it is 5:00 a.m. in new york. 10:00 a.m. in london congress agreeing to a 9$900 billion covid relief bill. we'll show you where the money is going. europeans not going anywhere as much of the uk goes into lockdown and other countries ban travel as a new strain of coronavirus hits travel stocks are plunging back in the u.s., a cdc panel giving new guidance on who should be next in line for the covid vaccines. bitcoin clawing its way towards 25,000, and now elon musk hinting he might want in on

the action with advice from another billionaire. and only three and a half trading days this week but a big list of events that could impact your money will be naughty or will it be nice we'll get you ready for it all it's monday, december 21st this is "worldwide exchange. ♪ good morning and welcome from wherever in the world you may be watching. i'm brian sullivan thank you for joining us on a busy holiday-shortened week. dow futures off 300 points nasdaq futures off about the same on a percentage basis this could be a volatile shortened week thursday is a half day of trading. equities close at 1:00 overall it's been so far a great month for stocks the russell 2000 coming off its

best month ever. it's up 8% so far in december. however we are seeing futures down sizably now let's eyeball the hottest of the hot asset classes, that's the cryptos. we are seeing bitcoin move slightly higher right now once again. the big moves are in europe. many stocks there are being slammed. the index as well. all this comes as london and other parts of southeast england are in a tough new lockdown as a new covid mutation appears in the uk this mutation is believed to be up to 70% more transmissible than the original sars covid-1, though it's not believed to be more dangerous or veer lanirulvt flights are now being barred to the uk travel stocks are down sharply as you can see international consolidated air off 9% carnival down almost 9%.

some of the other names, the parent company of lufthansa is down 4% as well. we will have a live report from london in a few minutes on this big news story first, let's get down to your other big story to start your monday morning that's our congress agreeing to a 9$900 billion covid relief bill bertha coombs has the details on that good morning >> good morning, brian that's right after months of failed negotiations, there is now an agreement. late last night congress passed and president trump signed a stop gap funding measure that will keep the government funded through today. that will give congress the time it needs to vote on the covid relief deal. here's what we know about what the bill includes. direct payments of $600 to most adults and $600 per child. $300 federal unemployment supplement, funding for the distribution of covid vaccines 2$284 billion into paycheck

protection programs, small business loans 20 billion to small business grants 45 billion for transportation including 15 billi$15 billion f airline payroll assistance $15 billion to live event venues 25 billion into rental assistance there's also an extension for providers, for doctors to count more of their losses towards those grants that they may have taken earlier this year which for a lot of providers will be a big deal >> at least the deal is getting done not everybody will be happy. we'll get more later on in the program. we'll see you in a few minutes and we'll have much more on that stimulus deal throughout the hour on "worldwide exchange" including a live report from d.c. now to your big three things ahead in this holiday-shortened week there is no trading on friday. merry christmas.

but there's a lot to do before then tesla will join the s&p 500. it's the largest addition ever to the index most of the impact has likely already been priced in but this is kind of like adding a bowling ball to a bowl of candy. tuesday and wednesday both new and existing home sales data is out. the home price index on wednesday is out as well i guess that's two things. we'll find out if things in housing remain red hot as everybody apparently flees the big cities and panic buys homes. fun fact, home prices are now up nationally on average 37 straight quarters. the third quarter was the biggest quarter over quarter home price jump in recorded american history on thursday, stocks closing at 1:00 p.m. eastern time a half day heading into christmas. cheers let's talk markets and your money. joining us is daniel penni

penningauser thank you for joining us the futures are down 300 european markets are being hit this new covid strain is putting everybody back on their heels. what's your take >> thanks for having me. i think the key thing to keep in mind is that the first couple weeks of december are always very, very important where people will lay out their views for the entire year, the following year, which is 2021. as we hit the last two weeks of the year, things start getting a bit wobbly, then the news has an impact on market dynamics. this is what we're seeing now with mobility now taking the headlines. the story out of the uk is very important. even the budget passing in the u.s. clearly is not having an impact on markets. >> i think the key is sort of

