president trump calling the $900 billion covid relief bill unsuitable and a disgrace. lawmakers sending a package is what he wants for bigger direct pavements. pfizer reportedly nearing a dealing with the u.s. government for more covid vaccine doses.>>a dealing with the u.s. government for more covid vaccine doses and elon musk says he once approached apple about buying tesla. this was during the model 3 launch which was difficult but tim cook won't even take a

meeting. details straight ahead it is wednesday, december 23 new year's eve eve no, christmas eve eve. sghus m excuse me. "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ i'm becky quick along with joe kernen andrew is out today. joe, i think this is the last day that you and i are both going to be here before christmas. and itching that is why we both kind of put on our christmas finest this morning. great minds thinking alike here. >> exactly tomorrow we won't have an opportunity to fly -- or show our colors so here we are today >> exactly >> looks nice. festive. and speaking of festive, happy festiv festivus >> is that today

>> no, but we won't be able to say festivus for the rest of us. i'll air a few grievances, that would be nothing new >> yeah, that would be unusual let's take a look at the u.s. equity futures you will see they are dressed up in green instead of red today. you will look at the dow futures -- oh, they had been up by about 100 and now 88. s&p 500 by 11 and the nasdaq by 20 this is after a down day yesterday for the markets when the dow was down about 200 points at this point, still a lot of questions about what is going to happen with that relief bill but the markets are hanging in there at this point. let's also take a look at treasury yields and see where they stand we have seen higher treasury yields the last couple years right now the ten year setting at 0.925%. but the story in washington is the bid deal >> it is and as the day wore on, i guess no one -- what was that other bill where nancy pelosi said that you can -- you know what is

in it after we pass it there was a lot of stuff in there. there is a certain contingent that is identifying a lot of pork and $900 billion, we think of it as tiny, but that is a lot of millions and so there is a lot of like $50 million here, $800 million here, $100 million here. going to some crazy places like ted cruise az and others l at it and said this is nutso >> kroocruz had stuff in it too like skol vouchool vouchers >> yeah, they are and i will lisk that. people texted yesterday when i told those two congressmen that got the vaccine because they were essential, i go you guys haven't been that essential for the last three or four months, have you and i guess their expression was

not so great but people liked it on twitter you can always complain about the government or the members i think and get some -- no one will disagree and say, hey, these people are gratd, they all earn their salary. anyway, in a twitter video last night, president trump called the $900 billion covid krelief bill an unsuitable dissgrgrace. >> the bill they are now planning to send back to my desk is much different than anticipated. it really is a disgrace. i'm asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple i'm also asking congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation.

and to send me a suitable bill or he was the next administration will have to deliver a covid relief package and maybe that administration will be me >> oh, boy house majority leader steny hoyer said democrats will see if they can pass a measure for $2,000 of direct payments. but it only takes one no vote to block it >> so many things i thought when this was going through first of all, yeah, probably a good idea to try to get $2,000 if you are thinking that you will run again in four years the idea of what this does to the senate races also kind of makes me think that we haven't spent enough time probably talking about that georgia senate race. i don't know what it does in temps the pressure it puts on republicans or the democrats

and what elon was telling us about stupid idea where it would take a while to get the bill to his desk because they had to find the parchment and had it done on this rolling -- >> elon ohylan mui, not musk >> yeah, our ylan. but saying that it takes a long time to get a bill of that printed out as parchment and they had a deal that trump's own secretary of the treasury steven mnuchin had signed off on, they had a deal a couple days ago for that, but because it is taking it so long to get too his desk, this is where they arrive with those things somebody call docusign >> i said that to someone yesterday. i mean, i'm almost spoiled i've done it like five times and i'm like why don't you docusign? which is amazing

you know, there are certain things about government and opee don't want to just throw everything from the past out there are amendments and things like that. and then there are other things where it is like what century are we in? 21st century some of us are still in the 20th century. >> because we're 20th cents dhurry relics, right >> kind of i miss those -- no well. >> while you were printing for this to be printed, he changed his mind well done. >> exactly before the ink was dry >> right and an update on the pandemic. the united states reported 3350 covid deaths yesterday that number surpasses the previous record that was set last wednesday in the past week, nearly 19,000 people have died in the united

