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 the market down

almost 700 points. it's december 21, 2020 "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm becky quick along with joe kernen as joe mentioned, this is christmas week but we're wearing red this morning, we thought it was for christmas week, but look at what's happening with the markets. dow futures are indicated down 650 points this was a bad morning an hour ago, futures were down 300 points, i got coffee and came back and they were down another 250 points you can see how things have been picking up momentum to the downside over the last hour or

so dow futures indicated down 2.2%. it's all coming because of concerns about this more virulent strain in the uk. look at the lockdowns associated with that and what that's doing to travel stocks the airlines right now are indicated down by 8% roughly depending on which stock you're looking at american airlines down by 8.1% united off by 7.2. delta off 8.5% the cruise lines under extreme pressure with carnival down 10%. look at the hotel stocks, they have also been coming under pressure marriott down by 3%. you can see hilton, wynn and mgm resorts, down 4% who would have thought the stimulus bill that congress is approaching at this point would be the secondary story we have complete coverage of both stories

geoff cutmore is in london following the new more contagious strain affecting things there ylan mui is in washington, she has the latest on the stimulus deal geoff, the markets focused on the uk and covid let's start with you >> let me just get you up to speed on how this has unfolded boris johnson, the uk prime minister met with doctors on friday and was given the information about this new strain he was told that it is 70% more infectious than the existing strain in the uk but it doesn't appear to be more lethal but that information was enough for him on saturday to hold a press conference where he told the nation because of this we're going to have to go into more severe lockdown restrictions which effectively means all nonessential shops and retailers

close. all service sector outlets, restaurants, bars, hotels, all closed anybody in tier 4 is meant to stay at home unless they have another place to travel to quite tough restrictions, they will apply mruothroughout the christmas period we heard from the health secretary who came out and said this could go on for some months while we continue to roll out a vaccine. he also said he felt that the vaccine was running out of control at the moment. i think it's those particular words that panicked a lot of other countries in europe that immediately said then we need to close our borders. france on sunday instituted a 48-hour shutdown of its border, which meant that the 10,000 lories or trucks that would travel between france and britain a day, they are queueing

up in britain because they cannot travel to france or continental europe all of that has now meant has the government is concerned about the availability of food and things that would have normally crossed the border from continental europe so boris johnson is holding what's described as the cobra meeting. this is a gathering of the prime minister, minute centers aisterr security officials to make sure there are no food shortages in the uk ultimately we're feeling our way forward here we have a bit of limited information about this new strain of the virus. we think it can still be beaten by the vaccine, we don't know much more about it at this point. back to you. >> you make the key point there that this is more contagious, not more deadly, that's not what

we're thinking at this point that doesn't look to be the case the shutdowns with france shutting the borders for 48 hours, what's the concern that that could stretch to a much longer period of time? >> within the last few hours we had some announcements from french ministers, it appears they are going to try and find a route through this 48-hour lockdown that would allow some freight to travel between the two countries. so even as i think travelers and individuals who may want to cross into continental europe may not use france as an entry point, i think there may be a way through, a path to allow freight to actually travel between the two countries. that was the latest anournouncet we saw with any luck this will be resolved quickly in terms of the risk of shortages. at the moment there's little

appetite in italy, france, the netherlands, spain, germany to receive uk travelers already italy on sunday thought it had cases of the new strain in italy because of travelers from the uk. you can understand the concerns being expressed here but for the time being, fingers crossed, there won't ultimately be food shortages in the uk. i can tell you that some of the grocers and supermarkets are reporting some empty shelves >> any idea where the strain came from? >> no. this is another area of speculation at the moment. so the scientists suggest that it may have been an individual with relatively weak immunity which allowed the existing strain to thrive within the body

and then subsequently to mutate. that individual clearly survived, but then went on to pass it to others and because of the higher nature of the infectious state of this mutant virus, it then was able within the existing lockdown conditions to mass more easily between people i have to say to you, becky, one of the problems here is that the government has consistently given very strong advice about mask wearing, about social distancing, about how people should and should not mix. a lot it has been ignored. we had terrible scenes on saturday where immediately after boris johnson gave the press conference, we saw a number of the major train stations and bus depots in london crowded with people who were just desperate to get out of the city because they didn't want to be locked

down here over the christmas period of course as far as the transmission of the virus is concerned and this more infectious strain, that was exactly the wrong thing to have done so people are not obeying the advice as they should be which means that the virus is being transmitted and over the weekend we saw over 35,000 daily infections reported in a single day, which was a new record here for the uk so even as the government is saying you must follow this advice, people are still ignoring it in some places and that obviously is allowing the virus to spread more quickly >> we have to remember at the beginning of the virus back in march that's what happened in italy when they were trying to lock down areas in northern italy, all of those people took off for areas of the south that's how it spread there geoff, thank you very much we'll continue to watch this and check back in with you later today hopefully.

joe? >> thanks. we'll have gottlieb on later, dr. scott gottlieb any kind of speculation is totally rank speculation about mutations. you remember someone said once you have seen one novel virus, you've seen one -- >> you've seen one novel virus >> exactly i was thinking it's concerning because it does seem so mutate easily if it can mutate to become more contagious you would start worrying that it could mutate to become more lethal i don't know if that's true. if it becomes more lethal -- >> it kills the host >> it doesn't become more contagious >> but the question is also will it mutate and make these vaccines ineffective at some point? that does not seem to be the case at this point >> but the beauty of the -- >> if you look at the flu, you know, that's the -- the problem

with the flu vaccine they're never entirely sure what strains to hit for >> we never had a messenger rna vaccine before, which is one of the big benefits of it, it's easy to put in a new sequence that would match theoretically the new mutation we'll ask gottlieb about it what is it that makes the coronavirus lethal in the first place and what kind of mutation would you -- i don't know what you would need i can understand how you would make it more contagious, the way the spike proteins seek out certain cells to infect. but it's all speculation we'll get some experts on -- nobody is really an expert when it's a novel virus the vaccine seems to work. we have an adaptable vaccine platform now, which would be good >> two vaccines. >> yeah. >> but the platform, both of them with the rna platform, both moderna and pfizer

are we surprised how long have we been waiting for this you put out 900 billion, and you're surprised the market reacts we have a segment coming up with stephanie link, reopening stocks we planned it on friday. we're brilliant. let's do a segment on reopening stocks on monday okay they're all down 15% any way, back in the u.s., congress reaching a stimulus deal after months of gridlock, lawmakers agreeing to a relief package that contains direct checks, jobless aid, help for schools and small business the "wall street journal" is positive about pat toomey's sort of guardrails on what the fed will be able to do with all these extraordinary measures that's the "wall street journal. but there's a lot in this baby

>> there is a lot in this baby, joe. and they have struck the deal, that's part of why it took so long for them to get to this they struck the deal but they still have not cast the votes. it was a tense weekend of negotiations republicans and democrats finally did come together to pass that or to agree on that 9$900 billion covid relief package as well as a 1$1.4 trillion government funding bill this all came together last night. lawmakers are saying they need more time to actually write these bills, vote on them. apparently they need to be printed on special parchment paper before sending them to the president's desk for signature today they have moved the deadline to fund the government to midnight tonight. it's unclear right now if they'll have to move that deadline again in order to give the gears of washington more time to work and to turn these bills into law now, some of the major elements of the relief package include the $600 stimulus checks,

enhanced and expanded jobless benefits 3$325 billion for small businesses $15 billion for the airlines democrats are vowing this is just a start >> we need a second bill to continue dealing with the emergency and to start stimulating our economy. so we get back to where we were. that will be job number one in the new biden administration >> now, there are no votes scheduled yet in the house today. the earliest we could see this process start is 10:00 a.m back to you. >> all right seeing a lot of conjecture about the bill, but we'll be looking at the market reactions. a few things, you have tesla going to the s&p that's down 500 probably and then this new to individual strain but, you know, we waited so long for this stimulus deal

the market at didn't times looked like it was -- it would react positive to the possibility of getting it done every day we say, wow, the disconnect between the underlying economy and the market is this wide. so i guess we shouldn't be surprised when the market comes down but it is surprising. becky, you have a comment? >> i did ylan, did you say that we may not be able to hit this midnight deadline tonight in part because they have to print this on special parchment paper before it goes to the president's desk? are we actually living in the year 2020? >> i did say that. and part of the issue is that the bills need to be enrolled and apparently for bills of this magnitude there's special paper they go on and that can take a while to printout and to send to the president's desk so there are some -- congress is a place where process drives policy this is a great example of that. it's unclear if they'll need

additional days to make this happen there had been some thinking over the weekend they would have to pass a seven-day stop gap funding measure to allow the senate to vote and to allow the sort of bill enrollment process to happen. but when i was reaching out to folks last night, they sort of said maybe this could be done today. so it's just really unclear how much more time they'll need or if they could possibly get this all signed, sealed and delivered by the end of the day today. >> that's like the dumbest thing i think i've heard in a long time we need to print the parchment paper? maybe we should get them stones so they can carve it out in the tablets. >> they have to sign it, there's lots of lawmakers. it takes time. >> thank you >> beck, the new uk variant according to the public health in england, it's known as

vui-202012/01, lineage b117. there's 14 defining mutations. seven of the mutations are in the spike changes, but seven ofi the spike protein. that's how it enters the cells other than that, no indication that it's more virulent. >> just more contagious. not more deadly, just 70% more contagious i'm not sure how they figured that out either. this is something -- >> there are thousands of different mutations. most of them only a small number of defining mutations that don't matter there's a lot of information on it coming from the public health in the uk. tesla is coming up >> we'll keep you caught up on the headlines as we get them today. when we come back, we have

barely mentioned this. today is the day that tesla enters the s&p 500 we'll talk to one bear on that stock next tesla shares down by 5.75% this rng.

