providing both through low rates and very high levels of asset purchases, it will take some time because that's what the under drls lying issue is in our economy. that's why we say that and we've adopted the flexible inflation target that's why we're aiming for an overshoot. we're honest with ourselves and the public that it will take some time to get there in terms of would it really speed it up a lot to move asset purchases? i don't think that would really be -- i think it's going to take a long time, however you do it we've been having long expansions because the old model was inflation would come along, the fed would tighten and we would have a recession now, inflation has been low and we haven't had that dynamic, and the result has been three of the four longest expansions in

modern history we're thinking this could be another long expansion and that we'll keep our -- what we're saying is that we're going to keep policy highly accommodative until the expansion is well down the tracks we're not going to preemptively raise rates until we see inflation reaching 2%. that's a very strong commitment. we think that's the right place to be. >> thank you chris? i'm sorry, mr. chair >> markets have found this fairly incredible. in the direction with the

framework being credible i don't think it's something that i'm pleased by the way it's gotten in markets. >> thank you chris? >> thank you yesterday, the fed said it was joining the national group and i wondered if you could expand on how fed is thinking about climate change and how it might affect fed policy going forward. specifically, januariette yellen drew a distinction between considering climate change related to fed regulation but how do you see it affecting monetary policy, buying bonds of oil and gas companies, but leaving that specific case aside, are there -- is there any way that climate change considerations could affect monetary policy going forward?

>> you're talking about the network we joiped this week. first, i'll start by saying we're going to move carefully and thoughtfully on developing an understanding of how xliemt change affects our work, including the areas you mentioned. we'll do so with a great deal of engagement with all of our constituencies, the public and elected officials in charge of oversight. we'll do it with great transparency we're a nonpolitical agency whose goals and authorityies, t achieve those goals rrk set by congress we have great responsibilities and strong authorities that we'll use vigorously we're not the forum where all the great he shalls of the day are to be hashed out, debated and addressed unless and only to the extent that those issues are directly relevant to our statutory goals and are addressable through our legal authorities. and because we have a narrow remit and stick to it, congress has given us a precious grant of independence from direct

political control. so, society's broad response to climate change is for others to decide, in particular elected leaders. let me get to your question. what does that all mean for an issue like climate change and why did we join? congress hasn't assigned us or other financial regulators a role we're not part of the climate assessment, for example. but climate change, nonetheless, is relevant to our existing mandates under the law let me tell you why. one of our jobs is to regulate, supervise banks and look out for the stability of the financial system the public will expect that we will do that so we'll expect that those important institutions will be resilient against the many risks that they fake -- face credit risk, market risk, cyber risk climate change is an emerging risk to financial institutions, the financial system and the economy. we are, as so many others are, in the very early stages of

understanding what that means, what needs to be done about it and by whom. we've been attending ngfs meetings as an observer for more than a year, taking part in the work we discussed that it was probably time to join as a member the financial system is a global one. it's important we work and discuss best practices with agencies around the world, especially in a field where we're just beginning to develop our understanding. you asked about monetary policy. i'll say this. we historically have shied away strongly, from taking a role financial crisis in 2009 or '10 says that we will avoid credit allocation it's something we carefully avoided. so, i would be very reluctant to

see us move in that direction. picking one area as credit worthy and the other as not. you asked about monetary policy. for now, for me, the real place to focus monetary policy, maximum employment, stable prices, it's less obvious to me you know, i can make the argument, but it's less obvious to me that those should be first order things that we would look at in connection with climate change i think there's work to be done to understand the connection between climate change and the strength in resilience of financial markets and financial institutions i think that work is in its early days and, again, it will be careful it will be thorough and

transparent and engage with the public on all that. >> thank you rachel segal >> thank you, chair paul, for taking my question thank you, michelle. i want to ask you about state and local aid. the governor of illinois announced roughly $700 million in early anticipated budget cuts to close a budget deficit and the latest bichltpartisan stimulus proposal that's being debated this week seems to be leaving out state and local aid at this point. i'm just curious if you can give some detail about the damage that these budget deficits or lack of aid specifically to state and local governments will have on the recovery and specifically with the municipal facility set to expire, what more the fed might be able to do to fill that specific hole thanks very much. >> okay. so, the state and local

governments, they provide important critical services, safety, fire, police, health, all kinds of things like that. they're really involved in people's lives state and local governments are to a large extent. the decision whether to provide more fiscal support to them is entirely in the hands of congress they're in the middle of these discussions, and those are issues for them to decide. i would say the picture is mixed. what's happened is if you're a state that has significant exposure to tourism or extracting energy from the ground, oil from the ground, or gas, you are probably at least in those industries feeling a significant loss of revenue. a number of other states have been surprised on the upside and that's because good sales, for example, property taxes don't move much year to year, and, you know, the kind of sales

taxes on goods, goods sales have been very high income has been more or less replaced by the c.a.r.e.s act. fully replaced in many cases the concerns we had at the very beginning of really serious, deep shortfalls and massive budget cuts on the part of state and local governments have not yet occurred we're seeing that it's different state to state, and some states are having significant difficulties others, not so much. the real concern, though, that still emerges is state and local governments are very large employers and one of the largest, and so far, since the pandemic began, employment has dropped by 1.3 million in state and local. so it's a very large number of people to be out of work from just that one source it's actually significantly more

than lost their jobs during the global financial crisis. a significant part that have group is in education. when the schools reopen, a significant amount of that 1.3 million group would go back to work nonetheless it's a concern we're watching carefully to see why that many people have been let go and what really are the sources. we're monitoring it carefully. and it's a mixed picture and i just have to leave the question of what to do with fiscal policy on this to congres congress. >> thank you james politi >> thank you, michelle thank you, chair powell. you and the fed have consistently said that the fed is ready to provide more economy support if needed. i'm stressed at policymakers generally that not doing enough

outweighs the risk of doing too much when there's so much suffering in the economy the guidance today sort of cements asset purchases for longer period of time, but is not a big easing stat. why is now the short-term outlook deteriorating due to the new coronavirus surges, not for a big new easing stat? is it because of the medium term outlook in approving or because the fed just doesn't have the capacity to sort of build that bridge over the next four to five months for the people who are struggling >> right so i have to go back, james, to what i said earlier. it's a very large purchase asset program that's providing support for the economy. the parts that are not performing well are not struggling from high interest rates. they're struggling from exposure to covid in the sense that these

are the businesses where -- that are really hit hard by people's reluctance to gather closely we have the opportunity to buy more bonds and longer term bonds. we may use that. i'm not saying we won't. it may welcome to using that, but also i would remind -- i would note, though, monetary policy works with long and variable lags is the famous statement. so we think the big effects from monetary policy are months and months into the future this looks like a time when what is really needed is fiscal policy and that's why it's a very positive thing that we're getting that we remain open to increasing the size if that becomes appropriate

or moving the maturities that increases it by taking more risk out of the market we think our current stance is appropriate. we think that our guidance on asset purchases today will provide -- really until we reach very close to our goals, which is not really the way it's been done in the past we don't think that the economy suffers from issues other than the pandemic and people not wanting to engage in certain kinds of economic activity we expect with the virus that will improve, that condition will improve