how dangerous and also susceptible to the vaccines this new strain might be. i reached out to a virologist, he said it doesn't look more dangerous, just more transmissible. the vaccinesare likely to work one ph.d.s opinion we'll have to wait and see if the new lockdown extends to more parts of europe, first off, tell us if you think it will if it does, what might that mean for equity markets as we round out the year >> correct so one of the things to keep in mind, first of all, it's very likely it will the reason is because, again, you don't want that specific strain to come into your country. you don't have the vaccines yet. the risk is that, again, because it's 70% -- the death rate is very high and you're worried about overcapacity in the health system you have to be over cautious here and stop every type of

mobility keeping that in mind, europe has been fairly popular trade in the first couple weeks of the year this is what i mentioned before in the sense that you did have investors buying into a long euro and a long euro particularly in the uk so we've seen a strong desire of investors to buy uk equities, gilts heading into the weekend as a result with the news coming across, people tend to unwind those positions. so a lot of it is positioning towards year-end rather than having a strong long-term view >> do you think this will derail the global -- not just the u.s. -- the global rally in equities that we've seen will this new strain, these new lockdowns, will that derail that >> i think it has the potential for a fairly reasonable adjustment between now and year end because of the positions we saw over the past couple of

weeks. i do agree that there is reason for more meaningful volatility in markets over the next couple of weeks the pound move over the past few hours, you know, it's at least 1.5% move. it's a significant move. we're prone to see higher and larger behavior around that positions and because of what's happening. >> the key is going to be whether or not there is proof that the vaccines that we have and that are coming work on this new strain right now the markets are nervous. dow futures off 350. daniel, thank you very much for joining us >> bye when we come back, more on that big and developing story. a new coronavirus strain in the uk what we know, what we don't, dow futures off 350. we'll head to break with some of the early morning monday movers. we're back in two minutes.

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stock futures are down sizably. dow futures down 370 points. it's a new concern about a new strain of the coronavirus

hitting the uk and popping up in other parts of europe that have the markets on high alert. nasdaq futures off 0.7%. the european markets are being hit hard and many travel stocks are down 5% to 10% there are twodifferent developing stories out of the uk this morning number one, that new covid strain leading to stricter lockdowns and travel bans. effectively the uk canceling christmas. there's no other way to say it and then still no resolution on the brexit trade talks with a deadline getting very close. geoff cutmore joins us live from london with the latest this new strain getting a lot of attention by the news, by the markets. what do we know about it what do we not know about it >> very good morning, brian. effectively the uk has been cut off from continental europe for 48 hours at least. the french border is closed. so there's no movement between

dover and calle. lots of countries say they will no longer take flights from the uk this ultimately because a panel of scientific advisers on friday told the prime minister there was a new virulent strain and it is passing quickly around the southeast of england up to that point the prime minister had said we will have as normal a christmas as we can achieve. but the hand brake went on on saturday we had a record spike in infections on a single daily rate, over 35,000. the prime minister said that is it we cannot afford to take the risk of this virus spreading more aggressively. so that's when the plans were changed and we went into so-called tier 4, which introduces a lot of new restrictions on the movement of people basically they shouldn't leave their homes at all what we know about the virus is fairly limited i think you talked about it

already, said to be 70% more contagious, but not necessarily more lethal. and the people we have spoken to think the current vaccines will kill it but more scientific and endeavor required. that's where we are on covid of course the uk doesn't need this twin issue of brexit negotiations going nowhere at this point given what is going on with the lockdowns, but it seems we're not making a great deal of progress on two key issues, one of fishing rights, the other about state aid for companies. so we had a trading, if you like, of accusations over the weekend with both the uk telling the eu it needs to do more the eu turns around through michel barnier saying, no, you need to give ground on some of these key issues but as we both know, the window

here is closing with only ten days to the end of the year. effectively parliamentments in euro europe and in the uk will need time to ratify an agreement. not a lot of hope that we will get a break through. having said that, the prime minister is holding one of his cobra meetings, this is a gathering of scientific advisers, security officials, other ministers and we're waiting to see whether there will be further announcements about how they're going to manage covid at this point or, indeed, whether there will be news on new initiatives around the brexit negotiations. back to you. >> yeah. there's a lot of questions out there. you know, first off, will the vaccines that exist, the ones that are coming, will they work? a virologist i spoke to last night said there's early belief that the vaccines should work on

