>> good morning, i'm becky quick look with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. yeah, let it snow. we're warm and cozy. lucky us let's take a look at the u.s. equity futures right now you are looking at some glean arrows. yesterday the dow closed down, but the s&p 500 and nasdaq were higher if you are looking at these levels right now, if they were to open at these levels that are indicated, s&p indicated up by about 19, nasdaq futures up by about 58 if they were to open here, they would be looking at intra day record highs just based on these gains we're seeing right now anyway probably good time to look back and see where we've been this year because, man, things have been a little hairy. the nasdaq has been an incredible performer, another record close yesterday it is actually up year to date by 41% compare that to the s&p 500 only up by about 14 abo.5%.

and think about where we were back in late march march 23, if you were looking at the s&p from that time, we are up 65% from those march lows if you were to do the same comparison with the nasdaq, it is more unbelievable right now up 84% from the march lows that the nasdaq set thanks to peter for figuring that all out but major gains for the year, and incredible gains from the lows that we were looking at back in march. and right now the ten year note looks like it is yielding 0.925% andrew, obviously a lot riding on what happens with congress. >> exactly and nice segue to our next big story to talk about. there is optimism, but still no stimulus deal. lawmakers on both sides appear to be closing in on an agreement and stimulus checks are in the mix. want to get over to ylan mui who

is joining us with more. >> andrew, congressional leaders had been hoping to strike a deal last night clearly that did not happen. but they do say that they are making progress. top democrats nancy pelosi and chuck schumer were back on the phone yesterday with the treasury secretary, they spoke about 45 minutes but they did not meet again with gop leadership, though we're told their staffs were hard at work instead what we heard is both parties warning that congress might have to be here over the weekend in order to wrap up this package. one outstanding issue is the size of stimulus checks which are expected to be about $600 a person >> that is half of what i wanted, but it is a step forward. and i'm going to do my best to make sure that we come as close to that $1200 as we possibly can. >> but other lawmakers said that

that could come at the expense of unemployment benefits which might have to be shortened in order to pay for the checks. now, the house is not scheduled to convene until this afternoon. and as of now, there is nothing on the schedule that suggests that lawmakers are ready to vote on either of the covid relief deal or a government funding bill back over to you >> so we're one step -- is this one step forward, one step back? yesterday everybody was so he excited. you still think that we're going to have something by early next week >> yeah, i think the fact that they are talking about pushing through and continuing to work is a good sign they could very easily just say here is the deadline, we won't make it, we'll go home and that's the end of the story. so the fact that they are willing to keep on working at this is an odd indicator that there is a deal within reach or at least they believe there is a deal within reach. what i would look for today is to see whether or not they will

have to pass a short term spending measure to keep the government going beyond friday and how long that measure would last if they do it, would it go to monday, would it go to christmas eve, how would that go and that would give you an indication of how close they feel that they are to actually getting this bill signed into law >> the threat of a government shutdown, that is not real at this point, right? there is no suggestion that either side would allow that to happen, is there >> so nobody wants that to happen nobody is intending for that to happen but as we've been talking about, you know, because of the quirky rules of the senate, it could happen unintentionally for a brief period of time so that is why i would be on the lookout today to see if they are doing anything to sort of backstop that possibility and vote on extending government funding for just a few days now to give themselves a little more breathing room there is still a chance for them to get this all done by midnight tomorrow, though it is hard.

but we'll have to see how today plays out. but certainly they are working and we're hearing positive sounds from both sides >> okay. ylan, thank you. we'll be talking to you a lot and we'll also be talking to senators pushing for a deal. democrat joe manchin and republican rob portman, that is coming up in the 8:00 a.m. hour. joe. some news breaking overnight from france. french president macremmanuel mo tested positive for covid-19 government statement said that he would isolate and continue to work meanwhile, today is the day, an fda advisory panel meets to decide to recommend approval of the moderna vaccine. we'll talk to health and human

services sect alex azar at 7:45 a.m. eastern about all things vaccine and covid. beck vice president mike pence will publicly receive the covid-19 vaccine tomorrow. the white house said that he wants to promotes the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and build confidence among the american people. his wife karen pence and surge son general jerome adams will also be getting the jab at tomorrow's event president-elect biden is expected to receive the vaccine as soon as next week >> i don't want to get ahead of the line, but i want to make sure that we demonstrate to the american people that it is safe to take. they are working on that plan right now. and when i do it, i'll do it publicly so you all can actually witness my getting it done >> former presidents obama, bush and clinton have all also volunteered to take the vaccine on camera. and new this morning, sir

mcclellan has become the latest celebrity to receive the vaccine. and he said he felt euphoric to get that jab and an alaskan health care worker suffered a reaction to the vaccine tuesday. the doctor who treated said that she responded too typical treatments including the epipen and steroids a second worker at the same hospital was a little lightheaded and had a scratchy throat he was treat e. rest hanr. and . here is the response from dr. fauci last night >> you may see reactions that you didn't see in the clinical trial. so we have the two in the uk, and now what you just reported, someone in alaska. so with the pfizer people, what they are saying, if you have a history of a severe allergic

reaction, you should either not take this vaccine or if you do take it, take it in the context of a place where if you do develop an allergic reaction, it could be readily and effectively treated. >> i guess that means have an epipen standing by the cdc's current recommendation is that anyone who has ever had a severe allergic reaction to a medical injection should not get this vaccine, at least not at this point andrew and then there is this other issue that we should talk about which is that the vials caused a stir yesterday they are supposed to hold five doses but can contain enough vaccine in some cases it for a sixth or even seventh dose the extra doses were being discarded because they weren't approved for delivery, but the fda now says that any full dose that can be obtained can be

used, but it must not be pooled with remnants from other vials so maybe we'll talk too dr. gottlieb about this, but apparently the way you fill these bottles, you top them up a little bit extra in part because they want to make sure that when the needles go into take it out, that you are not taking just bubbles at the bottom. but as a result some cases there is actually a little bit more in there which could be good news because potentially more people could get vaccinated as a result and check this out, becky -- >> when i first heard it, i thought great, this is excellent news i'm a little confused because they say it depends on the type of syringe that you use or how much saline. just makes me wonder, is everybody getting the same exact amount of this because my guess would be that when they were thereforing this, they are pretty exact in how much they put in each vial so if you can get six in some

cases and other cases serve, sounds like there could be a little bit of operator error that is taking place great news if they can squeeze more out of it, and it makes sense because you don't want the bubbles at the bottom, but when they say it is a different syringe or different mixing amount, that is a little concerning >> if it is really crucial on dose, and dose dependent and that is what the clinical trials were based on, either there is some extra in the vials or someone is not getting -- you know, just do the math there must be some extra if everyone is getting the exact dose they are supposed to get. but it seems a little bit -- it is never that exact with a syringe. and some of those dosages you see in clinical trials are kind of arbitrary i mean, it is the difference between a factor of two or three

in terms of the dosage so it is not like 10% of -- if it is one time versus two times, versus three times, if they decide that it is a one time dosage and 10% above that, it probably is not that big a deal. >> i think that it is probably okay i believe in the science i would definitely get it, but it also always a little unnerving when you think things are exact and scientific and then you hear that there is a little bit of imprecision that goes into this >> exactly and, you know, don't -- got a little here, got a little here, you pour it in here, okay, this one's your like can you open one of those new ones >> they said don't mix the extras >> yeah, i know. obviously someone was thinking about it, hey, we'll put these two together >> if you can squeeze another

15% out of this, fantastic i'd love to see more doses and great news if it is just because there is a little extra in there to top it off but i'd like to hear more about exactly why it is happening. >> i thought joe was kind of cute, he was like why want to jump the line. you're president, dude, have all you want take two get one in each arm and each cheek if you need to go ahead, andrew >> these cheeks. >> meantime we'll talk about -- those cheeks we'll talk about wunong net, this is a company rocketed higher in yesterday's ipo jumping from ipo price of $5 to a current price of above $80 here is a look at the market cap. if you think the ipo process is broken, here is a decent example

of it. the surge in the food product ecommerce company prompted this tweet in jim cramer calling it a joke and asking where is the s.e.c. in fact we'll be talking to the outgoing s.e.c. chairman jay clayton and we'll discuss that and some of the other things in the 7:00 hour. joe. all right. coming up, get ready, liesmaniacs. it is in the teleprompter. i think that it is a great name. and there are many steve will join us next on the fed's commitment to open ended stimulus and what it means for the markets. but as we head to break, check out the shares of roku and they struck a deal to carry hbo max on its platform. the usual gifts are just not going to cut it.

we have to find something else. good luck! what does that mean? we are doomed. [ laughter ] that's it... i figured it out! we're going to give togetherness. that sounds dumb. we're going to take all those family moments and package them. hmm. [ laughing ] that works.

♪ she's a maniac on the floor i hear that music and i remember in respect -- do you remember that, steve any way, the fed acknowledging

that the recovery -- do you know what that is from? i think flash dance, right it is pledging to keep buying bonds until the economy reaches full employment. steve liesman a very serious person, do you embrace this lease maniac stuff or do you think it detrankts frcts from y gravitas i think it works in your forgave. >> yeah, i embrace it because of my general rule in life is to be constantly amused and i am and if you are an economics reporter covering the fed and you were not constantly amused, then you know, it would be a really boring simply data filled life but as you and i do, we make best out of what we got and i'll tell you now seriously about the fed which ended the year with its foot firmly on the

accelerator and pledging to keep it there for the recent of the year let me just -- there we go thank you very much. keeping bond purchases in place for what could be years to come. faced with a troubling outlook the next five months with the so virus surge, the open market committee kept rates at zero and projected that they would actually stay there the next three years. and the long run rate is 2.5%, they also maintained its asset purchase and added a new twist, it offered new guidance that it will keep buying assets until standing further progress has been made towards the committee's maximum employment and price stability goals. almost but not quite equals the commitment of the fed to keeping interest rates at zero, suggesting that they would keep buying bonds for a long time >> our enhanced balance sheet guidance will ensure that the stance of monetary policy

remains high a accommodative it is tied toward progress of reaching our employment and inflation goals. so if progress slow, guidance would convey our intention to increase accommodation >> so this stronger guidance on as set purchases came with the fedestly upgrading their forecast for growth. and this is as congress looks to be moving towards new fiscal reli relief so an awful lot under the christmas tree for stocks. better growth next year, a new fiscal package likely, and a wide, wide, wide open fed. >> i'm looking forward to all those eight meetings again next year, steve, so that is the -- that is the bottom line though where we are i said the other day the ten year hasn't done anything for ten years.