we are prepared to use the tools and will use them in places where we think they will help. >> thank you scott, npr >> thank you, mr. chairman some forecasters have suggested that there is a lot of pent-up demand for travel and entertainment and services and the like that might stop being pent up in a hurry if we get to the vaccine being widespread and that the beat-down industry might have trouble meeting that nand in a hurry. would that just be a transient problem or something that might warrant closer scrutiny? >> so, that has all the markets of a transient increase in the price level. you can imagine that as people really want to travel again, let's say, you know, that air fare is going to -- i'm just imagining this, right, that they go up. what inflation is, it's a

process where they go up year upon year upon year upon year. and given the inflation dynamics we've had over the last several decades, just a single sort of price level increase has not resulted in ongoing price level increases. the problem back in the 1970s was the combination of two things one, when unemployment went down and resources got tight, prices started going up the second problem was that increase was persistent. there was a level of persistence. if prices went up 6% this year, they would go up 6% next year, because people would internalize. really that's what happens people internalize that they can raise prices and it's okay to pay price that are going up at that rate. that was the inflation -- those are the inflation dynamics of that era those dynamics are not in place any more the connection between low

unemployment or other resource utilization and inflation is so much weaker than it was. it's still there, but it's a faint heartbeat compared to what it was the persistence of inflation, if you get, for example, oil prices go up and that will send a temporary shock through the economy. the persistence of that into inflation over time is just not there. so what you described may happen and, of course, we would watch it very carefully. we understand that we will always be learning new things from the economy about how it will behave. >> so not the kind of thing that the fed would be trigger happy to respond to? >> no. no definitely not. >> thank you michael derby?

given the size of the government borrowing, do you think the treasury market, long run, can appropriate smoothly without some sort of active fed presence [ poor audio ] had some questions about it. i wanted to know where you stood on that issue. >> right so you were break up a little. i think i got the sense of it, thoug though. >> i don't think it's a foregone conclusion that there has to be a permanent fed presence right now we're buying assets because it's a time when the economy needs and our asset purchases are one of the main delivery mechanisms for that,

the size of the balance sheet. there's lots of demand for u.s. treasury paper from all over the world. and i think we need to be thoughtful about the structure of the treasury market and to look at ways to make sure that the capacity is there for it to be handled by the private sector there's quite a lot of work going on, on that front. but i don't presume at all that this is something that needs to be -- or the fed needs to be in there at all i would think that this should be handled by the private sector and can be. institutions need to be able to hold this paper. there are a lot of things that are being looked at right now. >> thank you. >> thanks so much for taking our questions. the pandemic is

disproportionately impacted, small and medium-sized businesses a fed launched a few efforts through it's 13 three programs to reach out to those companies. considering some of those programs are ending, is there anything else that the fed's actions can do to provide support to those companies, or is that solely congress' domain? >> i think the main thing that those companies need is a robust recovery, a strong, robust recovery and so we contribute to that through highly accommodative policy through accommodative positions that are supporting. contributing that through management of the spread of the virus and now through vaccines, and the delivery of those vaccines and congress contributes to that by helping them make it through this very difficult time and i think my understanding is that there's support for small

businesses in what's being discussed on capitol hill. i certainly would think that would be something well worth looking at. >> thank you, paul la monica. >> hi, chair powell. have you had any conversations with the incoming biden administration, particularly janet yellen, who obviously can share some similar experience in running the fed? just curious to get your thoughts on how the relationship with treasury and the new administration might differ than the past couple of years so i've had the typical conversations with the transition team. it's about learning what we do and i really have only spoken to former chair yellen to

congratulate her on being nominated. just to say i look forward working with her i did work closely with her five years before she left and have stayed in touch i did that i have not discussed policy with her and i'm not going to do that until she's confirmed. >> great, thank you. jeff cox >> chair, thank you for taking my question. i'm going to try to ask this question a little bit differently now. the equity market and the bond market seem to be telling two different stories and where things are heading [ poor audio ] bond yields remain very low. does that concern you at all are you getting any more concerned about asset valuations in light of the highly accommodative fed policies

>> you were breaking up, but i think i got that financial stability, we look at a broad range of things. we have a framework so we can evaluate changes in financial stability over time and so the public can evaluate whether we're doing a good job at it what are we looking at asset prices, we published a report a few weeks ago on that maybe it was a month or so ago anyway i think you'll find a mixed bag there. it depends with equities it depends whether you're looking at pes or the premium over the risk-free return if you look at pe's, they're historically high. in the world where the risk-free rate is going to be low for a sustained period, the equity premium, which is really the reward you get for taking equity risk, would be what you would look at. and that's not at incredibly low levels, which would mean that they're not overpriced in that

sense. admittedly, pes are high but, you know, that's maybe not as relevant in a world where we think the ten-year treasury will be lower than it's been historically from a return perspective. you know, we look at -- we also look at borrowing, leverage of financial institutions we spent ten years and the bank spent ten years building up their capital. so far they've been a source of strength through this crisis and their capital has held up well we look at leverage in the nonfinancial sector, households and nonfinancial corporate leverage is high we've been watching that you know, rates are really low so, you know, companies have been able to handle their debt loads, even in weak periods, because rates are quite low. your interest payments are low defaults and downgrades have declined since earlier in the year households have come in to this strong there's been a hit there for people who are unemployed. with the c.a.r.e.s act, congress

replace aid lot of lost income it's very important that the economy gets strong again. the ultimate thing of support, financial stability is a strong economy. the last thing is really funding markets. we found there was a lot of unstable funding for financial companies particularly, and that's down to a very low level these days the broad financial stability picture is kind of mixed, i would say. i would say, you know, asset prices are a little high in that metric and in my view, but overall you have a mixed picture. you don't have, you know, a lot of red flags on that again we're monitoring this daily, published our framework and be accountable for what we saw and what we missed we work very hard at it.

>> thank you for the last question, we'll go to michael mckee. >> $4.1 trillion deficit, republicans argue they don't want to spend more because we can't afford it. i'm wondering if you can make the case for how much we can afford at what point do deficits and the debt start to have an impact on the economy or on interest rates, and how would we know when we get there? >> so, people who run for elected office and win, they're the ones that the reward is they get to make those very difficult decisions. so we're not charged with providing fiscal advice to congress, but i would just say as a general rule, it is important to be on a sustainable fiscal path, from my way of thinking and many others, the time to focus on that is when

the economy is strong and when unemployment is low and taxes are pouring in, and there's room to get on a sustainable path because the economy is really doing well you'restill now in the -- some part of an economic crisis and the fact that congress is debating a fairly large bill today suggests that, you know, something fairly substantial is going to get done. we hope. but what's being discussed, you know, is of some size. in terms of what is a sustainable level, i think the question is we've always looked at debt to gdp we're very high by that measure. by some other measures we're actually not that high in particular, you can look at real interest rate payments, the amount of what does it cost, and from that standpoint if you sort of take real interest costs of the federal deficit and divide that by gdp, we're actually --