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first. oh well, there's nothing we can do futures are down 557 points right now even though we did get a mini covid relief bill, about 9$900 billion we have tesla going on the s&p 500. but the big concern as you can see there is a new virus -- a new strain in the uk of the covid causing some travel fears and really hitting the reopening of stocks once again >> yeah. i don't think you need your coffee this morning. if you haven't had it, look the at futures, that ought to wake you up tesla starts trading in the s&p 500 today. with the market cap of over 6$60 billion, it will account for more than 1% of the index. shares surged more than 60% in the month since it was announced that it would be included in the index. joining us now is gordon jo johnson. you have been a bear on this stock for a long time.

what do you think about today as it heads into the s&p 500? >> yes thanks for having me i think essentially we had two major catalysts over the past several months you had a stock split that is taking four slices of pizza and taking it to eight and the s&p inclusion. for tesla, with the s&p inclusion you will have more scrutiny we know that the market share in europe went from about 33% to just over 10%. that's q4 to q3. market share in china went from 25% to 12.5% from the beginning of this year to essentially now. we know in the u.s. when you have 52 new evs coming next year, competition will increase. when tesla has seen competition you see a drop in their market shar share. >> you thought that for quite awhile, and as we just

mentioned, it's up 60% in the last month there have been people who have been critical of tesla for a long time. it defied all odds what makes you think that there's going to be something that actually makes people re-evaluate it at this point >> that's a good question. when you look at tesla, if you take a step back, the general viewpoint is that they're a leader in technology if you look at the key remnants of that technology, if you look at batteries, they don't make their own batteries. they buy batteries from panasonic, catl and lg you look at manufacturing, consumer reports ranked them second to last out of 26 cars due to the performance and xw l quality of their cars. wamo and cruze have cars on the road without people in the driver's seat, tesla, which is level two, a person has to be in the car, a person has to be in the driver's seat.

you have more scrutiny on the stock and most importantly just as important as everything else, next year looking at credit cells, those credit cells will drop away next year as other automakers sell evs. when the earnings turn negative again as those go away, the scrutiny on the stock will pick up significantly >> that may be the case, but this company is very well financed elon musk himself has recognized that the market could turn at any point and even sent a note to his employees telling them to make sure they were careful, not being wasteful in spending because the market has given them the benefit of the doubt. he knows that might turn am some point. they have the funding they built up by selling additional shares at these incredibly high prices or higher prices than it had been they're not going to be facing the same difficulties they might

have a year ago if they didn't have that cushion that they already very clearly developed >> right the whole bankruptcy forestory t away a long time ago the way we look at tesla is blackberry before the iphone came out tesla had a nomonopoly in the ev space. so it's not an issue of do they have crash any company can raise money right now. hertz was bankrupt and almost raised money that's not the issue the issue is are they growing revenues are they the leader in evs and are they taking market share do they have a business that generates positive cash flow do they have a business that makes money? no matter how much money they have, if they're selling cars at a loss and losing market share to guys like audi and porsche -- model x and s are no longer the top selling electric vehicle

luxury car in the fourth quarter so far the id3 outsold the model 3 in europe you've seen them lose the mantle of being the best and the biggest. it's not a matter of money, but it's a matter of does their business make money. if they start to look at the actual business of selling cars, i think you could see significant selling in the stock. what's the next catalyst they have to prove themselves fundamentally now. in 2021 that will come to the forefront. it will be difficult >> gordon, you are swimming upstream now, we'll see. thank you very much for your time today good to see you. >> thanks for having me. coming up, a new survey of what millionaires plan to do with their money in the new year the futures right now have sort of stabilized. down about 500 points or so. the travel stocks, there's a quick look at those getting hard hit today. i think it was worse earlier

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decisions about their money for the new year according to the results of a new survey, most expect to pay more in taxes. robert frank joins us now. so they are smart, these millionaires they saw we had an election, that joe biden won is that what -- so they noticed. doesn't seem like a real profound thing doesn't seem profound. that's what he said he will do

he's president-elect it is what it is >> of course we have to see what happens in georgia, of course. remember, this group owns 85% of the individually held stocks, so they matter for markets. as you say, they pay a lot of taxes. two-thirds of millionaires expect to pay higher taxes under a biden administration that's according to the cnbc millionaires survey where we survey investors are a million or more in investable assets two-thirds say biden is likely to make good on that pledge to raise tack taxes on those makir than $400,000 a year half of millionaires say they pay their shares of taxes. 43% say they pay too much. 8% say they pay too little republican millionaired ranked taxes as the biggest threat to their world in 2021. democratic millionaires say the virus is the top threat.

some are miaking some financial changes as a result of the election 27% of multimillionaires are making changes to their estate plan very few plan to sell stock because of a threat of capital gains taxes. they are bullish on the stock market for next year most expecting at least a 5% increase in the s&p next year. a third expecting double digit gains in their favorite sectors where they will put most of their new money are in health care and tech. joe, back to you >> 70% that's -- oh, no can 70% be right in 34 and 36 means at least up 5% 36 plus 34, is that 70 came up with that pretty quick, did i not? that 70% bullishness >> overall, they're not making many changes to their investments. most, you know, that up 5% is

two groups up 5% and then a subgroup up more than 10%. broadly speaking, they're not changing their fixed income. they're putting more money into the markets. the one bearish thing is taxes again, we'll have to see what happens in georgia but this group is expecting taxes regardless of what we see. >> i just mean, yeah, that's -- you know, that's a lot of people agreeing on something. you know, we'll see. nobody knows, robert that's a lot of -- usually it doesn't help if everyone is -- even on draftkings, whenever i do -- if it's a done deal -- like tonight bengals/steelers who in their right mind would pick the bengals i don't care how many people i don't care how lopsided it is. they still -- i'm not going to say it but it even happens in the betting markets. the consensus is never right thank you.

we're wealthy for different reasons, i think, when you say wealthy? isn't it family, friends, happiness, all those things? pets animals? it should not be measured -- it should be a different word for what truly wealthy is. it's not about money merry christmas, happy holidays. how do you like that "spirit," bec becky, pretty good, right? >> it is when we come back, a new covid strain resulting in lockdowns and travel bans in europe we'll talk to an epidemiologist and a ceo to health care companies. check it out, the concerns about the new strain putting some severe pressure on travel stocks today. the airlines down huge, down 8% and more hotels, cruise lines, cruise lines down by 10%. dow futures now indicated down by 540 points.

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futures are down sharply but off the worst levels we were down over 600 at one point. we're down 479 now on the dow. s&p down almost 66 points. and then you can see the nasdaq taking it pretty hard on the chin, too, down 187. all this on worries of a new faster spreading strain of covid. the first doses of moderna's covid vaccine are being shipped. the fda approving its emergency use authorization last friday. fedex is playing a key role in this distribution. frank holland is out -- you went down to memphis? i've been down to that world hub. i have, frank. good morning >> good morning to you, joe. yes, we are here in memphis. nearly 3,300 sites around the

u.s. will geet met nearly 6 miln doses of the vaccine this week in the first week of shipping. the vaccines arrived here in memphis at the memphis world hub on sunday. the first deliveries will all happen before 10:30 this morning. as you mentioned, the moderna vaccine is different than the pfizer vaccine logistically. it's less sensitive to temperature, no need for dry ace, containers weigh less and there will be more of them u.p.s. and fedex will ship $2 million of the pfizer vaccine this week. joe stevens says it is all about speed and security >> we're sorting these in an isolated location so that we can maintain that comprehensive visibility and the prioritization our team members have been educated there's been training and extensive communication around both vaccines and their associated differences >> with the storm forecast to

hit the midwest and the east this week, carriers are monitoring the weather both ship vaccines with a high-tech level that moves the boxes through the network faster and gives updates on temperature and location >> we're overlapping weather maps on top of that to make sure we have contingencies available and we have double and triple redundancy in some cases in case we have to move. >> in november e-commerce grew by 27% year over year. ship matrix which compiles the data says more than 3.5 million packages will be delayed by a day or more during christmas week joe, back over to you. >> fingers crossed once again, it's the juxtaposition of the bad news, frank. i'm hearing about malls

antidotally being crowded. i don't know what another surge would look like. all with the notion that the moderna vaccine, and the pfizer vaccines are going out it's like this strange period where we can't do it quickly enough we're hoping for relief because there could be another wave coming, i guess. you're down in memphis what a great city, but not now nothing you can do now, i don't think down there, is there >> it's ironic you mentioned that in shelby county they're doing another wave of lockdowns starting today they'll stop indoor dining and several other measures tennessee generally considered the worst state in the u.s. for covid. >> you know that i mean, there's that one street where, you know, it's almost like mardi gras every night. >> beal street >> yeah. >> completely empty this morning. i drove by this morning, completely empty a sad sight to see a city like

this normally so lively shut down for the pandemic. >> you're down there for a reason you shouldn't think you will mix pleasure with business any way we appreciate you going down there for this we'll hopefully see you again. >> all right thank you. >> wouldn't want you to enjoy yourself while working >> no. joining us right now is dr. david levy doctor levy is an epidemiologist and the ceo of eag health. doctor, welcome this morning we have a lot of questions for you. want to ask about how we can start attacking this virus, but first there are so many concerns this morning about this new strain that seems to be more contagious 70% more contagious in the uk. asepidemiologist, what can you tell us about this what are you thinking? >> thanks for having me on this morning.

i know the news is concerning about this new virus, this new mutant the but looking at the data, it appears it's more transmissible if they say the transmissibility factor went from 0.8 to 1.2. it's probably been around a little bit longer than most people think and likely a lot of the increased transmissibility has been due to human behavior but i just want to say that this really focuses much more on the need for us to get going with our immunization program science has given us an unbelievable silver bullet if we continue to focus on what we need to do here in this country, we can get over this situation with these ongoing mutations as they come through >> god bless let's talk a bit about the math behind some of these things. the mortality of the covid virus

versus the regular flu explain that to us >> right so to get a macro perspective on what we need to do one has to understand what the math of this epidemic looks like and what the lethality of the epidemic is. the lethality of the current coronavirus is somewhere in the range of 0.5 per thousand. a regular influenza epidemic is something like 0.08. we know now all over the world, particularly in america, that about 80% of cases are in people over the age of 65 and another 15% with people with what we call comorbidities, hypertension, lung disease, diabetes simple math says if you can focus and get this vaccine to all of those people, there's about 50 million over the age of 65 and 50 million of the other conditions, you can drop the lethality of this epidemic in short order down to what a

traditional influenza epidemic looks like that's not a cure, that's not eliminating the entire virus from society, but it dramatically pulls the rug out of the lethality and frankly has huge amounts of positive impact all over society by reducing that lethality that's what we need to focus on over the coming weeks. >> doctor, i don't know if this really is part of what you doep mutations seem to be in the spike protein. i understand how it makes it more contagious. where does the lethality of the virus reside a lot of it is the body's overactive immune response we see that horrible cascade of, like, an autoimmune reaction in some cases of death. would it be possible to see a mutation in what causes the viruses lethality instead of its infection rate