this also whether people -- like the prime minister, w.h.o. ha who ht and recovered, whether they will have shorter or long-term immunity from this strain or be susceptible. how long is this hard lockdown, if you will, going to stay in place? do you have any idea >> that's the other thing people here are concerned about we had the health secretary here speaking over the weekend. he seemed to suggest that the more rigorous lockdowns will continue until the vaccination program here in the uk really gathers momentum so he has suggested possibly april or even may, which, of course, has gone down very badly because businesses, individuals going about their daily life, companies trying to keep offices open, all of them very dramatically affected by the new

harder lockdown restrictions so at the moment, as you point out, we need to see a lot more of these questions answered before we can understand how quickly this more onerous lockdown and the restrictions that have been put in place can be lifted. but for the time being, we are not getting any positive messages from the uk government. just one other issue, as these continental european countries lockdown travel from the uk, it is worth pointing out that they still have not approved a vaccine for use. the european medical agency is meant to be meeting today, perhaps to give its sign off on the pfizer/biontech vaccine. but it has still not been approved for use in continental europe so even as vaccine programs have started in the uk, the u.s., singapore and many other countries in continental europe, they still have not given their

sign-off, which is why they're so sensitive to travel from the uk right now >> yeah. certainly a lot of questions, not the news we need or want heading into the christmas holiday and the new year 2020 can't go away fast enough, geoff cutmore, appreciate it. still on deck, you have heard some of the more dire predictions. new york city, there's a live look, is over for years, if not forever. but not so fast. we have some surprising new data on people moving into the big apple. it's your morning rbi and we'll get you to take a second look. that's after this. $63 billion. that's the equity capital of the 193 spacs that are looking for a merger target.

arcording to goldman sachs, nely three quarters of the companies that have gone public since 2018 it's been a tough year.

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stop your cough from interrupting, with dq cough and congestion. it's max strength formula coats your throat and provides powerful relief. new dayquil cough and congestion. the maxcoat daytime power through your cough medicine. good morning c there's a check on futures dow futures down 245 there's a new coronavirus strain in the uk, it's more transmissible. luckily right now it's not believed to be more dangerous. vaccines hopefully should work on it, but it is more

infectious, it has the uk in a hard lockdown. travel stocks are being slammed as well. dow futures off 430. this has got the markets spooked. everybody has been really on one side of that boat. now you have this popping up so that is popping the volatility markets we are seeing the volatility index, the vix, the fear gauge, it's up 32% right now. still at 28, not at 50, but it's a 32% pop for the vix volatility nervousness is popping up on this monday morning. it's time for your morning rbi. today let's focus on the new york area and the time of covid. you have no doubt heard a lot about everybody fleeing the city and the surrounding areas, right? they're moving to the burbs where there's more space and safety a new report says that is only kind of true unicast tracks cell phone

locations and found that, yes, about 3.57 million people did leave the new york/newark, new jersey metro area since the beginning of the year. here's what's totally new and random about 3.5 million others actually moved into the area that's right so while there was a net out migration, it was only, according to their cell phone tracking data, about 70,000 people one caveat, the firm did find those who moved out had a much higher median income than those who moved in that likely causost the new york region in 34 billion in lost income this year it's not ideal new york city has a long, long way to go. likely a many year struggle ahead. still this report overall pretty decent sign, and maybe also a sign that the big apple might be more affordable to non-hedge

fund billionaires in the future. random but hopeful i guess coming up here, congress agreeing to a 9$900 billion covd relief deal. a live report from d.c. on what made it into the bill, what was left out dow futures falling fast now down 500 points. we are back after this academy sports + outdoors started as a tireshop in san antonio texas in 1938. our vision is to be the best sports and outdoors retailer in the country with a mission to provide fun for all through strong assortments, value, & experience over the years, we've given customers not just great products, but outstanding experiences. we can't wait to have customers nationwide have fun out there.

