawk on the street" will continue in a moment don't go away. look here, it's your very own all-in-one

entertainment experience: xfinity x1. it's the easiest way to watch live tv and all your favorite streaming apps.

plus, x1 also includes peacock premium at no extra cost. this baby is the total package. it streams exclusive originals, the full peacock movie library, complete collections of iconic tv shows, and more. yup, the best really did get better. magnificent. xfinity x1 just got even better, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. no strings attached. a quick check on the

markets. the s&p 500 up a third of a percent and has faded off the morning highs. not quite getting back to yesterday's high which itself was basically where the s&p 500 closed the prior friday. so a modest continuation of yesterday's bounce, carl, but nothing that necessarily seems to sort of change the overall picture of the market trying to figure out if three days and a 10% drop in the nasdaq was enough to skim away some of the excess >> yeah. session high 250 plus on the dow. they said this morning 3420 to 3430 were sensitive spots to see if we could exceed the prior day's high churn here, even though he's recovered arguably about a third of the losses we sustained over the important three days >> yeah. the bounces are suspect. weak overnight

a bit of a bid after the unemployment claims which were not great but the ecb meeting. the dollar down stocks up worked for a little while >> mike, i hesitate to do this, but we'll try again and see if our connection is good with tomorr former get chair alan greenspan. can you hear me this time? >> i can question >> great to have you back. we've not talked to you since co-vid became a phenomenon around the world, and prior to that, you would come on and we would talk about demographics and pressures on social benefits, the risk of stagflation. has co-vid done anything to change the long-term view for you? >> no. well, i think there are issues we're dealing with one, the coronavirus on which we

know very little, though we pretend a great deal the critical issues we're dealing with are the budget deficit and the entitlement programs with people retiring and as a consequence of that, creating a demand for funds which affect the markets so the issue is we know a great deal about the level of return and, therefore, the degree of entitlements and very little about the coronavirus which we're guessing at. conceivably we may learn things about it as we go month an month, but i doubt that. but my overall view is that the inflation outlook is

unfortunately negative, and essentially the result of basically a huge increase in entitlements that are crowding out our private investment and productivity growth which unimportantly is slowing down to about a 1% annual rate >> so given that, given the lack of visibility on the coronavirus, given the demand for those lock-term assets, how do you judge the fed and the treasury's initial response to the virus? and certainly now this new inflation strategy that we got out of jackson hole? >> well, all i can tell you is that what they are dealing with is a very unavailable issue.

let me put it that way they are deal dealing with the unknown. we can guess and prophesy and hopefully go back on historic and see how these things develop. histo history, and we will learn certain things but it will give us real insight into forces that engender stock prices. i think we have a great deal of knowledge on new and extraordinary increasing in size of the retirement area we are, if anything, under estimating the size of the budget deficits that are down the road i would say all and all my major concern is inflation obviously it has not emerged

and it is new insight on the virus. we do know something about the virus in a sense, but several weeks ago the house of representatives basically asked the congressional budget office what their outlook was for what was the impact of the virus. and they did something very deliver. what they did is they took their old january and february

forecast, and they matched it against the forecast they would make now with the knowledge they have of the existing virus and it's impact and negative impact. and they essentially concluded that the impact was running at about 8% annual rate which is very small in this ontext. and it is still in the area, i'm guessing so i'm not quite sure where we'll learn all that much from that area. but we have enough to worry about with the budget deficits that we are crawling up behind us >> you mentioned that inflation has not emerged in a significant way to this point. i wonder how you would compare today with when you were

chairman in the late 90s, and somewhat allowing the economy to run hotter, letting unemployment get lower before being concerned about inflation. productivity growth was significant and i wonder if you they that applied to today's environment as well. >> in a is that is exactly right. nothing that we could do went wrong. and i would like to say that is still the case, but it is true that the fed is doing it's usually very effective job, and i think that one thing i miss is the day by day discussing with the fed's staff.

i don't want to get involved and stick my nose in this it is going well and we'll see how it materializes but as i said before we have to resolve the budget deficits that are getting out of hand. >> certainly the data, even in the past few weeks, would confirm that view. dr. greenspan, we love to see you. former fed chair >> my pleasure >> later today cnbc's inclooux in action forum examines how concrete immediate action can be taken to create sustainable solutions to allow for equity and opportunity for all. join us today by risegtering at

cnbcevents.com/inclusion every feeling. a product of mastery. lease the 2020 es 350 for $359 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. ♪ ♪ ♪

a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. that's the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management. you know your kid doesn't step around puddles. and you know cheap leaky diapers are an amateur move. you need luvs pro-level protection. luvs. parent like a pro.

. canopy growth is releasing a martha stewart inspired line of cannabis in linking up with a cannabis company, stewart has come a long way from turning out cook books and home decorating tips it came after her brief prison stint in 2005 offering a line of meal kits, appears on "the

apprentice" and most recently joining forces with snoop dog. they kicked off a show on vh 1 and starred on a t-mobile commercial during the super bowl during the quarantine she became the unofficial queen of summer with this viral instagram pool selfie that garnered nearly 240,000 likes. stewart's involvement with the u.s. cbd industry comes at a time when projections have been cut in half because of the pandemic canopy shares are down about 20% this year. it is a trend that we're seeing industry wide. and now they're hoping to leverage her mop larty to win over customers it including gummies, soft gels,

and infused oils >> i think the more that we k have products out in front of people, and we can have legitimate consumer and lifestyle advocates working in this space, i just think it benefits canopy, for sure, and everyone in the space. >> there are also headwinds in canada a slow retail rollout caused oversupply issues prompting layoffs as recently as last week ontario's retail footprint is slowly getting bigger. >> they're very quickly going to hit critical mass. i think that there is a lot of work to be done on the demand side in canada by pulling from the market as well as work to be done to continue to clean up on the supply side. >> the company says they will have more details about the earnings in their next report. stock is up about 3%

>> thank you very much, the major averaged have gone red good morning, it is 5:00 p.m. in stockholm, sweden, at spotify headquarters "squawk alley" is live ♪ >> good thursday morning