states from the coronavirus. all of this is happening as cities across the united states of course deal with the spikes in cases and thenew york stock exchange now says that some trading floor personnel will return to work remotely the nyc floor closed back in march but reopened back in may with about 25% of the staff. starting monday, nyse 2ke6g natured market makers will temporarily return to remote operations >> and sources are telling meg tirrell that the u.s. geechlgov close to another deal with pfizer a deal could be announced as soon as today. the ceo of pfizer first told us last week that the company was negotiating with the government to provide more doses. he said that they were working on timing for the additional supply to be dlifshelivered so it sounds like we're headed to a good ending

i think it would be like 70 billion doses in the second quarter. and this would be really great news i'm surprised it has taken this long, but it is great news all i thought is about timing. >> we have to get jj and j, the make it fast and i'm sure -- different methods of delivery, but -- >> i would take any of the three vaccines assigning that the j and j one is approved and comes through, but i'd take any of the three if approved >> yeah, i hope we did hear that maybe -- if it is what they are doing, i would take it in other words, if they are saying okay, it is your turn, then i would take it and i would certainly -- >> yont yo want i don't want toe

line i want to see people older and essential workers. >> if they are crazy enough to think that the media, that we're essential, who am i to say sxwl i >> i'm hoping that there is a glut of this vaccine sooner rather than later. trying to convince people that it is a good idea to step up and take it. >> right the vague 75, still don't like that -- >> that was the most unlikely source for that. that was pretty good >> i know. >> caught me off guard >> she admitted the truth that, you know, being in my early 40s, there was a big slam for her to say that

maybe late 40s anyway, stock futures right now are solid. i know we have all these other things to talk about, about what is the market going to do next year when it is moved so much in the face of all these head winds? already up 70% from the lows we'll talk strategy next and later, dr. gawande is advising joe biden's transition team another pandemic. in a land not so far away,

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futures are pointing to gains this morning up about 83 or so on the dow the s&p indicated up almost 10 points and the nasdaq up about 16, just under 16. president trump meanwhile has called the new $900 billion covid relief bill an unsuitable in his words disgrace. for more on the markets, the sect sectors, we're joined by ceo and chief investment officer of grace capital. and also phil orlando chief economic market strategist and head of client portfolio management at fed rated. kate, we can talk about what is

staring us in the face, the covid relief bill and more stimulus and the pandemic, or we can do kind of a year end look and kind of a look in to 2021. however you would like to begin. where do we stand right now, how are you feeling about the stock market's levels? >> the stock market is very high that is an unarguable statement. in the previous segment, you talked about how all asset classes are high and the stock market fits right in so the big question is what happens now in 2021. i would be really looking towards a sector rotation, i think search areas like restaurants look very interesting. people travel, leisure, people are tired of being at home they want to go out. they want to travel, do things so that is where i'm looking

>> we've been discussing that, about how once it is safe, once we get the all-clear, i mean it could be -- it could be the roaring 20s like people are saying because there is so much pent up -- just to go to a restaurant would be fun, wouldn't it? with people around and everything else. so now we're back to stimulus, but the stimulus we're seeing now, i think the spigot might be turned up. so even with these levels, does it mean there is more to go? >> god only knows, right we never can tell what washington is going to do. i think having said that, i think that both administrations will be rational congress will be rational. so they will look at what the market and the economy needs and they certainly showed a

willingness to help the economy where necessary. help people, help jobs so i'm reasonably optimistic >> and i noticed something in the pre-interview, you said if the senate remains in republican hands, i don't tis patients a l anticipate a lot of changes. so is that an expectation that you have and you didn't even broach the possibility that it doesn't and what that would mean in terms of whether you would think that that is more negative or what you -- you know, you can be agnostic, i don't care about politic, but what do you think would be better for the markets and for wall street? >> the market believe dit or no actually does better under democrats. when knew. and so i think that that is definitely a positive. having said this, divided

government is better for everyone so i actually didn't spend a lot of time thinking about politics. i really just focus on fundamentals i think if you are a long term investor thinking about the long term, in the short term those things are noise i think that things will work out. >>. >> i've seen that data forks democratic presidents, i go of i think by the time clinton got in, he had ragan who revolution nazed -- but you talk about democratic presidents, even clinton had a republican he had newt gingrich so tough to say sometimes. so phil, would you care if the democrats took both seats in georgia? >> we would. and i agree with the point that democratic presidents don't care as much. the work we've done suggested