where would that mutation come from >> it's unclear exactly the entire pathophysiology of the virus. the thing people need to focus on is it's highly unlikely that this new vaccine is weaker against any of these new mutations. again, the focus is getting this miracle -- these two miracle vaccines out there and into people so that they can prevent the onset of disease that's absolutely the most important and top priority out there today. >> all right >> how long do you think it will take before we can get the 100 million people you just described inoculated the cdc came out with new guidelines yesterday and said the next group of people should be front line essential workers along with people ages 70 and up that doesn't get down to 65 yet. >> it's about 75 and up. and then front line workers and frankly i would say this to all the ceos out there who have

employees and who have factories and who have essential workers, for all those essential workers, particularly the most vulnerable, particularly those who happen to be over 65, particularly those who have an underlying condition like diabetes or hypertension, get them immunized because they will change the profile of the lethality of this epidemic i want to add when we look at the scary things that are going on like in california, southern california, hospital capacity is virtually zero at this time. frankly the hospitals are filled with people who are more likely to be ill. those are those very same vulnerables and people over the age of 65. moving quickly in these vulnerable populations is the best case for reducing the hospital admissions and freeing up the hospital system that's why people put economies into lockdown because they're worried about the imminent crises of hospital beds not

being available and icu beds no being available. a couple years ago i worked for the louisiana recovery authority that looked at the hospitals after katrina. what happens when all of a sudden the hospitals are nonfunctioning and people can't get in, it's a scary situation so again, focusing on these vulnerables, getting them immunized, getting these people away, not necessarily needing to be admitted to the hospital, creating hospital capacity is something we can do. and i think we can start to see turn around in four, six, and eight weeks of this terrible situation by focusing on these vulnerable folks >> that would be incredible. dr. levy, thank you for your time today we'll talk to you again soon >> thanks for having me on >> coming up, continuing coverage of today's global market selloff down about 430 points on the quk x"omg ghba "sawbo cinrit ck is almost at the finish line today we're going to fine tune the dynamic braking system whoo, what a ride!

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futures are down sharply, beck, we have to remember on 30,000, 2% is 600, i guess, isn't it i got that right it's not 2%. so they're down sharply. >> go back it was it was down 2.1% earlier, but we were down 600 and some earlier. >> keep that in mind before all this silly perma bears are

crowing about being right. they're so predictable. >> i think the concern was how quickly the downdraft started. by 5:00 a.m., we were down 300 points, and all of a sudden i went to get could have and it was down 660. >> we were up last night funny, you know, and the risk off trade now includes bitcoin we saw bitcoin down $1,500 earlier, so it's interesting the way it moves in tandem, and ta lot of these immediately were leading us lower, the airlines and the travel stocks and the hotels. >> hotels, yes. >> across the board down although, some of the stay-at-home stocks like zoom, as you can imagine, are, you know, back in vogue today, zoom up almost 4% we may have a zoom interview today. i haven't looked anyway, stay tuned bcquk x"n ching "sawbo o cn n, plus have high blood pressure.

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if you are just waking up. stocks are under pressure this morning on covid fears as a new strain of the virus appears in europe it's got concerns about what that will mean for lock downs. it's happening already, and you can see the travel stocks are the ones get hit hard, marriott shares down by 5%. others as well when we come back, we'll talk more about all of this stay tuned, you are watching "squawk box," and iss bcth icn

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adyen. business. not boundaries. futures down sharply despite the news that congress has reached a $900 billion stimulus deal the big drag on sentiment this morning is a new strain of covid-19 in the uk dr. scott gottlieb will join us to talk about this and the rollout of moderna's vaccine. plus, tesla's debut in the s&p 500, what could be the next big catalyst for that stock. we've got a live report as the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now

good morning, and welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm joe kernen along with becky quick, andrew is off today dow is indicated now down 436 points that's off some of the worst levels down more than 600 at one point. virus concerns weighing, outweighi outweighing any positives from the weekend agreement by congress travel stocks getting particularly hard hit. check out the airline stocks this morning, which are down anywhere they have been down more than this, down 3 and 4%, they have been down almost 10, some of them hotel stocks are also under pressure this morning, as you can imagine, as nobody's going to be headed over probably to see big ben anytime soon the only big ben you're going to see is that guy tonight, who i'm

worried is going to, roethlisberger, who i'm worried is going to do some serious damage exactly. i see big ben. >> took me a minute to follow along. what yeah all right. after months of failed negotiations congress reached a deal on a $900 billion relief package, and president trump signed a stopgap funding measure that will keep the government funded through today that will give congress the time it needs, hopefully, to vote on the covid relief bill. don't know if it will give him time to sign it. here's what we know about the bill, itincludes direct payments of $600 to most adults, and $600 per child 300 federal unemployment supplement, funding for the distribution of covid-19 vaccines $20 billion to small business grants, $45 billion for transportation, which includes $15 billion for airline payroll assistance, and i believe a billion dollars for amtrak

there's $15 billion to live event venues $25 billion in rental assistance and the legislation extends a federal eviction moratorium. there's still some questions around this. it looks like there is rental assistance for renters, not necessarily for land lords but we are still awaiting more details. in the meantime, moderna joining the fight against covid. millions of doses are being shipped across the country meg tirrell joins us now she has more on how that rollout is going meg, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, becky, it's the second week that coronavirus vaccines are making their way across the country 5.5 million doses joining 2.2 million doses of pfizer's vaccine on top of the 2.9 million doses of pfizer's vaccine that went out last week. by the end of the week, we should be approaching 11 million doses in the u.s. distributed.

as of yesterday, the cdc has started reporting the number of doses distributed and administered, and as of yesterday at 1:00 p.m., 2.8 million doses have been distributed. 566,000 administered, and that is expected to climb, of course, as this moves into nursing homes, and the pace and cadence of administering really starts to get established the reason that 2.8 million might be more than expected is there are more doses per vile than people expected at the beginning. more than five so there's six and even seven sometimes. also over the weekend, the cdcmencdc wanted to vote to recommend the vaccine, and who should be in the priority group with health care workers who live in nursing homes, and what they ended up voting on is people who are 75 years or older and front line essential workers. there's 30 million people in the front line essential workers group, 19 million who are over 75 and the way that they

characterize front line essential workers includes first responders, people who work in education, teachers, support staff, and day care workers. people who work in food and agriculture, manufacturing, corrections workers, postal service workers, public transit and grocery store, and then essentially in the next tier will be the other essential workers, you can see on the right, which includes media, guys we'll see how that goes, as well as people who are at high risk of the disease and people who are aged 65 to 74. now, this was of course an agonizing decision for this committee having to decide who might come next but of course the supply of these vaccines is going to be limited at the beginning. they're going as fast as they can, but they won't be able to get to everybody for a few months, guys. >> hey, meg, it's a really interesting question obviously there are going to be some questions that are raised about this, and people who are probably pushing back. we just had an epidemiologist on, and he suggested that really the first people we should be

looking at would be anybody age 65 and up, not 75 and up anybody age 65 and up because that's where 80% of the deaths from covid are coming on this issue, and then people with comorbidities. that's another 15% of where these deaths are coming up those are people clogging up the hospitals. that's why we are having such a problem with this now. if you could get at the fatalities, bring that number down, that would be the success story, and i think that's the type of questions you're going to see raised immediately now that the cdc is weighing in on this. >> yeah, it's been a debate that's been raging all week leading up to this meeting, and you know, cdc grappled with it the committee, the acip committee, what they did is they were trying to balance, essentially, the reduction in morbidity, and mortality that's where you get the age related question and under lying health conditions, versus preserving society's ability to function, and that's where the

front line essential workers come in, with the allocations with the 75 plus, and front line workers, including teachers trying to ensure that school can go on in person. things like that these are the kinds of societal decisions this group is working on it's up to each state what it wants to do. they can take the recommendations or go their own way. we're bound to see differences in all the states with this too. >> i would get one tomorrow, meg. obviously, if it were to come. i heard in your voice, a little bit of a snicker when you said essential employees. you couldn't even sell that, when you said media, for essential employees, i could hear it in your voice, like who made that up we are not worthy compared to -- >> i just know how eager you are to get your shot, and i mean, i don't know how old you are, i assume you're not over 75.

>> anyway, my point was that's a stretch, essential workers my other question is, meg, you get the shot, you get the jab, what do you really think it takes before you get a couple of antibodies going you think within a week you have some limited immunity? i mean, you get that second booster obviously, but i just wonder two days, three days, four days, a week, two weeks, do you have any ideas or any evidence from the clinical trials at all for that >> we don't know exactly how long it takes. i mean, we do know that, you know, in the pfizer trial they did start counting the cases one week after the second shot in terms of the first shot, we know there's protection but takes time to build up for the pfizer one, between the first and second shot, the overall efficacy was 52% that of course included the first week where you probably aren't getting that much protection we don't know exactly how long it takes the protection to build up we know between shots one and

two you get protection and the greatest protection comes after two. >> meg, i think it's -- can i jump in. >> yeah, uh-huh. >> meg, i think it's incredible the numbers you point out about at 2.8 million doses being distributed but 5 or 6,000 that have actually been given, those shots. what's the hold up is that something that's going to be remedied quickly, to have like 20% of what's been handed out actually only being injected at this point. that seems a little weird. >> yeah, so i've been talking with experts about this. one issue could be a lag in data reporting. another is the that, you know, they are expected to go into nursing homes this week. that's another group that got allocations and they are going to start getting the shots now and that should catch up asked general gus perna over the weekend how many vaccinations can this country administer per week, will we ever hit a limit

we're sending out 8 million vaccines this week, can we administer 8 million in a week, and he didn't tell me how many the country can do at a time, but he said he didn't expect us to ever get to a point where the supply exceeded the ability to administer vaccines in the country. so we will see if that's the case probably over the next two or three weeks we'll start to see how quickly these vaccinations can be done, but we're in the quote unquote easy part. it's going to health care workers, nursing homes, it's not in the community yet that will be the challenge in a few weeks to a few months. >> all right, tirrell, bertha is tweeting gentle shade. that didn't feel very gentle i'm not eligible for any of those ages, okay, meg, yet i couldn't do it they got to go below even where that other guy wanted to go before you hit me. anyway, and i think i got to get

a lot more essential than being a media employee coming up, futures under pressure amid new concerns in europe over the new covid strain a live report is next. check out the european markets "squawk box" is coming right ba ck while i was in the navy,

i decided that i wanted to go for electrical engineering and you need to go to college for that. if i didn't have internet in the home i would have to give up more time with my kids. which is the main reason i left the military. everybody wants more for their kids, but i feel like with my kids, they measurably get more than i ever got. and i get to do that. i get to provide that for them.

