good morning washington, wall street, main street, all in waiting mode at this hour. the presidential election outcome is still uncertain, but what about the senate? that isn't done yet either but as continuing legal battles begin -- or are beginning and will continue for a while, stocks continue to rally look at this morning, 330 on the dow. and this special edition of "squawk box" begins right now. we may make this permanent.

good morning, everybody. welcome to a special edition of "squawk box" here on cnbc. we're here an hour early and this is only for special occasions. i'm becky quick along with yjoe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. we're seeing big gains against today. yesterday the s&p turning in its best post-election gain in more than history 2.2% and the dow up by 367 points, 1.3% and the nasdaq was up by 3.85% so that was the phenomenal growth if you are looking at this over the course of the week, the dow up now more than 5% week to date, and that is its best weekly performance since early june the nasdaq gaining even more than 6% this week and that is its strongest weekly performance

since all the way back to april. if you are watching the treasury yields, you will see that the ten year at this point looks like it is yielding 0.73%. so we've calmed down with the yields we saw yields that went almost to 0.95% earlier on the election eve. i think this tells you about the calm that has set in, the idea that we'll find out what happened, this is happening calmly, it is happening patiently. and i think the market is taking some absolute relief not to mention the idea that it probably will be a divided government >> yep, probably that. but it is orderly and there is not too much going on at the polling stations and things. and the lawyers are amassing as we speak so that is the only thing that i would wonder why the market seems so calm. you can't even begin a recount in wisconsin until next week, right? >> right but as long as there is order

and it goes through, that is the biggest issue. >> i go to the divided government issue, it is straight up and down because i think the expectation of where taxes were going to be and the conversation we've had about where the country could go if there was a blue wave, the fact that that is off the table, i think that unto itself is what powering the markets at this point. >> i think that is -- >> i would agree >> yeah, i think that's it >> we should talk about -- >> i was distracted because in the midst of all this, we may look back and i don't know how this will play out with the alzheimer's drug i don't know if you saw it yesterday, but a company the size of biogen goes up almost 50% yesterday on word that they -- i mean, we've got nothing for alzheimer's.

>> yeah, if they could actually come up with something >> yeah, i was amazed to see it. and we're so preoccupied obviously, but when things like that happen, i mean this is one of the scourges of human kind, it really is and it has been one of the toughest ones because you don't know whether the blacks coplaq after you get it or cause it so that you don't see every day in a company the size of biogen. but i digress, sorry >> tackling this is a huge you issue because not to mention what it does to people who have it -- >> and i'm talking about families and look at the money >> guys, this is a disease that

of a flink afflicted my families, so it means a great deal to me but let's get you up to speed on the big story of the day, the outcome of course of the presidential election, votes still being tallied in multiple states including arizona, pennsylvania, georgia and nevada the biden campaign saying it is confident joe biden will win the election meantime president trump pursuing lawsuits for recounts in multiple states and we're joined as ever by our good friend eamon javers >> and take a look at the map of the country and wul see where we are right now. as the vote count creeps forward, last night into the night deeply, we saw joe biden now holding at 253 electoral college votes, donald trump at 214. and you can see the gray states there, that is where we're waiting on additional vote in order to fill the man up the race is to 270 as even

knows. so state by state, starting in arizona, there you see the vote count biden 50.5, trump 48.1, a difference 68,000 and change between those two. the vote count goes on there 86% of the vote total in in nevada, something similar going on as they continue to pull this together, 49.3% for joe biden, trump 48.7% 86% of the vote in in nevada and in georgia, this is not a state where you would assume that democrats would be competitive. this year they have been but perhaps not competitive enough 349.6% for donald trump, $4949. for joe biden.

atlanta is where the biden folks hope to pick up votes. and pennsylvania as well, as we talk about where everything stands, this is one that the biden campaign really had hoped to win over, 50.7% for trump right now. 48.1% for biden. a difference of 164,000. 89% of the vote in we'll see where that vote comes from and whether that makes a difference in the outcome here but the president leading in the state of pennsylvania and its 20 electoral college votes there. meantime we saw protests across the country yet as protestors for and against donald trump took to the streets starting in a number of cities we saw philadelphia count every vote rallies there, we saw rallies in pittsburgh as well, boston, and new york city. we also saw -- so those are the anti-trump protesters. they are calling for every vote

to be counted in those battleground states. we also saw some protestors in maricopa county in arizona hoping to stop the vote count, working with president trump or at least on his behalf arguing that the vote there needed to be stopped because they are alleging irregularities have been going on. so we're seeing the tension boil here, but a very legal and for most of the country very calm process of simply doing the drudgery of counting all these ballots that americans went to the trouble of casting this week >> it is funny because depending on which side you are on, you want them to count them in certain places but no, stop, in other places >> either you are for counting ballot s or you are not >> you need to explain to us how the supreme court, that roberts decision which allowed pennsylvania to go three days

after, and they are doing some kind of weird -- they are appealing to democrats to -- it is very arcane and nuanced do you know what could happen? >> i can't walk you through the in-frid legal system there, but one of the issues is that what the president said is that you don't want to see these mysterious votes showing up overnight he is alleging that there are new votes being cast after the election and there is just no evidence of that so the president has spent the past 24, 48 hours alleging fraud in all of these states and we just haven't seen that. so the president's legal challenges broadly will rest on this idea that somebody did something illegal somewhere in order for that strategy to be successful, they will have to find some of that and we haven't seen it yet.

>> we were talking here about how so far things have remained calm the question is what you think will happen if later in the day or are early tomorrow orion what you think the timing is at this point if either president biden would claim that he had won, does that create civil unrest, does president trump doing something like that if in fact the vote were to be given to him, how does -- we talked about calm thus far. do you look at ch weekend? >> there will be a core group on either side that simply doesn't accept the results that believes injustice was done to joe biden if he loses there was an interesting quote in the "new york times" from a pro trump protestor who said i

simply won't accept a biden presidency, i'm not going to live under communist rule. so there are people who believe that joe biden is a communist and threat to the nation's way of life. and on the other side, there are people that believe donald trump is a fascist and threat to the nation's way of life so the question is on the resolution of this, how do the leaders behave on both sides and do they behave responsibly and encourage their supporters to accept whatever the result has been and that is the key to this. so a lot will be what donald trump and the people around him decide joe biden says it is not for me or donald trump to decide the election, that is up to the voters and he has signaled that he will accept the verdict trump has not signaled that and i think that is the key inflection point here. >> in terms of timing, what do you think is your best guess, if

we have this conversation again tomorrow morning, hopefully not at this hour, but -- >> i'll have this conversation any hour of the day you want, andrew en look, i think that we'll see new results. we're expecting new results in nevada by 9:00 a.m. nevada time, so noon on the east coast. i think between now and then, you could see some final results in arizona and you could see that final result in nevada depending what they announce at noon on the east coast in that state. so those two states as you look at the big board there, it was biden at 253, he only needs 17 electoral college votes to get to 270 those two states would give you exactly that margin and put job over t joe biden over the top so we could have a resolution here in hours theoretically. >> you're falling back into the nevada versus nevada -- you started out well >> yeah, you sent me an email

about that >> people in nevada want people to say it correct. >> i'm from philly, so we pronounce everything wrong >> in pennsylvania, it still looks like a pretty big lead, but it is coming from a biden heavy place. so that lead may or may not last but depending on -- >> put pennsylvania back up on the board because it is a lead for donald trump right now >> that's what i mean. it looks big, but there is a lot still to come from the urban areas. so it is unclear whether that goes on. >> philadelphia and surrounding suburbs, that will be very biden. i grew up you in one of the very few republican neighborhoods inside a very democratic city. >> what the hell happened to you. >> that is why i'm so bipartisan, joe. >> all right but just for argument sake let's say it doesn't turn. and then arizona, i came up

with -- our chiron should say raising arizona. you can use that if you want ♪ have you seen the con jek sxhur that t conjecture that the latest dump, that's what it is called, the latest one was coming in at a rate where you could potentially if it were to continue you could see arizona flipping this you look at the predictedping to trp >> yeah. >> i've been talking the past couple days to a very well plugged in republican consultant in arizona who has been saying for a while now that they believe that the later votes that came in in arizona were dropoff absentee ballots that is people who had the an send he tee ballot but didn't trust the postal system, so they brought them physically to the polling places to drop them off.

and they think that is heavily screwed trump because those were people who believe trump's message that you can't rely on the u.s. mail here so they think that that last bit that will be counted is going to have a heavy mix of trump voters and so they think there is still a chance in arizona. but it is not looking good right now if you are down about two points or more >> and i think they called them late early ballots like jumbo shrimp or something but like yogi said, it is getting late very early maybe for the trump campaign w50e78 s we'll see love that one. >> it feels late early right now. >> and i think we are here tomorrow, aren't we, sorkin? i think we are here tomorrow >> i'll be here. >> i'll offer you this time slot permanently, joe >> i wouldn't want to do it

without you. >> you can warm up the crowd at 5:00 a.m. every morning. >> i'm not doing it without you. i don't want air time that much. then you do the 8:00 without me? i don't want to do that. >> i hadn't even thoit of thugh that >> don't you have a battalion of agents and lawyers to work this out? >> my first dad is a lawyer. oh, my god we could have fighting dads. but i digress. thank you. when we come back, what investors should expect in the coming days as we await the outcome of the election. first though check out this morning's biggest pre-market movers dow right now up by almost 350

points qualcomm leading the way, up 15% this morning our retirement plan with voya gives us confidence. they help us with achievable steps along the way... so we can spend a bit today, knowing we're prepared for tomorrow. wow dad, do you think you overdid it maybe? i don't think so...what do you think, peanut? nope. honey, do you think we overdid it? overdid what? see? we don't think so, son. technically, grandparents can't overdo it. it's impossible. well planned, well invested, well protected. voya. be confident to and through retirement. at cdw we get you're always yeah. i'm just not sure office drones were the way to do it. [ laughing ] drone voice: l-o-l. our market share looks good, but... drone voice: where are the bagels? well, cdw can help you modernize your company the right way, with a scalable infrastructure from hpe, making you more efficient and secure.

great. oh. [ drones buzz angrily ] let's find a different room. for transformation that works, you need hewlett packard enterprise and it orchestration by cdw. people who get it. ♪ you can go your own way ♪ go your own way your wireless. your rules. only xfinity mobile lets you choose shared data, unlimited or a mix of each.

and switch anytime so you only pay for the data you need. switch and save hundreds on your wireless bill. plus, get $300 off when you buy the samsung galaxy note20 ultra 5g. learn more at your local xfinity store today. welcome back if you are just waking up, you probably should hit the snooze button and go back to sleep.

it is 5:19, why are you up but if you are wondering if we have an election outcome, here is your answer votes are still being counted, multiple states are still too close to call. the current electoral vote count looks like this, joe biden 253, president trump 214. and it is a little odd because you don't know what will happen in georgia and north carolina. north carolina some people say more likely that that ends up with trump georgia still up in the air. arizona is already included in that biden number, so that is assuming nothing happens there so until we know, i guess we don't know although some people think the writing might be on the wall anyway, there are the markets after monday, tuesday, wednesday all positive sessions. joining us now, stephanie kelly, senior are political economist at aberdeen standard investments. do you want to talk about the

s&p and resistance levels and support levels and whether we're likely to have multiple expansion or do you want to talk about what type of economy we'll have depending on the makeup of congress and the executive branch i guess that might be more in your lane. >> yeah, i think that investors are having to grapple with that difference, which is how much do i care about fiscal policy and the macro versus the kind of sector specific stuffy might have been worried about under a biden win with democrats in majority in the senate so things like tech and health care i think the realty for investors, there is a bit of a fine line to trend, but it is looking more likely that we end up in what we say macro prepare which is by ken winniiden winnie

house and republicans fail to win the senate as the coronavirus continues to create problems, stimulus could be less strong >> and so we've talked about gridlock being somewhat friendly or at least not something that the markets really frown upon. but when it comes to stimulus, that might be the one area where the cooperation would be welcomed i guess by the are market but in general, does that make sense that stock markets don't want anything to happen because of a split government usually? >> yeah, in formal times when you are not in the middle of a global pandemic or not on the cusp of an economic crisis, then the preference in markets does tend to be investors prefer that governments don't do too much, didn't change too much so to allows the kind of pure market factors to drive pricing

the reality is though that the macroeconomy is under extreme pressure because of the pandemic and i think this is an election where you might jump to a conclusion that this is kind of that kind of -- gridlock is good news i think is the wrong decision to jump to at this point. >> given that the markets at least in the united states are just barely off all-time highs even though we haven't had any recent stimulus, i mean shouldn't your job at this point be all about jay powell or the ecb, isn't that what we're seeing, doesn't that have a lot do in zero interest rates and zerp and everything else >> i think the reality is that sometimes the market moves on a given day particularly around elections can be a little unpredictable and maybe counter to the yunkd lunderlying macro this isn't a pure macro story.

under a biden congress, it is much more likely that you get regulation toward energy suppliers and tech care is under less pressure. and so it is hard to kind of parse out how much ever this is reflecting the more negative macro environment. as you say, there is a hope that there will be some small stimulus, but in the meantime of course we expect the fed to be very supportive and i think in this environment the fed is more constrained and limited because of i guess the absence of fiscal support, more weight goes on the fed to continue to buy back support. >> stephanie, thank you. where are you coming to us from? aberdeen, is that near st. andrews over there

>> yeah, i'm in edinboro >> so you are close. so you are really not up that early, but thanks anyway appreciate you being on with us this morning we'll see you again. coming up 00 ton the other of this break, we'll try to bring you up to speed on some of the other stock movers

stocks to watch right now, equ qualcomm is getting anice pump and also thunder ai tinder and s also beating the street. and expedia posting a smaller than expected loss and offering a revenue forecast that pleased analysts that stock had been beaten down by the pandemic and that stock up about a little over 6% right now. and coming up, a live report from europe where stocks are rising again this morning in early trading. when you switch to xfinity mobile,

you're choosing to get connected to the most reliable network nationwide, now with 5g included. discover how to save up to $400 a year with shared data starting at $15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. you can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. that's simple, easy, awesome. visit your local xfinity store today to ask, shop, discover the latest on xfinity mobile.

good morning, everybody. if you are just waking up and wondering if we have an election outcome, not yet the votes are still being counted in multiple states president trump has the advantage this both pennsylvania and georgia right now.

pennsylvania with 164,000 difference between he and joe biden, 89% of the vote in there. georgia with a 23,000 difference and 95% of the vote tallied. and joe biden has the advantage in both arizona and nevada arizona, a 68,000 difference between 86% of the vote being tallied. and in nevada, 10,500 show the difference we'll continue to get numbers coming in today. we expect at nevada to have an update 9:00 a.m. local time. check out the futures this morning because there are significant advances there once again even after the gains that we saw in the market yesterday yesterday the dow was up by about 367 points, this morning a gain of better than 315 points s&p futures up by about 60 points yesterday it was up 2.2%, best

post-election day performance in modern history nasdaq was up by 3.85% and this morning up another 321 points. so big gains across the board. and let's go across the pond and talk about european trading right now more than two hours into the session want to get over to steve sedgwick in london >> very good morning to you. yes, the whole of europe is following this as closely as everyone in the united states as well i've never known so much about nevada never, pennsylvania, georgia. and the european markets are doing what the u.s. markets are doing, intently looking at the results as they stay in. last week same as u.s. markets, an absolute drubbing on asset classes. but this wakieek 7 on 70% of th

market is up and in italy, 8% higher as well. we've also had bank of england decision here, and in case anyone was thinking about how we get out of the covid crisis as well as of course obsessing about the u.s. election, the answer is more central bank action and the bank of england today kept rates unchanged, albeit a pathetic interest rate but added 150 pound sterling to the qe for 2021. so huge amount more stimulus going into the system which will of course cover the extra issuing of gilts which the

government needs and i want to show you the individual sectors again a similar story to stateside. and technology 2.8% to the good. so some of the big semiconductor names, some of the big names that feed will into stocks also having the same rally you've seen on the nasdaq media doing pretty well as well. oil and gas just trading at its best levels of the session as well because we've seen a stunning rally in brent and u.s. benchmark wti and that affected all the big oil names here likes of bp and shell under pressure this morning as we saw brent and wti falling a couple% as they rallied hard as well branks a s banks are under pressure today tough trading. i'll hand it back to you, becky.