that actually congress is the more important dynamic that if you have divided government, legislative check and balance that tends to work better for the stock market. so the two open senate seats in georgia are critically important. we checked the polls just yesterday. and according to trafalgar which tends to be one of the better left biased polls, kelly loeffler looks like he she is up by about six points and david perdue by about two points so if republicans can hold those seats, we've orchestrated a nice legislative check and balance and i think that that is what the stock market and the american people want keeping the next set of legislative initiatives sort of right smack in the middle of the fairway as opposed to getting to far to the left and the right >> and we know what happened in

the house too. i don't know where that finally shakes out, but it certainly wasn't everything that speaker pelosi had in her christmas stocking list. >> democrats in the house hatd 35 seat lead and right now it looks to be 9 seats. in new york, they are still counting so that -- pelosi's lead in the house shrunk pretty sharply. >> so it is not just one market. so there is a lot of -- kate already mentioned rotation you had three areas that you think have not participated, phil, that could do better next year >> i think kate is spot on i think that the point that she made we would agree with that we made a rotation change back before labor day, domestic large cap growth and technology

had just gone to the stratosphere we took those sectors down to neutral and elevated domestic large cap value, international and small cap. we felt that with the recession having ended in our opinion in may or june, we felt that there was an economic catalyst to get those categories going and that the market would start to narrow the valuation or performance gap that we had seen over the early part of year. and inside labor day to the present, those sectors have started to play catchup and we think thatthat trend continues into calendar '21. so we'd stay on those horses >> and kate, any -- what about faang, what about tesla, what about all the areas that apple -- we'll talk about and i will those at some point today but deemphasize those or stay on board? >> i would not deemphasize those. i think those are the new nifty

50s. i would not deemphasize them i think things take longer than people expect. we didn't really knon't really l happen with the vaccine. so the importance of the cloud -- those things are not going away apple -- tesla is a different category apple, some of the other names you mentioned, these are real companies with revenue growth and free cash flee these companies are generating free cash flow i think of them as the new consumer staples you wake up, you grab your iphone to get on the google to do what you need to do so i would not deemphasize them. and even if we have a market correction, they are underpinned by real fundamentals >> okay. thank you both happy holidays 2020, i guess we'll remember

this holiday season like no other like so many of the year but the bowl games have started. there are times that i just crawl in a cocoon and pretend that everything is normal. i buy into the fake fans cheering and it is like -- it is like everything is normal. but i know it is not >> and even the bengals won, so they gave you that early christmas present. >> i had the bengals with 14 of this points, but i had the under. and naturally they found a way to score more points than they ever scored in their entire history, so i still lost but it was $5, not to worry. >> that's great. you know, i've always been a fan of hockey. >> hockey is coming back too ladies hockey too. so that will be great. >> that was a joke i know you guys are talking about back joke >> i did great last night with

the lakers too believe it or not, if they won by -- if they didn't lose by more than 75 points, i won that is draft kings saying here is a little money back from all the money that you've lost, just maximum $25. but i was able to do that. that is the only time i win. kate and phil, thank you both. do you believe that? every once in a while they do that, maximum $25, they give you a one where you can't lose gist to say thank you and here is 1% of what you lost have fun >> and if you were at an in-person casino, they would be offering you a komkompg room or beverage >> yeah, those degree drifree d. >> this is the give back to make sure you stay hooked >> and i fall for it totally boils have started for the first year ever, i'm like there are 40 or 45 bowls and every one is compelling to

me the myrtle beach bowl ways on the other day. famous idaho potato bowl.s on th other day. famous idaho potato bowl >> remember when we wanted to name one of them the squawk bowl but it cost like $5,000 or something? >> yeah, good idea not too late any way, when we can back, will he companies require workers to get the covid vaccine? we'll show you what the chipotle ceo told cnbc about that issue right now as we head to a break, take a look at the biggest winners in the dow so far for the week apple leading the way up by about 4.4% followed closely by nike ♪

♪ ♪

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we've spoken a lot in recent weeks about how companies will be handling covid vaccines chipot chipotle ceo says they will not requi their workers to get the vaccines >> we'll strongly encourage it and cover any of the costs associated with getting access to it as well as the ability to get a vaccine. but we won't mandate take temperature it, but strongly encourage it. >> chipotle is up about 70% year to date due in part to a shift of online pickup and delivery orders and coming up, one of t