a new strain of covid-19 in the uk putting pressure on the markets. geoff cutmore joins us with the latest hi, geoff. >> hi, joe we're dealing with this new variant, and the reason i think the u.k. government panicked is we saw over the weekend a spike in new invectiofections in exce 35,000 on a daily report that was double what we saw a week ago, so friday, the prime minister was told there is this new variant which seems to be 70% more infectious, although at this stage, no one is saying that it increases fatality or it is more virulent in the sense of the damage that it does to you, but it has of course raised concerns that the current lock down regime isn't stringent enough, so 20 million plus brits have now gone into so-called

tier 4, which means that nonessential retail and stores and businesses are closing, and people are being advised to stay at home at this stage. because of the comments in a press conference on saturday, particularly from the health secretary, matt hancock who said that the disease now quote out of the control, we saw a knee jerk reaction from other countries in europe particularly who immediately shuttered access to u.k. citizens and france announced the 48 hour shut down of the border. since then, we have had an e.u. council meeting where they have decided that france will over the next few hours open the border to freight, so we are seeing fast moving developments here and perhaps a reassessment of just how serious this new variant is so we continue to monitor the story here, but inevitably, this will have a devastating impact

on families who were hoping to get together over the holiday season, joe, and obviously the markets have taken it quite badly. back to you. >> that's for sure all the way over here. thanks geoff, i appreciate that report we'll see you, beck. >> we should point out, take a look at the dow futures again. if you're just waking up, you haven't seen the chaos that we've kind of watched through the futures this morning we were down 300 at 5:00 a.m. eastern time then we dropped very rapidly, and i saw down at 660 at one point just as the show was starting 6:00 a.m. eastern time now you're looking at dow futures down 370 that's a big move, catches your attention, but we have shown some improvement over the last hour or so you can take a look at how things really dipped just at 6:00 a.m. eastern time was where you really saw the steepest declines, at least so far. right now, the dow futures down by 450 points. there's a lot happening, down by

about 1 1/3%, traders a little jumpy and nervous this morning you are seeing that play out in the futures this morning let's get you caught up on other headlines happening today. lockheed martin is buying aero jet, already using aero jet propolpr propulsion systems check out shares of j.p. morgan chase, that company announcing a $30 billion stock buy back program. that announcement came shortly after the fed announced banks would be able to resume by backs in the first quarter of 2021 and j.p. morgan chase up by 3.5% nike, that company reporting better than expected profit and sales for its latest quarter it's raising its full year sales forecast in that stock up by about 5.6% with the two big gainers, you're looking at the dow down by about 380, those futures.

>> thanks, beck. let's talk about some of these big movers today like the cruise stocks, the airlines, gamings and hotel, taking a big hit already thanks to the pandemic now we've got a uk lock down putting pressure on the names again. we planned this segment, stephanie link we planned it last week. chief investment strategist and portfolio manager at high tower. if you're disciplined or opportunistic, if you liked coming up with reopening names on friday, you got to love them today because they're all 5 to 10% cheaper than they were on friday in change in what you would have told us if this new development hadn't come out of the u.k.? >> it's great to see you, joe, thanks for having me on. not at all in fact, i would love an opportunity to buy all three of the names i suggested which is marriott, dow and tjx. i would love to buy them, 5, 6,

10% cheaper. think about marriott, up 116% from the march lows and up 44% in the next month and a half of course it was vulnerable to any kind of headline it's important to step back, and say we just got the fisal packa -- fiscal package, you guys have been talking about it all morning long obviously this is not good news today. i do think in six to twelve months from now, we will be reopened, and that's why we want to look at the reopened stocks, and all three names have really underperformed, and was trying to get some bargains obviously. >> if marriott prior to the pandemic, goes down a lot, comes back a lot some people might think it's moved quite a bit. if you like that it won 60 before, you're buying with a pretty big discount here. >> yeah, it's down 15% on the year still, right, so and as we

reopen, you are going to see a gradual recovery in operating occupancy rates, and if china is any gauge on occupancy, in the month of september, their occupancy rates were up 67%, and up year over year. very very important and i think the same thing is going to happen here we just have to wait in the meantime, they bought starwood a couple of years ago, and i think there's revenue synergies and cost synergies and scale, most importantly, scale and so i think they will continue to gain market share. you have easy comparisons and a very strong balance sheet, 2.3 billion in cash and 3 billion in a revolver. i'm willing to be nibbling today. it's up lot since the march low but i still do like it very much for the long run. >> recovering from this pandemic will be more quick for marriott than for the airlines even though they're both just pure travel plays >> you know, the airlines are hard, joe, because they struggle

even in bull markets, right, in terms of their balance sheet, cash management, and that sort of thing, so i don't necessarily play in the airline space. i'm just looking for quality, and on sale and marriott is the best in the business, right, and they just got bigger so i just feel like that's a -- i don't want to say a safer play but i think it's a less volatile play, and that's why i look at the balance sheet and the cash and i feel pretty good about it. >> so dow, i get it. it's just an economy reopening because they're in so many end markets so i guess that makes sense, although i don't think people usually include that as a reopening. tjx, tell me more about that, and why that makes sense as a reopening? >> yeah, and i would say recovery right? so on tj -- here's the thing with t.j., they are the ultimate instore treasure hunt experience they only have 2% of their revenues online. they need their customers to go back to the stores, and the management recently said that

they think 20% of their customers haven't even returned back to the stores yet that's why the stock hasn't done that well. they're the number one off price retailer off price as an industry only has 10% of the market share in apparel, accessories and footwear there's market share these guys, best in class on product, on merchandising, on their discipline with inventory. and their great marketing and they only have 25% of their revenues are international and the real kicker here, joe, to answer your direct question, is that gross margins have an opportunity to go a lot higher in 2008, the last financial crisis, the following year, their gross margins increased 300 fold there's opportunity, there's operating leverage stocks up 11% on the year, and 23 times on trough earnings, it's pretty attractive. >> kind of fix sated ated on lot

that tree. it's a beauty. >> thanks, joe merry christmas, happy new year. >> you did that all, you put all that stuff on there yourself did you? we're at home, aren't we >> i had a little bit of time. i had help how is that? >> yeah, you had help. were they little small people running around, cool, elves, thank you, steph >> all right, beck when we come back, a new covid strain spreading much faster in the u.k. than the original strain. we're going to talk about that and the rollout of the vaccine with dr. scott gottlieb. as we head to the break take a look at this morning's winners and losers in the s&p 500. the winners, news corp. and nike, on the downside, a couple of stocks, including tesla, which was up big on friday it's not there anymore there's much bigger drops including occidental petroleum

down t9%, apache, down just abou as much, and the cruise lines like carnival. "squawk box" will be right back. alright, okay. how's that? is that how you hold a mirror? [ding] power e*trade gives you an award-winning mobile app with powerful, easy-to-use tools and interactive charts to give you an edge, 24/7 support when you need it the most plus $0 commissions for online u.s. listed stocks. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today.

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tesla joining the world's most widely tracked stock

benchmark, and it comes with shares at a record, up more than 700% so far this year. phil lebeau joins us with a look at the stock's volatility and the next big catalyst for tesla shares, and ylan never ending entertainment. the best thing about twitter might be elon. >> in five years from now, people might look back at crazy year when elon was tweeting nonstop. he goes through ebbs and flows, he treats, and doesn't, let's talk about tesla shares today. this is about volatility, and whether or not you will see tesla be as volatile once it's in the s&p 500 as it has been in the past premarket, it's indicating it's going to be down more than 4%. our data team crunched numbers, and when you compare the price volatility in the last year of

tesla shares versus the rest of the s&p 500, yes, it is more volatile in fact, the comparison numbers, the s&p 500 volatility on average, 3.37%, when you take a look at tesla's average volatility, it's much higher, 5.69%. that volatility, along with a number of analysts saying okay, you've got the inclusion, but look at the runu-up. is it time for a pull back in the shares that's why people are saying this is set up for a week or two before we have a catalyst where we could see a pull up cfa, out with a downgrade of tesla shares look at how far the stock has come after a year-to-date run up of 700%, we think future growth expectations are appropriately bullish and after a multi-quarter run of positive news, we struggled to identify the next catalyst in the story well, here's one that people are going to be pointing to. it will come shortly after the

new year that's when we will get the q4, and full year tesla deliveries this is a little bit hard to understand on this wall, but the bottom line is this, they are expecting or they have guided for deliveries of at least a half million vehicles this year. they're at about 336,000, 360,000, something like that they've got to have their best quarter ever in the 4th quarter in order to hit that half million. joe and becky, if they come up at 485,000 vehicles, are people likely to sell off on the stock, depends on what their guidance is in terms of deliveries for all of 2021, and we may not get that right when they deliver, when they report the q4 and full year delivery numbers. we may not get that until they report their q4 earnings later in january. >> i was watching some coverage last week, actually, phil, and the point which i thought was really pedestrian, was that now

the s&p, people that passive funds need to own tesla and s&p but they're getting it at the top. how does anyone know what the top is >> great point. >> are you calling the top, was apple at the top when they added it on to the dow, remember that, and where did it go from there >> yep you know how many times i have heard people say it's the top. i have heard people say it's the top on tesla i would be rich if i had a dollar for every time people told me that friends who are investors, oh, this is crazy. it looked crazy at the time and that makes sense. >> if it takes over the ev world, and the whole ev universe of batteries and all this stuff. i have no idea we have people on, we have gordon on one side. >> and i heard the analyst you had on earlier today the analyst you had on earlier today who was bearish on tesla,

made good solid points having said that, all of his points were in a silo, so to speak, in terms of, well, look at this, this, this, and this. didn't talk about the positives that are out there, some of the things you mentioned the biden administration is going to be more friendly to ev infrastructure, ev tax credit. what would that do for sales i know they already used up theirs, we'll give them another $5,000, and i'm spit balling here nobody knows for sure what's out there. >> nobody knows for sure, but just to say, how ridiculous, the s&p is adding it at the top. it's at the top because it's been at the top every hundred points for the last 700. you have no idea. anyway, still to come on "squawk box," thanks, phillip, they had in the prompter, after it said thanks joe thank myself, which i don't do nearly enough. former fda commissioner, dr. otgottebsct li will join us. "squawk box" is coming right back