you know, we're actually on a more sustainable fiscal path if you look at it through those eyes these are issues for congress. but, you know, i'll just say in the near term, i think fiscal -- the case for fiscal is strong. and i'm certainly -- i'm hopeful it would be good for the economy if we get something soon. >> argument for continuing to spend is that low interest rates make it affordable do you worry you'll get in a situation where you would have congressional interference in monetary policy making or at least feel significant political pressure to keep rates low because the country can't afford to pay a significant interest bill >> yeah. i mean, that's -- i think we're a very, very long way from that, you know congress has given the fed independence on the condition that we stick to our knitting. we try very hard to do that. i think that's what people call fiscal dominance i think we're just a very, very

long way from that if we do our jobs well and support the economy and achieve maximum employment and stable prices, keep the financial system stable, i don't think that that is something that we'll worry about, certainly not in the near term. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> good afternoon. >> fed chair jay powell wrapping up his q & a with reporters after they left the rates unchanged. continuing their pace of bond buying asset purchases, until, quote, substantial progress is made that was the key phrase on the fed's goals. notably maximizing employment and keeping prices stable. stocks turned higher as jay powell started talking they were dipping into the news conference, potentially on this idea that the federal reserve is

there with low interest rates, they reiterated that the low rates are going to stay until at least 2023 and at the same time upgraded their assessment of the economy, boosting gdp forecast for 2020 and 2021. there's the market dow, it's pretty much flat right now. seeing the nasdaq higher, s&p 500 higher yields have actually shot up at the initial response to the federal reserve release have now come back down to earth. by the way, welcome to closing bell, everyone i'm sara isen with mike santoli today as wilfred frost is on holiday for the holidays mike, as far as market reaction, soothing to hear powell sound very accommodative he did not change the composition of the bond purchases as some thought he might. didn't talk about buying or focusing in on the longer end but did talk about the fact that the fed is there and could do more if needed. >> absolutely. s&p at the highs it was a comforting message, and i think investors largely comforted. not too surprising, many of the

details. we'll certainly get much more into the fed and the response in a moment also coming up on the show, high time for a deal. ceos of tilray and aphria. plus, ceo of adidas weighs in on everything from kanye west and the focus of its brand let's bring in david zerbos, and paul mccauley, former pimco chief economist. thanks for sitting there, watching the press conference with us. paul, let me start with you. as sara was saying, chair powell was really vociferous in saying, look, we know the economy is going to get better next year but don't even think about us tightening policy any time soon. it's a very distant moment we like where we are with asset purchases. was there anything there that came either as a surprise or

material modification of powell's message that he has had for a few months now >> i don't think there was anything material. i think he was singing the same song with more feeling, as the church choir director would say. i think from the standpoint of just technique, they changed the asset purchase forward guidance from a time-based one to an outcome-based, to make it parallel with what they have with their board guidance for the fed funds. i thought that was a great innovation and had been telegraphed effectively at the last meeting and the thing that i took home most from his press conference, which i thought was incredibly soothing is, number one, that reflating main street economy is really, really hard work, and that it's going to take a long period of time and they're going to be incredibly patient with that and, number two, that he really

does need substantial help from fiscal policy. he said those two things before. but he said that with a greater feeling, if you will, today. and i thought he did a great job. >> we'll talk more about the market reaction, including the u-turn in bond yields and stocks we want to get to steve liesman, part that have news conference, had chances to question the fed chair, steve what were your takeaways >> you know, mcculley is like a hockey player. he passes the puck perfectly to me and i'm going to pick up on that fiscal thing i agree with what paul was saying, that he -- the chairman was talking very strongly about the need for fiscal policy and he is doing so while congress seems, well, as close as they've been in the last couple of weeks or months of doing so here is what he said about the need for it. >> the case for fiscal policy right now is very, very strong and i think that is widely

understood, i would say, now the details of it are entirely up to congress but with the expiration of unemployment benefits, some of the unemployment benefits, the expiration of eviction moratoriums, with the virus spreading the way it is, there's a need for households about businesses to have fiscal support. >> as paul suggested, that's one more time with feeling sara, what you said and paul said as well, which is the idea another big innovation from powell on adding the new guidance about asset purchases i will say, though, it hasn't gone maybe far enough and there will be more meat on this particular bone in the future. the fed saying that it will continue its search of maximum employment until there's stable prices i'm not quite sure what you do with that, because asset purchases are going to be treated differently from interest rates, even though now they have very similar language around their guidance. i think markets will be looking

for more detail from the fed about when you would change these asset purchases now at $120 billion a month. >> steve, thank you very much, as always. david zerbos, why do you think we saw the big turn in stocks and bonds as fed chair powell started talking? >> sara, as you pointed out in your opening comment, there were some people who thought they may switch things around and buy more ten-year, 30-year and that evaporated quickly the move wasn't that big and the ten-year note might have been holding on to some idea that there was a new buyer coming to town for a little more size and that didn't happen again, i don't think that's a big deal i think all of these market reactions to this were extremely muted.

to be honest, one of the most boring fed meetings we've had the privilege to sit and talk about all year. >> never boring. don't say that. >> with the guidance in place, i'm not sure we'll get that much excitement next year's meetings. i'm always hopeful thrive on volatility in our business monetary policy is really set on the right pace it's there to backstop it's probably not there to do too much more unless things really deteriorate and they don't look like they'll do that. if anything, it looks like people are getting ready for upsides if the vaccine takes off. i think we're taking it a little more out of the equation next year that's probably good news. >> sara bloom raskin, fed chair powell said he's pleased to see the guidance and new framework embedded in market expectations, whether for when the first tightening might be, inflation expectations, things like that might that change? i'm asking here because if you believe the other implicit message of the markets and

investor consensus that we're going to get a real acceleration in the economy next year, maybe there will be this intermittent period where you start to think you see inflation on the rise. do you think the market will end up having to test the fed a little bit next year for its resolve to keep things very easy >> well, the market might, in fact, have to test the fed's resolve. i have to say the fed's resolve is rock solid when it comes to its credibility, it's earned really by virtue of the fact that when it makes a statement, it is very slow to change it and that framework, as we all know, was a long time in coming. it took, really, quite a lot of effort to put it in place. it is really early days for that framework. so, i would be reluctant to think that it's going to change any time soon. it's there the fed's credibility is at stake. my sense is that they'll hang on

to it for quite a while. >> paul, steve asked the chair about the virus surge and the fact that it's moderating the economy and economic recovery we're seeing which is the biggest risk right now, double-dip recession or upside risk that things turn out a whole lot better than expected into next year with the vaccine? what would the implications be for fed policy on either >> i think the risk of a quote, unquote, double dip recession is very low what we have are the months ahead through this dark winter until we get to the months ahead with a vaccine there's nothing that the fed can do about that. there is a great deal that congress can do about that, effectively build a fiscal relief bridge to the other side. and i think chair powell is