that is overstating it i guess that is not why it is called the ten year, but -- >> that is a pretty good joke there, joe i like that. >> seems like ten years. seems like it. we're going over 1% next year, is that your -- do you have new years predictions? >> i haven't done that yet >> there will be growth in the spring >> it is one of the assignments that you get if you are a reporter anchors don't get them i don't think. but we get one of those memos from our fearless leader that says it is that time of year do your predictions and we come up with stuff and i think going over 1% is a big deal and i'll get the fire alarm call, steve, ten year is over 1% and i don't think that it will matter all that much guys will make or lose a lot of money on that. but as long as rates are low and

takes growth driven rise in bonds, i think that is okay. and i don't think that it is that big a deal. >> yeah, i don't want to do that remember the great philosopher yogi said, predictions are very difficult especially about the future so just not a good idea i don't think. i'd like to see your though. >> we'll get them done eventually 51% is my goal >> it is not easy. aisle i'd be up on draft kings and i'm not up so all i need is 51% and that ain't happening. anyway, thank you, steve liesman for the liesmania segment. and coming up, twitter cracking down on vaccine misinformation, we'll show you

what the social media network is planning to do and as we head to that break, here is the look at the biggest pre-market gainers in the s&p 500. this year we got it done. and with free curbside pickup at walmart... you can get the perfect gift up until the last minute. let's end the year nailing it. ♪

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you still know how to do it up. and keep costs down. let's end the year enjoying more. ♪ you are all i need baby baby to get by ♪ welcome back time for the executive edge. and twitter is cracking down on misinformation the company said starting monday, it will require that users -- or may require users to remove tweets that advance harmful, false or misleading narratives about covid vaccines. twitter said that it would prioritize against misleading information that can cause the

most harm. next year it will start adding warning labels to tweets that promote rumors, misinformation or out of context information about vaccines earlier this month facebook vowed to remove false claims about covid vaccines as well of course it gets very tricky given the amount of information online and to some degree even the questions about where we are and the rapidly changing science on some of this joe. >> yep, cvs health meanwhile plans to pay special bonuses of $250 to about 200,000 employees to reward them for work during the pandemic the bonuses are for both full-time and part-time workers. it previously paid bonuses back in march the drug store chain will soon begin administering vaccines across the country

and when we come back, the race to the finish line for a stimulus deal in congress. the clock is ticking toward a government shutdown. and thousands of businesses and americans are desperate for relief that is next right now as we head to a break, take a look at yesterday's s&p 500 winners and losers i made a business out of my passion. i mean, who doesn't love obsessing over network security? all our techs are pros. they know exactly which parking lots have the strongest signal. i just don't have the bandwidth for more business. seriously, i don't have the bandwidth.

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good morning u.s. equity futures continuing to add to the gains after monday tuesday and wednesday pretty good actually yesterday when it was all said and done, i know bitcoin -- everyone is watching

that meanwhile google is facing a lawsuit, new lawsuit from ten states it is accused of running an illegal digital advertising monopoly and enlisting facebook in a deal to rig ad auctions that was code named after "star wars" characters both companies already face federal antitrust lawsuits that were filed in recent weeks google denied engaging in any anti-competitive behavior and called the ad tech claims meritless. always a good word to have in your lexicon if anyone says anything to you that you don't like, it is me t meritle meritless. it has no merit. >> means stuff it. i want to know what code names they were using. were they calling it darth vader, the evil empire somebody it said in my year that they were saying blue jedi i guess that's pretty good

>> chewy but that is a pet company now though makes sense. >> right all right, guys, when we come back -- >> i see luke now and i'm like -- i saw luke the other day on an ad, and he was famous, but i didn't know who the hell he was. you know, he's kind grizzled and got a beard and -- >> you never watched "star wars." i don't understand that. i can't see eye to eye with you on that. for those of us who grew up with it and loved it -- >> if you miss the opportunity to watch it like when it was out, you know, the string on the spaceship that you can sort of see and all that, i mean it is like impossible to watch >> oh, please. you have to live in the moment when i was six, i had a chewbacca t-shirt. and you were in college not paying attention, too cool for all that >> and he won't be honean solo,t

it will be a fifth one and he's 80 i mean, come on. >> and i'm going to go he's awesome han solo, naend jonindiana jeao me in pup. >> when company black, we'll get an update on the stimulus in washington and we'll also talk more about it with two sitting senators pushing for a deal democrat joe manchin and republican rob portman will fill us in on the progress in washington, something the rkmaet is watching very closely and so are we

welcome back after months of stalemate, congressional leaders are negotiating a new $900 billion stimulus bill. for a look at what is on the table, let's welcome in former senator heidi heitkamp who is a founding board member of one country project. and also former congresswoman nan heyworth, she is also a doctor and served on president trump's advisory board thank you both for joining us. i think the big question the market is awaiting, will the bill actually make it over the finish line. and doctor, i'll ask you first

>> i certainly hope it does. you know, when you have josh hawley and bernie sanders on the same page, i'm with steny hoyer who said that we need to get a relief bill out there even if it is a stream lined simplified package, president trump is saying the same thing, but that is the problem having been in congress, i know conflicting priorities, you've got the blue state representatives and senators who want to get federal aid to profit the blue states, the republicans who want to protect businesses from liability. and this is how it ends up being excessively complicated. so i think that they are under a lot of pressure to provide relief given that another round of shutdowns unfortunately is imminent the real stimulus is to open up again. that is what we really need. about you nechlu but in the mea need targeted aid out to the public >> senator heitkamp, let's talk a little bit about that. what we're hearing is that this

bill would provide stimulus checks, maybe $600, maybe more, to all americans below a certain income amount. but it might do that at the expense of extending some of the unemployment benefits even beyond a little further into the spring what do you think about that >> i think that you will have joe manchin on and that has been the big debate in the democratic caucus between doing stimulus with direct checks and doing more on unemployment and my personal opinion is that you ought to be helping the people who are sitting at home who have absolutely no paycheck coming in. but this is going to get done and it will get done for one reason mitch mcconnell says that it will get done. and he says that it will get done because he knows that he has two senate races and those two senators in georgia are getting beat up both very wealthy individuals, both engaged in some stock purchases that are creating political difficulty and those ads are brutal

and so i think that he is doing the minimum that he will -- he feels he has to do in order to get the political result that he needs in georgia >> senator, did the democrats mess up on this by not trying to strike a deal soon beer? because at one point they were kind of in agreement with the administration that you were looking at a $2.4 trillion deal, and now you are talking about less than a trillion dollars so by not striking a deal sooner, they will have to deal with something much smaller than they had hoped for >> yeah, i think that they couldn't strike a deal earlier because the senate republicans were opposed to any kind of deal earlier. now everybody is going to get deficit religion again and that will be kind of the mantra we can't afford it, we can't afford it. i think the real risk is what is going to happen next year. are we going to see any coalescing there isn't a georgia senate raise, are we going to see interest in doing a bigger stimulus package i think that fed chair powell

definitely sent the message that can't all be done with monetary policy, we have to have fiscal policy that matches it we'll see what the -- how the tea leaves are depending what happens january 5 in the georgia senate races >> dr. heyworth, that is a big question out there joe biden says he views it as a down payment what do you think "the room where it happened"s -- what happens next some. >> there is enormous political pressure on both sides and it will reflect very directly on the amount of success that president bipartisan will have once in office if congress can get things going and we have people who are desperate, we have as we know the rent relief provisions that the cdc put into place are falling apart, we have new

rounds of shutdowns coming in blue states especially because of the covid spike and again, we have therapeutics, we have a vaccine, if florida can open up, really the entire united states should open up so i hope that the fiscal policy that congress agrees on will be to interfere as little in the economy as possible and, you know, revive president trump's tremendous economy that he had going in to covid. but i agree with senator heitka heitkamp, you know, at this point i think both sides, search speak he pelosi has been leading the charge on dieletory tactics, but i'm sure there is pressure to get something done now. >> if you don't get something done at this point, poor form i think. the big sticking point that we've known about for months has been that the republicans want to see this liability protection

for businesses and the democrats want to see state and local aid. it looks like this deal if it gets done will hahave neither o those shus in it what happens to the state and local economies if there is no additional aed passed and how likely in the new congress would there be for a deal to be cut on both sides is that likely or just too far of a push for both sides >> it is interesting, i've been saying this -- that the republicans ignore the stimulus to the effect of state and local employment and what is happening there. i think that we'll know more at the end of the year what the direct effects have been on state and local governments. but i think that it will be devastating. and i think that there will be a big push not just from blue states but also from red states to provide that contained okindf but take a look at a story today on tyson, the plant in iowa, there is a story in the "wall

street journal" talking about how the higher ups were betting on who was going to get covid. it is those kinds of stories of the kind of cavalier attitudes of employers that will fuel the flames of saying no protection for people like that, you know so there is going to be that balance. i think the bigger story here is the emergence of -- >> on that point, i read the story on tyson, and i did see tyson's response which we should probably bring up too, the company has taken action against those employees that were doing that obviously that is a horrific situation. the company says that it is taking action on this. i think that that is something we should point out too. >> i agree but my point is that what you are seeing right now is the ehe per emergence of the moderates you have the common sense people in the house, you have the moderates in the senate. and, you know, they are kind of

edging out maybe some of the other positions. >> we've spoken with the heads of the problem solvers caucus in the house. and congresswoman, i'll ask you, what happens with this is this going to be a time when the moderates really did have a bigger voice, or is this another situation where, you know, the fringe elements from both parties end up driving what happens next >> having been one of those centrist voices in a relatively raucous republican majority, but not a commanding republican majority against a democratic senate and white house in the 112th congress, look, it is those more moderate voices who do actually move policy forward. but you know, they back up leadership basically in these kinds of situations. so it requires that will from

the negotiators at the top and that would be of course nancy pelosi who is -- while she's a good vote counter, you know, she's capitulated an awful lot to the louder voices toward the left in her own caucus and you know, mitch mcconnell i think is definitely more of a deal maker and look, it is a break of the economy and that is what we need that is the engine that generates all these things otherwise we're just printing money, we're not that much different from the teenager in the tiktok video who says what is the difference between a $5 and $2 bill, just print the $20 bills. if we put breaks on business and the liability issues are material, and unfortunately, we also have blue states who are responsible for very bad fiscal decisions and economic decisions. california seems to be undergoing something of a

insurrection, there is a recall newsom movement because of the lockdowns that he has imposed are notoriously arbitrary. so why the federal government should be called on to bail out blue states for bad policy, you know, this is an issue that resonates with people. so i certainly hope that they can listen to the sensible voices that say get directed aid out there and do it as promptly as possible because people really are suffering right now and it is at the hands of government mandates. >> givens you a little bit of taste of what congress is kind of dealing with trying to get through on this right now. ladies, i'd like to thank you both for your time congresswoman hayworth, senator heitkamp, thank you both and by the way senators joe manchin and rob portman will be joining us, they have more on this coming up in the 8:00 hour. andrew a lot more to come, more fresh highs for bitcoin.