new strains of the covid-19 virus have been found in britain and south africa, and doctors are warning that this strain is

more contagious than the original and spreading at an alarming rate. here with nmore on this dr. scott gottlieb, former commissioner of the fda on the boards of alumina and pfizer and a cnbc contributor his latest op-ed in the "wall street journal" focuses on a discussion that we had at length last week, scott, about some of the therapeutics and some of the bottlenecks or whatever is causing them not to be logistically, it's difficult home infusion necessary. but we'll touch on your op-ed. let's talk about this new strain first. i looked into it a little bit more four mutations, seven are in the spike protein, apparently. there have been thousands of mutations already in this virus. so it's more contagious. i think what scares people, scott, or what causes concern, if it's mutating fairly easily, is it possible there's a mutation that could make it more

lethal this is not that but it makes you think, if that were to happen, that would be very concerning. >> and the other question is there is a mutation that could make immunity, or slip past the vaccines this is a mutation the question is was this the result of selective pressure, so was this selected because it's more contagious or was it what we call founders effect, it happened to get into early super spreading events, became the predominant strain we think it's selected for we think this is more tra transmissible. it doesn't seem to have mutated the surface proteins we don't think that's the case what this does suggest is eventually this virus probably will evolve its surface proteins in a way they won't be recognized by the antibodies we have now we will have to update the vaccines some viruses like flu evolve

their surface proteins very quickly, and that's why we need a different flu vaccine every season some viruses can't change the surface proteins like measles. it's not going to change the surface proteins rapidly that spike protein it will change it over time, and the final point is it's probably a good thing we use the entire spike protein in our vaccines. what we're getting is a polly colonial response, we're developing response. if one part of the protein were mutated, there would be antibodies to other parts of the protein. this probably will not slip past our vaccines very easily but eventually we will have to update the vaccines. the antigen tests, if they prime to a specific region of the spike protein, it could potentially slip past those tests. we're going to need a way to monitor the strains and update some of the technology.

>> hadn't even thought of that you remember the old days, there would be a mutation, whoa, there's a mutation all you had was the fphenotype, we can get the genotype now. we have that going for us. plus we have this new platform, the messenger rna platform, where you could easily, if you had to, you could introduce a new version of the vaccine if it mutated around it. aren't both of those things positive >> right the advent of synthetic vaccines makes it easy to update these vaccines, and we'll be doing better surveillance than we have done historically using sequencing, so we do that for flu. we sequence strains of flu we're going to have to do that for covid as well. >> do you have a good feel for what the actual, where does the pathology reside in the virus? i mean, what part of the virus

would have to mutate to make it more lethal. why is it deadly what makes it deadly >> yeah, i mean, it's a good question i don't know the exact answer to that question. it would have to do with some of those surface proteins, and how they elicit a reaction in our body the spike protein would be one of the elements to potentially undergo change to make the virus more virulent. >> how quickly do you think that you're going to need to update these vaccines, is this something that later this year, next year you think that we'll be getting multiple strains? i mean, when you talk about the flu shot, i always asked for the quad strain, the one that goes after four different strains are we talking about something like that in the near future >> yeah, i mean, we thought every two or three years i was saying that probably six eight months ago, that might be the case i don't think this is going to be something we need to update every season if it becomes easy to update, you may do that, look at the

predominant strain and update more regularly we're going to have to get into a mode for the foreseeable future that we could improve updates based on immunogenicity. the reason we're able to update the flu vaccine every year is because we don't do full blown outcome studies. we understand how the vaccine works and allow it to be up dated and improved based on immee kn-- immunogenicity. we'll get into a framework, and accept that if a vaccine can introduce a certain level of antibodies, and allow updates based on antibody response, and that's how we're going to be able to keep up with this. >> scott, in the last hour, we spoke with an epidemiologist, dr. lee vallvy, who laid out hi who should be vaccinated first the cdc panel signed off and said the next group would

include anybody age 75 and up, along with front line essential workers. his point was that we should be inoculating anybody 65 and up or with comorbidities first those are the ones most at risk of dying if they get covid, and the ones most likely to wind up hospitalized if our concern is making sure that hospitals don't get joe overrun, those are the people we should be going after. >> right, look, i largely agree with that. i wrote about this in the "wall street journal" about two or three weeks ago. i think we should make this age-based and inoculate the elderly first and people with significant comorbidities. we use this tool now that is a tool that's being rationed for the time being as a way to maximize the preservation of life the way to do that is innoculat.

and vaccinating front line workers. governors that are going to vaccinate inside prisoners and homeless shelters. others vaccinate transportation workers, people who drive buses. those are reasonable, when you have categories of front line workers who have been disproportionately affected by the virus, who we need on the job. making one off decisions is reasonable, and then largely following an age-based scheme. hopefully there will be an infectii inflection point, rationing this vaccine, and not having enough for the demand for having enough to satisfy the demand and find people who want to get vaccinated i think for that to come to pass, we need one more entrant in the market. j and j, they're the most likely if they're able to do that, and we have j and j in the market, i think we're suddenly going to have a lot of supply, and this won't be a tool that's rationed anymore. >> scott, are there guidelines

for who should get the infusion of these drugs that you're worried about, the therapeutics that aren't getting out quickly enough, and since the last time we spoke to you, do you think policy makers are sort of trying to get up to speed on how to make this happen >> i don't think it's a question of the guidelines, though there is some reluctant among clinicians, but the downside is low, the safety profile is pretty good. i think the issue is economics and logistics. what we needed to do is overpay for the administration of these drugs because it was going to be expensive. there were a lot of start up costs in setting up sites for the delivery of these drugs. unless you're going to bake into the reimbursement some allowance for the costs, compensation for the costs it's going to be difficult for hospitals that are pressed right now, very oppressed for resources, the fixed cost of setting up infusion sites for the administration of these drugs. i think the federal government has a role here trying to provide for the provisions that

will allow the states to do that some states are doing it maryland is doing that, for instance many states are not. i know there are states that haven't administered any of these drugs yet. >> it's a catch 22, like you get it in the hospital but you don't want to go to the hospital, so you got to do the home infusion thing somehow. >> the other piece of this is that there's a lot of hetero geneity, i worry about the vaccines, there's going to be differences between different states about how they administer the vaccines, who's eligible, where you have to go to get it there's going to be a sense of unfairness people will be in one state able to get the vaccine and a comparable person in another state will not be eligible we need uniformity so we have equity across the country. >> you got a new big screen behind you, scott? you're prime time now. i don't want to do anymore phoners. they put this in for you, that's

awesome. that looks really good. >> cnbc, yeah! wow. >> treating me well. yep. >> you're on every day, sometimes like ten times a day, so that was cheap to put that in that's good to see good to see. and great camera, everything else you deserve that you look good, so you deserve that >> i did the lighting myself. >> did you >> did you chip the camera because your coloring is great, too. >> i'm worried they're going to make me join the union i got the lighting up pretty good >> i'm not going to comment on that everything is loaded these days. anyway, thank you, doctor. we'll see you. >> thanks a lot. >> okay. when we come back, rethinking tuition costs, purdue university president and the former governor of indiana will join us to talk about the future of higher education you're not going to believe what he has done in terms of freezing

tuition at purdue. purdue went from being the second highest tuition room and board ticket in the big 10 to being the most affordable. we're going to talk about how he did that. walmart, the retailer is well positioned to handle a range of economic scenarios in 2021 stocks off by about $0.41 this morning. of course the dow indicated wndo by over 400 points this morning. we'll be right back. welcome to silversneakers, are you ready to get moving?

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welcome back, everybody. covid is forcing colleges to rethink tuition costs. while some universities have increased their prices, others are cutting or freezing tuition. purdue university, for instance, plans to keep its costs the same for ten years straight it's actually not a new thing for them this has been happening since 2013 when mitch daniels came in and became the president of purdue joining us right now to talk about the cost of higher education and what the spring semester will look like is purdue president mitch daniels, and president daniels, it's good to see you. >> you too, becky. >> let's first, before we talk about this tuition aspect of it, just talk about what so many parents and kid are wondering right now. what's the spring semester going to look like you had students there in person going through this what's going to happen come january? >> i wish i knew for sure. we're apprehensive about january

as we were about this past fall, maybe for slightly different reasons. one of our big concerns now is not that we won't be able to manage the virus among our young people or even our staff, but that many of our staff might be unavailable, either through their own illness or quarantine because of someone close to them but our full intention is to be back in class at even a higher rate we had about 2/3 of our classes, entirely or partially in person. we had a reasonable amount of social interaction for our students, but everything had to be conditioned by our determination to be safe, and to try to make certain that our entire community, including our neighbors around us were safe as well >> what was the biggest challenge you faced this fall? >> i think the daily challenge of tracking the data, trying to make certain that we quickly

removed a person who had tested positive we were testing thousands of students a week, and staff try to make sure that we move them quickly away from other people, but also allowed them to maintain their progress academically, and that was a huge undertaking to be able to set up a system where they could move seamlessly from i -person or partially so to fully online and back again. >> mitch, let's talk about this tuition freeze because i think it's really a question that people are facing especially as so many colleges are asking people, asking their students to learn online, and remotely it comes back to this issue of should tuition be rising constantly i know it's something that you have been concerned about for a long time. in 2013, when you came in, you did freeze tuition at purdue you announced that that tuition freeze will last through 2023, so a decade of tuition freezes

over that period of time, you brought costs down or at least brought it more in line with what costs should be you went from being the most or the second most expensive tuition room and board in the big ten to being the most affordable because i guess for the eight years or something before that, it averaged about 6% a year for tuition gains. how come you have been able to do this and stop tuition increases when so few other colleges seem to be able to do that what are you doing differently >> i suppose it's just a matter of which prioritize, and we have said at purr due, a land grant school created really to broaden availability of higher education. still the core of our mission, and we've simply said that not at the expense of other goals. we have grown the faculty, paying people competitively or more than that but that we would make this, we hoped a common cause across our campus, on a campus where people

thank goodness disagree about most subjects you can name we all agree we want purdue to provide a great value in education, a very high quality marked by rigor, and high discipline, but also at a price people can afford. and yes, cost control has been a big part of it i have to say that as the years have gone by we have been growing the student body, and as your business viewers know full well, a strong top line makes everything else easier. >> what have you lost along the way, what have you felt like you've had to give in order to do that? >> nothing of any significance we've continued to invest very heavily both in people and in facili facilities our philosophy isn't that we will restrain student costs at

all costs to the institution, not at all but our viewpoint is if we can maintain high quality. as i said, we've grown the faculty as fast as the student body has grown we can pay people well, make proper investments in the long-term, if we can do all that and break even or better, which we have every year, then why would we raise costs just because we can >> president daniels, thank you, it's great to hear wish other institutions would kind of pick up on that too. we appreciate your time today, and hope to have you back soon. coming up, leaders in washington agreeing to a $900 billion stimulus package over the weekend we'll talk to senator pat toomey for the latest on the hill that's coming up next. that's a nice shot of him om e '70s we'll be right back. don't settle for silver #1 for diabetic dry skin* #1 for psoriasis symptom relief*