pleading with them to do that, because there's really nothing that the fed can do in the months immediately ahead to change the short-term trajectory, because we do have a positive outlook on the other side and so it's really a bifurcated outlook. and congress has got to be driving the bus in the months immediately ahead. and the fed will do what they have to do if congress doesn't but i think it's a fair bet that congress will do it. >> david, with this backdrop, you say it's going to be kind of a low-drama situation with the fed. they want to let the economy run hot. they're going to be patient. what does it mean for investors at this point when you already have, you know, credit markets extremely strong you have, you know, the curve steepening and stock prices have had this great run what do you think going into 2021 >> it's hard not to just remain

bullish and not to sort of understand what we've all learned this year, which was a great lesson in how the fed fights crises and how the fed comes to the economy when there's a shock like this. they had a lesson. they told us what they learned from the great financial crisis or global financial crisis and they implemented it. they implemented it just about perfectly, going back to march, april, may i think that tells investors there's a lot of -- got a lot of back stopping, a lot of ability for this institution to get out in front of whatever might be a curveball that gets thrown to us in 2021. it doesn't -- it's very hard to say look, we could have sat here last year and had no idea about this virus maybe a few people did there's probably curveballs for 2021 it's nice to think about having hedges for things that might go wrong and unruly tightenings and financial conditions i think we just know that this

is now the playbook. it makes it very, very hard not to own risky assets in some way, shape or form going into the next few years especially with the new framework and, as you said, wanting to run this hot and having missed their inflation target for the better part of eight years now. i mean, as i think sarah was alluding to, they took a long time to change this. they've changed it they're not going back they want to overshoot inflation. it's not even clear that's in their forecast for the next three years. two, three, four, maybe up to five or six now think we might get an overshoot but the bulk of them don't over the next three years. i think that's a very positive message for risk assets. the question i always have is, what do we own as that hedge risk parody for the better part of a decade, we can't use ig we can't use treasuries. it makes it very hard to think about. maybe there isn't a hedge and

you have januaet and jay as your hedge. >> that's what i wanted to ask you, sarah bloom raskin. chair powell mentioned the transition just a bit. how happy do you think he is that janet yellen was nominated for treasury secretary what does that relationship ultimately mean for investors? >> i think it's terrific jay is very happy about that you'll have to, you know, of course remember that he served as a governor when janet yellen was vice chair and then subsequently when janet was the chair of the fed so, their relationship goes back in time. they understand how each other operates and what their methodologies are, and what their going-in assumptions are very comfortable relationship. i think that will serve our economy well, because we're going to have, i hope, a fiscal piece that is being driven by treasury, with a monetary policy

side being driven by the fed that will start to coordinate, will start to move together in a way that will bring about an inclusive economic growth. as we know, neither of those tools, the fiscal side or the monetary policy side, treasury or the fed, they can't be done in isolation they have to be done in a coordinated way, in a way that is going to use the advantages that each has to actually bring about the kind of growth that our economy is going to need and that's going to be a growth that is durable and a growth that is inclusive. that is essentially what those two levers can do for us and to have two people there who actually understand each other and can, you know, work together, i think, say huge plus for investors, for markets, but ultimately for the economy and people in it. >> yeah. that setup is right there for us we'll see how it plays out

sarah bloom raskin, david zervos, paul mcculley, as well as steve leasemiesman julia borstin has an update for us. >> twitter saying it will remove tweets based on three main points, any claims that suggest vaccines are used to harm and invoke conspiracies, tweets have been debunked about the effect of vaccines and any tweets that claim covid is not real or serious and therefore vaccines are unnecessary. the company saying starting next year it may place a warning on tweets that advance any unsubstantiated rumors about vaccines, and that would be linking those warnings to some accurate information, public health information guys, back over to you. >> julia, thank you. up next, bitcoin soars and facebook blasts apple. those stories and more when we take you inside the market zone da this fed y. dow now negative, but just barely down about five points

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to help you find opportunities, 24/7 support when you need answers plus some of the lowest options and futures contract prices around. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today. 13 minutes left in the trading day. commercial-free zone going into the close. joining us to break down the market action, josh brown from ritholtz wealth management mike santoli 30,218 for the dow would be a record just in the last hour, the fed leaving rates unchanged in its final meeting of the year, all the major averages moving higher as chair jay powell spoke to

reporters. josh, anything to take away from the fed? we also had some disappointing retail sales earlier today. >> i think the market largely ignored it when you think about i would point to payment stocks. new all-time high for pay pal not in the s&p 500 stay tuned but even discovery, discover financial service dfs, that's an incredible comeback for that new record high in the triple qs but the equal weight qqqs.

qqew small caps, record high, iwm is three basis points higher. that all happened in a three-week span. people are trading and completely ignoring monetary policy for the moment. >> the fed did nothing to disturb that as we're hugging highs on the s&p 500 julia borstin has news. >> take aim at apple's plans to enable consumers to opt out of ad targeting we believe apple is behaving anti-competitively by using control of the app store to benefit their bottom line at the

expense of app developers and small businesses facebook is alleging apple will discourage people from accepting targeted advertising, saying this is part of apple's plan to push apps to abandon free ad-supported services and shift to charging fees and in-app payments from which apple can take a cut facebook also saying eliminating targeting will hurt small businesses, warning that those that couldn't use targeted advertising saw sales decline by 60%. apple didn't have a specific response to facebook today, but directed us to past comments about the company being committed to its expansive approach of privacy concerns josh >> it's hard to see but fun to see both companies being true to fo

form. >> who do you root for here? we might be in the early stages of that. next year, salesforce has closed its deal with slack. now we've got facebook, apple ceos used to sit on each other's boards literally head-to-head. i know who i'm rooting for or who i expect to be victorious. i think you would rather own the hardware than an app that goes on the hardware if you're going to play hard ball. i'm an apple shareholderer, not a facebook shareholder i don't think that will change. >> i would note all the stocks are higher, apple, facebook, microsoft, salesforce leading the dow today. good today for technology.

texas attorney general says he will file a multi-state lawsuit against google ylan mui has been following that for us ylan >> sara, this is an anti-trust lawsuit focused on google's advertising business, accusing the company of trying to control prices, engage in market exclusion and manipulate the marketplace. if there were a baseball game, google would be the pitcher, the batter and the umpire. help with the case, texas has hired an outside law firm that also employs ken starr go google has responded to this case now, saying prices had fallen we will strongly defend ourselves against baseless claims in court. but more trouble son the way for the company. a source tells cnbc 30 states are planning to file a separate anti-trust complaint against google tomorrow. and this all stems from an

investigation announced more than a year ago on the steps of the supreme court. of course, it follows that action. >> alphabet, down quarter percent today. e-commerce is expected to be 24% of all holiday shop in the fourth quarter let's get to frank holland for a look at how shippers are handling this rush at the u.p.s. port facility in kentucky hi, frank. >> hey, there. 6,000 packages per minute, like this one, that can be sorted and turned around for delivery here at u.p.s.' largest hub that speed is dvently needed in november, e-commerce spiked 27% higher year over year, with u.p.s. having the most volume, 450 million packages capacity is very tight, carriers warning people to buy and ship early, u.p.s. and fedex limiting volumes and adding surcharges.