>> steve, thank you very much. for more on the markets, let's bring in joanne feeney and on barbara reinhard is on the line joanne, let's talk about what you are seeing in the futures this morning we saw big gains yesterday and now those gains are continuing today. what does that tell you? >> well, i think that people are expected by the apparent outcome of the election which will be a divided government and so some of the fears that there would be a very left wing agenda that would be faenlgtsed tthe next fn so those fears are reduced and so fundamental companies will drive stock valuations. and so right now, we're seeing tech really do well. it looks like the futures will continue to do well.

and that points to the tail wind that is still present which is the move to 5g, the move to more remote work and online and when you look at a company like qualcomm and their results, you see that they are gaining so much traction. and you look at a smaller company like corevo, these are places that people can find future growth. we think that it is dangerous to be looking at the rearview mirror at the stocks that have done best. if you look in the rearview mirror driving do you know the road, you could drive yourself right off the cliff. so if you are looking at individual stocks, stocks that are leveraged to 5g which is just beginning, to cloud computing which is continuing, we think there is still a lot of appreciation to come and we position the market is telling us the election risk is largely behind us, and now we can once again look at the fundamentals

of what is really growing in the economy. so looking for individual stocks and avoiding in-dwedex funds. >> you like qualcomm, it doesn't say be careful chasing it? you think there is more there? >> i do. i think there is a lot more there. we're just beginning the 5g cycle and equaled com is alqual exposed to the cloud segment i'd be cautious about an amazon or facebook which have largely digested the big move to remote work, the big move to streaming. and look for the ones with the better valuation which is sort of what we like to do by selecting individual stocks for our clients. >> barbara, do you agree with that thesis that technology is a great place to be right now? >> i think that we look at a biden win flthrough a very

different lens we're topped out macro investor, we're investing for retirement so we think the big story is that fiscal policy and trade wars are going to get a lot of relief this recovery has been driven by goods demand and that is very important. the trade war relief has huge implications for the rest of the world and so many small countries in the asian emerging markets had really been threatened and a big headwind to growth so we think that actually gets lifted in addition, the u.s. is slowing and the rest of the world is slowing right now under the heavy weight of rising covid infections so i think the big story is fiscal policy and the growth of the world depends on a strong u.s. so it really is going to depend on the u.s. delivering yet again another fiscal package as well as having a much friendlier

environment. >> do you think that the gains we've seen yesterday in the stock market and today in the futures are overdoing it then? >> i don't think so. it is a reasonable assumption to assume that you are going back to a goldie lgoldilocks environt and it is difficult to think about selling stocks when credit is hitting an all-time high. so there will be air pockets but i think that it is really going to be a very smooth ride to probably close to 3800 over the course of the next 12 months >> barbara, joanne, thank you both >> thank you still to come on "squawk box," pollster frank luntz is back with his take on the counting process and what investors should expect to see today. first check out the remarket dow winners and losers

we can start focusing on business and your money again. because a divided congress and a blue white house, well, that is called nirvana for growth

stocks >> well, that was jim cramer on "mad money" last night as wall street watches the vote counts now let's get to dom chu with a look at other areas of the market to watch right now at 5:44 a.m >> and what we'll look at is the theme that developed in yesterday's traded that will carry possibly over into today so let's take a look at the major indices. over the course of the past one week, we've seen that kind of big gain from those massive losses that we saw in the previous week. the dow industrials up 4.5%, s&p up 4% and about 3.5% for the nasdaq a lot of that for the nasdaq is just in the last couple days if you take a look at the nasdaq composite overall, we've kind of gone from drifting below its 50 day average price to back above it 50 day moving average has been

just around in this level here so if you take a look at a layer beneath there, the move sector-wise driving a lot of the action, we've seen a huge a little of movement over the last one week period in health care and in technology and in communication services so we're talking mega cap technology and health care stocks the ones that benefit there gridlock, perhaps the health care industry. and some of the stocks driving that have been health insurance companies. technology being driven by semiconductors and communication services and just to kind of put a point on this, if you look at the stocks that have been driving a are t lot of the market action, it has been the mega cap technology names. we're talking facebook, alphabet, amazon each of those stocks has rallieded, by facebook 11% 9% for alphabet.

and also 9% for amazon so there is a return to 9 notion that if we have gridlock in washington, d.c., it is good for certain areas in technology and health care with regard to regulation and path of least resistance for the entire market has been mega cap technology and those things kind of coming back full force the last couple days >> and before you go, how much do you think that is election driven versus -- and we haven't even talked about over the past 48 hours because it has been drowned out frankly by the election but the number of covid cases which i believe are reaching record numbers all over again. >> that is a great question. i did not put up graphics showing you some of the covid trades when i say that, it is the basket of stocks that we've come to know as being the ones that perhaps benefit from some of the themes in covid. as covid rises and the work from home regime gets more steam, the staying at home regime gets more steam, we've looked at companies

like zoom communications, like fastly, we've looked at companies like peloton, netflix and others, all of those by the way catching some kind of a bid as well. so there is this thesis brewing in the markets that as the covid cases rise, you will see a return back to that covid trade so to speak. the ones that really benefit when you are staying at home so take a look at that with regard to what is happening overall with some of those names and that is something to keep a close eye on because necessary are the stocks again facebook, amazon, netflix, alphabet, some of the beneficiaries in those lockdown type situations are the ones that we'll want to watch. but i'm specifically watching zoom because that has become like the poster child for this notion that we're all telecommuting and working from home so we'll see how that goes >> dom, thanks very much on the other side of this break, a lot more on the post-election tech stock rally and the reasons behind it.

you can't break up big tech at this point. that is crazy. what you can do is regulate it sensibly because they have gotten too large not to have sensible regulation. that is i think will happen no matter which administration it is man more so it might happen with a trump administration >> that was media mogul barry diller on our show yesterday talkingabout what big tech companies could face regardless of who is the president. good morning to you both let me start with you, ed, in terms of what happens in a -- let's assume that it is a

divided situation, maybe we'll assume biden wins, republican congress, democratic house how does that change the dynamic in terms of the potential regulation for big tech? >> look, i think what you are seeing in the market rally from the tech stocks is in part this idea that if there is a divided sort of leadership this way with a president biden and gop senate, a lot of these won't be able to go through the moves from both parties to try to regulate big tech will get a harder time to pass. i think barry might be right on that score he suggests if trump stays in the white house that they will find other ways to regulate t h tech i don't know about that quite. the doj's suit against google is really just about google being too big. so that is something that people in the democratic party also

agree with but i think that there is still sort of a big museum move on the part of whether a biden administration or trump administration to break up whether it is google or amazon or find deeper ways to regulate facebook in terms of how they moderate content, i think that there is still a political will there. >> and brent, weigh in on this because this is what i don't understand bashing big tech has been one of the great bipartisan sports of the past year or two we've had everybody from elizabeth warren call for the breakups of these companies to all sorts of republicans i'm thinking of ted cruz who has been on our program and talked about it too >> yeah, we don't think the focus on big tech will go away in terms of the regulatory call. what we believe is that there is no breakup and we continue to

believe that the regulatory overhang has created this cloud over some of the multiples and we don't think that happens. so it has been a great investment opportunity you go back to the microsoft case, its stock went up over 1,000% during the 11 year investigation. so our vinvestment call is you stick with the big names and we don't believe there is a breakup. if we're wrong, the sum of the parts is actually greater than the whole. so alphabet broken up would actually be more so investors would make even more money if amazon were for example -- they had to spin out aws, that would probably give more software multiples or trading right now yield a material up side in amazon's stock because we think aws again is still being undervalued inside the company. so we didn't expect aga don't et

term anything to change. these are great fundamental franchises and the work from anywhere environment and live anywhere environment will continue to be a tail wind for a lot of the tech stories. >> ed, speak to this though. obviously this google suit was brought by effectively the trump administration, if you will. when you think about the kinds -- to the extent you believe that vice president biden may win the presidency, do you believe the kinds of people that he will appoint to these roles, those who would run the department of justice, potentially those who might even head up treasury and the like, is it now -- given what is happening in this country, is it a different group of people meaning what if he appointed more activists, more progressives in those spots and now has to make up a new list or not?

>> i think what you are seeing a what is happening in the senate certainly will affect his catalyst in terms of what kind of cabinet he assembles. and that plus kamala harris, she understands silicon valley, she has dealt with that contingent in a pretty expert politic way so she knows how to sort of find ways to work with them without sort of killing them outright. that is one faction. there are at the same time liz best warren a elizabeth warren and think that they are too big i think the google lawsuit is half step in that direction just in terms of the arguments that they are making. and that could find ways to break it up. so i think a president biden

would have to thread that from sort of the kamala harris sort of sector of this westeas well z elizabeth warren but i think that there will be more regulation and more eyes on how they operate >> and brebtnt, we have to run, but as we've watched these faang stocks move, is that function of the election or is it a function of the record covid cases and this idea that there may be either more work from home more more lockdowns or more something where people will be stuck at home for a longer time >> i think that jeffries thinks this is a clearing event, that ultimately there is a lot of dollars sat on the sidelines, so it is merely money coming back in given the uncertainty is passing and we do think the work from anywhere trend will continue to be a tail wind

especially as we go into the winter and we're not seeing the caseload in the direction we want and we continue to believe again tech remains on a rebound. you are seeing great results off the last quarter and last night good reporting across software and internet so we think investors are coming back into the group. >> all right brent, ed, appreciate it, guys and when we come back, the latest on the vote counting process still happening in a number of key states investors are watching closely when you switch to xfinity mobile,

you're choosing to get connected to the most reliable network nationwide, now with 5g included. discover how to save up to $400 a year with shared data starting at $15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. you can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. that's simple, easy, awesome. visit your local xfinity store today to ask, shop, discover the latest on xfinity mobile.

stocks are set to jump again as investors a wait a winner it is thirst, novembursday, nov 2020, and "squawk box" begins right now. >> welcome to "squawk box. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin u.s. equity futures welcoming the new 5:00 a.m. start time and it has been ticking higher since we opened this morning now we got a four handle, up about 416 points on the dow. i don't want the market thinking

that this is permanent the two handle on the alarm clock is just two frightening for everyone involved. i might as well stay up. nasdaq up 333, s&p also up a little bit the ten year has mod rated its yield, it was above 0.8. >> good patriot doing your part for the country and markets. let's get to the latest on what has been happening to the electoral college map. eamon javers has more on that front. >> good morning again. the count continued late in the day yesterday in states across the country. take a look overall at the battleground map you see joe biden at 253 and trump 214. so biden needs 17 votes to get to 270 you see the gray states there, where the vote still has not

come in. let's start in arizona and tell you how the play of the land looks there. arizona, they are continuing to count 86% of the vote in, 50.5% for joe biden, 48.1% for donald trump, a difference of just over 68,000 in nevada, and we're expecting some vote count from nevada later in the day today perhaps noon on the east coast right now 49.3% biden, 48.7% trump. look at georgia where they were continuing to count late last night as well, trump 49.6%, biden 49.2%. the biden folks had hopedto pick up georgia in this race it was an unusual one because it is such a deep red state the biden campaign felt they had a chance at it looks like that might be slipping away, but the difference there just over 18,000 votes so we'll wait to see what happens in georgia

and then pennsylvania, this is the big kahuna that is still out there. pennsylvania now 50.7% for trump, 348.1% for joe biden. difference of 164,000 votes, so it seems like a pretty significant margin for donald trump, but they are still counting there, they are counting in philadelphia which is going to be heavily joe biden we expect based on philadelphia's history and a lot of mail-in ballots in philadelphia still to be counted. so the margin there could change if biden picks that up, this race is over there are a couple other combinations for biden trump really needs to run the table on just about everything that is still out there in order to secure a victory here so narrowing paths for the president as we look at the picture right now. but the count continues. meanwhile pro trump protests in

maricopa county, arizona last night. protestors heeding the president's call what they want here is a fair count, they are suspicious that there might be irregul layer irregularities going on, and they are also protesting fox news because that news organization has already called arizona for joe biden. the president upset about that and his supporters upset about that as well meanwhile protests in new york city, philadelphia, durham, north carolina all saying count every vote these folks are with joe biden, they want the vote count to continue they do not want the president to be able to stop any of the vote count anywhere in the country. those protests we've seen around the country. so far everything peaceful, even just voicing their opinions. and this is democracy in action. >> sometimes it can be a little messy. eamon, the idea of what happens

next, the legal challenges, that doesn't reside just in the places where they are still counting votes, i mean, you can look even at michigan and wisconsin and one dp wonder wha will happen on the recount potential particularly in wisconsin. how close was the vote in wisconsin? i hate to put you on the stop. do you know off the top of your head >> i think that we have a wisconsin screen that we can bring up but what the trump campaign has said about wisconsin is that they feel that they are within the margin of error there for a recount. a difference of just 20,000 votes in the state of wisconsin. so a narrow margin there in the state of wisconsin they have said that they will demand a recount, that process takes a while. and in the end, we'll see whether it makes a determination. because if biden were to pick up

pennsylvania and arizona and nevada, you know, that would be a tough margin because you are just talking about ten electoral votes in wisconsin so even a recount in that scenario wouldn't be enough for the president. they are filing suits in other states as well, all of this aimed at sort of plea serving the president's options as many as he can preserve at this stage. >> previous recounts, i was watching yesterday, historically, you do everything i possibly can and that was thousands and thousands. and at most, it might be -- >> 20,000. >> well, yeah, usually it is in the hundreds >> i was thinking back to florida too. that came down to a really tight vote and that was like a thousand >> real of thumb is that recounts don't often change results. there it is narrow, but is it narrow enough for the president. the trump strategy is just to

file all these suits, deapply all t deploy all the lawyers, plea preserve the options and see where they stand a when you say official said believes that the lawsuits are gist sort of a distraction and window dressing right now. and they are counting on the vote counts in these states to bring them across the line they need to run the table here, there are some people inside the white house who are still confident that it is possible and they won't need the lawsuit, but they felt like they needed to file them anyway just to keep all the options alive. and the president ultimately will be the one who decides the strategy here. >> eamon, thank you. and just to be clear, i was talking about florida back in 2000 with al gore and bush >> right been referencing it all morning long, pennsylvania, frank holland has an update on the count there. hey, fran frank.