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stocks pointing to a big drop the opening bell fears over what appears to be a more infectious, more contagious strain of the coronavirus ever in the u.k. hitting the futures this morning. we have some good news, after

negotiations that stretched on all summer and fall, congress has a deal on a new coronavirus relief package, some $900 billion and elon musk's reason to be happy today, tesla gets added to the s&p 500. that's certainly a reason to dance. oh, boy. it is the final hour that's why i don't dance i mean, right there in a nutshell, the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm becky quick, along with joe kernen, andrew is out today. but those fears of an apparently more infectious strain of covid-19 in the u.k. hitting

futures hard dow futures down by about 130 points, that's off the worst levels of the morning, down 150 points at one point. the s&p indicated down about 60 points and the nasdaq off by about 170. if you have been watching the treasury market you'll see that at least right now the ten-year is yielding 0.09%. we're back above .9% it's the stocks tied to how quickly the investors think the economy will reopen that have gotten hit hard. check it out, things like the airlines american airlines down 4 1/2%, united off 3.6%. some stocks down by more than 8% earlier. the major cruise lines which had been down by about 10% earlier are now indicated down by about 6 1/2 to 7%. carnival off by 6.8% norwegian off. hotel companies have faced quite a bit of pressure too because the u.k. had some additional

lock downs that came because of the new strain of the virus. also other countries saying they were going to prohibit travel between the united kingdom and their countries. marriott down by about 2.9%. hilton and wynn off by more than 4%, as is mgm resorts. joe. >> beck, thanks, cnbc senior markets commentator, mike santoli is here to explain a little bit more about what we're seeing mike i saw the stimulus deal getting done in with the reasons to sell off, as a sell on the news, you know, buy on the rumor, sell on the news, and then you got the poster child for every bit of fluff or froth tesla going into the s&p, that's a good reason, and then you got the virus, of course do we need to explain a less than 2% drop in the dow? i mean, do we got to do, you know, bend ourself into contortions, trying to explain such a small move. >> i'm going to get the stretch to try and explain it, because of the context, i think that

does matter. no doubt about it, the future selloff did trigger near the european open. it seems as if those restrictions in europe are a little bit of an immediate catalyst if you look at the s&p etf, the premarket action what we're doing is coming from a record high, and sort of skimming away the december up side back in early november, we traded at this level november 9th, a lot of fund inflows into the epidemquity mutual funds a k acceleration in the economy that the vaccine was going to be the flip of a switch maybe that's still true, and maybe all this is is a little bit of a gut check after the index rebalancing on friday, the offers and futures expiring. it seemed like a little bit of a minor moment when it was like, we made it, we got theory. doesn't really mean a change to the overall story but where the hottest money was, if you want to look at small caps versus large on a quarter-to-date

basis, the russell 2,000 is indicated to be down 3% today. this is the outperformance just this quarter, since the beginning of october that's a lot to come out of there. the russell 2000 is as over bought as years. all of this stuff was the context for how some headlines can create the excuse to have a little bit of a gut check in this market. also you're going to be probably seeing some rotations out of epidem equities by pension and other funds into fixed income. this is the week that often would happen if you rebalance the asset allocation strategies, joe. >> given that the news on the virus, we're hitting some records, bad records on the virus, and the market up 70% from the lows. it shouldn't be shocking and it's been at new highs. >> here's the thing, for three or four weeks, guys like me have been out here saying sentiments looking stressed everyone is a little too confident and happy.

that doesn't mean the market goes down. what it does mean is something usually comes along. it's a sufficient expense to cause a rethink of okay, are we quite so sure that things are going to be going in one direction for a while? >> and thank god we have the people that have been bearish since a thousand on the dow, they took a victory lap on a 1.5% or 2% drop. that always helps too. the shorter and sharper they are, and probably headed back up, but it always seems more intellectual to feel like you're bearish, you know what i mean. >> that's always been the case the other thing is when they're bearish, you can't take it as c contrarian, they're never going to change. everyone is going to be right for a moment. >> every point from a thousand, they're bearish, they know who they are >> thanks, mike, we appreciate it >> do you want to thank mike, becky? >> no, i think you did a sufficient job thank you. >> she has no gratitude for me whatsoever >> no gratitude from becky

>> i always appreciate you >> that was cheap. >> anyway, one thing that doesn't seem to be helping the markets too much this morning is that $900 billion relief deal that congress agreed to last night. one of the major sticking points over the weekend was republican senator pat toomey's push to prevent the fed from reviving the emergency lending programs that were set up under the c.a.r.e.s act earlier this year. that issue has now been resolved, at least we think. joining us to explain is senator toomey himself and senator, you sure know how to grab attention and headlines over the weekend what happened? is this a situation where you don't trust the chairman jay powell, what happened? >> nothing of the sort, and there were no surprises here a little bit of background first of all, these facilities were always intended to be temporary. in fact, when we were writing the bill and i was one of the two republicans senators writing it back in march, i wanted a september 30th deadline.

these facilities, let's keep in mind, their purpose was to restore normal functioning in the private capital and lending markets, not to replace those markets, not to be an all purpose source for fiscal policy but to stabilize markets because remember back in march, there was a real concern that the capital markets were going to freeze up completely that could be of course catastrophic we put a december 31st deadline, and then a legal interpretation came along that suggested maybe that deadline doesn't apply to these facilities after all because of the way it was drafted and democrats started to increa increasingly call on the extension of these programs, senator schumer sent a letter to secretary moounuchin to do that. the house passed a bill to use the facility to do ten-year, 25 basis points to any municipality, without having to attest they couldn't get credit elsewhere, turning the fed to

the lender of first resort my concern was there would be tremendous political pressure to misuse these, to morph these liquidity facilities that had successfully restored market liquidity, and turn them into an instrument of fiscal policy, which is a terrible idea, and so i began back in the summer a series of measures we had legislation in september that we voted on that would shut these down, strip the money out and preclude the restarting, and some of the final details we haggled over over the weekend, and the democrats thought they could try to make a sort of sensation out of it. it was a flash in the pan, we got to an agreement, and the good news is the programs will be the temporary facilities they were intended to be. >> a couple of questions first of all, would you not support reopening facilities like this? because it seems to me like the language does allow for opening similar programs, just not exactly the same some of these

things is it your contention that the fed should have to come before congress again before being able to open anything similar >> great question. what i think is really unique and important about shutting these down is the unprecedented nature, right, direct corporate lending by the fed, by virtue of direct primary market bond purchases, direct lending to middle market companies where the fed would dictate the terms and decide, you know, who would qualify and under what circumstances. direct lending to municipalities this is an explicit allocation of credit. these are unprecedented, extraordinary powers, and they're only justifiable in a real emergency and so the fed recognized that they came to congress back in march, and said this is what we would like to do will you fund it, and then they set them up, and i voted for that i supported that because i thought we were in such an emergency. we are clearly not in a financial crisis at this point we haven't been for months, and

if we get back to a terrible circumstance next year or ten years from now, and the fed and the treasury come together and say, hey, this is the kind of facility we need, i would support that under the right circumstances. but it shouldn't be sort of a permanent vehicle that's there for a certain, you know, some politicians to decide let's take this over and start doing subsidized loans. >> what about your thoughts just on state and local municipal aid? obviously that was a huge sticking point there's not going to be that state or local aid in the $900 billion bill. but it sounds like congressional leadership has approved. are you opposed -- i recognize some of your concerns in the past on this have been that states would use it to bail out the problems that they have developed over a long period of time, things like with the retirement plans they have promised their state workers are you opposed to any state or municipality, though, getting

money for a revenue shortfall maybe through no fault of their own, the storm that is covid i look at the money caused by covid, the shortfall versus states own problems that they have had for long periods of time before? >> i think we have to put in the context of what we have already done the c.a.r.e.s act back in march, sent something on the order of $500 billion to states and municipalities, and we're sending more in this bill, not as a blank check for states to allocate as they see fit but picking up the tab for all kind of state expenses. we're still paying much more than the historic federal share for medicaid there's been an enormous amount of money has gone out to the states, and look, it turns out there are states in a great place. their revenue has been excellent, in fact, exceeding expectations in some cases running ahead of last year take the case of new jersey, hit very hard by covid, had a very very, you know, costly shut down

of their economy for an extended period, and they pass a budget where they increase government spending by 4% i guess they're not that worried about where this is going to come from. i'd also point out that states have taxing authority too. and it's not obvious to me why this caught to happen at the federal level, yet another round, after we've already done hundreds of billions of dollars for states and municipalities. i think given the disparity, and how different states spend money, and how they tax their citizens, it's probably at this point and given all the money we have already paid for, probably better not to have yet another round of direct payments to states and municipalities. >> trust me, new jersey is finding new ways to tax it citizens. >> if they want to continue spending at that level, that's what they should do. >> let me ask, though, there was a lot of money that has gone out to the states but as you mentioned, some of these states have been particularly hit hard, states that rely on tourism. that's been shut down pretty

immediately. states that rely on getting money from energy sources. that's been impacted greatly because energy prices have dropped as there's nobody traveling, as the global economy has gotten hit there's a lot of arguments that i think would be very reasonable arguments that states and municipalities could come forth and say we were hurt by this covid storm. we help out other states that get affected by a hurricane, that's essentially what this is. >> but becky, i think we shouldn't ignore the hundreds of billions of dollars we've already sent to states again, much of it is targeted to directly cover costs that they would otherwise cover, but money is fungible. if we're picking up their tab on their medicaid expenses, if we're picking up their tab on transportation, if we're paying huge amounts of money for education, all of which we're doing, we're paying for the distribution and purchase of the vaccines, i mean, the list goes on and on, so that is a response