head of sales says that was about protecting margins and on-time delivery. >> there's a higher value when you run a system that is fully utilized, but you also want to ensure you don't overutilize that network or your service levels will decrease, and then everyone is disappointed. >> u.p.s. was at 96% on-time delivery u.p.s. has had the best on-time delivery since october and, of course, all the carriers say vaccines will get the top priority but don't expect them to interfere with christmas delivery back to you. >> thanks, frank that's good news these stocks have been roaring u.p.s. up 100%, fedex up 200%. has the market already priced this all in? >> i think so. it doesn't mean they can't continue to work, because they do have the ability they've just

got incredible franchises i also think you want to keep an eye on prologis i used to own it but that name should continue to do well and shopify. anything that has to do with facilitating e-commerce, i just don't see all the speed-up in adoption we've seen in 2020 dissipating in '21 we've taken a level step forward and you want to be in these stock stocks. >> amazon, etsy among the biggest winners. bitcoin surging above 20,000 for the first time ever. glenn hutchins weighing in on the move on "squawk box" this morni morning, noting the difference between now and the bitcoin rally that almost got to 20,000 in 2017. >> it's driven by retail --

driven not by retail investors that was very much a retail bubble phenomenon. this one is driven by major investors and companies. a lot of companies have either invested in part of their treasury or like pay pal offering it as a payment servic service. >> question for you. i've seen people for that very reason, driven by institutions, investors and heavy weights and not retail speculators is that true if so, why >> it's certainly true, more so than it was three years ago. at least putting a sliver of their portfolio in we've created an asset class out

of electrons and people have decided they're going to trade it, they're going to own it. >> payments function or other technology infrastructure. i find that interesting. pay pals and squares serving individual investors and becoming buyers, is that institutional or retail speculation, both, is it everything i won't say it's incorrect but i don't know if that gets you to the next step of saying this is here to say and 20,000 of bitcoin somehow makes a ton of sense. >> i think it adds legitimacy. josh, you're on the bitcoin train, aren't you? go ahead. >> i'm not like a disruption heavy. i own some bitcoin, big deal i invested in some like crypto start-ups that my friends were doing. i'm sure i lost all my money by now. if paypal and square start to

facilitate transactions for laypeople using block chain, using bitcoin but the end user doesn't even know, doesn't see any of the difficult parts of that, i'm not transacting in dollars, but so what, then i can see it taking that next step michael is talking about i would point that out i also would point out we're in a really weird moment right now where bitcoin is the least of it on an app called rally, they'll sell marvel comics avengers from 1963 you can buy a share of this comic book for $54 at the ipo lol ico. you'll never touch it. you'll probably never be in the same room as it. you're not going to flip through its pages. you can't even say that you really own it. you own a share of it. maybe your share of it is worth more at some point this is what people are doing with money right now it's all bananas. >> yeah. >> i think by contrast, crypto

currency is actually fairly tame. >> everything is different levels of ab extractiostraction >> i think that's what's going on. >> under two minutes to go, watching the clock, until the close. what are you seeing in the internals? >> it's mixed under the surface. has been all day mega caps were leading slightly more declining volume, new york stock exchange, than advancing volume not dramatic, but basically flat across the board take a look at the sort of stay-at-home versus reopening trade. that's retrenched a little bit if you look at the airline etf, got some downgrades, down 1.14%. work-from-home etf is up 1%. that's just, you know, day-to-day, that shifts around it's also the market rotating away from weakness toward strength and the volatility index has remained relatively low bid in the 20s around 22.5. down on the day but not really telling you much as we head into the close, s&p

500 holding on to a gain, very close to a record high from a few days ago 3701 will be slightly short if we finish here nasdaq as the leader all day up about .5%. the russell 2000 couldn't keep the streak going, down abo about .3%. >> if you are joining us on "closing bell," i'm sara isen. mike santoli wilfred is off stocks traded higher as chairman jay powell spoke at the federal reserve, offering reassurance that the fed is there, it is not moving it is keeping rates low and it is keeping its bond purchase or stimulus program in place till substantial progress on its

goals have been made that's boosted the s&p 500 into the close a bit. consumer discretionary, thank you, amazon. a few other names like tapestry, seeing 52-week high. the russell 2000 pulling off those record levels. about a third of one percent a strong run for the small caps. a big marijuana merger announced today. pot companies tilray and aphria combining. we'll talk to both ceos about that deal first on cnbc. plus the ceo of adidas, kasper talked about kanye and much more of that interview is coming straight up.

first, the market today, josh bro brown is still with us mike, i'll turn to you first, as i always do. it looks like we're a step closer to fiscal stimulus. it boosted technology stocks today, not so much the cyclicals like industrials. >> yeah. the market has already built in, i think, a rosie scenario and expectations for 2021. the idea that chair powell comes out and says we're going to keep rates anchored at zero for another three years, we have asset purchases, we can do more, don't necessarily to do more i don't think it was incremental except to say this is a high liquidity environment. we can trade thisle way. markets hung over here a little over a week now. it's probably positive market is able to hang here. you wonder how much we got in the books already, even though it is a seasonally strong period

last two weeks of the year i guess you would have to ask, though, sort of what's the next act that's going to get people excited? >> liz young from the federal reserve, any takeways when it comes to investors did you find it bullish? >> i have, in the sense that the fed has been hold iing our hand through all of this and we can count on jerome powell to continue holding our hand through all of this. one of the important parts was that he focused on unemployment and continue that dovish stance and support markets as well as employment was still under pressure once we get employment back to the right place, we can start to think about normalizing policy a little bit more. i like that he focused on the mark because we will likely have lingering damage despite recovery to economy. >> retail investors seem like they've embraced this rally. you're talking about people

buying shares of comic books out there. your client work, are people very much bulled up? are they in this mode of saying i believe this thing is ready to go, or is there still residual doubt? >> such a great question if you go back -- hard to believe it's been 11 years now go back and look one of the most interesting aspects of modern am markmarketw quickly those things end dangerously, we've gotten to the point where the expectation is that the only reason to ever have cash is for the next dip to buy it immediately we had a 16-day, 30% bear market that ended 18 days later so, we had six-week corrections

as recently as 2018. and we had like six-month corrections as recently as 2015, 2016, if you remember that during the oil crash, by the way. we've had long -- they just get shorter and shorter. and now people feel like, whatever there will be a correction there will be a bear market, it will be a few days and i'll be right back in. ewe think that's where we are. i know it's dangerous that the mentality is shifting that way when we allocate assets for clients we do long-term strategic asset allocation but tactical and we're hearing from some people recently, like why even bother with tactical let's just be in you don't hear that when markets are at lows. i know i'm stating the obvious it's shifting toward bonds, why do i need to be tactical >> makes sense federal reserve raising its economic outlook, 4.2% gdp