>> reporter: more than 760,000 mail-in ballots that were received by election day still remain you been counted here and the secretary of state says is he expects the grovoverwhelmg majority of those to arrive sometime today and this as the president's lead continues to shrink. it stands at just about 20 points yesterday the trump administration filed a lawsuit to halt the mail-in ballot counting claiming a lack of transparency and also moving into intervene on the deadline of friday 5:00 p.m. and making claims that ballots for biden are quote unquote being found around the state. yesterday the secretary of state and governor fired back. >> the trump campaign filed a lawsuit to stop the counting of ballots in pennsylvania. that is simply wrong it goes against the most basic

principles of our democracy. >> we will oppose any effort, every effort, to shut down the vote we get to decide when the last vote is counted. >> in responding to the lack of transparency claims, the secretary of state says that there are live streams in pretty much every dountsity here icoue state. and you see the numbers on your screen 2.6 million ballots have been cast 1.8 million now counted. so half a million sent out but not kret returnyet returned they expect he the majority of them to come in sometime today >> that is not that far off, is it it is today already, isn't it? i think. this week is like one big day it seems like so we'll know. so just hang out there for a while if you don't mind. >> well, today is definitely

today, joe, noquestion about that >> sometimes it is hard to tell. you see that bill murray movie anyway, thank you, frank holland, we'll see you again coming up, we'll dig into the market response to the election the dow closing 367 points higher yesterday the s&p 500 posting its best post-election gain in modern history. take a look at futures right now, the implied open higher again with the dow up about 270 points s&p 500 up about 62. nasdaq looking to power up about 325 points today's ways of working, may work differently tomorrow.

but you can work out anything with comcast business. get fast, reliable, and secure internet on the nation's largest gig speed network. flexible tools - like wi-fi you control. voice solutions that connect you from anywhere. and expert advice here, here, or even here. be fast. be flexible. bounce forward with comcast business. get started with a powerful internet and voice solution for just $64.90 a month. plus, for a limited time, ask how to get a $300 prepaid card. call or go online today.

welcome back if you are just waking up this morning, let's take a look at u.s. equity futures because they are much higher this morning the dow looking to open close to 400 points higher, nasdaq looking to open about 330 points higher, the s&p about 65 markets have been rallying this week want to take a quick look at the best performing sectors in the s&p. it is led by health care and technology you are looking haelt care hea

close to 8%. and utility, financial and energy stocks have been the laggards and have been relatively underloved. but all in the green yet again for more, i want to bring in barry knapp from iron side the market has moved already so the question is, has the train left the station and where are the opportunities at this point? >> well, i don't believe that the train has left the station i think we've got several hundred more points of up side on the s&p between now and the end of the year. and into next year, the outlook is pretty optimistic when i set my strategy and tactics coming into the election, what i told all my clients was from a tactical perspective, the market is likely to rally under almost any scenario, a blue wave, trump and the republicans holding the

senate or the a their yes that we just got. but once we get into 2021, if we had the blue waveheir yes that w just got but once we get into 2021, if we had the blue wavetheir yes that we just got. but once we get into 2021, if we had the blue wavetheir yes thate just got but once we get into 2021, if we had the blue wave you'll probably get a buyer's remorse selloff. so monitor amount of stimulus would carry the markets on a sentiment basis, but then it would probably impair the recovery much like the 2009 act did. this scenario is optimal the best case scenario was the tax cuts and jobs act remained in place and the driver there was we had already economic conditions for rebuilding of our manufacturing base, a big capital investment boom and physical plant and structures it was somewhat impaired by the trade dispute between the u.s. and china. but once we got past the

election, if the senate remained in place and we didn't reverse the tax cuts, we were really going to start to invest in those sectors and have are something of referendum infrastm but it would be driven by the private sector so yes we got a big move in tech yesterday and selloff to some extent in financials, industrials, but i think the industrial and materials sectors are the ones that have serious up side well into next year. >> so that is where up been putting your money right now >> sure. listen,up been putting your money right now >> sure. listen, i've beenoff weig overwn tech for about a decade. i wouldn't be any more than market weight those sectors. i know you had an earlier discussion about antitrust and i think those risks will grow, will evolve somewhat from consumerism towa isism str,

just the idea of being too big creates risk but that is a slow evolutionary move i think the benefits of moving to the cloud will start to accrue more to the consumers of that technology from the producers. so all these are evolutionary things that imply that tech won't have the level of outperformance in the 20s that it had in the 10s. i'm not ready to short that sector, but i think that you will have a bigger move in cyclical sectors health sector could be a huge benefit. keep in mind with a republican senate, those cab threat appointments, some of the fears people had of, you know, various warriors for the "green new deal" or public option, those have to be approved by mitch

mcconnell. he's not going to do that. we're not looking at gridlock, we're actually looking at bipartisan appointments and legislation. so for me, this is a much better outcome, it removes a lot of tail risk. >> let me ask you know about that people have long said that the market loves gridlock and that the next four years will look a lot like gridlock. i would make the argument to you that the market likes grid lock to a point at some point given the debts that this country has and all of the problems that have persisted over the last 20 to 30 years, there is a moment at which we'll have to deal with some of it including just even dealing with some kind of stimulus package around this pandemic and what you think happens as a result. i mean, do you think nothing happens, and if nothing happens, is that okay >> i'll let you in on a little secret that i'm sure you may recall if you think about it, after the debt ceiling debate, credit downgrade and budget control

fights -- or budget control act which resulted from all the fights of 2011, the two central figures in negotiating those deals were mitch mcconnell as the senate minority leader and joe biden as the president that is how those deals got done and if anything, president obama disrupted those deals. so i have no doubt take mitch mcconnell and joe biden can negotiate a decent deal. if you listened to mcconnell yesterday, he is making conciliatory comments about doing something on the fiscal side it will just be more supply side in its orientation for example the earned income tax credit as opposed to the expanded $600 a week of unemployment insurance those types of things will accelerate the recovery, not delay it the way that the american recovery reinvestment act did. so i'm highly confident that those two can do deals that the government will move forward

when there is a crisis, but only really when there is a crisis. we want government minimal lized, but not doing nothing >> barry, i was surprised yesterday to hear some of those comments from mitch mcconnell including that the idea of funds for states and local governments would potentially be included in some sort of fiscal deal that cans out next. >> i think that there was always money there, it was just there was a big ask between did you give enough to plug the budget hole or do you give even more and start bleeding into solving some problems that were pre-existing conditions, right >> it is hard to measure some of those things measure how revenue has come down from taxes because places were closed?

it gets pretty complicated i agree we couldn't underfunding >> mitch mcconnell understands that he is in the minority position he has to keep his coalition together and keep control of the senate i looked at what happens in two years and who is up and who is not up he has to try to keep it together and so he has to deal, but he has to deal in such a way -- >> there is one question i have. we looked at this and said that there is no blue wave. and we had people like barry diller who said that they will take that with humility. do you think that is the case for nancy pelosi's left wing of her party? because she's doing the same thing mitch mcconnell is doing, trying to hold together a bunch of disparate views to say that they have that majority in that house. i know it is easy to say okay, you can say blue wave not there but you are still going to have congressional representatives,

so do you bring them along or find on more centrist way to move forward both of them >> at the expense of sounding optimistic about politics, which i rarely do, they did lose seats. and the way they captured the house in the first place was in red districts. so i think nancy pelosi was kind of holding the squad and all back a little bit already. they should be somewhat chastened from all this. remember, this isn't just the election this is also super tuesday super tuesday was a repudiation of the far left wing of the party. i didn't even spend any money on super tuesday to win i think the message is pretty clear pi i may be clear. i may be a less biased observer than some who are there, but i would think speaker pelosi would be respectful of that.

>> barry, we appreciate your time as always look forward to seeing you again. we'll take a quick break here take a look at where the electoral college map stands at this hour. there are still several states to be decided. at this point it is really pennsylvania and georgia that are leaning towards trump. biden has arizona and nevada leaning his way. but still votes being counted. and in the meantime stocks set for more gains at the open yesterday big gains, dow up by 357. this morning dow futures indicated up another 440 nasdaq up another 333. and s&p indicated up another 70 points this morning.

everyone wakes up every morning to a world that must keep turning. the world can't stop, so neither can we. because the things we make, help make the world go round. they make it cleaner, healthier, and more connected. it's what we build that keeps things moving forward. so with every turn, we'll keep building a world that works.

time now for the executive edge a couple of corporate stories to bring to your attention this morning. qualcomm shares, check it out. the company's earnings and revenue beat analyst expectations and current quarter guidance also topped what the street was expecting. it also expects high single digit growth in chips and smart phones next year up by 15% this morning a gain of almost $20 qualcomm ceo will be joining

"squawk on the street" at 10:45 eastern. and also match group earnings falling short, but revenue beat the street expectations. plt compa the impea parent company of tinder saw usage up and shares of expedia, they are also on the rise the travel booking giant lost 22 cents a share in the latest quarter, that was better than the 79 cent lost analysts had been expecting the stock up by almost 5% this morning. a closer -- coming up, a closer look at the key states including the keystone state that haven't been called yet and the path of the victory for joe biden or president trump frank luntz, his name has ten

letters but only two vowels. here is a look at the biggest pre-market gainers 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 you're concerned about the environment and climate change, how do you find companies that are driving the right outcomes? if you care about economic equality and social justice, which firms are addressing it in their workplaces

and their communities? for nearly 40 years, calvert has delivered competitive returns by investing in companies making a difference because we see value in doing good. talk to your financial advisor about investing responsibly with calvert.

good morning and welcome back to "squawk box. u.s. equity futures at this hour indicated up just under 400 points and if you are wondering do we have an election yoult cooutcom, not really, but we may be close. votes are still being counted, multiple states still too close to call. the current electoral vote count, joe biden at 253. president trump at 214 >> and joining us is political strategist frank luntz i don't know if you heard joe teasing you in the block before, but he called you a pollster and i wonder if after the

performance of the pollsters the last couple elections you take that as an insult. >> i don't think joe has ever lied to me, so that just keeps to the pattern >> she was kidding she was referencing that pollsters now have an even worse -- i was just introing you. >> he knows. >> i think you have a cool name because you only have two vowels i've got like four out of nine two out of ten is weird, frank, and i think it makes you very unique and very cool don't start with me today. >> it is all my parents could afford was two vowels. >> because you have a buy a vowel typically. >> that's right. so frank, honestly, what do you think just about the polling, the future for polling based on the outperformance you've been worrying for a long time that if the polls didn't

get this right, it would be a real problem for the profession in general >> and i believe that. it is very hard to do it because the pollsters did not know how to get donald trump to participate. you are looking at the electoral map right there. in the end, i believe that joe biden captures nevada and arizona. i believe that donald trump captures georgia and north carolina and to win pennsylvania is not enough for donald trump. that will not put him over 270 votes. so we have to see frankly what happens to arizona there is a big fight behind the scenes between the trump campaign and those who progress nosity indicated that arizona is in the biden camp. the trump people believe that the votes have not been counted correctly, that is the place where they are hoping to make the bringingest difference and other lawsuits filed, but arizona is the place where the battle is going to happen because the president cannot be elected without winning both pennsylvania and arizona i was in a betting pool and i

had the election called as of thoo noon today so we'll see how close i come to that and in the end, the longer this takes what i'm concerned about is the level evof distrust and level of lack of confidence that these votes are being counted accurately and fairly from both sides. that the democrats believe that there has been too much voter suppression, that too many people were not allowed the ability to vote and the republicans believe that there has been voter fraud and most journalists and many politicians have criticized him for doing that, they say if you accuse voter fraud, be able to prove it right now my greatest concern and the markets are obviously believing that it will be resolved today is that the public once again believes that the elections are being waged in a free fair and accurate way and that they believe that they are being kerepresented.

and there has been no conversation or very little about republicans taking control of the senate or keeping control and that kevin mccarthy and the house have added anywhere from 5 to 10 seats which will make that -- give the republican a greater voice. and so that could mean the end of his more aggressive positions and the markets can act with some security that they won't get a "green new deal," that we won't get a violent increase in taxes, that biden will have to govern to the center because the republicans will insist on it. >> so frank, the question i'd request, what is the great lesson of this election has been and whether you think it demonstrates that the democrats -- fascinating to hear barry diller yesterday say how humbled he was about what he has

learned from this. by the way, i feel humbled by it, i think so many of us feel humbled by all of it as we look at these results but where you think the country really is, is it really tribal, you know, how center right is it, how center left is it. there are some democrats who think that the problem for the democrats was that they didn't go left enough do you see the democrats do that or do they come even more to the center you look as you said the senate situation, you look at the minimum wage issue in florida, you look at the lyft/uber issue in california, the latino street i mean, it is fascinating. but i'm curious your biggest takeaways from all of this >> i'm not humbled, i'm scared i'm scared about whether we'll be able to come together, i'm scared that whether people who voted for joe biden will think that he is left wing enough.