to this crisis >> president-elect biden has said he looks at this as a down payment, as have many other democrats. i take it you don't agree with that >> this is almost a trillion dollars. we used to think a trillion dollars was a lot of money i actually still do. you know, the economy is in a very different place today than it was in in march in march, we did a $3 trillion bill practically, and we felt like we had to substitute for the economy. because the economy was completely closed. today we're in a very different place. we have an economy again it's actually growing. unemployment has come down dramatically we're not where we want to end up but the problems we have now are much more -- much narrower, they're targeted it's the restaurant industry, the hospitality, transportation, a handful of industries that are devastated and i'm hoping the new ppp program, which is more targeted, it's generous, more

flexible, i'm hoping that's going to go a long way that's what we ought to be doing, targeting the resources to people who need it by all means. not broad multitrillion dollar bills like we did in march >> we're out of time i'm guessing that you're not a fan of the $600 stimulus checks being sent to anybody making less than $99,000. >> 93% of americans who want to be working are working and we're sending them all a check, including every federal worker who hasn't lost a dime in income i don't think it makes any sense to send these out to people who have no adverse effect. >> but you're going to vote for the bill today. >> on balance, i think it does more good than bad. >> senator toomey, thank you for your time today. it's good to see you >> thanks for having me. don't miss treasury secretary smoouteven mnuchin, h coming up live at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. coming up here, the nba is back just 2 1/2 months after last

season wrapped up. coming up next, the ceo of the brooklyn nets tells us what to expect from the league's second season in the time of covid. the futures this morning are down, but not quite as bad as we have seen. the worst levels of the pre-market, stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc labradoodles, cronuts, skorts. (it's a skirt... and shorts) the world loves a hybrid. so do businesses. so, today they're going hybrid with ibm. a hybrid cloud approach lets them use watson ai

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the nba season kicks off tomorrow night, just a couple of months after the last one ended but the coronavirus is still hard to control, and really out of control in a lot of parts of the united states. vaccinations just beginning. joining us to talk about the new season that will at least start in stay-at-home mode ceo of bse global, which owns the brooklyn nets in the barclays center, i watch a lot of nba first time in a while last time, and a lot of it has to do with betting. i'm glad it's coming back already. it's never been like this before, to have the lakers just win and here we are getting ready to start another season. is it good or bad? >> thanks for having me on this

morning, and there's no question this is going to be a season unlike any other some teams, like you mentioned, just had a quick turn around from the finals. there's other teams that haven't played since march most of us will be playing in empty or virtually empty billion building it's going to be a different season but we're excited to get started. >> is it going to be tough to make money, jowith all the protocols you're going to have to pay attention to. >> there's no question our business has been impacted as adam silver has said 40% of our revenues are tied to things like ticket sales, concessions, et cetera, the revenues that require the building to be full, it's not going to be full for some time we're definitely impacted but we have a great opportunity in front of us, and we think it's a great opportunity to entertain our fans through television and

other media, and particularly in brooklyn, we're excited for the season coming up. >> how are you planning on implementing the vaccine what will it mean? will players be required to be vaccinated this is obviously a huge positive for society writ large, but how are you going to handle it as far as the owner of the brooklyn nets? >> so we're waiting, like everyone else, to work through those issues the cdc has come out with guidance over the weekend, recommendations on how the vaccine will be distributed and obviously it's going to go to folks with either the elderly or health care workers, those are the underlying conditions, and we think that's as it should be. we're focused on the things that we have all been focused on since march, which is social distancing, wearing your mask, cleaning your hands, and other surfaces so those are the things that we can control along with a lot of testing. and that's what's really going to keep our players and our

employees safe this year you know, i will say, like, while we're in the midst of this crisis now, and i think arguably it's never been worse in this country than it is today we are optimistic that before this season is over, which will be in the summer of next year, before the season is over, things are going to look very different. there's a lot of caution but also a sense of optimism, and i think all americans share that >> whenever i look to see what games are going to be on, on the web sites i like because the first ten, fifteen names are games that are either cancelled or postponed, so it's going to happen undoubtedly until we get this vaccine totally rolled out. how will it work if a net tests positive, how do you see that playing out? >> we have protocols in place working very closely with the government authorities here in

the state of new york, as well as with the nba. and look, we fully expect that there will be bumps along this road i think the main, nobody has an illusion, you're going to stop cases from occurring the key thing is how you handle it, and we have robust protocols in place to isolate those individuals, get them treatment, and prevent a larger outbreak. that's what we're focused on as you said, until the vaccine comes along. >> do you foresee online sports betting becoming more prevalent in more states, and i mean, do you lobby for that would that be -- is that something you look forward to as an owner of the nets the engagement that i have, it's a little bit too much of engagement, if you ask people that are around me, but $5 on a game just makes it a, i don't know why it matters so much, but i'm like on pins and needles for the last couple of minutes of

the game. >> yeah, look, i think the trend has been pretty clear, and you know, the main thing is to ensure that it's done, i think, under the light of government regulation, rather than in the shadows as sports betting has occurred for many decades. sports betting is not anything new. legalizing it and regulating it is a step in the right direction. >> i can't see how it wouldn't be positive down the road for a lot of different reasons anyway, good luck. and good luck overall. good luck dealing with these unprecedented times. good luck to the nets, good for everyone i don't know about the knicks, but anyway, good luck. >> well, thank you. >> you're welcome. >> and thanks to all the essential workers here in new york that have gotten us to where we can play. >> exactly echo that sentiment. all right, thank you

appreciate it. >> bye bye. >> when we come back, it is tesla's big day, the stock getting added to the s&p 500, so what's in store for shareholders, short and long-term. the biggest premarket decliners in the dow this morning, let's take a look at that right now. the dow indicated down by about 450 points boeing is the worst performer, down by over 4.6%. the major airlines have been suffering today as people are concerned about additional lock downs what that will mean for the travel industry. chevron under pressure, down 4 1/4% "squawk box" will be right back.

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coming up, tesla earns its place in the s&p 500 today a little more than ten years after it went public we'll talk about where the stock could go next, and mohamed el-erian will join us tonhe market selloff stay tuned, "squawk box" coming right back

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tesla is being added to the s&p 500 today. it will immediately have the 6th largest market cap in the index, behind only apple, microsoft, amazon, alphabet, and facebook the shares are up just about 700% this year right now let's bring in two opposing voices, to talk about where the stock goes from here gene munster, a long time tesla bull from luke ventures. david trainer, a new constructs ceo, and he says right now tesla

should be trading at $172 a share. i hope that's not where you shorted it, david, or below that we'll get to that in just a second we had a tesla bear on earlier let me start, gene, with the bull case, so this means a lot to certain people, tesla, it represents a transition away from the, you don't need necessarily fundamentals immediately, if that's what the future looks like, but you're also assuming that there's no barrier or there is a barrier to entry to competitors, how do you, you know, put both of those things together, that it's sort of a story, way into the future, plus it's assuming that there's not much competition how do you still think it's a good buy where it is right now after this move? >> well, we look at the next five years and think about where evs are going to go. today that's about 3% of total vehicles sold globally are evs,

and we fast forward five years from now, and think that 30% of cars can be electric and then you have to ask that important question about competition, you hit it right on the head, joe, and ultimately, right now, tesla's global market share is around 35%. it's about 80% in the u.s., but if you assume they get 30% shares, so that there is some deterioration because of competition five years from now, you get to a company that's just in the auto piece alone generated 300 billion in revenue. that's hardware, software and services apple like 6 1/2 times multiple and you get a much bigger stock, a $2,500 stock beyond the stock, to the point of your question is i think i would agree that a lot is priced in but it's important to put into context what's happened since its ipo ten yeary isbelieving te that's like someone pressing down on a spring in the last two years, that's been released.

so i think that when investors look at the big move more recently, it's misleading. that move should have been more of a gradual trajectory over the last ten years, and then, of course, the most important question is ultimately what's going to power this higher, there's evs and one final piece, other businesses that they're getting into, whether it's panels, energy capture, insurance, hvac, row bbo taxis,o put that together. i don't know what the stock is going to do today, two weeks, i have a strong belief this is going to be a much bigger company in the next five years. >> okay, david, you heard a lot. are you going to turn around, buy some today not at all all of the projections we have seen that look out ten years, not just five years, showing 26 or 30 million electric vehicles, and that would imply an enormous amount of improvement for tesla

in terms of manufacturing capacity, nowhere near where they are now, and if you look at the valuation today, it implies that they would be, you know, more than 30 million vehicles, production themselves. more than 100% of the electric vehicle market, just doing the math >> i don't think that number is correct. i have for five years from now, 8 1/2 million vehicles. >> you had your turn, listen nobody believes insurance is going to make a lot of money gm was in the insurance business and they got out of it solar panels has been a disaster i think the solar city acquisition, there's potential regulatory trouble, and legal trouble related to that, and look, the idea that tesla is going to continue to scale up successfully given all the recalls and the trouble they're seeing and their consumer reports rankings, i think that's kind of a false narrative as well i haven't met many folks who attempted a straight faced argument, besides don't fight the tape except with the

valuation of the tesla it marks a peak in the reckless environment of our day joe, you were joking about sports betting, and i think during the pandemic times in the summer we were joking about how we have a lot of people who couldn't bet on sports so they're betting on stocks. tesla has become a game for people as long as they keep buying it, it will keep going up. that's a dangerous storategy, an it's a hope, and hope is not a good investment strategy. >> my response is it's not fighting the tape. you're fighting what is an undeniable truth around electrification, and i think that, you know, you talk about the numbers, your expectations about growth in the next ten years. i think it's going to be more than 26 million or 30 million vehicles that are electric in ten years from now there's 90 million or so sold globally you think about just china alone, 15, 20% of the world's market, they're going to be almost entirely electric in the next five years, the 2025 plan

i look at this, my experience has been that when there is a transformation, it is really hard to predict what happens in the near term. it always takes longer than you expect, but ultimately becomes more impactful to our every day lives, and i think it is not -- this is not a stock market phenomenon, what's going on with tesla. it's a human phenomena in terms of the future of trpansportation whether it's electric or autonomous. >> market share expectations are unrealistic. they're losing market share in europe at a rapid pace where the competition is ahead of where it is in the united states. gm is selling more electric vehicles in china than tesla is right now, and so, you know, it's just the, it's unrealistic to believe they're going to maintain the level of market share they have today. it's already declining and at some point, i think this comes back to reality. i think we're talking maybe a valuation closer to ferrari, as