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♪ also 2021 maybe we can go back to the tree everybody packed in to that

little area. very festive so maybe one of the bright sides -- good morningle and welcome back -- is that if it had been three months, weand welcome back -- is that if it had been three months, weand welcome back -- is that if it had been three months, weand wee back -- is that if it had been three months, we and welcome back -- is that if it had been three months, we wouldn't appreciate he every single thing that happens in the year now every single year we've been sort of -- we've missed out on for an entire year >> yeah, that's what i was saying everybody has missed a birthday, everybody missed an anniversary, everybody missed a graduation or at least a step up from whatever grades you were in it is like the great equalizer every one of the kids got hosed on something >> yeah. but still great. still beautiful shot and like i said, next year it may be packed and maybe we can gee in a go in and looking at the tree together anyway, on christmas eve eve, i hasn't been a santa claus rally. is that the week before, the

month? people argue about what it really means but we were already up -- clinging to 30,000 on the dow, so above that, we made a lot of gains in november. so maybe like everything else it was pay it forward a little on the santa claus rally. haven't had the bona fide santa claus rally i don't think. >> yeah, this is a different year in just about every way we've been following what is happens with the virus as well the sooed ncdc the new strain c circulating undetected here in the united states. and joining us here to talk more about what it means for virus testing and the vaccine is dr. gawanda, he is a staff writer for the new yorker and a member of joe biden's covid advisory board. doctor, good to see you.

thanks for being with us today >> delighted to be >> we've been concerned this week hearing about the new strain that has been circulating pretty rapidly in the uk the cdc says it is probably here undetected i mean, probably hard to argue against that, right? >> that's right. i am concerned and it likely is here we have not gotten the genotyping, the testing deployed widely enough to know whether it is here, but i think that that is happening now from what the cdc indicates in the next couple of weeks >> what does that mean just in terms of how we handle this, what the numbers are going to look like from here? president-elect biden saying yesterday that the darkest days are ahead of us still. >> yeah, here is what to understand about this potential they call it a variant of concern. this viral mutation seems to

drive a faster spread. it takes less virus to cause an infection. at a time where we already are at skyrocketing infection with millions infected, the measures we normally that will be slightly less effective in stopping it at a time when our hospitals are already in more than a third of the country full to overflowing so the main concern is that it will accelerate the surge on surge that we've been having and extend the period of hospitalization and death rates. and what do we do? it is still the same practices but just requires a higher level of vigilance if it does prove to be -- and there is more evidence that it transmits more efficiently. it does not appear to cause as of this moment, and there is still, you know, mormon toring

to do, but it seem to cause increase death or increased illness. sos main concern is that it is just more evenly spread. >> i heard a statistic about how shopping mail traffic is down significantly from where we were, maybe 40%. but then you see things like pictures of local malls where there are big crowds in food courts or other places or newark airport, brian sullivan was traveling last weekend and tweeted out pictures where people were kraccrammed op of each other for it seems like miles going through securities are we doing this right or not >> there are certain signs that people are doing a lot better than a month ago we see mask use up, we see people restricting how much they are indoor, cutting down on eat

thinking with people outside their household. and that just has to happen. and that is increasingly happening. so we're seeing that levels are coming down in many parts of the country. but there are other parts of the country where clearly we're behind the 8 ball. behavior is starting to change, but it is extremely hard around the holidays and i think that we're in for the surges for another few weeks. we're at 300,000 deaths already. the next 100,000 deaths are baked in with new infections in the last week or so. so it is really about can we avoid the 500,000 deaths which is just horrifying to everyone think about. >> you are involved with the moderna trial and have the got abouten either -- you don't know if it is the actual vaccination or the placebo >> that's right.