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." the markets are indicated on opening down big right now on concerns of a new more transmissible coronavirus hitting the uk dow futures are off more than 490 points nearly 500 points. more than 1% right now nasdaq futures off about 1%. we are seeing big moves as well in volatility. the vix index is up 32% at the moment it's under 30% still, but on the rise and many travel stocks here, just as we are getting some vaccine and reopening optimism, the travel stocks are all being hit hard you can see the early trade right now on american airlines, united airlines, delta down 8% carnival cruise down more than 10% at the moment. ma marriott and some other hotel

chains are down 2% again, this is all right now pre-market moves not a lot of volume. take that with a grain of salt still the prices are down. concerns that maybe if this new strain were to pop up in the united states, it's kind of hard to see how it would not given that people move around and as i've reported personally some of the airlines i've flown on recently have been absolutely mobbed along with the airports, we are seeing concerns about new travel and reopenings. markets down nearly 500. travel stocks are being hit very, very hard. we'll get more on the markets and your money in a few minutes. to the story that the market had been focused on, maybe it still should be. as congress agrees to a 9$900 billion covid relief bill. what's in it what's not what are some still fighting

about. ylan mui has more. >> it only took nine months to agree on this covid relief package. both sides say it's not perfect but some help will be on the way for the holidays we do not have the final legislation of this 9$900 billin bill yet but we have a detailed summary of what's in it. the major components do remain intact, that is $600 still plus chec che stimulus checks for adults and kids a $300 boost in jobless benefits that lasts about ten weeks it extends the expanded unemployment benefits that run out this week. small businesses get 3$325 billion including a second round of ppp $15 billion for the airlines another $15 billion for live entertainment venues and movie theaters, $1 billion for amtrak.

>> at long last we have the bipartisan break through that the country needed now we need to finalize text, avoid last-minute obstacles and cooperate to move this legislation through both chambers >> once that bill text is released, the house is expected to vote on the covid relief package and a 1$1.4 trillion comprehensive government funding bill of course, brian, the new deadline to keep the lights on in washington is midnight tonight. back to you. >> what are some of the big headline items or line items that did not make it into the bill >> yeah. so state and local aid is one of the major components that is not going to be a part of this we knew that was a major tradeoff for getting rid of liability protections that were supposed to be in this both sides dropped those priority demands the other thing we've seen some back and forth on and one reason

why the bill was held up over the weekend was certain language over the federal reserve and what its emergency lending power should look like there was an effort by pat toomey, a republican, to curtail the ability to restart the spending under the c.a.r.e.s. act. there was a lot of concern that that the language was too broad. they were able to reach a compromise there and then there was also some debate over the length of unemployment benefits. i mentioned that $300 a week a boost in unemployment benefits lawmakers wanted to see that extended through the spring. so there are tradeoffs on both sides. democrats aresaying that as soon as joe biden becomes president they'll be pushing again for yet another round of stimulus, but we'll see where that goes. >> yeah. certainly -- you talk to small business owners, it's hard to say, it's non-pc if you will,

they will say the enhanced benefits while needed by people have also hurt wothem as they ty to find workers as they reopen joining us more to talk about this and everything else going on in the world is the chief exist at stifel. a newtarget was launched on th s&p 500, but now we have this new strain of coronavirus in the uk, hard lockdown, dow futures off 500 points any way to model this new risk >> we've got to say the most important thing is take it into context, take it in context of we've been here before in a worse manner in terms of not knowing what we had to combat it in this case we have a lot of science, a lot of technology aiding that science.

we can imagine scientists have already been modeling the morphed virus at this point. we also would say our recollection is this crossed the tape before the weekend with johnson in the uk increasing the extent of the lockdown so we're a bit surprised that the market islooking as stunne as it is by this >> it's a half day on thursday, maybe it's the ervousness, let's take some money off the take the vix is up more than 30%. if we don't know, why not put some away and protect yourself >> it's an opportunity to take some money off the table in terms of -- without fomo, fear

of missing out in the middle of a bull market. if march 23rd can a model, the market rallied 17% in the next three days you want to be careful timing going in and out of a bull market, which appears to be in progress >> yeah. listen, i don't envy your job, lindsay, you're trying to model this economy you're trying to figure out vaccines are coming out. reopenings are happening here. we'll get there slowly, we can see the finish line. now we have this new strain. who knows where it will go, how transmissible it will be, and if the vaccines will work how much does this throw the economic reopening in the spring up into the air? >> it certainly does on one hand we saw a strong