opposed to toyota or five times toyota. >> i haven't seen the gm numbers, i agree with you, in china, gm sells more electric cars than tesla. what china did with tesla was unprecedented with how they're structuring their factory in shanghai that doesn't mean they're going to have big market share there, and that's not part of our expectations one piece on the market share is that the concept of where traditional auto is, this is something that we study. we just don't take a view that tesla is untouchable that's the last view that we take we want to get this right, and as we just recently studied, just take the software piece alone with other auto companies, and looked at what tesla is doing relative to other auto companies, it's not even close, and, you know, we can go through the details of what the updates from other car companies are, and i think this is a race and effectively that you've got a

few years where traditional auto needs to make major improvement and we're not seeing it. >> we have to end it there gene, david, good points made. david, if they put charging stations in at every waffle house, would that change your long-term outlook on tesla would that make you more, you get it it takes a half hour, you go in, get biscuits and gravy, you get a waffle, you would want to stop >> absolutely. >> so you go up, raise your price? >> absolutely. >> i made that suggestion to elon, and i never heard from him. but. >> i'm in, joe >> you've seen that. >> i'm in! all right. gene's nodding, everybody nods it's just, i mean, it's such an elegant idea, the synergy. gene, thanks, david, thank you, these guys are not going to agree today, there's no way, i think. >> i think we're all going to gain 20 pounds under your

elegant suggestion anyway, when we come back, we're going to talk about where the flood of new money for retail investors, where they put that money to work this year. we're going to tell you that, and look ahead to potential favorite names for 2021. check out the futures feeling the pressure dow futures indicated down by 400 points s&p futures down by 4i664 nasdaq down by 152 stay tune, you're watching "squawk box" and this is cnbc. during that time, we handed out millions of dollars to thousands of contestants. i thought, what if we paid the contestants their winnings in gold instead of cash and prizes. back in 1976, we had a wonderful contestant named lee, whose 3-day winnings were valued at $12,850. and you know what? that was a pretty big haul back in 1976. so i wonder what would have happened, if lee had put $12,850 in cash

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a new wave of retail investors shaking up the stock market this year, and they may be here to stay, even when the pandemic is behind us. kate rooney joins us with more on what they have been spending their money on this year kate, it's good to see you. >> you too, becky. good morning brokerage firms are on track for a record in new accounts this year, thanks to those retail investors. according to jmp securities, the industry has added roughly 10 million new clients this year, and based on app downloads, they estimate that 60% came from robin hood robinhood wouldn't confirm the last official total but did tell me over the weekend, the number using the app has tripled. swab, ameritrade saw double digit account growth through the most recent quarter. webull has 2 million accounts.

they open about 10,000 accounts per day. sofi said its brokerage acts grew making this year what jmp called a perfect storm for new entrants to the stock market. the rise of fractional trading made expensive stocks a bit more accessible according to apex clearing, tesla overtook apple as the most widely held name among retail buyers while that 2020 frenzy of trading may slow down a little bit, analysts tell me it's not going back to pre-pandemic levels the baseline is higher they expect a lot of retail trading buzz around robinhood and coin based ipos indication year becky, back to you. >> on that point, robinhood is reportedly looking to go public this next year there's consolidations taking place in the brokerage space what should we be expecting those firms to focus on next year >> they're focused on infrastructure

they saw a ton of averages you had charles schwab and fidelity, they are making sure they can keep up with customer growth and crazy trading days that they saw in 2021. tech and infrastructure, and in the case of robinhood, they focused on the ipo, settled with the s.e.c. last week, and beefed up the team with former s.e.c. and wall street folks. they seem to be looking to get things in order. definitely look forward to reading that s 1. >> kate, good to see you thank you. by the way, don't miss an exclusive interview with robinhood ceo tonight on mad money at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. >> awesome i love that dude i'm going to watch that with jim. jim's coming up when we come back also, allianz adviser, mohammed el-erian on this morning's market selloff d stay tuned "squawk box" is coming right back echnology

for smarter trading decisions. fidelity.

let's get to cnbc headquarters, talking about jim, looking forward to the robinhood money. that will be cool. i think you'll do it justice the issues that are involved

because it's, you know, it's a great day vlad teneu you will look at everything. >> a lot of people at traditional firms tell me that robinhood doesn't ask and doesn't have the right questions about suitability and also payment for order flow is now behind them and that's something they made a lot of money with. how they make their money with they don't do payment for order flow we have to find these things out. does the $600 check go for some people go right to robinhood that's an interesting question to ask in the meantime, let's not forget they did bring in a huge number of people that did great things for the stock market. so it's not something to sneer at i think it's something you say this phenomenon needs to be reigned in a little and want to be encouraged at the same time >> the many people when apple

got added to the dow and i may have learned a little bit from that and i may be one of them. learned it's not just the top when i add something everybody is saying tesla at the top and if you know it is a top, then short it. is it going to be like apple or going to be, will this be the beginning of, you know, a day of reckoning for tesla, do you think? >> i don't think so. >> you love the car. it's like tripled since you finally threw in the towel >> yes, it has i do think there will be buyers that come in very quickly because there is some good notes out this morning about how china is an inflection point and how austin is going to be coming on and berlin is going to be coming on i think we are at a moment where there will be people who give it up from the s&p but others come in and just say, you know, i got my chance. and i think that, you know, joe, it's a phenomenon and a company

that makes car and jay leno with good comments on it the other day and i just come back and say the thing is a little bit and the people who call tops by looking at individual stocks have been so wrong call tops because of inflation and call tops because fed is no longer accommodative we have not seen these yet >> we know stocks that hit highs hit new highs. if you added tesla to the index any month in the last 12 any time you add it, it will be a new high what are you talking about >> i think you and i share a similar view which is that the stock market has been great and sometimes you have to say, you know what, it's been great and continue to be great provided we have hiccups, we have setbacks and i think the setbacks have been opportunities to buy, obviously. maybe this one is, too >> i was hearing you talk about suitability and robinhood and back in the old days and back in the '80s for stock brokers you

know what suitability meant, if the check would clear. they're suitable you got to do your due diligence and you know what i'm saying >> what a great question to ask. is it back to the '80s thank you i'm writing that down right now. >> these other firms don't get too high and mighty with whose money they're going to take. thanks, jim. >> thank you, guys joining us right now to talk about the market sell-off we've been watching this morning is mohamed el-erian and also the president of queens college in cambridge. but i think you're in california and not cambridge today. >> i am, becky hi, becky, yes, i am can you hear me? >> yes, i can. thanks let me ask you just about where things stand this morning. we've seen pressure on stocks even more than we're watching right now earlier this morning

on the concern on a more contagious virus, a variant of it, an off shoot of it we know it has led to some concerns in the uk in particular and lockdowns there but at the same time we're seeing the vaccine rolled out around the country. two different vaccines that are going to be rolled out and how do you come down on this what is your concern level for the short term versus what you're thinking longer term, too? >> as of now, becky, we have no reason to worry about the light shining bright at the end of the tunnel no reason to worry about the vaccines and immunity that comes with that. in the short term, however, regardless of what the medical view is, governments have moved very quickly to tighten restrictions and that a massive political cost for the uk government, canceling christmas it is called now in the uk is a massive critical cost and for governments around europe and latin america and else where to ban travel to and

from the uk is a big political cost to stop trucks going through the euro tunnel with goods is a big political cost so, it's interesting that governments have moved and what that means is that economists are going to scramble to lower their growth projections in the short term and to push out the path of recovery so, in the short term, it means an even bumpier journey to the vaccines >> it also looks like we have a stimulus bill that is likely to be passed today by congress. you would think that might ease the situation a little bit the concern about what happens in the short term. is it enough what are your thoughts on this >> i don't know anybody who wouldn't call it late and limited. it is late, we needed that way before it is limited. it has left out some pretty big things and the big question is

whether you think that the multiple-step approach that we've ended up in will encourage the biden administration and enable it to do more or it will do less. a lot will depend on georgia, of course we have to wait for that but the main question and i want to stress this, the main question for markets right now is the reaction of central banks because central banks will be even more accommodating and inject even more liquidity because we've had another setback to the economic outlook. that is the main question for markets right now. >> jim cramer just pointed out he wouldn't be too worried about gains continuing unless you hear something like the central bank is being less accommodative. that's not going to happen do you have any concerns about there being limited on what the central bank can do in terms of emergency? we had senator toomey on earlier

this morning and he said if we were back in a crisis situation he might vote for additional authority but he does not want to see authority continue back on what they signed off on in march. >> you heard me say you don't want to get in the way of central bank liquidity because the market has placed it to such an extent. the only things in my mind that derail this is either the central banks making a massive policy mistake or we get some sort of market accident or we get a series of bankruptcies and i think the probability of the first one is very low. the second one is lowish so, it really is the third one that we have to keep an eye on i don't see central banks in any way changing the willingness to just keep on injecting liquidity in this market it is whether investors continue to buy into a massive disconnect between main street and wall street >> mohamed, we're at the end of the year and a lot of questions

what will come next. you mentioned the georgia senate race that is going to have a lot riding on it not just whether or not additional funding that comes out down the road or tax increases and whether there will be other plans that will get put through. how do you weigh this as an investor in terms of how to measure what happens in that race >> so, it's important because we are borrowing lots from the future we are borrowing growth from the future and borrowing financial vibt fr viability from the future and we have put on a huge bet that we were able to transition policy wise to a better world that is where the question comes in about georgia you know, i always was happy to buy into the view that it divided government is better but now we really do need bold policy actions so, we have to ask the question, a, whether we have a government

in place that can deliver on this bold policy actions and, b, will it be able to that is where georgia comes in in a big way keep an eye on that. in the short term i just keep on stressing, it's about central banks and they'll continue to build the bridge for as long as they can >> mohamed, thank you. always good to see you and we appreciate your time this morning. >> becky, i have to show you something because had it been joe, i had my tie. >> great, so you don't get trevor, the jets lose no matter what they do >> they should have thrown the game they should have thrown that game they should not have won that game >> we don't advise throwing games. >> joe, it's always lose, lose for the jets >> again, it is. speaking of, the bengals play tonight. we have to go. sorry. see you, mohamed >> thank you congrats on the win.

if you're watching the markets down by about 400 points we'll see you back here tomorrow right now time for "squawk on the street." good monday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." premarket is under some pressure as dow futures down more than 1% we kick off a busy but holiday shortened week the moderna vaccine and congressional stimulus all part of the puzzle this morning and we'll talk to the treasury secretary in just a few moments from now about those very topics jim, although we'r