why believe donald trump will continue in office and i'm scared about whether the republicans will find some way to cooperate with him, i'm scared about the divisions in washington, d.c. and i look at that map and there are more red states than there are blue states, but in the end, population, joe biden will win this election by somewhere around 3.5% and i'm scared about the coming together. that the public does not want a massive tax increase, they do not want massive regulation. they do not want a massive change, but they do want an end to the ugliness, to the meanness, they want a level of civility that they haven't seen before i'm scared that they will get the wrong lessons from this campaign >> that was really something to watch over at fox with that arizona call but what we're talking about right now with arizona, so they got -- it weird name they got a dump yesterday and the percentages that they were seeing was the right percentage

for what the white house has been saying. but there are questions about what is remaining whether the percentages will stay where they were yesterday and i know how detailed -- you are involved in all the minutia. so isn't there another dump today, this may be why you are talking about noon for when you think it will be called. when does the next bachl of arizona votes come in and where is it from and which ones are they that makes people think that it won't be the same percentage as the last dump? because if it were the same, there would still be a chance that he could make up -- that trump could make up that last whatever it is, 60,000, 70,000 >> and this is part of what i don't understand about the electoral process. we're watching arizona count its ballots and it should be done i believe by this weekend and north carolina is not counting any ballots for another few days they simply wait until november

12 i don't understand that process. there should be some sort of standardizati standardization. in terms of arizona, i don't believe there are enough votes out there. yes, the votes that they das yesterday made a significant img pakts, that they were for donald trump by about 60/40 that would require there to be more votes out there and they would require to be from the suburbs and not the phoenix area you've goes otht other parts ofe state to make that impact. we're a business network and in the end the people who watch there are about economic issues. and you will see an increase in public confidence about the future, you will see an increase based on the vote, based on the sense of a return to normalcy, you will see a shift as we approach the holiday season in the desire to consume, in the

desire to continue the work we're doing, and a sense of a return to normalcy and that is very good for a market economy, that is very good for a consumer economy. and the i actuali actually thins are making a right decision by thinking that the election will resolve a lot more things than it isn't i just see it from a political perspective and i question whether we're in the mood to be magnanimous and reach out to each other and accept a different point of view which we have not the last four years >> and in terms of the legal challenges, which of them do you think have good standing and might actually change any of the counts >> the fact is none of them do because the legal challenges that are most effective are those that than in the days before the election.

or even in the day before the election once those votes are counted, it is very rare and almost impossible, and it happened in philadelphia and that is the place where i think the legal challenges have the greatest standing in philadelphia elections have been nullified when they have proven corruption. and i was living there and i saw it happen and i saw the corruption that goes on in that city and i don't mean to cast aspersions among the politicians who govern there now but philadelphia does not have a good history in how it has behaviored in tb behaved on the electoral process. they tend to rule on the side of the democrats, but there have been compromised decisions that suggest that in pennsylvania it could make a difference and plus trump is leading right now and he will continue to lead i think until the last two or three percent of the votes are counted. >> but then you think that that

state flips and it goes to former vice president biden? >> based on where the votes are and the fact that so many are coming from philadelphia or the philadelphia suburbs, th which strongly democratic, i think that it does flip to joe biden and i don't think that the courts will overturn those decisions. at least not in this election cycle. >> but where do you think arizona and never they haada co? does pennsylvania matter if that is where the biggest questions are and the biggest legal challenges are >> the key for the trump campaign, and there is some reason, some justification for this, is that arizona can flip to trump based on where the votes are still coming from. and pennsylvania is still too close to call. i believe that nevada when all the votes are counted stays in

biden's camp too many votes missing there from las vegas and not enough missing from the rest of the state which is more likely to vote republican than vegas is. >> what about georgia? >> georgia in the end i believe will end up with the republicans by a very, very narrow margin. and what is interesting about georgia is the senate race at least one of those races are going to a runoff and it is still possible that two of them will based on the votes still out. and could you imagine the senate being up for grabs even after the politicians are seated for the new congress that you could see tens of millions of dollars spent to make a difference because if joe biden could possibly win the senate, then august bets all ben terms of legislation this is really important for the consequences of lemgislation. it will not happen in republicans control the senate, but that control is still

dependent on that race that you have up right there. it would become virtually impossible because then the democrats would have to win the thom tillis race this i don't think will happen and the runoff in the other georgia race which is possible. >> frank, thank you. been great talking to you the last several days and we appreciate your insights >> and i want you to know that i give advice to my colleagues, i give advice to people when they ask me what should they watch too get an accurate report, and joe and you and andrew do the best job of any show he on television at presenting exactly what is likely to happen, exactly the consequences and cnbc should be proud of what it does. you have not fallen into the trap of the other cable networks you've done your job well. congratulations you all. >> thank you >> thank you, frank. that is high praise. >> thank you

a lot more coming up on the other side of this break futures in the green this morning. we'll get you up to speed on the biggest movers of the market as the count continues. and later, we'll hear from former white house keefe of staff pimick mulvaney for his te on the latest election headlines. we talked to him before the vote d w 'lta thiafter. geico makes the claims process so easy...

...i can file and manage my claim, all on the geico app. it's not just easy. it's giving-your-dog -your-fitness-tracker easy. oh, good boy. yes, you got it! woo! already got my 40,000 steps today... can i get a what what! no pain, no gain! haha... it's geico easy. with fast and convenient claims service. look how fast i'm running! good boy, chester.

keeping your oysters growing while keeping your business growing has you swamped. (♪ ) you need to hire i need indeed indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base so you can start hiring right away. claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/promo

want to bring you an update on the pandemic. nbc news could not fiu ews 100, cases in the united states yesterday. that breaks a single day record. this follows more than 91,000 infections the prior day the 7-day average of daily new cases is now 20% higher than last week's levels meantime, in europe, the u.k. lock down began at midnight local time bars, restaurants and gyms are among those businesses being forced to close for a full month. yesterday, some pubs slashed prices on beer, offering a pint for less than a pound as they tried to get rid of their stock, and then italy is among the other nations also announcing new restrictions as well on some regions, including the city of milan. in red zones, people are only

allowed to leave their homes for work, health needs or emergencies. then in greece, they ordered a new three-week national lock down it starts on saturday. people there will need a time slot, which is a permit in effect, a time slot to even go outside. we're seeing the effect of these lock downs now we have been talking about how the markets have moved in part on our elections, but i wonder how they're going to move on this we'll see. joe, a lot more coming up. >> they have had a chance, and haven't, but we'll see coming up our next guest will tell you why he's adding these two financial sector stocks to his portfolio. he's also adding the shares of a spirits maker. when is that not a good idea we'll tell you which one it is that's nec -- next next next next next next next next next next ext.

welcome back to "squawk box," u.s. equity futures continuing a strong week, up another 400 points on the dow. nasdaq has been really strong, up another 313 technology, and then s&p up 63 joining us now, the portfolio manager at douglas c. lane and associates more importantly, a cnbc contributor. sarat, good morning, good to see you. >> good morning! i think a lot. and let's for argument's sake just say that maybe the betting sites are correct and maybe it's unlikely that arizona shifts, maybe it's unlikely that pennsylvania stays whatever you want to say, let's say that it is eventually president biden.

let's also say that, which is also reflected in the betting sites, that the senate stays where it is, where mcconnell is still majority leader. let's say those two things fairy tales, sometimes they are reality, and i could almost do a goldilocks for you, and i think you're thinking the same way, if you were to be able to add no tax hikes, throw in some stimulus, don't necessarily continue the trade wars, and it becomes much less chaotic in washington, you could almost paint that as a lot of positive things, i guess. is that what you're seeing is that what market is seeing? >> well, i think the market, i think you're right, the market is first seeing we are taking off this level of uncertainty about taxes, and you can see that in stocks that were going to get hurt, so tech rebounded because of that. they were going to be some of the highest taxpayers, and then you saw the other part of it was interest rates went down, at least what we think, temporary,

so at that point, where are most investors putting their money? i don't agree with it completely i think the barbell approach is much better than going back after the high fliers which were the winners for the year and the winners for the last five years. to add to what you said, i think there are other parts of the market, and we have been talking about this beating, a dead horse, where there is another opportunity. if you look at asset managers, that's where people are going to put more money the morgan stanley of the world are going to do better with wealth management and investors, and individuals and institutions looking for other opportunities. you add to that, where else do you want to put money today because if you're doing well in technology, we all know that at some point valuations do matter, and if we do get stimulus, and right now, the market is not giving any credit to interest rates. if rates do move up again, and we saw that for the last two weeks, and two weeks don't make a year, you're going to see the discounted rate for tech stocks go up, and that's going move

money to other opportunities it will be other areas like health care and consumer staples. >> we got to go but i know that's one you wanted to mention. it's never a bad time to buy constellation. i mean, just kidding around about it, because we all need a little wine these days maybe after work. >> a little beer and wine going through these times. thanks we'll see you. coming up, a huge lineup to get you ready for the trading day ahead, including joe crowley, remember that guy, mick mulvaney, and joe lieberman, remember him remember all those guys.

good morning, and welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc. a live look at the white house right now as the count continues for who will live there in january. i'm andrew ross sorkin along with becky quick and joe kernen. take a look at u.s. equity

futures at this hour things turning up and up sharply. looks like the dow is going to open close to 390 points higher, the s&p looking to open about 62 points higher. the s&p turning in its best post election gain. the dow is up 5% week to date. it's the best weekly performance that its had since early june. becks? >> thanks, andrew, the election and your money, front and center, once again this morning. the votes are still being tallied in multiple states including arizona, pennsylvania, georgia and nevada the biden campaign says that it is confident that former vice president joe biden will win the election in the meantime, president trump is pursuing lawsuits for recounts in multiple states. eamon javers has been tracking all of this. he joins us right now with the latest on the race for the white house, and another hour later, and what do we know at this point? >> well, we know there's going

to be some more vote coming in as the day goes on we're expecting nevada by noon eastern, 9:00 a.m. out on the west coast that could be an interesting one. take a look at the big board again, and show the overall count here, biden 253, trump, 217. joe biden needs 17 electoral college votes out of the gray states remaining to be determined where is he going to find those electoral college votes if he wants to win this thing, and how can the president get to 270 at this point let's go state by state, arizona, start there what you see is a state which is very close biden up 50.5% to 48.1%. a 68,000 difference there. 86% of the vote in they're continuing to count in the state of arizona in nevada, a similar picture again, they're hoping to have more vote count out by noon east coast time today 49.3% for biden. 48.7 for trump so a biden lead there with 86% of the vote in, and take a look at georgia

this is where we're seeing additional vote count continuing, again, particularly in fulton county, 49.6 trump 49.2 for biden there in georgia, we were told this morning, and i'm just checking my notes here, there are 7,500 outstanding absentee ball lots in fulton county a heavily biden area, as 550 this morning the estimate is it would take about two hours to count the remainder of fulton county in georgia. by 8:00 a.m., we might have a picture of atlanta that's the bulk of the biden vote there, so maybe some interesting developments or not interesting, depending on your perspective in the state of georgia, and meanwhile, go back to pennsylvania, which is the big kahuna in all of this, 20 electoral votes on the table in pennsylvania trump leading there, 50.7. biden 48.1 it is a interesting situation because they're still counting

votes in philadelphia, becky, and we have also seen protests around the country as protesters who are for biden are out there saying count every vote, and we've got some trump protesters out there who want to stop count. some trump protesters who want the count to continue depending on state where they are. a lot of emotion riding on this now, becky. >> hey, just quickly going back to georgia, if we can call that screen up again. it looks like the difference there is a difference of 18,000 and change if there are still only 7,500, i think, it was votes that are still outstanding roughly and fulton county around atlanta, i mean, even if he won 100% of them, that's not enough to catch up are there others counting too? >> yes, that alone in fulton county would not be enough based on just the raw math to get joe biden over the top there, but there are biden heavy counties fulton is the biggest and most well known but if you look at that map, you can see the

smattering of blue throughout the state and some of the counties have vote still to come in it's too close to call per nbc news's decision desk in the state of georgia it would be a long shot for joe biden to take that it's a historically red state. republicans have won there time and time again nonetheless, we've got to count every ballot until we know >> thank you by the way, you are very energizer bunny, i don't think you have slept in days, and you have done a relentless job of keeping us up to track on this thank you. >> thank you let's get to steve liesman with data on how stocks and the economy could be affected on the uncertainty over the election outcome, and you know, lately you have been involved in a lot of polling, but i understand that you would like to fall back on your -- i mean, you kind of, like, pushing that away at this point. you're an economist, you are a senior economics reporter, so i would distance myself, too, from

the polling. are you running as fast and as hard as you can or no? >> i'm just the data dude. that's what i do >> it's hard it's hard work, the poll >> it's hard work. we can talk about the polls later. i saw your discussion with frank. i agree, by the way, with what he said about what a great job you guys are doing listen, unlike in the presidential election, results of the latest cnbc survey, they are fully tabulated and gridlock is the winner, 86% of the 36 respondents believe biden will win the presidency 97% see republicans holding on to the senate, and the respondents view gridlock as positive for stocks in the economy. you can see that in the markets and in our survey. 64% of the, they say there's a small risk to markets, the reason is because 55% think both sides will agree to a result next week at the latest and 80%

by the end of the month, and i think that's kind of optimistic. what they are worried about when it comes to the economy is potential lack of stimulus 67% saying the economy was a deeper and longer recession in the absence of a phase 4 relief package. 25% say the economy will be just fine thomas costarg, at pictet wealth management, with a likely gridlocked congress, the focus will shift to the fed. they will have to do the heavy lifting, i'd expect more qe probably from december diane swonk writes, look for powell's pleas for more fiscal aid to intensify, the risk of default and the ripple effects they can have on the stability of financial systems are also rising one other note in the commentary, respondents made clear that the most important economic policy they think isn't about taxes, infrastructure, or monetary policy, it's getting