i'm not involved in running the trial, i'm a patient in the trial. my mother at 84 said i want to give back and so she signed up for the trial. i said if my mom can do that, then i'll sign up for the vaccine trial. it happened to be mothd available in our area. and so i took -- i entered the trial. i received a shot, but i don't know if it was the placebo or the vaccine. and happy to wait and find out >> how long ago did you get the shot and how did you feel afterwards >> well, so first shot was in august felt almost nothing. the second shot which is the booster comes 28 days after the first. so i got that in late september. and that one really knocked me down i mean two days later, i had fever, chills, and then, you know, needed to stay home. i don't think that it has been -- i haven't needed to take a day out from my surgery

practice or public health work for more than a year i barely ever let anything knock me down. but that one knocked me down and then about 24 hours later, i was back on my feet and doing okay so for a lot of people, a high percentage, especially younger people under 65, you do seem to have with these vaccines a significant reaction that is the immune system kicking in and your afternoonity bodies being generated to the virus. and now, i think that tells me i might have received it honestly, it may well be their had a practice slacebo and i ha reaction >> how did your mom do with it >> so we of course have compared notes. and she had barely any reaction. now, in the elderly, you see

less than half having a major or significant reaction so we don't know what to make of it there was a significant percentage in the placebo group who had these reactions. and so it is interesting psychologically to see how it plays out. but you know, we're both sitting here thinking, umm, my mom may not have gotten it and i did ironically >> at least you admit it but that is kind of -- that would be humorous, you got to admit. >> totally >> your elderly mother got it and felt nothing and you got the placebo and it was like oh you got to report back >> yeah, you can bet my mom is the one who wants to find out. >> if you find that out, you have to -- no, actually, you can't. you can't come back and tell us that because we'd be laughing at you. >> the good news those in terms

of the new virus strain in the uk, best guesses are that these vaccines will still be effective against the new strains too, right? >> yeah. preliminary indications are that it drives still an immune reaction moderna and pfizer are now conducting tests to confirm immunogenicity that generates the effectiveness of the vaccine. and we have reason to believe this will be the case. but again, this is just the early days of doing testing. we have, you know -- 2020, things keep coming out of the woodwork thshow the fight is harder than we keep thinking but i'm hopeful on that score, i'm concerned, i have clear concerns that it is highly transmissible much more easily

spread >> doctor, thank you for your time today we always appreciate seeing you. heal holidays and we' happy holidays and we'll see you soon >> thank you coming up, we'll talk about some of the reports that apple might enter the car business in 2024 and then later we'll talk to tom friedman for the latest headlines on estimate husbastims and more and remember, you can listen to us live anytime on the cnbc app. s that helped us make it through 2020... thank you for going the extra mile... and for the extra pump of caramel. thank you for the good food... and the good karma. thank you for all the deliveries... especially this one. you've reminded us that no matter what, we can always find a way to bounce forward. so thank you, to our customers and to businesses everywhere, from all of us at comcast business.

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still to come, are you wondering when i will be back in a crowded canco concert venue the stimulus big will only help about 8% of the industry we'll talk broke whabout what id to get the industry back on its feet

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and help provide critical assistance to veterans in need. go to dav.org/helpvets or call now. your donation will make a real difference. welcome back, everybody. the hard-hit live entertainment business thrown a life line. $15 billion has been earmarked for the industry as part of the stimulus those who work in the industry

hope it's enough although it's probably not joining us is michael strictland bandit company let's talk a little bit about the industry and what happened it's an $877 billion industry. 10 million people work in the industry and it went to zero in the middle of march when things shut down. you've been before congress. you were asking for some of this money. what do you think about what happened with the stimulus bill? >> becky, thank you and "squawk box" for having us today i appeared a week ago today, tuesday, before a senate subcommittee to sort of plead our case congress has gotten our message. we have been talking to a number of senators and representatives for going on five months and most of them understand our plight we got the message across. what has occurred, however, is

there's a lot of confusion with the public and, indeed, in congress there's a wonderful act called save our stages and congress had the wisdom to pass that and, indeed, it's in the new relief bill that only provides for independent venues and managers and agents that's about 8 to 9% of our industry the rest of the industry can't partake in that act and there's only really one solution before us that will provide funding for the entire rest of the life of an industry to survive and that's the restart act stood up by senator young and senator bennett. that allows not only entertainers but any small business that has been put in the position of failure to obtain a 7-year loan at low interest rates that will enable you to survive the big problem for live entertainment and live event companies, our balance sheets are battered our profit and loss statements