growth next year, up from 4% chair powell speaking last hour about what more the fed can do for the economy. >> there is more we can do there's a number of options to provide more support to the economy. i would say, though, in the near term the help people need isn't just from low interest rates that works with long and variab variable it's also support. >> he said asset purchases can't make people feel comfortable congregate i congregating together, which is the one missing piece to getting the economy back to full strength the question is, even if the fed could do more and is ready to do so if needed, it doesn't seem as if, as investors, we should be hoping for them to need to do more just because they'll still be pretty accommodative if we

get that rebound next month. we may not be in a bad news equals good news type of tape right now. >> yeah. i would agree with that, mike. and by the time they would have to use some of those tools that he referred to today, it's a situation where we're in a much more dire circumstance so, one of the things, though, that's interesting about this, i think fear of a lot of investors was that the fed was out of bullets. so his communication that we have more things we could do, we're willing to do those things if it's necessary is important to give people peace of mind to his point, we do need fiscal support. there's only so much monetary policy they can do and they've done a lot of what they can do we need the fiscal support to bridge that gap and the gap say little longer than people originally expected. we're going to have a tough winter the market will have to make it through a lot of bad data the next 30 to 60 days in order to get us to the other side of that, so that we don't have

surprise bankruptcies or surprise insolvencies in households we do need fiscal support. >> another story we want hit today, massachusetts regulators filing a complaint against trading platform robinhood kate rooney with that story. kate >> hi, sara. massachusetts regulators are accusing robinhood of what they call aggressive tactics in marketing inexperienced investors using gamification to manipulate those customers and failure to prevent outages on the trading platform this year in a complaint this morning, highlighting revenue model for payment of order flow. they say that's part of what's driving the start-up to offer trading to more new investors without properly screening them. in one example, they claim robinhood allowed a massachusetts user with no experience to make more than 12,000 trades in just six months robinhood says, quote, they disagree with those allegations and plan to defend the company

vigorously they say they worked to scale those up after outages and made improvements to options products as well as adding more safeguards guys, back to you. >> kate rooney, thank you. josh, i feel like you have an opinion on this story and whether robinhood is vulnerable. >> me? >> to more potentially regulatory noise or headaches. >> i want to take you back to a simpler time 40 years ago this very week, december 12th, 1980. apple went public. they created 300 millionaires but none in the state of massachusetts. sara, do you know why? >> because of issues like this >> because massachusetts, in its infinite wisdom, decided apple was too risky to allow massachusetts state residents to take part in the initial public offering it's a true story.

sofaras gump was able to get in, we later learned now they could buy the next day or later that day. no big deal. but just the point certain states are a little bit stricter in terms of investor protections than others, and massachusetts has a very, very strong state securities regulator who is always looking out for his people so, i don't dislike the fact that they're taking issue with the casino-esque nature of the robinhood user interface, but in the end, people are going to make bad decisions no matter how much fun the app is to use where they have a really strong point is robinhood could do a better job with guardrails like i don't really think that people should have as much leeway and latitude to trade as frequently as they do, early on. so, maybe unlocking new levels that a user can get to, the longer they're using the app or if they complete training modules within it. there are ways to allow people

to have fun, learn to trade, but do it safely and so hopefully, that's what ends up becoming the end result of this. >> mike, what say you? >> i think it's an intere interesting -- all the brokers are free like robinhood. the differentiator is the user interface really people say, what, massachusetts is going to say you can't have digital confetti they can't make the app look like candy crush what's wrong with that i say is that the only thing rob u.n.hood is is giving you that anybody else is not, that it makes it seem like you get all these prompts to trade more and it makes it feel like you get that sort of mental rush from winning a trade, so to speak it's an interesting test i don't think there's a clear-cut answer you know, i do think they're not going to be held to the standard of a full-service broker or anything like that but quite interesting to see what differentiates one of these players versus another. >> sometimes feel the way --

>> don't go public. >> gamification. go ahead, josh. >> next year robinhood will go public, and so will sofi, and so will betterment and a lot of these next generation brokerage/robo adviser type business models are really going to be put to the test in terms of whatdoes wall street think they're worth? if all they have is a cool user interface it's not going to be enough. >> 20 years ago we were complaining because e-trade put talking babies in commercials. >> and shaquille o'neal. >> there you go. >> josh brown, liz young, thank you both very much good to talk to you both hot companies, aphria and tilray merge for what they call the world's largest cannabis company and expansion in the u.s. we're back in just 90 seconds.

merging an all-stock deal to form the largest cannabis county tilray up on the news. aphria, down, they did trade up earlier today. the combined company will trade under tilray's ticker on the nasdaq company's stock prices have been on somewhat different paths the

past year, tilray down 45%, while aphria higher by 55% two frequent guests, ceo irwin simon and tilray ceo kennedy how long did it take to come together give us the backstory. >> good afternoon, sara. good to be on your show again. good to tell your viewers about aphria and tilray coming together it's an exciting time. i met brendan about a year ago we talked a lot, trying to figure this out. it was not a deal that happened in a week. you know, with the consolidation in any industry, what brendan and i had to figure out, what's the right thing for our shareholders, our consumers and what's the right way to go about this in regards to the surviving company? who would be ceo and chairman? what would the board be? ultimately we got to be a company and how do we grow this

company well beyond a billion plus dollars and create market cap of $10 billion for our shareholders good news is, here we are today, it's announced and an exciting deal for our shareholders, employees and our users. >> markets seem to like it irwin, to answer some of those questions, you will be the ceo of the company brendan, you will be on the board. i'm curious, brendan, how much of this deal discussion centered around the u.s. and some of the ballot measures we saw passed? the fact that joe biden won the election and increasing hopes that we could see the u.s. continue to open up to legalization of marijuana. >> sara, thanks for having me. you know, i think one of the key points is that this combination makes us one of the clear win r winners in canada and gives us a clear foundation to be a winner in europe.

and as we feel comfortable about our expansion in those markets, you know, next we'll look at the u.s. i think we're well positioned. certainly the election was positive for both of our companies and industry as a whole. not only at the national level, but as you mentioned, the state ballotts in montana, south dakota, mississippi, arizona not exactly blue states, very conservative states that now have republican senators that represent a state where their constituents have legalized cannabis we're optimistic about the opportunities in the future in the u.s. >> still, even some of those deep red states pass some form

of legal marijuana in some form, a lot of the members of the senate are older and conservative if the senate does stay republican and we don't get legalization of marijuana, does that ruin the grand plan what happens to the vision here? >> not at all. first of all, listen, consumers are voters and they want to be re-elected 68% of americans say they want cannabis legalized in thes today, one in every three residents of the u.s. have some type of legalization, whether it's recreational or whether it's medical and with that, i think politicians got to listen to what the consumers want, what the voters want, what the citizens want. we need legalization why? we need more tax dollars generated in this country. why allow the illicit market and drug dealers continue to sell cannabis into the market where states get nothing from it you know what? even if u.s. does not legalize,