and our next guest says this year's rally is a coming of age story for the cryptocurrency we'll discuss that in just a moment

pet subscription start up, bark box, actually i'm trying to figure out, looks good looks pretty good. it's a customized subscription service for your doggy, and your andrew's future dog, going public via spac. this is the perfect sort of intersection of everything you have talked about. you've got a spac and you've got

a dog. it's a $1.6 trillion deal. taking public by northstar acquisition, who include kohl's and john ledecky, majority owner of the new york islanders. someone threatened to drop off a puppy at your place. i think it was going to be some kind of a doodle you requested i'm not ready to endorse that yet. i want you to be ready you're not totally ready you're 50% ready. >> i'm not ready, but the sorkin children are very ready, so. >> what does that mean >> do they know we have been talking about it >> they are aware. >> who has more voting rights? >> i'm just a limited partner. i'm a limited partner in this company. there's the gp, and then i'm

just the lp, that's how it works here but in the meantime, let's talk a little bit about bitcoin for a moment because it is surging to a new record the cryptocurrency breaking through 20,000 yesterday, and almost touched 24,000 this morning. joining us right now is the managing partner at grayscale, and we have just watched the ascension of the price of bitcoin over the past even two weeks now. it's been on a remarkable rise here, michael and i know that there's a lot more institutional support, and we have continued to hear that narrative tell us about two things, the technicals of how you see things over the next couple of weeks and then i would also be, i know it's your business and you're very bullish, i would love to understand the barrish case, if you believe there is one, just because a lot of people in your business are very bullish and i would love to understand the degree to which you think there

are risks. >> andrew, i think this is a very different scenario than we were in in 2017. back then, bitcoin didn't break that psychologically important $20,000 mark, and it's not surprising to us to see that it has this year. there really are a couple of important factors at play that weren't here in the 2017 rally, and it's investment banks writing research, highlighting bitcoin superiority to gold. you guys have seen investors coming out in support of this asset class. you have corporations adding bitcoin to their balance sheet these are not factors at play that we have ever seen before. >> but michael, so that narrative we have heard before i want to understand two things. one is what do you think the upside is 12 months from now >> i think it's very difficult to put a price target on it. i can certainly say at grayscale, our flows up are 6 x what they were last year, and the types of investors that are

putting capital to work are unlike any of the investors we're seeing ever before it's like some of the largest investors and allocations are bigger than we have seen before, and their time horizon for this is generally something over the medium to longer term. >> okay. how concernedare you right now about some of the things we're hearing that the treasury department in the waning days of this administration, the treasury secretary steven mnuchin may in fact effort around private wallets and the like we have heard from brian armstrong and others about how this really could damage the value proposition of bitcoin. >> it's most certainly a concern and one that, you know, we too are hearing about, but i think for investors looking at assets like bitcoin and atherium. >> damaging, not damaging,

irrelevant it's either really damaging because brian armstrong said it would be a terrible thing or not damaging because nobody seems to care that's what i'm trying to balance here. >> i think policy makers are engaged around this. these are new assets and an asset and technology that has largely been misunderstood until now. seeing how much the investment community has decided that this asset class has staying power, they're going to continue to focus on it, and there likely will be more regulatory clarity coming along this year, but very difficult to say when or if or how its impact will actually take place. >> okay. michael, it's good to see you. we hope to continue this conversation as we continue to watch the story that is bitcoin. joe? >> don't go anywhere we have a lineup that you really can't afford to miss, you don't want to miss, including an exclusive interview with s.e.c. chairman, jay clayton, robert

johnson will be along as well, and hhs secretary alex azar all with us. it's all coming up do we have snow totals we're going to break, but what did we finally get out there, do you know, in jersey, did we get a foot it doesn't look like a foot. >> it's at least 6 inches, i don't think a if the but i also heard in the middle of the night, heavier ice, so maybe it's pushing down. >> a good day to be in the basement i will admit that. i hate the delay all of those guests are coming up in the next hour. and we're coming right back. we're carvana, the company

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covid-19 vaccine health and human services secretary alex azar is our special guest. and facebook slamming apple for an upcoming privacy change that could impact advertisers and free apps. apple clapping back that it's just protecting users. details straight ahead as the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now ♪ smoet ♪ good morning, welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc i'm andrew ross sorkin, along with becky quick and joe kernen. take a look at u.s. equity futures on this snowy thursday morning, about 2 1/2 hours before the market looks to open. it would open up, dow up about 126 right about now. s&p 500 looking to open at 18 points higher, and the nasdaq looking to open about, we'll call it 53 points higher right now. here's what's making headlines at this hour a couple of things to tell you

about. another day and another record high for bitcoin we just talked about it. yesterday, bitcoin surged about 20,000 for the first time, and now it is well above that. bitcoin has surged this year as more investors become interested and some tout it as a possible inflation hedge. separately, there is no aid deal yet from lawmakers, but that is yet. there are all indications an agreement is close would provide about $900 billion in new aid, including direct payments to u.s. households and a conversation already about lawmakers not going home this weekend until something is accomplished and reached meantime, french president emmanuel macron has tested positive for covid-19. macron was giving a test after he began to display symptoms associated with the virus. france's presidential palace issuing a statement saying he would isolate for the next seven days but would continue his work joe. thanks, andrew

moderna and the covid vaccine could take a big step towards approval today we have been waiting for this. when an advisory, fda advisory committee meets and meg tirrell joins us with a look at what to expect i can't imagine, i hate consensus. i can't imagine any major problems at this point, and we're all expecting this to go pretty well today, i think >> we are. and you know, that issue last week that caused a few of the panel members to vote no on th pfizer vaccine won't exist with the moderna vaccine, that was the age. for the pfizer biontech vaccine it starts at 16 for the emergency use authorization, with moderna, it's age 18. so that's off the table. so this meeting starts today at 9:00 a.m there's going to be presentations fr presentations from the fda, a presentation from moderna, an open public hearing in the middle of the day, and between 3:10 and 5:15, there's the

committee discussion and voting. if it goes the same as it went last week, we could hear about this vote just a little bit after 5:00 p.m and guys, this comes, of course, after we saw those documents on tuesday from the fda showing how it's thinking about this vaccine. and if they vote yes today, which is expected, the fda could grant the emergency use authorization as soon as tomorrow or saturday, and that would trigger the shipment of 6 million doses next week to more than 3,000 locations which would be joining pfizer's vaccine making its way across the country. some of the things i'm going to be looking for are anything about allergic reactions with moderna's vaccine and pfizers, we didn't see any of these things we're starting to hear about them in rare cases with the pfizer vaccine as rolls out. and as this one joins pfizer on the market, i talked with dr. anthony fauci yesterday as part of our healthy return when we'll be able to get access to a vaccine if we want one here's what he said. >> if you look at the cadence of

the vaccinations in different priority groups, we hope that by the time we get to march, early april, we will have gotten through the group so that anybody who wants a vaccine can get a vaccine. >> so guys, we're talking march, early april for everybody who's not in one of those top priority groups to be getting access. and dr. fauci was saying late summer, early fall, if enough people get vaccinated, we might be starting to talk about getting back to normal >> yeah, meg, the bells palsy. two of the people that got the vaccine, one in placebo. so that says to me, that makes no sense, does it? so that probably is not going to be an issue either, because that would be a bad side effect obviously, and an auto immune situation, i think, which would raids, you know, raise some questions maybe. but is that likely to be discussed as well?

>> it probably will. i mean, i think it actually might have been two cases of bell's palsy, and when i first was looking at the documents, i thought it read two, so my graphics that morning might have said two i think there were two in the vaccine arm, and one in the placebo arm. and in pfizer, i believe there were four cases of bell's palsy, and i think they were all from the vaccine. at the same time, there's an underlying rate of bell's palsy in the population. they don't know it's caused by the vaccine. it's something they are discussing, and something they will figure out how to monitor for. not something i am hearing about the expert. >> we heard about president macron these people are out and about, they're leaders, but, you know, there is a fatigue there's sort of a, you know, we have been, you know, the precautions we have been taking are dragging on now for a long time, and fwogod, i just, you k,

can't help the feeling it seems like your number could be up eventually all of these people getting it you can't let your guard down. you got to try to make it until march or april i don't want this thing. it's weird we hear so many well known people, it finally catches up with them. there's no reason to think that if you mask up and avoid any type of contact like that, but, you know, there is fatigue, meg. >> there sure is, joe, and i mean, this is a real tricky virus. we have learned more about it over the months. if you're in a nonventilated area, the idea that there could be aerosols where it sticks around it's not like measles where it sticks around forever. it's tricky. these things do happen even as we do get vaccinated, until we have more data on whether these vaccines prevent infection, and we got early signs that the moderna vaccine likely does to some extent and probably the pfizer one will

too, we just don't have the data yet. we will have to keep wearing masks and socially distancing for some part of next year even after we each get our own shots. >> okay. meg, thank you march isn't that far off, you know how quickly time goes so fingers crossed thanks. later, health and human services alex azar will join us to discuss the latest from the vaccine front. becky. thanks, joe. when we come back, chinese web retailer wunong net technology, up 440%. and if that wasn't enough, it's about another 20% this morning in the pre-market. you're talking about a stock now trading near $80 after starting its ipo at $5 a couple of days ago. that move triggered 12 volatility, in the record. jim cramer raising the question,

where is the s.e.c we will hear from s.e.c. chairman jay clayton after the break. we'll talk about the move in the stock, ipo investors, and retail investors. before we head to the break, let's check out the futures. the dow was dounwn, the nasdaq t a record dow indicated up by 125 points, the nasdaq and s&p if they were to open at these levels would be setting intraday record highs. stick around "squawk box" will be right back. in a land not so far away,

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welcome back to "squawk box" this morning, chinese ecommerce company, wunong net technology making it public debut on wednesday, and guess what, it closed up 440% that was a one-day gain. jim cramer tweeting here's what we don't want, more effectively wnsw, which is the ticker symbol did anyone see that? what a joke. where is the s.e.c., on cbs? joining us to discuss this and so much more, in an exclusive interview, this may be the exit interview but we're going to have him back for a very long time after this, s.e.c. chairman, jay clayton. it's great to see you. let's start there. there's so much to talk about, but it is a remarkable thing that we have seen this not just yesterday but to some degree with some of the ipos in the past week or two what do you think is happening with the pricing, and what are you thinking and the s.e.c. thinking about it?