are negative and we have no income stream. we have not worked since march 13th and we will not work until june or july of this next year so unlike our friends in the restaurant business who, indeed, have been troubled, some are bad, some are good, but restaurants are kind of all over the board, but the restaurants have become the media darlings you can't turn on a news show that doesn't plead the case of the restaurant industry. but for whatever reason there's no mention of the live entertainment/live event industry we thank you for having us to get the message out. the people that work with you to put on the concerts, rodeos, television shows, the rodeos, the parties in your backyard, we're sitting at zero and we will be until june or july of next year and we desperately need the restart act to be passed in the next session >> let me ask you, michael the bill -- the money that was

in this bill that may or may not get signed into law by president trump at this point, but that money is just for the entertainment. you're talking about the other industry like lighting companies, like tent companies, like all of the many other companies that cater to the live events industry, correct >> correct the save our stages goes specifically to independent venues and managers and booking agents and that's really the narrow course. there's a couple of other things, musicians can dip into it and theaters. >> but you're not looking for handouts on this, you would like a low-interest loan, correct not grants to be given out >> correct the restart program would provide us with 7-year low interest loan probably going to end up at about 1% the key to it is there is no payment in year one which is necessary for the survival of this industry.

some of the companies in this industry, but virtually all of the companies within this industry it's important to point out one clarification. we're not talking about the monolithic firms that most people know such as live nation and aeg. those firms have sought their own independent private financing solutions so you're not bailing out big corporate america. this entire industry is built on a lot of sort of mom and pop companies, most of which have less than 500 employees. indeed, most of them have less than 100 employees. >> sure. michael, we appreciate your time it's good to see you again we wish you the best of luck again, we'll have you back for another update thank you for your time. >> becky, thank you very much and remember to tell your congressmen and senators to pass the restart act. thank you. >> thank you coming up, what's next for apple? we're going to talk about the

prospects for an icar, an apple car, and the news now out that ceo tim cook turned down a meeting about potentially buying tesla just two years ago plus, the president's call last night for higher direct payments found an ally in speaker pelosi, but can they get republicans on board all that's coming your way right around the corner. don't go anywhere. [♪] life is busy,

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president trump calling the covid relief bill an unsuitable disgrace we'll reveal this in a couple of minutes. apple's historic run continues. now reports the tech giant wants a piece of the electric car market but should you be a buyer at these levels? we'll hear from a top ranked analyst. home prices soaring as folks leave the big city for the suburbs. the ceo of century 21 with the recent trends and what they're expecting in 2021. the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now

♪ ♪ ♪ is that carpenter? i think so welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm joe kernen along with becky -- maybe just karen. u.s. equity futures at this hour, up a little bit. lost a couple hundred points yesterday. up 63 today on the dow the s&p up about 6.5 and the nasdaq up just under 2 we have a developing story on the stimulus front and a twitter video last night president trump called the $900 billion covid relief bill passed by congress an unsuitable disgrace he urged lawmakers to make changes to the measure including much bigger direct payments. also cutting out some, what he

called, wasteful spending. >> they are now planning to send back to my desk is much different than anticipated it really is a disgrace. i am asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple i am also asking congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation, and to send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a covid relief package, and maybe that administration will be me. >> house majority leader steny hoyer said democrats will see if they can pass a measure for direct payments of $2,000 by unanimous consent. president-elect biden said this

was a downpayment. he said more funding would be needed you saw, becky, they list -- i saw some -- i don't know the total background on some of the money going to some foreign countries and some of the stuff that they find that seems really outlandish and outrageous, but if you add all of it up, you might be able to get to 2,000. it would be better just on face value. i mean, knee jerk you can say i'd rather having it going to people here and get it above 600 than some of the crazy stuff but -- >> but to say this now, you know, he had the chance. he chose not to get directly involved in the negotiations while they were taking place he let steven mnuchin do the talking for him. steven mnuchin said he was happy for the bills. you are talking something that's been months and months and months of waiting. you can blame both sides at different points for when they slowed down. we thought at the beginning of this week, okay, there's a deal that's finally done. i don't know if he's kicking this back to the starting line