recovery in the third quarter which in some ways carried forward into the fourth quarter. we saw strength in manufacturing, auto sales and some improvement in the labor market on the other hand, we've seen a slowdown in the pace of hiring we've seen consumers pull back you layer on now new concerns about this resurgence of the virus or a second strain of the virus, and that could compound the difficulties that we've seen on businesses to reopen. individuals to return to work. when we look at what this means for growth i think there's enough strength in october and november to carry the fourth quarter, but looking out to the first quarter of the new year, depending on the depth and duration of the second round resurgence and policy measures put in place, it will be increasingly difficult for the u.s. economy to remain in positive territory potentially falling back into negative growth profile as we look out to the start of the year.

>> the markets, you might have heard us going into the break, united airlines down 10% carnival cruise lines. all the travel stocks are being punched in the gut again because of this new thing. what more do we need how do you kind of have to sit back and wait to see how this shakes out what do you know what do you not know >> i think this is just a reminder that this is a health crisis, not a market crisis. so there's no singular or all-encompassing policy that we can deploy from the federal government or the federal reserve that will get the economy back to an upward trajectory on a sustained basis. it comes down to health solution having a meaningful way of separating the healthy from the sick it's just the virus itself is going to dictate the path to recovery which at this point seems to be much longer, much bumpier and much uncertain than what we have priced into the

marketplace. >> we said it almost a year ago in march of this year, health data is the only data that matters. it's the real new economic data. you just rolled it out, but you're keeping that $4,300 price target you're still bullish for the coming year even with this new covid wrinkle thrown in. >> absolutely. we think these setbacks, bumps in the road, they are not uncommon when dealing with something like this covid-19 virus. our expectations would be that this will be not only discounted by the markets, but responded to by scientists who have proven themselves capable of producing a vaccine in around nine months, not in a year as many people thought or two years or four years as some thought. so we have a good faith and consideration that this is a bump in the road and one to be

recognized without a doubt, but it may be more of an opportunity to buy babies that get thrown out with the bath water than running from the market at this point. >> yeah. people right now at least are running on a macro level, not individual investors, they're not trading futures, at least i hope not, dow futures down 500 right now. thank you both very much we'll see you in 2021. take care. all right. coming up, we'll talk about the other red hot asset class, that is crypto. bitcoin on the run to 25,000 and whether elon musk could move large transactions like a company balance sheet from dollars to bitcoin he was tweeting about it over e ekd. we'll talk about it next

dow futures off 470 points right now. let's talk about a different and red hot asset class, that's bitcoin. it just keeps moving into unchartered territory, pushing 22,000, 23,000, 24,000 yesterday. it's pulled back some, down about 1,300 right now. the recent rallies drawing attention from everybody including a gentleman named elon musk who wants to get into the car and rocket business. he tweeted a meme yesterday that can't be shown on tv, it's not safe for work, about the allure

of bitcoin, but it caught the eye of one michael saylor. he's a long-time ceo of micro strategy and a bitcoin bull. he replied to musk if you want to do your shareholders a 1$100 billion favor, convert the tesla balance sheet from dollars to bitcoin. other firms in the s&p 500 would follow your lead and in time it would grow and become a $1 trillion favor musk asked if such large transactions are possible. saylor said they are, he bought over 1 billion in bitcoin recently let's talk about this with mark yusko. just another day on twitter a couple of billionaires talking about putting billions of dollars into cryptocurrencies. i said they're not currencies. they don't act like a currency i've seen, now people are talking about making balance sheets with them what's your take on this