>> well, andrew, thank you thanks for having me on, and i do love it that jim cramer is provocative on these issues because he brings attention to them let me start on the regulatory side, and talking about something like this. the s.e.c., we regulate disclosure, trading, i heard you mention about some halts to give people a chance to pause and think about the price rise in particular stocks. we regulate access to the markets, who participates, you know, can retail participate freely we are in a situation where with mobile communications, access and the like, there is a new paradigm there are more retail investors participating in the market than ever before and we're seeing that, and one thing that we don't regulate directly, andrew, is euphoria, and we're seeing some euphoria here i think i have heard other guests talk about euphoria you know, when stocks run away,

like the ones you mentioned,we do get concerned because it is a situation where professional investors understand this, i do worry that etail investors do not understand that trees don't grow out of the sky. >> as a function of that, you said the s.e.c. doesn't regulate euphoria, what can it be doing or what should it be doing >> we do regulate trading, disclosure, ensuring there's fair disclosure out there. we do regulate access and when someone comes in through a broker or an investment adviser, that broker or investment adviser does owe them duties duties of care, duties to understand that their particular circumstances and recommend appropriate investments for that individual that said, we do allow direct access to our markets for retail investors, and those situations, retail investors have the ability to buy and sell as they please

it is a hallmark of american society. we're trying to do the best we can to educate people about the risks of being in the market, the risks of leverage, and options. we are in a stage of significant retail the pricing of ipos and the channels that takes, i am focused on the issue of retail euphoria. >> one other question, do you look at the advisers on the corporate side, the investment banks working with these companies, you look like for example, we talked to david solman, thso solomon, they advised on the airbnb is there something from a regulatory perspective that should be done or an industry perspective that should be done? to some degree the service that some of these companies, to some you could argue, that the service they're buying, they're not getting. >> let me say this, going back

to my word of the day, euphoria, it is difficult to price y euphoria because you don't know what the level of euphoria is going to be in any particular name the ipo process is one that's fairly tried and true, and you get indications of interest from sophisticated investors, that's where you set the ipo price. you then see the market coming into the open. you set the opening price, and you know, i can tell you, people do not like to leave a tremendous amount of money on the table. that's not something that most people are in the business of doing. >> let me ask you separately about this because it has to do with retail investors. robinhood now facing a complaint from the state of massachusetts. the state's secretary of the commonwealth, william gavin was on "squawk alley" yesterday. i want to play you what he said. >> the worst aspect of what they do, is the way they're gamifying the idea of investing. they're taking unsophisticated investors, most of whom have no

experience, and basically making this into a game causing them to suffer losses. they're bringing them aboard on something these people have no idea about in fact, they violated their own rules, the company's own rules on trading options it's clear that this is a reckless company when it comes to investors they're interested in expanding their market base. they're not interested in serving their investors. >> what do you think of the case that he's making >> andrew, i'm not going to comment on specific cases. i don't comment on our actions i'm not going to comment on state actions in this area, but look, this is something that i talked about a few moments ago, direct access for retail investors and the types of precautions that should be in place to ensure that, you know, as i mentioned, trading options using leverage, those types of things that can lead to sharp, immediate losses, devastating losses, we have to be careful

how we allow access to those types of things. >> i separately wanted to ask you about this, nine u.s. lawmakers sent you a letter this week asking how crypto firms, we have been talking about the rise in bitcoin all week, can become registered broker dealers and they're arguing should provide custody services for krcrypto assets i imagine your successor will ultimately have to think more about this, but where do you stand on it? >> look, i think we're seeing a greater understanding and a maturing around what i would call digital assets and the digitization of assets, and there's a spectrum here. people should understand that there's a spectrum here. there's the digitization of securities that we already regulate, and we all know how to do that. there's the digitization of what i would say is assets that are tied to sovereign currencies, which is much more of a payment system, and then there's something that, you know, people will criticize this as overly

simplistics, there's something in the middle like a bitcoin, which is not tied to a particular currency. it is somewhat connected to our, you know, what i would say is currencies through exchanges and the like but there's a spectrum of products here. we need to understand that spectrum of products and bring appropriate regulation across it let's not forget how important to our society any money laundering, know your customer, you know, preventing terrorist finance, and those types of things are we should never lose sight of that. >> right and jay, the other thing we wanted to ask you about is the nasdaq, adena friedman announcing, she came on squauk a squawk and talked about it, requiring disclosure and effectively requiring one minority and one at least female, i believe, on every board. is that something that you would agree with

>> well, let me say this, i'm not going to comment on a specific proposal. this is sort of a new area for the nasdaq to be getting into, but in terms of diversity and commitment to diversity, this is something that is a big part of what we have here at the s.e.c and what we have learned, and i want to talk about it just here, is that it's not only at the top of the organization, but it has to be a commitment throughout the organization, diversity and inclusion and opportunity. and we have through our asset management advisory committee, we've shown a spotlight on the fact that across the financial services industry, particular in the asset management industry, the numbers are stark. we all need to do a better job of making sure that this industry that provides so much to people and is frankly one that builds wealth, builds wealth over time and access, has a composition that more reflects society. we're not anywhere close to

where we should be. >> do you think that's a data point that should be required for companies to disclose to investors? is that a data point that's necessary for investors to make decisions about companies? >> look, andrew, i think from a material to an investment decision, there can be a debate around that. but from a societal perspective, across society, understanding demographic representation is a pretty important thing there's no doubt about that. >> okay. jay clayton, we have to end it there but there's so much more to talk about. we hope to have you back we wish you happy holidays if we don't see you before there and thank you so very much for your services. >> thank you, andrew, happy holidays to all of you >> thank you joe? thanks, andrew facebook slamming apple, a privacy ca privacy chain suggesting it will kill free apps will it, jon fortt for this

week's on the other hand, that's after the break, and check out the shares of roku rising 6% after hours after the company announced a deal to carry hbo max on its platform. we'll have more stocks to watch in just a bit. "squawk box" will be coming right back. time now for today's aflac trivia question. in the 1940s, pinesol had to change it name to pine-sol to avoid confusion with what other cleaning bndra the answer when cnbc's "squawk box" continues aflac! now tell me, what does aflac do? aflac pays you money directly to help with unexpected medical bills. and is aflac health insurance? no, but it can help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover! that's right. are there any questions? -coach! -yes? can i get one of those cool blue blazers? you know i can't play favorites. alright let's talk coverage. it's go time! get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. mmm hmm! get to know us at aflac.com

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hyphen was going to save them. a big tech battle is heating up. this time it's not the regulators aiming at the tech giants it's the tech giants aiming at each other apple is limiting data companies can collect to show you ads. is that privacy protection or is it a plot to make digital businesses like facebook pay an apple tax. jon fortt breaks it down in on the other hand jon, who's right >> well, becky, i'm not going to tell you apple is a champion of the little guy in every case this is the same company that started selling $550 headphones this week. this time, apple is absolutely right. i mean, here's what the fight is about. much of the internet lives off of targeted ads, and companies secretly follow you around the internet and watch what sites you visit, and use that information to show you ads to make you buy stuff facebook and google are the kings of this. it makes them tons of money. in the latest version of its

operating system, ios 14, apple is saying enough we don't like you secretly snooping on users. from now, on facebook and others, if you want to follow them from web site to web site, you have to ask. if the users says okay, you can follow them. if they say no, you can't. as a consumer, i love this i try to log out of facebook and google, practice good internet hygiene but the system's crooked. most of the internet economy right now is based on surveillance companies stalking us and using the information to sell us stuff. that's twisted and it takes a bold move like apple's to get us to a better place, becky >> i'm with you on that side i mean, i think it's crazy that you have zero leverage as a consumer on any of these issues. we don't have any leverage, because we're the little guy but maybe you do have a choice in this. the question comes down to, can the internet as we know it exist without those targeted ads >> well, on the other hand,

apple's probably not doing this just to protect the chastity of the iphone user's data apple wants control. look, the modern internet is built on an understanding. there are two major ways services get paid. you pay directly to use a service like netflix does or you get access free and look at ads like facebook does now, over the past 20 years, countless businesses have built their models on this understanding. yeah, there are a lot of problems with the treatment of information online we've got political misinformation we've got hate speech and probl propaganda, hacks and foreign interference in elections. tarted a targeted ads are not the big problem. by attacking ads, what they are trying to do is forcing businesses out of the advertising model and on to a paid use model because apple has a strangle hold, apple will get to tax those transactions facebook is right to call apple

out on this one. >> i know you always look for the two sides. i think your first argument was stronger this time, and i'm starting to wonder if your first argument is always the stronger one. jon, thank you, there are two sides to every story i like the first one better. >> i try to switch them up >> i like it good to hear from you. we'll talk to you soon >> is he right-handed or left-handed? that's the question. >> good question maybe he's ambidextrous. >> on the other and, right but the first one, i think you're right or maybe just the way he does it i don't know they're usually pretty good. pretty even. still to come on "squawk box," rlj companies founder robert johnson joins us. talking about white house transition, and also one of my favorite subjects, and that is online sports gaming one of bob's companies has something going on there then, health and human

services secretary alex azar joins us to talk vaccine distribution, and all things vaccine. mata ay lkbout moderna and the big meeting today. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ digital transformation has failed to take off. because it hasn't removed the endless mundane work we all hate. ♪ ♪ automation can solve that by taking on repetitive tasks for us.