the virus under control, and joe, these results represent 100% the views of the respondents. >> amazing, so you didn't have a water main break nothing happened to delay any of the polls. >> no. >> and there's none outstanding that are going to be postmarked too late steve, i described to one of our previous guests that there's a way you can paint a goldilocks scenario, i'm not saying i agree with this, you could say, okay, no tax hikes, and the trade tensions ease with china there's not as much chaos in the white house. nothing can get done anyway. there's one thing, and i want to get your opinion on this what can joe biden if he were to become president, what's the most powerful thing he can do with his pen to effect some of what business people would think would be negative outcomes for the private sector what do you think he would do? in other words, what would throw a wrench in the works of my gol

goldilocks if he were to act on pressure from the left side of the party, what would he do? >> that's a good question, joe i don't know the best thing he could do according to a lot of people i talked to is create a systemic way to try to get control of the virus. i think covid policy is economic policy, and we don't talk enough about that >> maybe he can help europe because, you know, trump wasn't over there, and it's going pretty crappy over there, too. so. >> i will say this, and maybe you and i disagree on this a little bit, but within a certain limitation, the be his people who -- business people i talked to, if that's going to be the policy, i'll adapt, if that's going to be the policy, i'll adapt. but what they covet more than anything is certainty about the policy and policy making process, and i think whatever

ends up, you know, you don't want to see taxes go through the roof, regulation go through the roof all of that could be damaging to the economy, but when you talk to guys in the energy business, what they will tell you, okay, if this is going to be the climate change rules, fine, let's have it and do it and have it over time, and i can adjust to it. what they can't adjust to is changing policy every four years or two years, with a change in congress that's difficult for business is change, not necessarily within certain parameters what is changing. >> yeah. i think there's things you can do with the pen that might be, because, trump did a lot with executive orders president obama did a few things as well. that's the one thing that's still kind of a wild card, and i don't know what that would look like you could, on the other hand, you know, for people like, and i don't want to bring up larry but people that think of the private sector, let the economy do its thing, with the senate staying in republican hands, a lot of worst case scenarios have been taken off the table, which is

one of the reasons i think you're seeing friendly market action here. and i'm wondering, there are things you can do that you don't need congress for, and then you've got appointments, jay powell, cabinet members. >> for what it's worth. >> yeah. >> given a choice, the democratic party came up with its most centrist possible candidate. i don't know what that means for governance. >> may have paid off. >> the left controls the powers in the democratic party, but all things being equal, the democratic came up with its most centrist candidate and the question becomes whether bide listen govern that way, if he's allowed to govern that way, either from the left or forced to do something more extreme. >> there's humbles in the house about speaker pelosi letting the left get too much control and rumbles that it came back to haunt the dems chances in the

house. who knows what lurks in the minds of men and women anyway, thank you, steve steve the pollster, stooeeve, or cnbc pollster, thanks. coming up on the other side of the break, joe crowley talking about the message of the democratic party and the possible outcome of the election we'll do a little bit of a postmortem about where we are right now. before we head to that break, take a quick look at the markets once again, dow up about 350 points, nasdaq up about 290 points, s&p 500 looking to open about 50 points higher i want to show you some of the biggest movers on the nasdaq gaining more than 6% so far this week alone it strongest weekly performance since april. those stocks include qualcomm, close to 16% ea're back after ts or hisht brk.

♪ ♪ you can go your own way ♪ go your own way your wireless. your rules. only xfinity mobile lets you choose shared data, unlimited or a mix of each. and switch anytime so you only pay for the data you need. switch and save hundreds on your wireless bill. plus, get $300 off when you buy the samsung galaxy note20 ultra 5g.

learn more at your local xfinity store today. welcome back to "squawk box" this morning we want to talk about the race for key senate seats and the possibility of runoffs as the count continues for so many of them, and of course the presidency joining us right now is the

former u.s. congressman joe crowley. congressman, good morning to you. we appreciate you joining us here curious about what you think about the lessons of this election thus far. we were talking earlier about barry dillard coming on this program saying he was humbled by this election and the results in terms of where the democratic party is today and where the american people are today. >> well, i think looking back now, you know, it was not an easy night for democrats on election night, but things have gotten better, steadily better over the last couple of days you see what's happened in pennsylvania, for instance, where conor lamb is down has pulled ahead congressman wild has pulled ahead. matt cartwright has pulled ahead after absentee ballots were counted. i think it's gotten better for us, but i think there are lessons to be learned because they squeaked by

if we look at what happened in florida, for instance, my good friend having lost his seat, the issue of socialists and socialism was branded down in southern florida i think it was branded by democrats nationwide that was a factor. and democrats, we have this perception of talking down to rural america and that perception has to change i don't think it's real, but it has to change. people center to have confidence that we understand their pain, their suffering, their issues and their joys as well >> but, joe, is this simply -- is this just a messaging problem or a policy problem, and let me also direct you to what i thought was a fascinating vote, especially for our viewers in california around how gig economy workers are going to be treated there. clearly a state that's considered liberal, if not

progressive saying actually stay out of our business. if drivers want to be contract workers, let them be contract workers. what does that say to you? >> i think that's interesting in terms of the way in which they actually conduct their government as well, the direct ballot on that issue i think it does to some degree speak to some of the overreach that can take place on both sides of the aisle, i think as democrats, what we need to focus right now is on crushing the virus, and that's -- whoever the president is going to be, and i believe it's going to be joe biden, that has to be job one. i think getting americans back to work and investing in america through an infrastructure build, bringing people together, i think joe biden as president is going to have republicans in his cabinet. i don't know what positions he's going to have them in his government because he wants to be that kind of president, and i think that's the way democrats have to move forward now, restore the faith and confidence in government, writ large, across the board. >> what about the democrats' support for nancy pelosi

do you think that's up for grabs? >> let me say something about nancy pelosi, she does understand how we gain control of the house of representatives and how we're going to keep it it's not by replacing the joe crowleys or the mike capalano's in the world, it's about winning in those tough districts where democrats beat republicans, and the only way we can expand that is by doing that as well we're going into 2022, the midterm election of the incumbent present, normally loses seats in the house of representatives. something will have to give in order to make sure that we can extend that majority in the house of representatives in 2022, that's what the goal has to be, and i think pelosi understands that. >> let me just ask you, we have had a lot of guests who have said that, that this is a repudiation of the idea that there was going to be a blue wave, people are going to move back towards the center. that's not always the reality of how it plays out on the ground,

you lost your seat to alexandria ocasio-cortez and i don't see her coming more towards the center as a result of what happened here, the reality is you still have congressional elected leaders who are dealing with just their very close constituency do you think that there will be people on the far left who come to this and say, hey, we need to moderate a bit or is that just the happy talk that we're all kind of considering right now? >> i think both parties have that issue i think the far right has that issue as well. that's why democrats win those districts. so look, it's not about me it's not about, you know, my seat or anything else. i think when you looked at alexandria ocasio-cortez, you see a lot of talent as well. at the end of the day, it's not just rhetoric for her. that's that district in new york city i think we have to look at writ large, the country, and i think that's what democrats have been successful, you know, you look at mac cartwright, you look at, as i mentioned others in pennsylvania, in parts of

california, in texas, and elsewhere, where we are competitive, and maybe came up short. it didn't happen in inner city, it happened in suburban districts and more rural districts and that's where we're going to have to find success in order to expand the majority, i think pelosi understands that. >> but joe, there's two questions here, one is, what do you do in those districts. as you said, you're starting to see suburbia, which had been, you know, supporting democrats, moving to supporting republicans, do you think that it's not -- is it just the message or is it the policy? you know, the conversation around law and order, the conversation, even about race, is that a messaging issue or is it a policy issue? >> i don't think the issue of race i think that democrats writ large are really, i think, democrats are in the right place on that issue. social justice and the injustice that we see in the world today, but i think the notion of defunding the police was distorted and contorted for

political reasons, and i get that i understand it. but democrats have to do a better job of saying, no, we're not for defunding the police we're not for ending police departments, you know, i think what we saw in new york state, for instance, in terms of bail issues -- >> but joe, your own colleagues are saying that. there are people in your party saying that. >> yeah, and there are people in the far right saying really ugly things, you know, so i think what you have to do is temper all of that, and really have a better answer. it has to be, you know, we want social justice and we want law and order. >> okay. congressman joe crowley, always good to see you. we appreciate your perspective as we all try to make sense of these elections. thanks. >> thanks. coming up, we've got some earnings from gm, plus reaction to the latest developments in the election from former white house chief of staff mick mulvaney as we head to break, here's a look at this morning's winners

and losers specifically in the s&p 500. "squawk box" will be right back. time now for today's aflac trivia question, the first module of the international space station was launched in what year? aner when cnbc "squawk box" continues ck who helped me cover it. aflac. these are all the cab rides to my physical therapy. and aflac paid me directly to help. aflac. what he said. and this unexpected bill is from... the two-thousand-dollar specialist. thanks. aflac. when you're sick or injured, aflac is there. we can help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. get to know us at (aflac!) dot com.

5g is going to change everything about the way businesses run. and most important is the ability to transform the smallest of businesses right in our neighborhoods. we created the 5g business impact challenge to give them the tools for them to come back stronger. the things that folks are doing today to survive during the pandemic will help them become more resilient into the future and technology like 5g is whats really going to enable that.

if you're concerned about the environment and climate change, how do you find companies that are driving the right outcomes? if you care about economic equality and social justice, which firms are addressing it in their workplaces and their communities? for nearly 40 years, calvert has delivered competitive returns by investing in companies making a difference because we see value in doing good. talk to your financial advisor about investing responsibly with calvert.

now, the answer to today's aflac trivia question, the first module of the international space station was launched in what year, the answer, 1998. the first module known as zarya provides propulsion, altitude control and electrical power still to come on "squawk box" this morning, former white house chief of staff mick mulvaney is our guest. we'll get his reaction to the post election day drama. futures this morning up as they have been all through the course of the session. you're going to see dow futures up by about 363 points, that mirrors the gains we saw yesterday for the dow. s&p up by another 59 points after a strong day yesterday, and the nasdaq which was up by 3.8% yesterday is up almost 300

points once again this morning the health care names have health drive markets higher. we're going to talk more about that today too johnson & johnson, pfizer, cvs health, teladoc health, all trading higher "squawk box" will be right back.

let's go live to the battleground state of pennsylvania frank holland is there, he's got an update on the count there, and frank, we are all ears fill us in >> good morning, becky more than 760,000 mail-in ballots received by election day. they still remain uncounted her in the state of pennsylvania the secretary of state says she expects the majority of post election ballots to arrive sometime today this is president trump's lead here in the keystone state with 20 electoral votes that continues to shrink. the lead shrunk a little bit more over a point and a half right now. yesterday, president trump's campaign, it filed a lawsuit looking to block and halt the counting of those mail-in ballot, and they also want to intervene on existing lawsuit opposing friday's 5:00 p.m. deadline for mail-in ballots the trump campaign claiming there's a lack of transparency in the keystone states, that

ba ballots for joe biden have been found around the state yesterday the governor of pennsylvania fired back at those campaigns. >> the trump campaign filed a lawsuit to stop the counting of ballots in pennsylvania. that is simply wrong it goes against the most basic principles of our democracy. >> we will oppose any effort, every effort to at any point shut down the vote we get to decide when the last vote is counted. >> reporter: responding specifically to the lack of transparency claims, the secretary of state says everyone has access to live stream counting, and there are reps for each candidate in the room at all times. here are the latest numbers on the mail-in ballot count out of 3.1 million mail out ball lots sent out, 2.6 cast. 1.8 counted, the state expects the overwhelming majority of

those post election mail-in ballots to arrive sometime today. back over to you >> frank, hey, if you hear anything, you know, like really big, you know that you can interrupt us at any time you've got the -- we're giving you permission to do that. i've told you that before, right? >> carte blanche. >> let us know, just wave like that >> reporter: absolutely. >> thanks, frank >> thanks, joe in the last hour, pollster frank luntz joined us talking about the possible outcome in arizona. >> arizona is the place where the ballot is going to happen, because the president cannot be reelected without winning both pennsylvania and arizona >> joining us now, mick mulvaney, former white house chief of staff to president trump. and mick, we're going to talk a little bit about arizona because i think in your view, i mean, we're hearing from the white

house that they are still optimistic, and you feel the same way honestly or you're just a good soldier or is there really a path for president trump at this point in your view >> that's a fair question, and frank's a good friend of mine and encourages me to be clinical and disinterested when we talk about math, and i think that's the right way to look at here's why i think the president wins arizona as of yesterday, the president was down by about 93,000 votes overnight, there were two additional counts, new data dumped in arizona. in the first one, the president went from doing down 93 to down 79,000, in the second one, he went down to 68,000. i don't have the specifics, joe, but allow me to calculate percentages on what that means in terms of how many of those votes are going for donald trump in the second dump, but in the first additional data last night, the president got 64% of the vote here's what i think people are missing in arizona everybody is assuming because the uncounted votes are in maricopa county, they will go

for biden because it's a slightly blue county what they are missing is the unique way that arizona is counting their ballots it's a last in, last out system. and most of the folks who are still uncounted are folks who submitted their ballots walk-ins over the course of the last two or three days which have been heavily republican, in fact, so republican that a local member of congress last night moved ahead in his race, and is likely to stay there. yes, i think arizona is a very fluid situation from a disinterested mathematical perspective. >> right and of all places, of all places, i was in check, i saw a cnn analysis that if it were to stay like what you just described from the previous most recent dumps, those two, that he would catch them but the devil's in the details, and it depends, still on where these last remaining votes are coming from, and in your view, you just made the case that it's not where, it's what kind of ballots they are

so that's where you're getting -- >> that's the exact point. it's not where, when arizona uniquely doing last in, last out >> it's all moot if the keystone state and all those votes coming in from philadelphia put the vice president ahead there what is your view on what's happening? it sound like you still talk to people in the trump administration, so what is the current thinking about pennsylvania, what can you give us that we don't know? >> i have talked to folks in the campaign, folks outside the campaign are doing this mathematical analysis, and what they're saying is that a lot of it just depends on how many votes are in philadelphia, and are all of the votes known at this point if that's the case, and it's a fixed universe of votes, and it looks like it's not possible for joe biden to catch up, i think becky made the point there's not enough votes left uncounted in georgia for joe biden to catch up there, the same analysis might exist in pennsylvania if the universe of votes is set if 800,000 votes come in today

via mail that are postmarked before the election or i guess under pennsylvania law, not postmarked, then that obviously changes the analysis even pennsylvania is probably not going to be decided for a while because of the nature of the lawsuits pennsylvania was that state, joe, you and i may have talked a about this before, if a signature on a mail-in ballot doesn't match the signature on the registration, they are going to count the ballot. that's the type of thing that invites lawsuits after the fact. it could be a long time before we know the final official results in pennsylvania. >> hey, mick, if the count is done, the votes are counted, the legal suits are kind of run through and decided, and if the vote goes for former vice president biden, what would you recommend that president trump do at that point because some of the comments he's made to this point have been fairly concerning about whether he would accept defeat, and whether he's going to cast aspersions on whatever results

come in if it's not in his favor? >> i don't think i would have to make a recommendation because i think i know what president would do anyway. i recommend that he accept a peaceful transition of power which i think he would do absolutely anyway. the president is a fighter, there's no question about it, and you'll see him fighting down to the last, that's why you saw him mention the supreme court in his presentation the other night. they are going to fight this out to the very end, and they should i mean, 65, 68, i don't know how many millions of people voted for them, and they think it's important that they win. everybody thinks it's important they win when you put your name on the ballot. expect them to fight with everything they've got to the end, and exhausting all possibilities, if the process runs, and i expect it to run, at the end of that process, joe biden's the president, you can absolutely guarantee a peaceful transition of power. i just hope the same is true on the other side, becky. keep in mind, folks are worried about riots not in red areas but blue areas it's the inner cities, urban areas that are braced for reactions, folks who don't like president trump.