you heard the democrats. nancy pelosi immediately tweeted out, great, we're with him on $2,000 only one congressional person would have to say no for that to get squashed you're up against these hard deadlines and, you know, you've got to be kidding. like everybody's got a problem with this. i've heard aoc complain about the bill because she didn't get to read it ted cruz everybody has complained about the bill. >> people say some of the stuff that's in there, the crazy pork. >> some of it -- >> instead of going up from 900 billion to get to 2,000. there's hundreds of millions of dollars in there that aren't going for covid relief. >> you know how the sausage gets made on this every time somebody says no i'm not going to vote for this, they promise them some stupid thing, okay, your project can get in here you're right is it the right way to govern? probably not without it, is something going

to get passed? probably not i'm not arguing in favor of it but this is very late in the day. i think president trump would have signed this bill on monday but because of the stupid rule where they want to put it on parchment to get it, it takes days he has time to think it through. it's not the best bill >> 600 bucks -- i mean, 600 bucks is better than nothing but what's -- >> 600 bucks is better than nothing, but you will also have a lot of people, many republicans we have talked to have said this should be targeted it shouldn't be going to people who are still working. if you want to give more money to people or to different industries that have been hard hit or to employees in those industries that have been hard hit, people who have lost their jobs, lost all of their income, that you should be giving more money to them and not people who are continuing to work and get through this look, you can have all kinds of arguments. it made a lot of sense to give direct payments to everybody, at least everybody under a certain income level earlier this year

when things shut down so quickly and you wanted to make sure the economy was stimulated you've got to start wondering, it's a lot of money. it's still almost another trillion dollars which is how much of gdp? what percent of gdp are we continuing to push in? yeah, there's not -- this is a time if you're going to be spending a lot of money, this is a time you'll hear both people from the sides of the aisle arguing that if we're going to do this, let's make it targeted so it makes the most impact. >> it should be targeted but not targeted to pork >> you're right. you're right no one ever expects the government to say, this stuff, we've got to not mess around with the pork but they never do. they still throw it in there. >> you wouldn't see that >> could they make some beyond meat sausage that didn't go into the -- they have all the disgusting snouts and intestines that the normal sausage has in

it. >> everybody's right to complain about this except we've had people who have come on and complained about the pork who are sticking pork back in it you're right, it's a disgusting sort of process. this is an essential item for them. >> how about no pork from anybody? >> okay. >> do you think they'd do it now? but they don't because we know how they work. look, if we could embarrass them on a regular basis, maybe they could do that. >> we used to do that. >> remember the flying pigs? >> yeah. yeah we had a flying pig. he would go past that cutout of austin powers and it was on the end of like a -- >> yeah, steck would carry him on a -- >> that's right. we don't do a lot of that stuff. >> yeah. been around a while. anyway, we'll see what happens, but the market at this point doesn't seem like they think

there's a big threat to this not getting passed they think it's going to get signed, investors do dow up by 52 points. if this didn't get passed i would think you would see a little bit more of a reaction from the markets we'll see. but, again, every time we think we're just about over the finish line, something else comes up. we'll continue to monitor this for you, but there is some corporate headlines we need to let you know about right now this is breaking news. important. the white house and pfizer have struck that deal that would see pfizer provide 100 million additional doses of the covid vaccine. that was announced moments ago we're hearing about this from meg tirrell. this was likely to get announced as early as today. it's a done deal pfizer had a deal to deliver 100 million doses by early march this is 100 million doses that will be coming in the second quarter. i haven't seen all of the details because the news is just crossing, but that does look like it's a done deal. check out shares of pfizer up 20 cents to $36.94.

joe, this is leading us down that path where we are getting lots and lots of vaccines. you'll have moderna rolling out a ton of vaccines. you could see astrazeneca or j.&j get one of theirs approved and you'll be talking about a lot of them coming on the market and that will be fantastic news. very good to hear not just for the markets but for the american people and for hope we can get through this faster that there is another deal struck between the white house and pfizer for an additional 100 million doses of the vaccine. >> time is weird i can make both cases. time has been crawling and it's also time goes really quickly. i've been back here eight months, becky, at the nasdaq i can remember thinking, wow, do i want to do that? been eight months back i've been off a couple of times when i left and had to quarantine it was april 20th. that went quickly. >> wow. >> three months will go by and

we'll be getting this thing. i mean, i can't -- it can't come fast enough. hopefully j&j has a lot like cramer has been saying it will be great to have a lot of vaccine so everyone that, you know, wants it can get it. it will happen you'll hear that down at walgreens. oh, yeah, they've got vaccines that day will come we've got to get -- like in march. we need to get through march of 2020 and then we get to april. then once we got to april it became december. it's crazy. >> right right. it still feels like march in some ways too. >> you're right. this is really promising really fantastic news. in the meantime, another corporate headline for you the justice department is suing walmart accusing to help fuel the nation's opioid crisis they're said to have inadequately screened questionable prescriptions walmart says the doj's accusations have no lawful basis.