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minority owned small businesses have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic facing higher rates of closures, according to the national bureau of economic research between february and april, the number of actively working self-employed black business owners decreased by 41%. the largest change of any racial group. here with his thoughts on how president-elect biden can help these business owners get back on their feet, bob johnson, founder and chairman of rlj companies, and also the founder of b.e.t. and a cnbc contributor. always great to see you, and it's like a broken record, and it's just capital, it's access to capital, and before the pandemic we need more access to capital. after the pandemic, we need more access to capital. i think you're suggesting that the president-elect actually meet with black leaders to figure out and the business

round table and others to figure out how to do that capital, capital, capital. >> joe, first of all, let me say, i'm glad you guys are safe and healthy, and hope you have a good happy holiday season. but you're absolutely right. the story of black businesses has been the same ever since black americans became free to seek equal opportunity in america to participate in the american dream it's just that the capital did not flow to these business, and without access to capital, i'm not telling you anything you don't already know without access to capital, without access to investment, by large companies to help you get to scale, black businesses are going to suffer. so you throw in a horrible pandemic that sort of destroys the economy for a large part of the country, black businesses are going to be the first to go into a deep recession,

depression, and they cannot recover without capital and i don't think it's just a matter of lending capital, i think you've got to pursue the concept of direct grants to these businesses because if they're already depressed with lack of access to capital, they're on the verge of not being concerned. growing a lo throwing a loan on top of that problem is only going to exacerbate it. it's not going to solve it, and that's why i called, i think that now that president-elect biden has taken over, he's talking about what he's going to do in his first 100 days, i think he should add in that a major conference with black businesses, leaders of the business council, leaders of the business round table, chamber of commerce, the large money center banks and just say, guys, how do we solve a problem that has been existing ever since there have been black-owned businesses and,

we solve it the same way we solve with it other businesses, joe. people go out, they raise capital in the equity market they raise capital in the debt market they do joint ventures i've just recently done in sports betting, the fan duel, but the key issue is who's going to take the lead, and i think president biden should direct susan rice's newly appointed head of domestic council to say this is part of the hundred days agenda >> right hey, bob, trying to figure out how to ask you this question you're very pro business i don't think you like gumming the works up for business, whether it's small business, your business, black-owned business and you kind of went out on a limb and said the devil you know in terms of trump, and i think you were alluding to the possibility that a president biden might reverse some of the corporate tax cuts that were in the trump plan, and even now you're saying -- you're taking a

wait and see approach for president biden and a lot depends on what happens in georgia with the senate. i'm trying to figure it out, are you hoping that there's a split government so that corporate taxes don't go up because, i don't know, you know, that really doesn't help, i don't think it helps any businesses when corporate taxes go up. >> you know, i'm not a big favor of taxes just as a means of delivering transfer payments to solve problems that better -- government management and better business management could address. i know we have problems in health care, we'll have them for a long time after the pandemic, not just because of covid, and we have the same issue in infrastructure, but we also have the issue of a rising debt and taxing just to solve either the problems of municipalities or states is not a way to add energy, economic energy to the

economy. so i'm not a strong believer in what i call taxes to solve other problems that you can solve by better management, innovation, and letting businesses compete aggressively in the marketplace. so i'm hopeful that president biden will move towards a discussion with business leaders how to deal with things whether it's manufacturing, whether it's trades and tariffs, and particularly for black businesses, as i said, that kind of conference. >> are you hoping that the senate stays in the hands of the republicans? i guess i'd ask the question in a long round about way, that seems to be what you're implying. >> i'm implying that i think balanced government, where each party has a chance to put in their best ideas and propose their best solutions is better

for the country overall than when the country is in the hands of one party when the country is in the hands of one party, some of the more, i would call it more aggressive behavior of the parties tend to take hold. and it seems to move us back to that, joe, that zero sum game where my gain is your loss, and so when you have a split party, so if the democrats, if the republicans keep control of the senate, i think we'll have more reasonable dialogue about how to solve the nation's problems as witnessed by the group of senators who came together to find a solution to the stimulus. you have people like joe manchin and others from the democratic party, and others in the republican party said, you know, we got to work together for the country. we got to work together for the economy, and we certainly got to work for people who have been disenfranchised for years. so to me, i would prefer that

there be a balance in the senate, and that the president take -- i'll take him at his word that he's a person who can reach across the aisle he can talk to republicans he can talk to the liberal wing of his party to bring them in the line where they go astray. those are the kinds of things i'm looking for. >> bob, we're almost out of time i'm sorry to interrupt i just wanted to ask, i hear your point on taxes. i guess my only question is for the programs that you talked about this morning, like making sure we could give grants to black-owned businesses and what you have talked about in the past, giving reparations to black americans, how do we pay for that how would you raise the funds for that >> becky, the grants are simply this, is that the government has to do what i call the tradeoff analysis if you don't put black

businesses to work, black communities suffer, black americans suffer, all the problems that go with those issues of not having access to income or wealth happen, so you only pay for it one way or the other. my argument would be let's pay for it in the form of direct investment, whether it's in the form of grants or whether it's in the form of some form of economic reparations, but the end result is the country will be better off if we push towards a economy where everybody has a chance to participate, and everybody has a fair shot. before you guys go, i got to talk about my partnership with fan duel, matt king, the ceo, and my partner, bob washington and i have created a business in sports betting as a venture that will serve our markets throughout the caribbean, give them access to more choices in terms of content, gaming

content, and gaming play but also add economic growth to these markets because these markets are not tax nations, which is a good thing, i think, but they're also believed that they need income for sports and culture, and education and gaming as ben franklin supposedly said is a tax on the willing, and the fact that fanduel has said we want to have a minority partner not only in the markets where it's an appropriate place to do so, but also we think we can make a case in the u.s. that there should be more minority participation in gaming black americans participating in gaming, sports is a big favorite of black americans, and so sports betting with gaming generates revenue in communities, but it also says that black americans should be a part of whatever new innovative technology that comes along that

creates an economic opportunity. >> bob, i know that -- i think cage is based down in st. thomas i would visit there as one of the owners, i would visit there as much as possible to make sure everything is going well what a place but i tried to bet down there on draftkings i was there a year ago christmas, and it was so arcane, it was like legal but not legal. so it needs to be opened up. is it legal now in most of the caribbean? just real quick answer >> quick answer is it's very much legal in the seven caribbean nations where we operate. we are legal to do not only video lottery gaming and blt gaming but now sports betting so when you come down there, use fanduel gaming draftkings, help you get that fixed. >> okay. sorry. sorry i even brought that up

robert, thank you, appreciate that glad we got that in. we'll talk about it more i would like to have a longer discussion about that. and you're going to south america with some of the gaming, sports gaming, i don't know, is that all soccer thank you. >> gthanks, robert, good to see you. >> take care >> happy holidays. great conversation with bob. when we come back, health and human services secretary alex azar is going to be right here on "squa b." u don't want to miss that conversation in just a moment. hey, dad!

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the rollout of pfizer's covid-19 vaccine continues. joining us is health and human services secretary, alex azar, and mr. secretary, it's great to see you this morning this has been quite a week, something to watch something we are all excited about, really hope light at the end of the tunnel. how are things going so far? >> they're going well with the initial rollout. as you know, we've got 2.9 million doses of the pfizer vaccine allocated for this week. i've gotten to go to george washington university hospital and med star georgetown to see our health care workers getting vaccinated and it's been going smoothly so far. there are going to be hiccups, and that's why we've got the military and our great distributors involved. we try to anticipate them. we try to minimize execution

risk, but there will be hiccups along the way, but so far things are going quite well. >> yeah, i think it's a huge testament to operation warp speed what we have seen to this point and what could be coming i think the question all americans are asking now is how quickly will this get to me. it's great news that you have 200 million doses lined up for moderna, 100 million doses for pfizer i guess there's questions about what's happening with that have you signed the contract for a second batch of doses from pfizer >> well, i do wish we would stop just talking about this pfizer thing, you know, we've got 100 million from pfizer through march 31st about 20 million a month we've got the moderna 100 million. we've got a second quarter of moderna. we're actually enhancing moderna's production capabilities to produce even more, and we're working with pfizer, and i think i'm very optimistic that we'll secure additional quantities in the second quarter but they're going to need help on their manufacturing. as you know, they had committed

that they could produce publicly 100 million doses by the end of this year. they had to cut that in half to 50 million the u.s. is getting its share and we're obviously distributing their vaccine but we're having constructive discussions with them then seeing where we can get to on that. but remember, we now have commitments for 900 million doses of vaccines. we have options to take us up to 3 billion doses of vaccine, and we're looking at j and j and astrazeneca possibly having data early january. >> sure. but pfizer is the only one that to date has received the emergency use authorization. i think that's why people are so focused on that. i mean, if they have the ability to get us more doses in the first, or in the second quarter, you would think that would be a high priority. >> it is a high priority we want to add to our arsenal and our portfolio. but we've actually got a lot of vaccine coming and there's -- none of this changes the proximate immediate term of what pfizer can deliver out of their

manufacturing. we're maximizing that. we'll help them get higher yields if they're willing to take our help but this is all second quarter at this point that we're talking about. >> what can do you mean willing to take your help? i thought hhs was already determining under operation warp speed which companies would be getting access to some of the critical components? >> no, you see pfizer has got a different relationship with us they're part of operation warp speed. we have a $2 billion commitment for the first hundred million doses. they have kept things more arm's length at their insistence throughout we contract with a guaranteed purchase. >> not operation warp speed? >> they're not operation warp speed. >> they are part of operation warp speed, but becky, it's a different relationship we contract, give them a guaranteed purchase that allows them to make capital investments, have a predictable purchaser but we don't have complete visibility into their manufacturing because they have kept that a bit more arm's length i would like to see that changed. i would like to have more visibility into that, and we are

willing to provide every tool the u.s. government has to assist them in maximizing yields, increasing production capacity. >> so it's not a matter of cost, that's the hold up here. >> no, it's not about cost this is not an issue of cost it's about capabilities. we're working with them. it's very productive discussions. we'll use the full power of the u.s. government to assist, maximize production as we always have been willing to do. i'm very optimistic we'll get to a good place there. >> in terms of what to expect from moderna, are you thinking that we could see these vaccines kind of roll out to americans starting either this weekend or next week, too >> well, assuming the advisory committee goes well today and the fda determines to grant authorization, we have given tuesday night an allocation to the governors of 5.9 million doses of moderna vaccine that we're ready to start shipping this weekend to them for roll out monday, tuesday, wednesday of next week, so we're ready to go the 5.9 million allocation on

moderna on top of the 2 million pfizer allocation for next week. >> mr. secretary, i wanted to ask you a question, slightly away from the vaccine but just in the here and now given the rise of covid cases we're seeing around the country and some of the steps that governors, including governor cuomo in the state of new york or rather i should say for the city of new york has implemented including closing indoor dining. do you agree with that decision, and some of the decisions that other lawmakers in other states are pursuing right now >> well, here's the concern that i've got is we need the american people to buy into and agree with these types of community and mitigation steps, andthey have to be science and evidence based and people have to believe they make sense. we see restrictions on outdoor dining and activities that aren't based in science and evidence and on the indoor, that's a closer call we can do indoor dining. we can do indoor activities with