if we run the process and at the end of the process if the president is reelected will we have a peaceful retention of power, and i hope joe biden would help do everything he can to make sure that happens. >> yeah, i would say let's just look at the candidates themselves you can't blame all their supporters on either side for this the comments from biden have been he thinks they won, they're waiting to see what the vote count is the comment from the president has been they think they have won, and any votes coming in later are legal votes. there have been concerning comments that the president has come out with to this point. >> certainly a difference in style of the two that's not a surprise. that's why we have elections, right, and clearlyit's still a close call in this country between the two styles people want. >> mick, a year from now, who has the better chance of still having their job, mitch mcconnell or speaker pelosi or both are you 100% sure that mcconnell is going to be majority leader after this >> yeah, i am.

in fact, i'm surprised it's a question >> they're going to keep the senate. >> absolutely. i thought you might be there an internal revolt against mcconnell. >> no, that's on the other side where that's a possibility but for mcconnell, it's not done yet. you know, i don't know where we are in the cake baking process, it's close, but, you know, georgia is concerning. i think perdue is right at 50, and under 50 i think is a runoff, so i don't know what happens. but is it possible it could be tied i mean, that's possible too, isn't it >> it's a lot more lukeikely ri now than it was two days ago the democrats have a 75% chance of taking the house or something like that, but the second question is more interesting because it's more present, which is nancy pelosi. does chshe have the votes necessary to become speaker of the house. she's going through the same thing that john boehner went through when i was in the house during the tea party wave.

there's a growing group in her party that see her out of touch with where the party is going, and she's going to have difficulty garnering thevotes necessary to become speaker. she's very good at what she does mcconnell is good at what he does my money would be on nancy but it's not a safe bet right now. >> mick mulvaney, thank you, and you're free to, you know, you hear anything definitive, get in touch with us, too, because we're all waiting. it's an important thing. big nfl game tonight, too, don't forget that. anyway, thanks, mick >> thanks, guys. >> we'll see you a little bit later. >> okay. in the meantime, we have some important earnings that are just crossing the tape. gm earnings, and phil lebeau has got those numbers. >> we knew it would probably be a beat for the third quarter for gm, but this is a big beat earnings adjusted. 283 a share. the street was expecting them to earn 1.38 more than dollars 1.50

just under $35.5 billion free cash flow or operating cash flow, $9.9 billion in the third quarter. liquidity standing at $37.8 billion. remember, they were beefing up that liquidity earlier this year why is all of this happening in the third quarter, why the strong numbers same thing we have seen with other auto makers. very strong demand in sales for trucks and suvs. they've got the pricing power because of the way the market is set up and the vehicles and where they are in their age of life, but also remember, earlier this year, mary barr and her team said we're going to be putting in cost adjustments, we're going to limit our cost. this is a much more efficiently run kwacompany and you're seein that in the results. the gn ceo, mary barra, we will be talking with her, you don't not want to miss this. a lot of questions for her we'll send it back to you. >> phil, thank you for that. we're looking forward to that conversation with mary barra in just a little bit. when we return, we'll talk a lot more about the market surge,

your money and what you should e unorol aith your ptfios thcot continues. we're right back after this.

you got to love the election music, welcome back to "squawk box," i'm dominic chu, the second busiest season of earnings season. we've go got a consumer tilt, starting with shares of capri holdings, up 12% on around 38,000 shares of premarket volume this is the company formerly known as michael kors. revenue is also better than estimates. capri was helped along by stronger demand from chinese markets, better online sales, and better cost management those shares surging right now in the opposite direction, shares of hanesbrands tanking by 15%. this is the underwear and athletic apparel maker, reported better than expected profits and revenues thanks in part to better sales at its champion active wear unit, and better online sales but forecast did

fall below analyst estimates, and we're going to end on shares of canada goose, higher by 1%, around 10,000 shares of premarket volume this is the maker of upsale jackets, it reported a surprise profit on better than expected sales, and like capri holdings earlier on, renewed strength in chinese demand, that helped offset weakness in canada goose epolesale movers ke it right here, "squawk box" comes back right after this. frpz ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ and sweetie can coloryou just be... gentle with the pens. okey. okey. i know. gentle..gentle new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database so you can start hiring right away. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home.

i feel like we're forglet me check.ing. xfinity home gives you peace of mind from anywhere with professionally monitored home security built around you. no, i think we're good. good. so when you're away, you don't have to worry. the tent. we forgot... the tent. except about that. xfinity home. simple. easy. awesome. hey look, i found the tent! get xfinity home with no term contract required. click or call today. there were tsunamis fourtin the world. and once they happened, we were in a major hurry to get to those regions to provide aid and support. it was very humbling to be able to help out all those people. it's my dream now to go into clean energy and whatever the next new fuel source is, that's where i want to be. i want to be on the front lines of implementation.

. stocks are on pace for the best election week in decades, check out the futures this hour. after major gains yesterday, you are looking at similar gains today. dow was up by 367 points, it's now indicated up in the futures market by another 387 points s&p was up sharply, 2.2% another 60 points in the futures. nasdaq up by almost 300 points and remember this is after a gain of 3.8% yesterday for the nasdaq joining us to talk about all of this is jake, the ceo and cofounder of blueprint capital advisers why do you think the futures are up so sharply after the big gains we saw yesterday. >> good morning, i think that the futures are celebrating the fact that we're not going to have a blue wave in washington, which earle ma was pricing in, the goio be a bluwaveghter regulatiincrd ta perhaps see, y kno split in washin, iher words, moredloc washington with it m that there will be buffer to the

mes that we won't a reso sowe are caught inge tuathere where biden comeesidt, and as we bothw, he campaigned on wouandle covid, tha obabeans a more rectivonomgoing forw and without a reall >> so are you seing the >> look, i think we'oing see who ultimatelys upd buain,biden becomes iden thi we can fosee ally restrictive onoming rward. that goio mehat a lot of bessee going to cont agawe'rgoing to secreain uloyment, we're g to a cctio you know, i think w we cnue to have thisat rtfoin place, which adedh he care and techgy, i think just likewoune cl back thiseekewe'lve to wind same companiesnd srs t have led tthisnt wlead to the foresableure.there will a market rally, e wie specific sec st. >> j youe on about seveight days ago, i don mber what it was, an remember it very clearly, and president trumght beghat reelected and that the senate would stay republican. and i just look at the pollsters, and look at everything else that's transpired you might end up being wrong about the reelection about how many total votes we've still got how many states that are so close, so razor thin you were so much more right than you were wrong and so much more right than all the pollsters i'm just trying to figure out, you know, what you were thinking, and why you would have the nerve, the courage to say it on air you know, to the entire country. >> i'm not wrong yet so we'll see what happens here over the course of the next couple of days i think that if you look bac over history, let's go back 100 years, you've only had four presidents that didn't get a second term. you had hoover, who was there during the stock market crash of

1929, you had gerald ford, who wasn't elected vice president or president. you had jimmy carter who had the iran hostage problem, then you had bush senior, and so most of the time when the u.s. population elects someone president, they intend to give them eight years to do their job. so i think that's one of the things i was looking at is just the history of this country, and how they generally like to give a president two terms. the second thing i was looking at was how wrong the pollsters were in 2016 and how wrong i thought they were going to be again in 2020. all i can say is thank god that we don't fix stocks and bonds using polls, we would all be out of a job, and it would be really hard for investors to make money. >> hey, jake, let's talk more about the portfolio you think is working for you. that's the covid related things for staying at home, wokkirkingt home let's talk about stocks, what's

your favorite of the bunch of the basket you have? >> so my favorite is amazon. i don't think there's a household in america right now that can get whatever it needs from a consumer product standpoint without using amazon. and i think the company just continues to grow and become more important part of not only businesses and how they consume, but also households in terms of how they consume i also like stocks like devalit in the health care center. hee here's a company that provides kidney dialysis, even if we were to go in to a shut down, has to continue running and last quarter, they treat the 97,000 patients. warren buffet owns 30% of the stock, and it's one of those that's going to perform, whether we're going into a shut down or not. i also continue to like stocks

like docusign, for those of us that are, you know, restricted to our homes and we can't get into the office to sign documents, docusign is a great technology for us to continue to transact business in a very safe and secure way, and so, you know, i continue to like names that are making my life easier as i'm stuck here in this pandemic >> jake, thanks a lot. it's good to see you, and we'll talk to you again soon when we have a little more clarity on what happens with the election, too. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you. coming up, former senator joe lieberman joins us for his thoughts on the latest election headlines, that's next plus, general motors just out with earnings this hour. we're going to talk to ceo mary barra coming up. "squawk box" will be right back.

everyone wakes up every morning to a world that must keep turning. the world can't stop, so neither can we. because the things we make, help make the world go round. they make it cleaner, healthier, and more connected. it's what we build that keeps things moving forward. so with every turn, we'll keep building a world that works.

good morning welcome to "squawk box" again.

for the fourth time today, here on cnbc, i'm joe kernen, along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin we love being on tv. you can't give us too many hours, we'll be here, you tell us u.s. equity futures at this hour are up 411 points. yesterday, the s&p saw the best post election gain in modern history. treasury yields at this hour are below 8/10 of a percent, and i think we're all thankful for the teleprompter at this point, and anything you put in it, we're going to read. no, no, we're fine, right, becky. but sleep is at a premium. >> that would be a first >> and a four-hour show when a lot of it is ad-libbed is interesting. but we do it and other people do ten hours on election night, things like that, so we're not complaining or anything, but you definitely -- i notice the extra hour, don't you guys i do notice the extra hour >> sure. but you think about the poll

workers who work long days, the people counting votes right now, who are doing all of these things this is nothing. >> you think about people who actually work, and contrast is pretty, you know, you can see it that's for sure. i'm not complaining. >> you may want me to take this over right now, make you stop talking. anyway, folks, we want to bring you up on the presidential election vote count. according to nbc news, former vice president joe biden currently stands at 253 electoral votes. president trump, 214 electoral votes. we're expecting big updates potentially within the next few hours from some of the states that are left in play. trump's campaign, launched a barrage of legal activity yesterday filing lawsuits in pennsylvania, michigan, and georgia, and requesting a recount in wisconsin where biden leads by more than 20,000 votes. biden spoke mid afternoon, not yet claiming victory but walking right up to that line. >> it's clear, that we're winning enough states to reach

270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency i'm not here to declare that we've won. but i am here to report when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners. >> an important note on the backdrop of all of this post election activity, yesterday, the country saw more than 100,000 new daily coronavirus infections for the first time. that's according to johns hopkins university, which puts the total u.s. case count at just under 9 1/2 million andrew >> thanks, becky let's get right now to the latest on two election battlegrounds where votes are still being tallied. scott cohn is in north carolina this morning we're going to get to him in a moment first, we want to get to contessa brewer who is in georgia. >> reporter: good morning, i'm in bacon county, a rural agricultural county in georgia in north georgia, the vote is

still waiting to be coming in. we look here in macon county where 86% has come in for trump, and the vote is all counted and sealed fulton county, though, we're waiting for results to come in shortly. we heard from the election board before 6:00 a.m., 7,500 absentee ballots were still to be counted, and the margins in georgia are razor thin less than half a percent currently separating trump and biden. we're waiting on results in bigger metro reasons savannah, president trump and the georgia republican party as you mentioned have filed a lawsuit in the state, accusing chatham county, home of sav savannah, improperly counting absentee ballots a poll observer claims to have seen a worker mishandling ballots. that observer quote doesn't know what he's talking about, and that there's a log of every

ballot going in and every ballot processed. so we just wait now to find out when these last remaining absentee ballots counted as you know, some 75% of people in the state had early voted or voted by mail, and those absentee ballots take longer to process. there's the live shot right now of fulton county. >> based on what you're seeing on the ground, is there an unbridgeable gap on the way rural voters and urban voters see america, at least in georgia. >> i asked people who live here in alma that this is a town that is 86% trip, 81% white. 10% of the people in the town have a college degree, and i asked them why do city voters vote differently than country voters you can see that all across this nation first they would say, i don't know, except for the one lady that i asked who immediately started crying because it was

visceral to her. she could feel it, and she said i don't know why but we can't even talk about it i can't talk with my family. my mother is a biden supporter, and i can't talk to her about my support for trump, and i said does that make you worry for the future of this country she nodded her head yes, tears streaming down her face, but she said that somehow we have to understand what other people are thinking, and people in the city have to know what we're thinking she said, i begged her, please go on camera with me, talk to ne about, she said, i can't because of my accent, people will think i'm dumb. it was heartbreaking >> contessa, that is heartbreaking. we appreciate you bringing that to us. it's a longer conversation that i think this country is going to be having for a long time. meantime, we want to get to scott cohn who joins us now with more from the tar heel state good morning to you, scott >> yeah, good morning, andrew. you know, this is not in the thick of the conversation right now, north carolina, but if this