we have the opportunity to grow our share in canada to a 30% share, which is a major share of that market. europe will legalize we'll have a big opportunity with our medical marijuana and recreational india, one day, will legalize cannabis chi china, one day, will legalize cannabis it will become part of the world on a global footprint. with all we have in our assets, even if the u.s. didn't -- by the way, we do have $120 million business in the u.s. today with sweetwater and our manitoba hemp we will have a footprint without even touching the u.s. market. >> your stock was about $150 not too long ago, two years or so ago. today with the surge, it closed just above $9. what happened? what does it say about the industry and where investors are and where you are in this whole

cycle toward maturity? >> i think markets overestimate the long-term opportunity. that's what we saw the last two years. globally, we're looking at two countries that legalized, 1% i don't know what the number is going to be five, ten years from now. but it's going to be significantly higher than 1% i would expect at least a dozen countries. similarly in medical, 44 countries have legalized today medical cannabis and i think that number will at least double to more than 80 this is an inevitable

high-growth industry for many years to come. and i think we're well positioned to be one of the global winners in this space. >> and, sara, you -- >> irwin, you pretty much spell this out go ahead i was going to say when you became ceo of aphria, you said a lot of these smaller companies will disappear, this industry is going to look totally different, consolidate and mature you have had some profitability on a quarterly basis but no, i don't think, cannabis company has been profitable on an annual basis. >> i was going to say this here. aphria has been profitable and showed great growth. investors want this cannabis industry you said it initially acres lot of market capitalize has been lost in this industry. a lot of these companies have also gone through their trials and tribulation. where is the good governance in these companies?

where is organic growth, real growth and where is real profitability? that's the combination of aphria and tilray we'll be profitable right out of the gate there's $100 million of synergies coming out of these companies and we'll have footprints on a global basis and be ready for the u.s and with that, just ultimately, hey, aphria cut its teeth in canada there's 500 canadian lps there's going to be consolidation in a fragmented industry aphria had to take that leadership position to change the industry what better combination to do it with than tilray to compliment all the assets aphria already had? >> i had no time left. i want to ask you where you think the biggest opportunity is, irwin, medical, beverage, or selling pot? now you're in all of those businesses. >> first of all, it is absolutely medical and we have a great footprint in there

listen, i love the whole beverage category. that's why we bought sweetwater, to expand in there with my past experience, you know, in the consumer package, taking manitoba hemp at the end of the day, what i said before, 68% of americans want cannabis legalized. they don't just want it to eat or drink but smoke and ingest it other ways, too. i've never seen an industry with such great opportunities. >> irwin simon, brendan, thank you so much. good to talk with you both. >> thank you, sara. >> thank you. >> congratulations on the merger today. >> thank you very much. wild ride for retail stocks during the pandemic. adidas is no exception we caught up with the adidas ceo. that's just ahead.

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s&p 500 clinging near its highs, up less than 2% since that november high. this is the yield on the ten-year treasury inflation protected securities it's deeply negative right now pretty much record nef negative. it's down minus 1% this means inflation expectations have gone up toward 2%, as the nominal ten-year yield has stayed under 1%. negative yields with higher valuations on risk assets and big companies can borrow at incredibly low rates, under 2% for investment grade look at the panic around the covid crash. it's been a grind ever since can it get much better from here or will this be the warm bath the market stays in for a while? that's the big question, whether we have catalyst beyond this context right now. >> warm bath is a good way to put it. up next, adidas making

headlines after saying it may sell its reebok brand. i spoke to the ceo and got his answers, next on "closing bell." at fidelity, you get personalized wealth planning

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but before we sign i gotta ask... sure, anything. we searched you online and maybe you can explain this? i can't believe that garbage is still coming in. that is so false! frustrated with your online search results? call reputation defender today to join tens of thousands who've improved their online reputation. get your free reputation report card at reputationdefender.com or call 1-877-866-8555. adidas announcing earlier this week it is reassessing reebok, including selling the brand. i sat down with kasper rorsted and asked if the pandemic had anything to do with this decision. >> not at all.

our industry has been hit like any other industry this year through living a healthy life, doing more sports. i would say the under dlinings r more important tan ever before what's happened this year has nothing to do with the consideration to leave at this stage. >> any second thoughts of retooling as a result of the pandemic and enormous shift we've seen in consumer behavior, for instance, to online and everything else that came with it >> about four years ago, this we did less than a billion online this year, potentially more than 4 billion. we are seeing a dramatic accelerationto online. the strategy was put in place four years ago it's probably the most profound. the second is an acceleration in clothing style i think it's going to be a very long way before people want to

go back to suits that trend is ongoing. the pan ddemic has accelerated that i don't see people wearing suit and ties at home that's very good for our business. >> what are they wearing, track suits? >> basically the sandals you wore to the beach but jogging pants, t-shirts or just much more casual wear and that will continue there's actually no doubt about that if you look upon one large firm after another, google said people won't come back until some time in the fall. the trend to work from home and having a casual lifestyle is playing very much into a lot of the clothing we have so we're very happy that have consequence. of course, we're not happy with the pandemic. >> obviously we saw the numbers were pretty decent in the third quarter. although you warned on sales in

the fourth quarter what are you seeing in the owlook is it just because of the lockdowns happening in europe and some places in the u.s.? >> we were a bit cautious, you know, going into the fourth quarter. right now, we are seeing our stores are opening in the high 90s. right now, we're seeing very strong christmas trading, despite the lockdowns in countries like germany, greece very much along these expectations, so christmas shopping is working well and, of course, driven by online we still need to be cautious frankly, nobody has any strong idea about when we're going to see, i would say, sustainable opening. and i believe the sustainable opening will only come when you have a very widespread vaccine on countries across the board. >> your stock has held up well so has nike, your chief competitor, lululemon.

we'll hear from nike friday. do you think they've been able to fare better than you? why has it been trickier than you when it comes to that sales recovery >> i don't think there's been a big difference of our performance is very similar to that of our competitors in the u.s. i think there's some differences but overall the sporting goods industry has held up very well what you could take out of the numbers this year, that went for everybody, complete lockdown during several months, march, april, we had a lockdown i would say we fell off fairly well with our competitors across the board. this year we can max in u.s. and china. two markets we've gained quite heavy with europe despite how the year actually went. >> you are gaining share in the u.s. that was one of my questions what are you seeing from the consumer in the u.s. right now >> we are seeing the consumer really returning to the store.