appropriate capacity limits such that we can maintain social distance, and keep our face coverings on, but the outdoor stuff and some of these other things is almost getting there too late in terms of the disease spread, and going a bit overly aggressive beyond what the science and the data would support. >> and then the other question i was going to ask is about how some business leaders are starting to think about several months from now, potentially whether they should be mandating vaccines either for their employees in certain cases, obviously health care workers in certain jobs already mandate vaccines and the like. but even potentially for customers, so for example, passengers on airplanes and things like that where do you stand there >> that's not something the federal government is going to be taking a position on. that's really done at the local level, and obviously part of contract and private negotiations between employees and employers, and in the

commercial space out there not something we get involved in we're making the vaccine available. we'll make our recommendations for prioritized groups of getting it out mandates is something not done at the federal level >> mr. secretary, let's talk a little bit more about what steps come next. i mean, obviously hiccups along the way. we anticipated that with logistics, and it pales in comparison to the idea that we're rolling vaccines out this week what were the biggest concerns that you saw this week, the biggest problems, and how do we tackle those. >> things this week have gone remarkably well. we have incredible tracking systems on every box of pfizer product that's going out the cold chain storage issues really are not a barrier i was with the chief pharmacist at georgetown hospital, he said this is what we do other than the fact that this is a covid vaccine, we deal with vaccines, we deal with cold chain. we know how to do this, so the

operations are working very well general perna, and his team are working with fedex and ups on the snowstorm and weather issues there. fedex and ups know how to deal with snowstorms. we had a couple, just to give you a sense of how carefully the team is working on this, general perna talked about how we had a couple of shipments where there was an excursion of temperature that went actually blow the cold limit to minus 92. we immediately saw that because of the tracking systems we have in place, the realtime tracking, we pulled those trays. we immediately sent substitute trays and now the fda is going to be working with pfizer to see if those excursions are of concern or if that product is perfectly usable but even from that, a slight negative exkurcursion, we were l to identify and deal with it that's the kind of thing with a complex operation like this, we're going to do, and wooee're

looking out for patients >> mr. secretary, there have been quite a few of these, and i think we have sort of jumped to conclusions about mutations and varying strains, but now there are apparently new strains featuring 17 or so mutations have these reports, and i think it's over in the uk or not here at this point, but do these reports rise to the level of being on your radar screen and as part of operation warp speed, do we need to anticipate a different vaccine at some point if the virus does mutate >> so we've got no indication of any type of drift of the virus or mutation of the virus that would impact the vaccine or therapeutic strategies at this point, obviously, we're always looking at it, talking to folks in the uk about those findings we have seen many strains, many variants throughout the 11th month public course of this disease so far but so far that hasn't really

impacted issues of immu immunogenicity, it's not of concern yet, as we talk to our scientific efforts but always looking at >> i think joe has a follow up. >> sorry dr. fauci, i'm not seeing my kids for christmas, neither should you, is everyone together on this in the administration at this point no christmas, really, or at least, you know, try to keep social contact even family members that aren't around, don't do it? >> it's a range. you know, cdc we've got on coronavirus.gov, and cdc.gov a slide that talks about how you assess your degree of risk personally, your family risk but then the options on what you do with a gathering obviously not getting together with people from outside your household is the safest course,

and of course dr. fauci is almost 80 years old or 80 years old. so that fits into certain categories in terms of risk profile. then we think about indoor gatherings indoor is obviously more risk than being outdoor indoor with ventilation is better than indoor without ventilation. the more people you get together who aren't from the same household, the greater the risk. so what we try to do is present people with the information so they can make informed choices as opposed to setting down hard and fast rules on it we do know when we do these indoors gatherings, multihousehold gatherings, we let our guard down we get too close together, we don't keep our distance, drop our guard and take our masks off. if we're not distant from each other. that's how we see a lot of disease spread i do recommend to people, please, exercise that extra bit of caution this holiday season because we've got these vaccines we've got moderna hopefully in the next, you know, days if not

hours. we've got pfizer out there we have az and j and j possibly coming we have therapeutics that aren't getting used enough, monoclonal antibodies we approved home based testing so many developments, so much hope for the future, i want to make sure everyone gets to that point, and by some good behaviors to get there. >> secretary azar, you bring up those therapeutics that aren't getting the use they probably should be. we have heard concerns that some of the states don't have the resources or the ability to get those therapeutics out there what can we do at the federal level to spur that on and make sure these therapeutics are being used they're fantastic therapeutics and it's a shame to not see them being deployed. >> the challenge isn't the state, they don't have a role in distributing they tell us because they are still in more limited supply where they want it to go, which hospitals or other settings. the biggest challenge is the

hospital-based nature of infusion because these are right now still infusion products, and so you need people who are at rifb risk of hospitalization, age 65 and above, comorbid, soon after getting a positive diagnosis to get on these therapies these are people who are feeling quite well, they have gotten an positive diagnosis, and you're asking them to get an infusion we are working with cvs to make sure home infusion is available, it's reimbursed. there are alternative infusion devices. that's one thing med star georgetown talked to me, setting up alternate outpatient infusion sites. by the time you show up at the er with severe symptoms, you have had a significant viral replication. we want to get to you earlier, get this in you earlier. >> so is it an education problem? is it a problem that doctors aren't prescribing this and pushing their patients more frequently, how do we push it? >> it's an education problem, and from our infectious disease

societies out there, a very bizarre approach that doesn't necessarily recommend the use of these products i can't explain it it's not evidence-based. it's contrary to the fda indication it's contrary to the guidelines and recommendations from nih and cdc. we need our doctors and health care professionals to use these products they're in our arsenal they can have incredible benefit and they are critical as we have so many people going into the hospital to keep people out of the hospital so why on earth are we not using these tools right up front >> secretary azar, i want to thank you for your time today. it's good to see you. >> good to be with you thank you very much. >> thank you andrew >> okay. thanks, becky. a lot more to come right here on "squawk box. we're going to bring you the latest progress on stimulus talks out of washington. we're going to talk to senators rob portman and joe manchin. we will do that next plus we're expecting the latest read on unemployment with jobless claims data. that comes out at 8:30 eastern

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welcome back to "squawk box," everybody. let's get you caught up on our headlines this morning

first up, shares of roku, they're sharply higher starting today, that company is going to be carrying at&t's hbo max streaming service. shares of accenture on the rise. saying that demand for digital and cloud services remains strong as u.s. employees continue working from home that stock is up by 6.7% now let's check out shares of rite aid, it's not a huge market cap company but a huge move in the stock, a gain of almost 20% after the drugstore operator posted an unexpected profit on better than forecast revenue the results were driven by growth in both the retail pharmacy and the pharmacy services segment again, that stock is up by 20% to $20.53. joe. thanks, becky. coming up, congressional leaders appear closer to a deal on covid relief but can they get it done before tomorrow's deadline?

senators joe manchin and rob portman will join us live with the inside scoop stay tedyoreatinun, u' wchg "squawk bo

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futures right now. the dow looking like it could open 120 points higher nasdaq up 64 points, and the s&p looking like it could open up about 19 points higher, all on the back hopefully of some optimism around stimulus, becky. >> that's right, andrew, as relief talks continue on capitol hill leaders are eyeing a new round of stimulus checks as part of a $900 billion deal. joining us with more on the latest, senator rob portman, and senator joe manchin. they have been helping spearhead bipartisan efforts to try and get a relief package senator portman is a republican. senator manci -- senator mcconnell said you are sticking in town until this is done senator portman do you have plans to stay in washington. do you think it will take through the weekend to get it

finished. >> i'm skeptical at year end because it tends to get pushed back i think we'll finish up on saturday it means we'll probably see something short-term on friday night to deal with the continuing resolution for government shut down i think we'll get it done this weekend, and we should it's been nine months since we passed the c.a.r.e.s package people are hurting unfortunately the coronavirus health care crisis has gotten worse, not better recently, and the economy is not as strong as it should be we need a bridge between now and when we have the vaccines available. that's what this is, an emergency package to get us through the next few months, to the march, april time frame when we'll have the vaccines be widely disbursed and begin to turn the corner on this crisis. >> senator mansion, you and others said this needs to be targeted and go to the americans most in need, i guess that means the people unemployed at the moment who don't have the unemployment benefits that have been extended. we have seen senator bernie sanders and senator hawley pushing for direct to everybody

checks and it sounds like that is the latest it ratieration of. are you okay with that >> yes, absolutely here's the thing, this is the product we produced. myself, rob portman and ten senators evenly split between democrats and republicans. this is what we produced this is the template being used. we were able to negotiate the deal that we thought we could live with and the price of what that would be is $908 billion. we couldn't get over it with the state and local aid and also with liability that was 160 billion, so what they have done, using this template here, has been working off of it, all in legislative language, and basically it took the 160 and saying okay, since we can't come to an agreement, and liability and state and local have to move the same because each side had respective positions on that, then they said, okay, let's do direct payments, and it's going to be a bit smaller but when you said are we okay.

absolutely we wanted to do direct payments. we thought it stimulates the market, if you will, but the bottom line was we couldn't get over the 900 billion this is an emergency relief package. this is not a do all end all, and joe biden, our president-elect coming in as president in january will evaluate the situation and offer another package if needed, and we will consider it, and work towards making sure our economy continues to come back and come back strong but we have to get through this time, the first quarter, especially, this is a time package, basically, until april the 1st. that's what we were working under, and it's not enough in so many areas, and it's too much in other areas, where both sides are taking their respective positions. we've got a good balanced package in a bipartisan way. >> but senator manchin, let me clarify, the reporting we had heard earlier was that these direct to everyone checks would be coming at the expense of extended unemployment benefits it sound like you're saying it's

coming instead of state and local payments what's the case? >> yes, myself personally and rob will want to butt in here. i don't think any of us would have voted or supported sending a check to people who had a check. we were letting unemployment checks run out, and they had nothing. that was a discussion we're directly in that payment basically, the money that we set aside for direct payments for basically state and local aid. rob, you might want to jump in on that. >> i think joe is right. you're not going to find a lot of daylight between joe and me with regard to unemployment, there are three things we do in the bipartisan bill that is in the package. we extend the time period. otherwise as of the day after christmas, a bunch of people lose their unemployment. these are people who are self-employed, as an example, gig economy workers, but also people who are taking advantage of the 13-week federal government extension of the state program, and look, we need