goes on, particularly if it goes on into next week, the 15 electoral votes here could loom very large take a look at where we stand. this graphic seems like it's been stuck for a couple of days, and that's because there's not going to be a lot of accounting or any accounting for a little while as we'll tell you. that 95% of the vote, that represents all of the votes that have been counted and received through election day the rest are votes that are outstanding that we'll talk about: and as you can see, president trump holding a 76,000 vote lead over joe biden his rural and sort of ex-urban voters besting biden's urban and suburban voters by just a little bit. here's where it gets complicated. there are still about 116,000 and change, absentee ballots outstanding. that's come down a little bit. but those are ballots that were sent out, not yet received back, and also an untold number yet of provisional ballots that were cast on election day, a lot of

those in biden friendly counties that's enough, potentially, to swing this election. in north carolina, the ballots are counted at the county level, still being received at the counties, and the calendar, written into state law, some counties have more sophisticated systems than others. >> it's a manual process for many counties as they don't use electronic poll books, so they have to scan each poll book form, and then in terms of the ballots, we certainly have to just monitor, you know, if they were postmarked yesterday. >> so they will start counting some counties this week, but mostly all next week at the county level, 100 different counties, they will begin counting the absentee ballots. there's a deadline, remember, in north carolina of november 12th. so next thursday for absentee

ballots to be counted that were postmarked by election day on friday the 13th, the final county canvas, they fingverify e votes and the provision gnal ballots. the same dynamic, in the u.s. senate race, thom tillis has a lead over call cunningham. still within that margin where things could swing as these absentee ballots come in guys >> so scott, when they do start counting those absentee ballots, how transparent is the process and what is the potential for challenges over access like we're seeing in other places like michigan and pennsylvania >> you know, it's interesting. it is a very transparent process, but there are 100 different counties, the meetings are scheduled, they're publicized there are 100 different counties

you have to watch. a lot of the focus is going to be in the bigger counties and these more democratic counties like wake county, mecklenburg county, and the big cities, and that's where most of the votes are. it is a transparent process but it's a tough one to keep an eye on because it's so fragmented. >> scott cohn, we appreciate your reporting, and i know we'll be coming back to you throughout the day, and it sounds like coming weeks we'll talk to you soon, thanks joe. >> okay. andrew, coming up, gn, ceo, mary barra breaks down the auto makers, third quarter results. former vice presidential nominee, joe lieberman joins us on the election. he knows something about counting ballots and what can happen in tight races. as we head to break, take a look at this. the nasdaq gained 3.85% yesterday. that was its best day after a presidential election ever stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc at calvert, we know responsible investing is hard.

if you're concerned about the environment and climate change, how do you find companies that are driving the right outcomes? if you care about economic equality and social justice, which firms are addressing it in their workplaces and their communities? for nearly 40 years, calvert has delivered competitive returns by investing in companies making a difference because we see value in doing good. talk to your financial advisor about investing responsibly with calvert.

talk to your financial advisor about investing responsibly let's get checked for those around us. let's get checked for a full range of conditions. introducing letsgetchecked a health testing you do at home. let's get round the clock support from a team of nurses. let's get fast, accurate results. know your health. know yourself. order now at letsgetchecked dot com finding certainty in the middle of election uncertainty as votes continue to be counted, as votes continue to be counted, which stocks are a good move for you doing okay? yeah. this moving thing never gets any easier. well, xfinity makes moving super easy. i can transfer my internet and tv service in about a minute. wow, that is easy. almost as easy as having those guys help you move. we are those guys. that's you?

the truck adds 10 pounds. in the arms. -okay... transfer your service online in a few easy steps. now that's simple, easy, awesome. transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. visit xfinity.com/moving today.

welcome back to "squawk box. if you're waking up, here's the state of the presidential vote tally at this hour several important races to be called in key states like arizona, nevada and georgia. we're awaiting that. as you can see right now, former vice president biden has a 253 electoral votes, president trump, 214 we have been watching the futures this morning, and it's been much of the same story you saw yesterday. strong advances throughout the session. right now, the dow up by close to 390 points. s&p futures up by 2i62 the nasdaq up by 300 joe. >> thanks, becky joining us to talk about tuesday's election, and its after math, joe lieberman, former senator from connecticut, and the democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000 he is now senior counsel with benson, torrez law firms you are a supporter of joe biden. you have known him a long time, senator but you're not a surrogate. you never did get actively

involved from what i can understand >> yeah, thanks, joe good to be with you. i was a supporter. i am a friend of joe biden's i spent a lot of time during this campaign working as chair of an organization called no labels, which tried to elect centrist problem-solving democrats and republicans to the house and senate, and i'm proud to say we have a pretty good track record, but i think it's shaping up right now, depending on how this ends, the recount ends, to be a divided congress, but one that i'm optimistic will work together to get things done for the country, including a covid response bill pretty early. >> senator, i think people forget that back in 2000, even after one of the decisions, there was an appeal left open to

vice president gore to take it back to florida, and if he had, there would not have been -- i mean, even saying this is hard for me to imagine, there would not have been a presidential inauguration day people forget how long, i mean, it was unbelievable. it was torture and he said -- i know he had a private conversation with you where he said, joe, the country needs a president, and that's, you know, you're harkening back to another age a lot has changed since then, but that would be a good lesson for today, i think, on either side. >> absolutely. i appreciate your asking me. look, it all came down in 2000 to florida, aspeople will recall, and we fought it out with recounts, litigation, demonstration, but fortunately, thank god, it was done in the american way for the most part, within the law we took our conflict to court.

and there was no violence. there was no lawlessness, really maybe a little rowdiness, but that's all, and we did get to a point about a month later where the case of bush v gore was decided by the supreme court 5-4. it was very painful, shocking, disappointing to al gore, and me and all the millions of people who supported us after the decision that night, our lawyers had a disagreement, and some of them said that's it, no more legal roads open, and some said you can go back to the florida supreme court and ask them to implement the statewide recount that they ordered just a few days ago, last friday, and al gore and i talked about it. he thought about it. but i give him all the credit because he said at the end, we better end it. we might have a chance in florida. we might not but the fact is that if we went

back to florida court, they ordered a recount, it would never be done by the time the electoral college meets, which was about a week later, and it might not even be done before january 20th, when the new administration is supposed to take office. >> unbelievable, yeah. >> we got to stop it now and i hope the litigants, the candidates, the parties now will remember that lesson it's a very strong one, from al gore, really, i give him the credit. >> the democratic party has evolved since you were part of it, and you had your own issues i think at one point with the far left issue of the democratic party, and do you think that there are lessons to be learned from what we saw and the results of tuesday's election, for the democratic party, even though the vice president might end up as president >> i really do both of our major parties in our

country is in transition, and unsettled, and it looks like joe biden is going to be elected our next president, so he created a centrist center out coalition, which helped to elect him. he's not a leftist or a radical. he is, i served with him, i know him well 24 years together in the senate, and he's a center left democrat, and always a bridge builder, always looking for bipartisan compromise to get things done. we really need that now, but the other story, and it's a big one, from tuesday's election is that president trump had a lot more strength than any of the polls revealed a lot of people really believe in him and what he's saying about our government, and that means two things, one is, it shows that the country is divided politically, deeply divided but it's a real challenge to joe biden, and i think he understands this, to try to govern in a way that unites the country, and you

know, i hope that he -- we don't have unity governments in america and i hope he has some republicans high up in his administration, and maybe even some who were active supporters of president trump it's time for the country, for the good of the people, not only for the health of the people with covid-19, but for the economy that we pull together with all of america's strength, and make our future as good as both of the candidates said they want to make it. it can only come if we're working together >> senator, i wanted to ask you about a report this morning from mike allen the report assumes that joe biden wins the presidency, and also assumes that mcconnell keeps the senate majority. he says that if that's the case, that mcconnell plans to prevent joe biden from stacking his cabinet with liberals and to force him to go with more centrist options like bran ert for treasury, and tony blinken

for state. yu do you think that's true, and do you think that's appropriate >> well, that's really interesting. i think that -- that's why i think in some ways having a democratic president and a republican senate with two people at the head, joe biden and mitch mcconnell, who know each other for a long time, and have worked pretty well together, it will create balance, and will really help, a, president biden unite the country. i hadn't heard about the idea that mitch mcconnell might use it to encourage a president biden to choose more moderate people to the cabinet, but, you know, from my way of thinking, that's not all bad, and to tell you the truth, it might be exactly what joe biden wants to do anyway. because he'll be pressured from the left

they're in the tent, they helped him get elected, and he's got to show them some respect, and give them some things, but they're not in charge. he is, as he said at the first debate, he's the head of the democratic party now, and now looks like the head of the country, so he's got to have his choices. that's a very interesting story. it's plausible to me, and frankly, to me, it's encouraging because it means we'll have more moderate people leading the key positions in the biden administration in the future >> senator, the florida situation, i remember it, and i had a different view than you did, i thought that it clearly looked to me like vote harvesting from the democratic strongholds down in some of those counties, down in florida. and so when it ended i was like thank god someone stepped in i'm not sure, like even right now, do you think there's anything to any of the

accusations -- we know that philadelphia has a history, we just heard earlier, of some things that might not be exactly above board. do you think there's any evidence of anything that would call the election into question at this point or is it all conspiracy theories from the side that might not win? >> well, i mean, the real answer is i don't know. but what i do know is that in our country, which is governed by the rule of law, after an election that was as close as it was on tuesday, with as many people committed not only to joe biden but to donald trump, the trump campaign has the right to take its case to court and let the judge decide i thought we had a pretty good -- i thought we had a good case in florida in 2000. i didn't think there was vote harvesting unfortunately, well, fortunately

the florida court agreed with us, but the supreme court didn't, and that's where it ended. i think the important thing for me to say, and i guess it's directed toward the trump campaign, you've got a right now, and you've actually got the time to take courses to court. the electoral college doesn't meet this year until december 14th i hope we don't have to wait that long. you have a right to take your case to the courts let the judges decide, and most of all as al gore did in 2000, it's got to end at some point for the good of the country. got to have a transfer of power, and pull together. >> i remember, i think about what w., his eight years, and i think about senator gore's eight years as he became a, you know, almost a demigod to the environmental movement and a ga centreville narro --zillionaire, i wonder who

won. i know you don't want to go back to this, not with the state of things now great to see you always great, and a pleasure to be with you. >> thank you, have a good day. >> you too andrew a lot more coming up on "squawk box" this morning, on this special edition of "squawk box," we'll get the initial jobless claims first a "squawk box" interview with gm ceo mary barra she's going to join us in a moment take a look at wall street's biggest tech names yesterday they helped power the nasdaq to it best day since mid-april. stay tuned, "squawk box" returns with mary barra and those initial jobless claims numbers in just a moment ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪

still to come this morning, we've got breaking news, jobless claims, that's right, we've still got numbers and the action we need to be following. we'll get you the rkmaet reaction as soon as those numbers hit. "squawk box" will be back in just a moment. ♪ ♪ ♪

welcome back to "squawk box," breaking news, important breaking news, initial and continuing claims, initial claims, 751,000. this continues of course to bring us down, and what's ironic here is this is back-to-back, 751,000. really makes you wonder, and if we look at continuing claims, one week in arrears, the number here is pretty much as expected, 7,285,000, so 7,285,000, this

brings a new low to the series, going back to march, of course, where its high water mark was, what was that, 24,912,000, so a whisker under 25 million these numbers have improved. i didn't think it would last this long, 751 last week moves to 758 theoretically, though it was the same as last week with the revision, it becomes the new low standard with regard to where this has been since march, and last week's continuing claims ramped up a bit as well. from 7.756 to 8.23 we are waiting on third quarter preliminary, nonfarm productive and labor costs. i don't see them on the wire servic services yet i will leave you with this, our last look was the 6th best productivity number going back to 1947. and when that comes out, we'll ticker it on the bottom of the screen joe, back to you when do you think we're going to know, joe, i remember the

christmas party in 2000, where you and i were debating chads? >> we have a different viewpoint. i was talking to senator lieberman. didn't you think they were harvesting at that point it's hanging to the right, that's a democrat vote i don't know, i was glad it ended. >> it's human nature to be ultra creative when it comes to chad, obviously. >> i like the way you said wire, it sounded like hire, general motors reporting third quarter results a short time ago, questioning profit estimates thanks in part to strong demand for u.s. trucks and suvs phil lebeau joins us now with special guest, hey, phil. >> let's bring in gm chairman and ceo, mary barra joining us on the squawk line from the gm headquarters mary, blow out q3 numbers with a 15% profit margin in north america. how much of this, and i know there's a number of factors but how much of this do you attribute to the strong demand and strong pricing when it comes

to full-sized pickups as well as your suvs? >> phil, really appreciate the opportunity to be on with you today, and before i answer your question, i would like to start by thanking our employees across the globe for their hard work and commitment our employees along with our suppliers and dealers have done an excellent job, and that's one of the reasons we have had such strong results you're absolutely right. it's been strong demand for our products with the ability to have high atp, so price, we continue to not only work on the austerity measures we took early in the year because of covid, but also the transformational cost savings we have been working for the last few years, and then we also saw very strong performance at gm financial. >> mary, you have seen a number of these cycles come and go. you have seen strong cycles. how long do you expect this to last where you have a tight market and the demand out there we haven't seen in a long time, especially for full-sized

pickups. >> when you look at full-sized pickups, the strategy that we had is we launched our pickups over the last year and a half was to cover all parts of the market not only the center of the market where there is incredible demand, but also the value truck and then the high feature models as well, and you have seen us do that, and that's why we keep seeing higher average transaction prices, and we keep seeing demand for trucks continue to grow i think it's a permanent, as the market recovers, we're going to see strong truck growth and strong truck demand in market share, so and that definitely fuels our business, that along with the technology and the attributes that we have in our trucks. >> mary, any concern that the surge in covid-19 cases along with the uncertainty surrounding the election that this has the potential to weigh on overall demand in the auto markets in the 4th quarter. >> definitely we need to work as