>> look, a billion here, a billion there. pretty soon we're talking real money. you know, when you think about it, the biggest currency we've had in history is gold it has been a currency for 5,000 years, a perfect storer of value. bitcoin is reallydigital gold. it's a digital version of a perfect store value. what michael saylor figured out is every moment he left his corporate assets sitting in fiat currency, they were being destroyed by actions like we saw over the weekend where governments decide because of spending that they'll print money out of thin air and devalue the currency so he transferred as you said over $1 billion into bitcoin and, you know, i think others will follow. i think the conversation between he and mr. musk is quite interesting and compelling >> you know, it's not going to get attention on a day like today with futures doing what

they're doing, but iraq over the weekend devalued its currency by 20%, largest single devaluation ever i bring that up because oil is a massive global market. there's been talk are nations like iraq and maybe venezuela, are they buying bitcoin as well? that's where bitcoin i think is the perfect hedge in many ways if a nation and a people can't trust their currency, then why should anybody else? >> we're in a race to the bottom globally in currencies when you get massively indebted as many countries around the world are, you can pay the debt back, that won't happen. you can restructure it, but who will take the deal you can default on it but then the people in power lose power, they don't like that, or deflate it away by devaluing your currency that's happening everywhere. it's happening in germany, in europe, in japan and now it's

happening in the united states countries like you mentioned, venezuela, iraq, zimbabwe, that's normal. we're used to it but we're not used to what's happening in the developed world where the currencies are being devalued before our eyes the market before today, the stock market looked like it was doing well it was making new all-time highs. but that's only if you denominate it in dollars over the last three years if you denominate in gold you're down about 25%. if you denominate in bitcoin, you're down more because people are realizing that their dollars are being destroyed by this spending >> here's my beef, if you will, with bitcoin we know that there will only ever be 21 million of them 18.5 million have been mined there's a few more million to

go we know the fixed amount i jokingly put out on twitter, tesla has 950 million shares outstanding. what if it only had 18 million do you worry that because bitcoin is small from a sort of "share basis" that it can be manipulated? it can be bullied? it can be pushed around? >> look, there's no question, brian, that you're exactly right. in the short run, there is a risk, with any highly concentrated asset, whether it's tesla shares which are majority held by mr. musk, those shares can be pushed around what is happening to bitcoin is that it's becoming more broadly held every time there's a conversation by someone like michael saylor and elon musk and other corporate executives see, wait a second, i need to do that, that ownership will get broader and broader. the beautiful thing about bitcoin, it can be denominated down to 8 decimal points

it can be divided down to 8 decimal points it's the total market cap of the cryptocurrency that matters. we're at 425 billion today, we'll be at a trillion next year gold equivalents, which would be around 8 trillion of total market cap over the next decade. that means a price of $400,000 to $500,000 per bitcoin. >> dad, can i have three to get a little ice cream we might hear that at some point in the future. mark yusko, good discussion. best to you and yours. merry christmas and happy new year thank you very much. it's 15 days left in the year. on deck, the ceo of hackensack meridian health, robert garrett runs the largest

health care in new jersey. we'll talk to him about what he's seeing in his hospitals, the vaccine and this new covid strain what he knows is what's happening in the uk. dow futures off 500. no one likes to choose between safe or sporty. modern or reliable.

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kind of a good news/bad news type of weekend on the covid front. the good news is that yesterday in olive branch, mississippi, that's the moderna vaccine unlike the pfizer vaccine it does not need to be kept at negative 80 degrees celsius. still needs to be cold but just normal refrigerated temperatures that's moving out and will go to distribution warehouses and hospitals today and all this week that's the good news the bad news is that the uk revealing that this new strain they found of coronavirus may be more transmissible, maybe not more deadly but more transmissible as well. they went back on a hard lockdown joining us now is robert garrett

ceo of hackensack meridian health the largest health carenetwork in new jersey. he's been doing great work from february to march on robert, good to see you again. before we get into the more positive news, what have you and your team heard, if anything, about this new uk strain >> good morning, brian thank you for having me back yeah that was certainly big news over the weekend. just pretty much what you summed up, i think, are the facts that we know right now. that is that it is certainly much more of a contagious mutation that's why great britain went into significant lockdowns but there's no evidence yet from what i'm hearing from clinicians or scientists that it's more deadly or a more severe strain or also that it is not resistant

to the vaccines. there's no evidence of that at this point more study has to be done. but right now the indications are that the vaccine rollout, which has happened across the globe and certainly here in the u.s., hopefully that will still be effective against this new strain >> that is great news. actually i spoke with a ph.d. virologist at johns hopkins yesterday, the early word is that they do not believe it's more dangerous, just more transmissible and there needs to be more studies done on the vaccines speaking of vaccines, we were with them on the road last week. we showed the moderna vaccines being rolled out how many doses have you received at your hospitals? are you still waiting on more? where are you in vaccinating and inoculating your front line staff? >> you know, it is truly exciting to be part of this historical effort to vaccinate the american people. we started last tuesday.