we still see traffic being down, but the conversion rates in store is higher. and then you're seeing also very, very strong uptick in the online business. one of the interesting paths going forward is that, of course, you know, the sports brand, very high focus will have pickup when fans are back in the stadiums that's not been the case for the last 12 months for those brands that have very strong engagement on american football, basketball, they will grow quicker than the other ones when the fans start getting back in the stadiums. we assume that will take place probably around mid-year next year and that should be a big uptick for our company. >> do you think we'll ever go back to stores the way we did in 2019 and 2021 once the vaccine comes, or are we just going to shop differently permanently >> i think people want to get out. i think most people are bored, sitting at home. they want to get out, have a

shopping experience. i think people will go back. there's no doubt that online has accelerated two to three years into the future, no doubt about that if you ask more people there's a big social element about going out and shopping, seeing and feeling the products again we'll continue to build stores we'll announce next year where we're going to build, have a great experience we opened some stores, in china this year. the last one we opened about four weeks ago we think the stores are still here to stay, but coupled much closer to the online xperience >> i'm going to ask you about kanye west the latest is forbes just came out this week, saying he is the number two highest paid celebrity of 2020 just under his sister-in-law. is that still a profitable relationship for you >> yeah. we have a very strong relationship with kanye. we've had it for many, many years. it continues to evolve we're still happy with the relationship fantastic brand globally very, very happy with our

relationship with kanye. >> you mentioned you were excited, looking forward to the return of sports and how that was going to add to the business how much of a toll do you think it's taken on the financials, kasper, to lose the olympics, the in-person stadiums and gains and lack of consistency overall with sports this year? >> we haven't quantified it. there's actually no doubt that in the biggest part of the world, occer, european football, having some of the biggest clubs in the world, of course, you don't really sell jerseys. there's a brand momentum, commercial momentum. we haven't quantified. but it's quite substantial that's why, of course, we look back when people go in the stadium, they're buying jerseys, get excited. he they sit in front of the television, of course, you don't do that. the reason i'm concerned is there's a huge pent-up demand of people to come, attend a game live, get the experience in the stadium. that's why we're more confident

'21 will be a good year for us. >> another dose of optimism on 2021 that was adidas ceo kasper rorsted. of course, wilf is not here so we can trash his arsenal i asked kasper if they regretted that he said of course not. that would be dangerous, sponsorship deal to look at it like that. >> since i'm sitting in wilf's seat i feel like i have to remark upon the turf soccer field wallpaper he was standing in front of, too. >> is that what that was >> yeah. >> i knew it was green sports of some kind. and it's been resilient. up next, a pulse check on the banks. financials having a big run over the last few months with regional banks performing even better ceo of truist when "closing bell" comes back out that. umm...what...its...um...

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today in california as hospitals set up tenths to handle more patients california's population growth has fallen to a new low for the year that ended in july, the state added just over 21,000 people the number of people leaving the state was relatively unchanged, but far fewer moved to california during the pandemic president-elect biden introducing pete buttigieg as his nominee for transportation secretary, calling him a new voice in the fight against climate change biden says the diversity of his cabinet taps into what makes america great. >> this cabinet will be the most representative of any cabinet in american history we'll have more people of color than any cabinet other, more women than any cabinet ever, a cabinet of firsts. >> that's your update.

i'll send it back to you, sairia. >> sue, thank you. julia borstin with roku. >> hbo max will be available on roku, between at&t's warner media and roku this should help drive adoption of the hbo max service of course, the timing of this is note rabble because it comes ahead of the launch of "wonder woman," "1984" and "christmas day. it comes to the theaters that are open and, sara, of course, this follows hbo max announcing it will be taking the same distribution salary for all 17 movies it's releasing next year. back over to you. >> roku up 3.6% after hours. julia, thanks. kbw banks index gained the last three months despite covid concerns the state on rioegnal banking with truist ceo after this it's been a tough year.

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consolidation in the bank space with huntington's deal the financial times out with a new story about another major deal that happened this year morgan stanley's $7 billion

purchase according to ft, jp morgan was in the running and was the first company to make an offer even though jp morgan ultimately topped that offer, eaton vance ultimately went with morgan stanle stanley. >> that's been a tailwind for asset manager valuations meantime, financials, one of those sectors finishing in the green today. among the biggest winners this quarter so far, rallying by 18%. joining us for more, truist financial ceo, kelly king. kelly, good to see you thank you for being with us. >> good to be back thank you. >> so, obviously, truist, the product of one of the bigger mergers we've seen in years. you're still kind of assimilating that deal how is that going and what does it say to you that now we are seeing, perhaps, another round of consolidation in the industry >> thanks, mike. we just completed our first year

birthday, our first year anniversary. and so we've made it through that challenging first year. it's going really well cultural is fantastic. when we announced a deal or better than we thought we're moving along with branch closures, people loving the culture and revenue opportunities are fantastic. we feel really good about it scale matters and if you do it right, it can be really good. >> reasserting their intention to keep rates low for a long time on the long end, they don't expect things to go anywhere what does that mean for your business do you think that's appropriate? >> yes i do think it's appropriate. to be honest, i think the fed has done a nice job throughout

this whole crisis. and it certainly is premature to raise rates. we do have reasons to be optimistic slightly yield curve, makes it harder for banks to make money really big focus for truist, we're closing five acquisitions this quarter because that's a really big, robust business for us while net interest margin derives from taking deposits and making loans, while that's relatively subdued tas a good time to focus on cost control. >> as well as bank stocks have

done, yours and others, in recent weeks and months, obviously they've had a tough road the past several years. meanwhi meanwhile, these payment companies very strong. a lot are concerned about the versatility of banks to stay relevant with customers. , not really i think what you are seeing is that largely everybody knows when the economy is tough, things are challenging because of interest rates and credit challenges the market still is not quite sure that the credit challenges are going to be really low i think they are beginning to see some relief, that maybe it won't be as bad as we thought. i heard earlier on your show that one analyst said it would begin to pick up next year

so i think it is beginning to be realized that maybe the challenges weren't as bad as everybody thought. banks get better, everybody gets better here is the thing. we need to compete with the synthetics we are investing megamillions in the latest and greatest technology the best mobile technology platform of anybody. we know we have a great technology we have invested heavily in it as we go forward with our technology center. the large banks can compete. that's the list they like to put out there. we work closely with them. the biggest is technology.

it helps to have the marketing to explain it different to folks. >> as you have said a couple of times, certainly scaled business we have to leave it there. thanks for being with us >> thanks. >> holiday season if full swing and rapid spread of covid-19 is taking center stage. catching up with dr. fauci sometimes, you want speedy but reliable.

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but we are hoping things will pick up by q3. yeah...uh... boss: doug? sorry about that. umm...what...its...um... boss: you alright? [sigh] [ding] never settle with power e*trade. it has powerful, easy-to-use tools to help you find opportunities, 24/7 support when you need answers plus some of the lowest options and futures contract prices around. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today.

both dr. fauci and d ddr >> dr. fauci was warning we would see a surge of travel for the holiday season

he said we would see an ever increasing number of covid cases and a warning. here is what he said >> if you look at the rationale that the health authorities in california gave, that they were perilously close on having a real strain on the health care system which forced them to shut down in a number of areas. they didn't want to do that. they felt they just had to do it >> he said several other states are in a similar position. >> we also asked about striking a new vaccine deal with pfizer >> we are going to make the vaccine doses we need. that's how life is we are very confident that we will come to a conclusion that's a constructive conclusion and

have doses for the american people. >> sounds like we should stay tuned to hear about that supply deal with pfizer >> absolutely. market closes around the flat line it has been around the 3700 level for about ten days that does it for closing bell. "fast money" begins right now. i'm melissa lee and this is "fast money. tonight's tradier lineup -- tonight on "fast money." the three reasons why he sees another 23% upside for the market next year plus bitcoin soaring above 21,000 for the first time ever and lennar we will bring you numbers as