a country, and frankly around the globe to get covid under control. we are confident in our safety protocols that when followed, people are safe at work. in fact, our employees tell us they feel safer at work than they do at the grocery store we need to keep encouraging everybody to follow protocols, not only when they're at work but at home wearing masks, the appropriate distancing, as well as sanitizing, so if we can get that under control, we do see the demand, and there are some parts of covid where people want to have their own vehicles, so i think if we can get that in demand, i think, you know, hopefully in a short period of time we'll know who has won the presidential election, and then we can get on and maybe even understand what the new stimulus package will be. all of those will be very positive for continuing this strong demand that we see in autos right now. >> what's the status of the discussions, and i know you've got december 3rd is the deadline for, you know, consummating a deal or deciding we're going to

have to make other decisions, where do things stand right now? >> as you said, phil, we're continues discussions about a commercial transaction the transaction hasn't closed and we'll provide further updates at the appropriate time, but i think it's important to note that we have very strong technology and fuel cells and in addition to our eb system, the battery system, and we are going to continue to look for opportunities to commercialize because i think it reflects our commitment to move to a 0 emission future. >> are you seeing other auto makers, other opportunities developing faster than you expected when it comes to taking your technology, your hydro tech technology, and then saying, look, we'll work with you, here's the technology? >> so we already have a very strong partnership with honda. and you know, we announced with the non binding mou, there's further work with honda. there's other conversations

underway, nothing to announce at this time. >> a couple last questions here, mary china, that is a market where we've already seen auto sales come back there. what's your outlook when you look over let's say the next six months to a year in china? >> i think for general motors specifically, we see recovery overall from an industry perspective, so we believe that will continue. from a general motors perspective, we saw our sales grow by 12% in the quarter in line with the passenger vehicle industry there was growth in the commercial vehicle industr where we don't have entries in those segments, but overall, we were pleased with our performance. buick and cadillac had very strong sales, growing 26 and 28% respectively, and so we see continued growth in market share for both brands and very pleased are mini ev became the top selling ev in china during the quarter. we see, you know, we think we'll see continued growth for the rest of the year, and over the medium and long-term, we still think the market has the

potential to be 30 million or higher from a satellite and radar perspective, so, and we have a very strong business there, so we see it as a huge opportunity. >> mary, a couple last questions, and then we'll wrap this up. this is a company that i know you've got benefits because of the austerity measures you put in place earlier this year, as covid-19 was surging and you had to shut down production, but overall, how much more efficient is general motors now than let's say five years ago or even ten years ago, in terms of your cost structure? >> oh, phil, i think we're dramatically improving in efficiency, leveraging technology to improve the way we do business, empowering people so they can work faster. you're going to see, as we roll out our ev strategy that we're able to do things much faster using technology, simulation, et cetera, so i couldn't be more pleased with how we have improved the business, fundamentally improved the business to be faster and more efficient. we're going to continue to do

that. >> mary barra, chairman and ceo of general motors, thank you for joining us this morning. she thinks this cycle we're in with strong pricing and demand when it comes to full-sized pickups which is really at the core of the strength for general motors last quarter, she thinks this continues for a while. >> yeah, and that means the profits will, too, if that's the case phil, thank you so much. it's really great to see you and we appreciate you bringing us mary, too >> you bet >> when we come back, we're going to dig deeper into the jobless claims data we just got, and we'll talk much more about post election portfolio positioning. again, markets this morning up sharply. dow futures up by 375, s&p up by 61, the nasdaq up by over 300. stay tuned you're watching "squawk box," and this is cnbc

we're back on "squawk box" here if you're just waking up, here's the state of the presidential race at this moment. we're waiting for votes to be counted in a number of key races that haven't been called the futures continue to trade solidly in the black, in the green, i guess, today you'd call it

we use colors for everything, blue and red states, in the green, in the red. we're up 364 it's confusing nasdaq up just under 300 after a very solid week, and the biggest day of election gain ever in the nasdaq, and then the s&p is indicated up about 60. sorkin, jobless games. >> let's get over to steve liesman, actually. we're going to get smart analysis given these latest jobless claims, 751,000 filings last week, a little bit above expectations steve, what do you think >> you know, i think it's a classic good news bad news story like we have been dealing with in this pandemic with every release the claims are down to 751 that's a new low for the pandemic, that's good, but they're coming down slowly, and still above the worst levels of the '09 recession. continuing claims also hitting a new low for the pandemic at 7.2 million. but dropped by about half a million. that's good news, too. trouble is with some of that

data, some of that is people coming off of the rolls, they're losing their eligibility, you find that, you got to go back to the week of october 17th you had a gain of 277,000 of those claiming extended benefits, meaning their regular benefits have expired and now they have to go to the extended benefits a lot of that happening in california overall, 21 1/2 receiving benefits, down 1.1 million that's good but still an awful lot of americans getting help. i think the story here is that as long as there are different programs for the unemployed to go in and out of, the economy and market seems okay with that. it's when and if this expires in the absence of new stimulus, a broader economic effect from what's happening in the claims department here. >> yeah, i know it's not an easy thing to game out. we have been asking that question since the summer, july,

august, going from there, what's the next deadline we're facing at this point in time, when the programs dry up and go away, what's the deadline before something else has to be done? >> i think it's probably the end of the year that a lot of people will potentially begin to lose their benefits if something is not extended some of these states are longer than others, and the extended benefits go on for different amounts and different places that's going to be a big issue in whether or not you see it what's happening now is people are -- seem to be, essentially have lost income, they overall consumers have high savings rate, and those savings rates have come down, and that's propped up spending. don't tweet at me and tell me people out there that have lost their jobs have savings. i understand that. there's a lot of hurt going on in individual families broadly speaking, there are savings by the consumer that have so far been able to prop up spending to the extent that income isn't there >> steve, thank you, i know

we'll talk more about this soon. in the meantime, joining us is noah blackstein, portfolio manager at dynamic funds, and noah you're coming to us from toronto, i know you're an active participant in the market, watching what you have watched play out in the elections, give us perspective of somebody sitting up north. >> most of what i do in terms of the securities i own are obviously around u.s. equities for the most part, and global equities, i'm highly obviously tuned in to what's going on. i think that the expectations going in with the polling data, and everything else, this massive blue wave and expanded democrats in the house, and in the senate, and in the presidency, and that sort of came crashing down with the senate, you know, right now, tied, i'm not sure whether or not calling the last two senate races, and the democrats losing voters in the house. it seems much more like gridlock, and obviously wall street has breathed a sigh of

relief given some of the things we were hearing right before the election, i think that turn the volume down quite a bit, and you know, we'll see how things play out. obviously i think this is going to go on a lot longer than people think, in terms of figuring this out. still, i think that there was certainly some nervousness about one party within an aggressive agenda, and that's kind of off the table, i think the markets have breathed a sigh of relief at the end of the day, though, to the extent that this is about the economy reopening and covid cases, i think, you know, we're still tuned into that, and hospitalizations, obviously. we're still tuned into that, and that has not been resolved >> a lot of people think we're going to start focusing more on the earnings and that's going to be the primary driver for stock pace prices. as you mentioned if the election drags on longer than expected and covid cases continue to climb, those can act as a pretty big distraction, what's your

take on that >> i think what's been impressive my main focus, i'm not really a macro guy but obviously you can't ignore the ma crow, asi have gone through earnings conference calls, not only the magnitude of the earnings sales feed but the commentary on most calls has been very positive for most of the companies. now, obviously as you relock down states, you know, some of that is in jeopardy for sure, as covid hospitalizations, we're not sure, but the early indications are certainly that things are definitely improving amongst the companies that are out there. i also think that unlike a typical recession, this has been anything but typical, where you have a hit to demand and access supply this has been the pandemic has hit both demand and supply, and i think, you know, your earlier interview with general motors is an example, whether it's automobiles or in housing, just the level of inventories across

the board is extremely low there's certainly a lot of fire power left in this economic recovery as things gain traction but where it really sort of, where really the tread hits the road is really once perhaps we start to roll over a little bit. this isn't march we're a lot closer to vaccines we're a lot closer to therapeutics than we were before there's nothing we can do except see sort of how this plays out, and obviously lock downs are going to have a negative economic impact. we're going to have to see how this virus plays out, and you're right, it remains a level, certainly remains a level of uncertainty. there have been a number of pockets of companies that sort of powered through the pandemic, especially in technology and with the economy improving, i expect that to expand for sure but also to accelerate some of the transformation that we saw accelerate in march. that's really going to continue. >> let's dig down to more of th micro level. what things do you like given

that macro back ddrop there are a lot of things to dissect, but what are the areas, sectors, names that you like best >> digital transformation at home keep getting thrown away as being the same thing this is not about getting yourself a connection or extra monitors for your home this is fundamentally changing how businesses are constructed and it is not just sort of uploading, you know, your workloads into the cloud this is moving even further down into the -- into the edge. you know, almost, you know, moving your workload into the network and to the edge. and then why that is important i think that if you're a retailer now, you're closing stores across malls and not coming back those stores aren't going to reopen for all the store closures that we have heard. those retailers, though, they were lied on high margins to offset inventory risks and rents. now they can accept lower margins. but what they need to focus in on is turning that inventory a lot faster

that requires moving a lot of their business to the cloud, but to the edge. and i think this digital transformation is really just beginning. and i think some of the retailers that are embraced this digital transformation, i think are going to continue to do well i think with a lot of the more radical -- i think consumer space as well, i think a lot of people have been tieing housing to yields and that's fair. but whether it is household formations, whether it is the level of interest rates, i think what you're seeing in housing, barring a huge spike in interest rates is probably sustainable for a long period of time, given the growth in housing, the number of people looking at moving, so that's a pretty -- a pretty large impact on gdp as well there are a number of areas poised for strong growth obviously in the near term, virus matters. and the longer term, though, the economic fundamentals, especially with a bit of gridlock in washington look pretty good.

>> noah, thank you very much appreciate the poppy you're wearing, in honor of remembrance day coming up in canada. good to see you. talk to you soon. >> thank you very much >> coming up, jim cramer's first take on the markets this morning. stay tuned "squawk box" will be right back. at calvert, we know responsible investing is hard.

if you're concerned about the environment and climate change, how do you find companies that are driving the right outcomes? if you care about economic equality and social justice, which firms are addressing it in their workplaces and their communities? for nearly 40 years, calvert has delivered competitive returns by investing in companies making a difference because we see value in doing good. talk to your financial advisor about investing responsibly with calvert.

welcome back to "squawk. news out of the media world. alex sherman reporting that disney's espn is planning to lay off 300 employees. the sports network saying, the speed of which change is occurring requires great urgency and we must deliver on serving sports fans in a myriad of new ways citing direct to consumer that new business strategy is being a big part of this in the meantime, want to go to cnbc's headquarters now, good friend jim cramer joins us jim, you know, you look at these tech stocks, they continue to move we have been wondering all morning how much of this is election oriented, how much of this is frankly covid oriented how much of it is something else entirely. >> no no i think it is both those covid has been a windfall, because covid just beats up digitizing and all these

companies benefit from that. but, look, what was the big worry? the existential crisis for the faang stocks it was the government. it was the blue wave, and it was going to make it so these companies would somehow have their wealth confiscated or earnings cut by the government that's off the table now we're trying to figure out new multiples. people say, they're already overvalued they're making a lot of money. i don't know, when i look at this, i think it is just a good moment for them. the best it has been in -- it seems like very few people actually in them when this moment occurred. they're frantic and they're buying >> jim, i'm not going to disagree with you, but there has been bipartisan support and as you know, it was the trump administration that effectively filed this lawsuit against alphabet so don't we think that it is very possible whether biden wins or frankly trump wins on another term that there will continue to be cases in regulation or you just think it is at the breakup idea is off the table?

>> yeah, look, remember, there was a senator from massachusetts who was running signs against these companies, when she was running for president, senator warren i expected senator warren to have a committee to investigate the -- committee to investigate the internet and that's not going to happen there is not going to be a committee to investigate the internet just -- they're going to be fine and i think that's what people are putting new multiples on >> all right jim, we got to jump. we'll see you in a couple of minutes and -- >> too positive. you think i'm being too positive >> no, i don't -- i don't know frankly, i've been back and forth on it. i can't figure it out. do i think that cases are brought against the other guys i still think they are the question is -- >> toothless. >> will they settle, will there be all these hearings? probably less hearings. >> they're not going to be villains >> they're talking about the companies the same way elizabeth

warren is. >> i don't think the vilify hearings are going to occur. look at the bank stocks. they could be in for a little spanking >> right we will see. we will see, jim >> i catch you guys at 5:00 a.m., you're dynamite. that's your best hour. >> shut up, cramer shut up, cramer. >> thank you, jim. >> stirring the pot, jim >> so transparent. >> jim's up already. he can do the -- >> you're right. >> i do see tweets i get caught up on all cramer's tweets. >> i see you guys, i say, man, i'm getting a jump on the day. >> i didn't mean shut up sorry. it is really rude to say that. i was kidding. more than half an hour to the opening bell on wall street. dom chu is a guy who knows about a 2:00 alarm setting he joins us with a look at some of the morning's key stock market movers.

if you love your job, we jump out of bed, dom. >> i agree with you. i can't wait to start seeing you guys at 5:00 a.m. in the morning. i'll lobby for that right now. shares of general motors, a little bit of time here, 6% gains, 1.3 million shares of volume, better than expected profits, better than expected sales. sales in line with estimates here gm was helped along by stronger demand for trucks and suvs those shares up 5.5% now in the premarket trade. now, take a look at what is happening overall with shares of cigna, higher by a percent, big gains yesterday, helping ensurers benefiting this company provided some better than expected profits and sales health insurance services was a big beganer there, those shares up half a percent now. we'll end on shares of regeneron, better than expected sales, better than expected profits, 2% gains right now, big gains yesterday. better eye treatment drugs and skin trcare drug sales.

>> dom, thank you. don't have a lot, where does the time go? we need more time. who is up for 4:00 a.m.? not me anyway, final look, big -- another big day, markets are solid this week. even after the election. see you tomorrow i think. maybe we're doing it again we'll see. make sure you join us. "squawk on the street" coming up right now. good morning welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber futures are solid agency the market continues with the best week in about seven months, best election week in decades we're watching covid levels, fed decision, jobless claims pretty busy morning of q3 earnings, a lot will pivot on arizona, nevada, pennsylvania, and georgia. >> yeah. look, i was going over gm's quarter, a really good quarter, going over bristol-myers quarter and i liked it, good things about