we have now vaccinated 2,000 of our team members and our physicians that's with the pfizer vaccine we are expecting to get a significant number of doses from moderna. that should be in in the next couple of days we'll start using that vaccine as well. our goal is to vaccinate any front line team member, anybody who works at the health care system within the first four weeks. we think we're going to get most of those team members, those physicians vaccinated. when polling started a few weeks ago or a few months ago on attitudes towards the vaccine, there was some resistance particularly among some health care workers but we're seeing the numbers significantly go up as the news continues to be positive about the pfizer vaccine, the effectiveness, the safety, the moderna vaccine now as well. we're seeing significant number of team members and physicians

willing to take the vaccine. so the next three, four weeks will be critical hopefully the supply of pfizer and moderna vaccine hold up so that we can meet that goal of vaccinating anybody who wants a vaccine that works at our health care system, particularly those on the front lines within three, four weeks >> yeah. that's a crucial part of the story. listen, robert, i'm on this covid new jersey app i check in every day, how are you feeling. i urge everyone to do the same it gives great stats on hospitalizations, cases, everything like this i don't mean great, but it's a well-done app. when i look at it every day, hospitalizations thankfully appear to have sort of flattened the last week or two at about 3,500 in the state of new jersey after speiking for a couple of weeks. what is your hospital and icu capacity looking like right now? >> you're right. there seems to be a flattening

of the spike that was occurring, especially after thanksgiving. we're treating just under 900 covid patients in 17 hospitals and 13 nursing homes that's about the same number as it was eight or nine days ago. we've seen some days that have gone up. some days that have gone down. in terms of capacity, we still have capacity both icu capacity, medical surgical capacity, emergency departments are a bit more stable than maybe they were i think our biggest challenge still, brian, is staffing. though we're seeing some team members who were out of work come back to work. but that's still a bit of a challenge because we're seeing some surges around the country unlike the first surge where we were able to redeploy staff or obtain staff from other parts of the country. with you don't ha we don't have that opportunity this time. overall the situation is stable. but i don't think people should let their guard down even though

there's good news on the vaccine front, there's been stabilization in the numbers we have christmas coming up this week there will be family gatherings. it's important that people remember to stay vigilant, to mask up, to be sure that social distancing and continue to practice good hand hygiene, et cetera it's critical. we're at the final stretch here. we need to continue to do those things >> great advice. nearly 80% of all transmissions are coming from family gatherings indoors robert garrett, merry christmas to you and your team all the hard workers across the meridian health care system. happy new year you guys deserve about a year off. >> merry christmas as we go to break, let's look at futures. dow futures are down 750 points right now. the travel stocks are off 9%, 10%, 11% the new uk strain spooking the markets and investors, bitcoin

down 1,500 i will see you tomorrow. "squawk" and the gang picking up this developing story and breaking coverage next for silvr #1 for diabetic dry skin* #1 for psoriasis symptom relief* and #1 for eczema symptom relief* gold bond champion your skin gold bond xfiniwith the new hbo max app on xfinity. watch the greatest collection of shows, movies and new max originals. enjoy hbo favorites you know and love like game of thrones and the undoing... with exclusive max originals like the flight attendant... and blockbuster movies like dolittle. just say "hbo max" into your voice remote to sign into your hbo account or sign up.

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breaking news, futures are plunging this morning despite the news that congress has reached a 9$900 billion stimulu deal why? the big drag on sentiment this morning, covid fears a new strain of the virus appearing in the uk. travel stocks getting particularly hard hit this morning. plus this -- tell me this isn't somehow fitting as well. today's the day that tesla enters the s&p 500 we have the stimulus, tesla entering and