it in a lot of states. some states are doing better than others, some sectors of the economy doing better than others as you know, as you shut down the economy, a bunch of people lose their jobs through no fault of their own sometimes it's just because the coronavirus numbers are so high that people aren't going out to restaurants or a bowling alley or movie theater that's what our bill does is to be sure that's there, and second it provides an additional federal supplement as we had until august, which is the $300. it does it for a short period of time again, as we get through the period, this is a bridge to the time we're going to have vaccines readily available, and we can begin to turn the corner on this crisis. >> hey, senator manchin, i was looking forward to having you on today. i want to harken back to a different subject just real quickly because we're watching georgia, we don't know if it's going to be majority leader schumer or majority leader mcconnell. you made comments if it was majority leader schumer, that

certain things were off the table, and i'm not sure exactly which ones you were talking about f about. i know you're not a fan of the packing the court. i don't know about ending the filibuster, i don't know about adding district of columbia or additional states. if you were whipped hard by a senator, leader schumer, are you still, do you insist, i mean, i i saw aoc gaveyou a look that wouldn't want to get a look from anyone do you insist you're never going to waffle on some of these issues that you took a stand on? >> first of all, i usually say what i mean and i mean what i say, and i think people that know me for any period of time, i have taken a licking and kept on ticking, many times when i was the only person who voted for brett kavanaugh, i didn't see the evidence of what he was

accused of i didn't see the evidence so i voted for what i thought was the right thing to do. i'm the only democrat, so many times, i voted for my republican colleagues, if it made sense to me, and i can go home and explain it, i mean vote for it yes, here's where i am i have been very clear i thought what happened in 2013 harry reid basically declared the nuclear option was wrong and in 2017, was even more wrong when mitch mcconnell basically did the same thing for the supreme court votes. so now the simple majority, if you change the filibuster, it will be no more than a glorified house, and that's not the senate's role. it's not who we are. as you can see, rob and i, we're all good friends we can work this out if people just sit down and talk that's how we came to the conclusion of the bill that we put together it took us a month, but our leadership was at a stalemate. they couldn't move forward they have asked me about stacking the court absolutely not

where do you stop? do you stop at 13, 15, 17? i mean, it makes no sense at all, and i believe in the rule of law, and i believe the people that we put a robe on truly are there basically, you might have philosophical differences. i think they'll look at the law and interpret it in a way that protects all americans i'm fine with that stacking the court, and you've got basically moving on the aoc look, that was a stare i didn't know that that stare was going on as it was i was just basically being kind of socially considerate, and i stood up and clapped, and i thought things were really good, no matter who the president is, i'm going to show the respect. that's what i think we have lost in this place, civility, and respect for each other i never have caved chuck schumer knows exactly where i am >> not a lifetime appointment?

alternating in ten, fifteen years, not a lifetime appointment. president-elect biden is going to have some kind of commission to look at all kinds of different changes to the supreme court. you wouldn't be in favor of any of that? >> i'll look at anything i really will. i'll look at anything and everything that i think would be a help as far as in the way we deliver justice, the way you're able to have court proceedings and the way you're able to have court appearances. all of these things, but changing the number of court members from 9 to where you think it might be advantageous because you can put more democrats and republicans, madame justice is blind. she has a blindfold on why can't we basically accept what we have the rule of law is unbelievable. different than any other country, and move on, but people want to start stacking the deck, and i'm not in for stacking the deck i'm in for making this place work rob portman is my friend

he wants this place to work. we're sick and tired of no procedure, no process whatsoever we don't debate in the committees anymore we don't debate on the floor we don't have amendments that has got to stop i'm committed to stopping that and starting working in a procedure that everyone can be proud of >> to that point, i mean, it's been over a decade that it seems like, you know, the more extreme factions of both parties have had a little more control. it used to be a much more congenial place. do you think that the moderates like yourselves, like the problem solvers caucus in the house are going to have more sway in the next congress? >> yes because i think we're going to have a tighter majority. it's either going to be a very slight democrat majority with 50/50 and a tie breaker by the vice president or the republicans are going to have 51 or 52, which is a slim majority, and look at the same thing,

speaker pelosi seems to be losing a seat, down to 6 or 8 seats majority it's very narrow, and we have to figure out a way to work together we can't allow the country to screech to a thalt we have to be able to work on republicans and democrats focused on what's best for the country. i don't know that it's we're moderate we're practical in trying to get things done and there's a lot we need to get done i look at infrastructure needs, what's going on with regard to health care costs. i think those are opportunities for us i look about retirement security we have to do that, bipartisan that we could get through. we've got to figure out a way to work together to solve the real problems we face as a country. look, we need to stop the polarization our country is split it's not just the congress you know, we have seen that throughout ohio and throughout the country that there's more division than ever it's time to figure out how to focus oncoming together to solve important approximate, and i think that's what's this little process that joe is such a big

part of, and nine other colleagues of ours, you know, we figured that you needed to have a covid-19 package nothing was going on, and we needed to frankly move leadership off the dime, and i think that was very helpful to have this process, and at the end of the day, we'll get something done here. that's good for the american people. >> if i could just comment on that issue real quick, and i tell you, i am so optimistic i think these tight numbers in the senate and house, who's in control, four to five votes in the house. one or two votes in the senator. we have a golden opportunity to come together now because every vote counts. so a person can't just say, well, there's an overwhelming majority, i went ahead and just went with the group. i went ahead and voted with the kau sus. that's n caucus. that's not to be said now, you can make a difference. four or five votes, the problem solvers will have an impact. and they have been great to work with, josh and tom and all them. on our side, 52-48 or 50-50.

each one of our voices and votes is going to make a big difference, and bring people together that's my intent i know this has been rob's intelligen intent we came together, and wrote the language to it, which is why we're able to get through this as quick as we are, and we're going to continue to work. >> kudos, gentlemen, senator portman, senator manchin, i want to thank you for your time good luck. >> thank you, becky. >> thank you becky s. >> have a great holiday. >> you too, happy holidays. >> thanks, joe when we come back, we've got breaking economic news, weekly jobless claims, housing data, we'll get the numbers and instant market reaction straight ahead. as we head to a break, let's take a look at this morning's biggest movers, still looking at all averages in the green. biggest movers include

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over a billion dollars in transactions and more than a half a million clients worldwide. us money reserve is one of the most dependable gold distributors in america. welcome back to "squawk box" this morning a couple headlines to bring you. amazon warehouse workers in alabama are going to be allowed

to hold a unionization vote. it is the first such vote on the company since 2014 also on the docket, the fda giving the okay to rapid covid tests for at-home use. the $25 nasal swab test does require a doctor's prescription. meantime, boeing reportedly hiring up to 160 pilots to be placed with airlines this is part of the aerospace giant's push to make sure the 737 max makes a strong comeback after a two-year safety grounding. we're back with a lot more on "squawk box" right after this. let's take a look at what's coming up with data. we are looking for data in just a few secondsme right now the dow futures indicated up by 115 points you've got the s&p indicated up by 18 points, and you've also got the nasdaq up by 57. the nasdaq, remember, closed at a record high once again yesterday, and in fact, the s&p

500, and nasdaq are on track to open at record intraday highs this morning if they keep this up, the s&p up by about 18 points we should also take a look at the ten-year note, which we have been keeping an eye on ahead of this data that's coming up with the numbers in a moment. ten-year is yielding 0.93%, teasing at 1% once again let's get straight over to rick santelli, standing by at the cme in chicago rick, take it away. >> absolutely, we'll start with the data i see first november read on housing starts, 1.547 million seasonally adjusted annualized. if we look at the permits 1.639 million seasonally adjusted annual units. that's up over 6% from the last look these are just unbelievably strong data points for housing it's unreal.

okay december read now expecting 20 this one's a miss. half a miss, 11.1, in may, 93.1 because it's moving into the positive territory initial jobless claims up. it's 885,000 885,000, that's up, what, 32,000 from 853,000, but that may get revised. this is not good 711,000 was the low since coronavirus hit the week of november 6th we're starting to out distance to the wrong direction and on continuing claims, this one is pretty good. as a matter of fact, this one is so good it is now the lowest continuing claims number at 5 million, 508,000 this eclipses 5.52 million that was the november read this is the lowest read since covid hit, and it is progress.

of course we're all going to see in unison, we need these numbers to go down faster. every one of these numbers remits somebody that needs some help with regard to trying to get some work because theirs has been closed or the businesses they work for no longer exist. the revisions are starting to come in. i thought they would the 853 on initial last time turns into 862, which now stands at 885, and on continuing claims the revision was to the up side, not a lot from 5.75 to 5.78. 5.508. these are good numbers based on expectations initial claims in philly go the wrong direction. interest rates haven't ticked up much the bigger story from treasury is what happened yesterday a very bullish underpinning to some of the day that points and thoughts as to where the economy may be in the second quarter of next year and beyond, based on other fed personnel.

becky, back to you. let's bring in diana olet, and steve, let's start with jobless claims that's the bigger number and one that's concern >> we can't say we didn't know this was going to happen the surging virus, the waning stimulus, and the expectation that you were going to have this increase in joblessness. the market has decided that this does not matter a whole lot because i think of, a, the idea that stimulus is coming and b as we heard yesterday from powell, the fed is going to remain wide open whether or not that actually offsets the economic impact of the rise in jobless claims and the idea that powell told us yesterday this is going to be four or five months of pretty lousy data, and i'll stop there

because there is one bright spot that powell mentioned yesterday, and that's the interest rate sensitive sectors, and you know, and housing is one of them >> diana, you want to dig deeper into that. >> absolutely. first on the housing start numbers, i want to look at building numbers while we did see a beat on the numbers from expectations, it was entirely in the multi-family what we really need to see is in the single family housing. that's are we're lacking permits for single family up # 1.3% month to month, and housing starts for single family barely up .04%. it's basically flat in the housing starts well up over a year ago, over 20%, and we're seeing over a million starts annualized for the fourth straight month. we need to see more construction in the single family because of prices steve talked about interest rates staying low, fantastic

all that's doing is giving fuel to the home prices that are so high that some buyers are seeing sticker shock. you need to get more supply in the market, and while single family starts are continuing to edge up slowly, we're not seeing them as robust as we would like to multifamily great, but that's not where we really need to see it, becky. >> thank you, diana. >> can i jump in real quick. >> go ahead, rick. >> diana, listen, i don't see the break down between single family and multi dwelling. i understand your comment, but just as a side question, we're still hiring workers we're still buying lumber. just because it's multifamily doesn't mean it doesn't have a positive economic significance that moves data points higher, right? >> absolutely. it does. absolutely, but what i'm talking about is the dynamics going on in the housing market, not necessarily the labor. we have lots of open jobs in the housing market

construction jobs, they are desperate to get more workers trained to get into the market that is absolutely a bright spot for people who need a job. when you talk specifically about the dynamics of the housing market right now, which is that home prices are overheating to the point that affordability is being hurt because we have no supply on the existing side and very little supply, we have 90% more homes sold from the builders today that have not yet been started than we did a year ago. that's the kind of backlog that you're looking at with these builders trying to ramp up production so that's where we need to focus on for the dynamics of the housing market, not necessarily jobs, as you're talking about. >> thank god we have the multifamily because if you can't buy a single family house, you have to live somewhere anyway, i understand i just want viewers to get it that we are cooking in housing, and it's just that the different paths we're taking a historically different than we're normally used to thank you, diana. >> okay.

thank everyone, let's add one more voice to the conversation people are wondering why is lindsay down there she's here to comment on these things economi economist. there's both sides, in general your view on these numbers, lindsay? >> i think what we see is the dichotomy in the economy you have this rice in claims coupled with a -- particularly as steve mentioned the second surge of the virus, leading to further business closures, and job losses on the other hand, you have the housing market, one of the bright spots for the economy as americans are looking at their home as a workplace, a school, a refuge you layer in record low interest rates and you have an equation for a continued run up in demand going forward into 2021, particularly now as computing to work has become less of a factor, you do have people

looking for additional space outside of the city center or in some cases, lower cost alternatives or safer alternatives, so we would expect the housing market to be one of the bright spots, not only currently but carry forward into 2021 as we expect broader growth to slow. this is going to be a welcome bright spot. >> and what are your -- what's your policy makers be doing just in general, lindsey, and there's a shortage for housing there's a lot of things, obviously, to consider during the pandemic, post pandemic, what should the priorities be? >> from a policy standpoint, what we need is continued support for the economy and i think the federal reserve chairman was clear yesterday, reading between the lines of what he said during the press conference the fed has done all they can do to continue to support the economy and markets to function smoothly they are handing over that proverbial baton to the federal government and the expectation

is we will see a compromise on that fifth round package or potentially a 6th round as we move into 2021 and the economy is expectedly still very anemic and potentially coming in a second round dip in negative territory, depending on the depth and duration of the second round resurgence that we find ourselves in at this point >> we'll keep it short thank you, diana, rick, steve. i always say this, i want to thank everybody. coming up, vc investor joe lonsdale on red hot ipos, coming right back with that interview

vc investor joe lonsdale is going to be with us as we wrap up 2020.

welcome back to "squawk box. dramatic moves for recent ipos hits the market. check out the renaissance ipo. n in the last year it's more than doubled. outperforming the broader market joining us to talk about this, ipo landscape and exclusive interview, joe lonsdale, cofounder of palantir, early investor in wish and so much more we keep seeing high flying ipos. you saw the airbnb numbers, door dash numbers, you saw this chinese company yesterday up 400% does this make sense to you? what's going on? >> there's a couple of things going on but it's clear the market has under valued durable

tech platforms for years you look at the returns on top tech companies, and people are realizing wow some of these companies are doing things that are possible and worth a lot people looking at this, sure there's a lot of money around but a lot of good reasons for tech platforms to be more than what people intuitively understand. >> if that's the case, though, do you look at the underwriters of these ipos and say that they are doing a disservice to the companies that they're working for in terms of how they're valuing these companies and telling them what the value is in terms of how they think the market is going to go, and then of course you see it skyrocket, a lot of money being left on the sidelines. >> the job of the bankers here is very difficult because you don't want to aim so high that you then break things because your number one job is to get done and get them out. i think they should use more auction mechanisms to price it versus just giving, obviously the way it works is their

friends get to invest and people who know them well get access to these things there's ways you can change the traditional way of how you do these things not every one has skyrocketed right away the market doesn't understand all of these companies i think we're maybe a little too hard on them i think there's new mechanisms we could be using. >> 12 months out from now, 24 month, you think we're going to look at these values and say this was a floor and they're only up. look at this vintage, and say there's a bubble what's the prognosis >> you know, venture capital is a disparate asset class. there are some companies that are highly durable companies that have great margins and good business models that are clearly working the next five or six years, and there are some of these companies that have been helped a lot by the business climate right now. making deliveries or whatever else they're doing that maybe

aren't going to be doing quite as well in a couple of years i think it's one of the those things you have to be looking at the companies themselves to be very careful >> how do you think about the spac frenzy, that's the other element of this ipo frenzy >> well, i mean, a spac frenzy is because the private markets consistently now are actually strangely undervaluing relative to the public markets. and they're eager for growth and eager to get access of the high return, returns in the private markets, the best companies have been a lot higher over the years than the returns obviously on average, you know, other places, and so right now people are willing to pay a lot more more private companies to get them out there. it probably makes sense. i think for people who have good access there's a lot of smart people i know doing spacs that are probably going to make a lot of money. there's a lot more of them right now. it's comical, every day by a lot

of good people i'm wondering if there's going to be so many that they all end up having a problem. >> so that's the question, are there just too many of them? is there too much money chasing too few good deals, quality deals? >> there's always too few quality deals in tech but if you have access to the best ones, you're going to make a lot of money. this is the nature of the tech world. there are some that are probably 20, 30 xs even at these stages and some being way over valued >> can i get you to weigh in on, we have been talking about it all morning, there's this battle taking place right now between facebook on one side and apple on the other side, and yet -- and then the government everywhere now over big tech, it's a circular firing squad at this point if you had to point your revolver one way, which side of the circular firing squad are you on >> i would probably point it at

the government, but, no, that's just the traditional american answer now that i have moved to texas, of course, but, you know, i'm actually somewhat sympathetic to facebook in this. i think apple has a huge amount of power with its app store. it's a very insolent culture, they give -- facebook does not have abusive mo mopnopoly power and when it comes to monopoly for business, apple is by far the most egregious player. >> interesting, and you just valley is austin and houston going to become the new valley? >> there is about 30 of my friends who are great builders who are living in austin

i talk to some of the most well nen names in tech who are there with me a couple of nights ago, and so there are a lot of people who are unhappy with california. california is still the center of the tech world, and they still could keep it at the center of the tech world if they get their act together it is not the end of silicon valley i hope it is a wake-up call for them on the policy front. >> i said that was the final question but i would be remiss if i didn't ask you, bitcoin at 20,000 or now 22,000 you put your money on it or no >> i've been focused more honestly on -- so that's more exciting to me to be honest that's more interesting to me. >> happy holidays.

>> still to come, we'll get jim cramer's take on this morning's biggest stories. stay tuned, everybody. you're watching "squawk box. this is cnbc

get to jim cramer, he joins us live. jim, i listened to you, i -- about robin hood, i watch what happens with robinhood for some reason i don't know, i don't -- i don't like the stuff, the allegations here but i have a very positive view of robinhood for some reason and i love port now. so what am i supposed to think >> i think that they made some mistakes, robinhood. they paid their dues i share with you the enthusiasm. joe, when is the last time we had new investors? you know most people went to s&p, they stopped watching, there wasn't any excitement. some people feel excitement per se is bad. i get that andrew asked a great question about spacs. i saw one today, bark box. i don't know, worth 1.7 billion. i think that -- i wish we could deflate the froth part, joe, because otherwise, new young investors could be the life blood for what we're looking

for. >> i guess that was my point i like the interest. i -- it is a double-edged sword when you have, you know, it becomes more almost like sports betting or something that's obviously a lot -- that's a far cry from graham and dodd but for the democratization of the financial markets and millennials and for preparing for retirement, all those things, it is important to get your -- it is important to understand these things. and i think we're going to mention this, this robinhood story after this but -- >> young people can't make any money with bonds young people have their whole lives ahead of them. so i'm agreeing. >> yeah. >> let me bring this up for both of you to listen in on this is some breaking news for both of you to hear. the s.e.c. says that it is charging robinhood financial with misleading customers about revenue sources, and failing to satisfy duty of execution.

robinhood agreed to pay $65 million to settle the charges without admitting or denying guilt. what do you think, jim >> well, look, i think that younger people don't really understand those charges i think that we that have been around for a long time have to say, come on, get some controls in there bring in some people who are old hands, and just because it is automatic, and because it is free doesn't mean you don't have to disclose everything you're doing. so, a little disappointing but i'm glad they paid, i'm glad they move on >> yeah. jim, thank you we'll see you in a couple of minutes. >> do you like the house you didn't comment on the mouse, for heaven's sake. >> i love the house! i was honestly just -- >> want me to get a fire going >> i've been watching pictures of your house on twitter for quite a while. i know what your house locks like inside and out. i know what your garden looks like and this is very pretty. well done. i hope you have a fire in that

fireplace too. >> thank you very much. >> nice and cozy let's get to some of this morning's biggest movers dom chu joins us now with the names we need to know. >> i'm in the at my house right now. my house is probably a mess given the kids at home and everything else, but the wall looks pretty behind me i'll do it from in studio. we have a handful of analyst notes out this morning as we close out the year and head into 2021 a lot of research teams are busy laying out their so-called top picks or best ideas. here are three dow components that are in the mix this morning. apple right now, up a half a percent called a top pick by the team at evercore it gets an outperform rating, $135 price target. they think investors will continue to pay a premium price for earnings next year as services and wearables growth accelerates as well as a strong upgrade cycle for the 5g wireless capable iphone 12 next up, another dow component, nike, which is being called a best idea by analysts at guggenheim, buy rated, $165 price target, they think nike

under the new ceo is a company with digital strategies now front and center that will help drive things like consumer engagement, performance. roughly 20,000 shares of volume. finally, there is an old school dow component, chevron, getting called a top pick by analysts at evercore they attach a $98 price target to the stock, saying the value proposition is driven byer retu carbon three dow components on the green. back over to you >> all right, dom, thank you again, we're checking on the markets. as we continue to watch. they have been up all through the morning, joe the dow up by 75 points. yesterday, the dow was down slightly s&p and nasdaq were higher the nasdaq closed at a new high. it is indicated up 61 points this morning the s&p up by 15 points and both of those averages, if they open at these levels, just a half hour from now, will be looking

at intraday highs. both the s&p 500 and the nasdaq. the nasdaq up eight out of the last ten sessions. all the talk about how tech was fading away, maybe not the case. the russell 2000 has really been on fire. itcontinues to climb i will see you guys tomorrow please join us back here right now, time for "squawk on the street." good morning, welcome to "squawk on the street. i'm david faber along with jim cramer carl has the morning off let's give you a look at futures as we get ready to start another trading day, with jim and i not in our usual spots, if you haven't noticed. our road map starts with the push for stimulus. talks continued late into the night. negotiators say a deal is near but if not approved quickly, the government could shut down as soon as tomorrow >> plus, the fda considers