that stock down by 39 cents this morning. elon musk says he tried to get a meeting with apple ceo tim cook back in 2018 to pitch him on the idea of buying tesla. musk says that cook would not even agree to a meeting. tesla has increased in value about ten fold since then. you have to go back, joe, this was just a couple of years ago, back in 2018 it was worth 1/10 of the market value it is now. that's when there were still questions running around about the solvency of the company whether they would be able to get through some of the big debt payments that they had coming up, and it must have been a questionable time if elon musk was willing to sell the company because you know how much he cares about it and how invested he is. >> the model 3 was a tough intro for him. tough introduction there were times where, i guess, they were operating on a shoestring even though we've made the point that they do have access to cheap capital more than most companies. we'll talk to these guys

they made a point, it was either tony or one of the other guys, i'm going to talk to apple, if elon musk on a shoestring really can introduce that car without all of the legacy engineers and all of the stuff and all of the -- think of gm and that bloated management and ford and i don't know if you saw "ford versus ferrari" and how they finally operated, their own worst enemy. if he can do it on that, think of apple joining us now, tim higgins, reporter at "the wall street journal" and cnbc contributor and tony sakinagi covering u.s. ip harbor which one of you made that point? was that you, tony was it you, tim? if you could do it on a shoestring, think of what tim cook could do with hundreds of millions of dollars behind him who said it? >> i think tim may have as well.

>> so both of you guys did see, to me it was like, whoa, that's a revelation. let me start with you, tony. there aren't the same barriers to entry to the same technology that elon musk has that we always talk about to justify the valuation? someone else could do this in your view? >> look, there's a history at apple and tesla of doing innovative things and the model at tesla was developed for an r&d budget of $100 million typically cars are often bills -- billions of dollars. the iphone had hundreds of engineers. i don't think it's a general rule to say developing a break through product requires a lot of resources focused resources and ingenuity. now of course capital and

investment is not a constraint for apple, but, again, i think disruption can happen in many ways and it doesn't necessarily have to be driven by tremendous amounts of investment. >> so, tim, in hindsight do you think that it would have been easier for tim cook to actually -- if it was only two years ago to bring tesla into the apple fold or should they do it from scratch? was that a mistake monday morning quarterbacking. nobody knew what was going to happen with tesla. >> right it's easy now, right >> yeah. >> one thing about apple, they don't have a large history of making these huge kind of purchases. you can think of beats, for example. this would have been, what, $60 billion and, you know, one of the issues for apple that had been the cultural melding of these two companies. while tesla is very much a tech kind of like, silicon valley like operation, it's much different than the way apple

operates maybe it's more like of the apple back in the day with steve jobs where they have a very charismatic founder there. totally different kinds of companies, and that would have been a challenge that said, getting going on a car company, getting going on a new vehicle production while tesla has shown that it can do it is still incredibly complicated. why it was in such dire straits, it was costing so much to ramp up production. tvs problem after problem. experienced automakers such as ford and gm struggle with the launch of new products that would be and that will be an issue with apple even with all of its strengths. >> tony, in terms of stocks, apple versus tesla, ford

versus ferrari what will perform next year? what isn't encumbered by the laws of large numbers and being worth so much more than it was two years ago? >> yeah. i mean, clearly tesla's had the much bigger run and i think its valuation is arguably more questionable in hindsight the stock has depreciated the 700% that you've alluded to but it's gone up 70% and there was no fundamental news associated with that. they didn't report they didn't have an analyst day. they didn't have a battery day it was all -- a lot of it was driven by inclusion in the s&p i am worried about tesla's valuation at these levels. i do think there is a risk of a pull back, not because the company, you know, necessarily will not deliver against expectations, it's just that when you have a valuation at

this level, expectations are invariably getting higher and higher and with that there's always more risk so relative to the two, we're more cautious on tesla >> one you've got valuation, another you have a lot of large numbers. apple is 2.25 trillion does it go to 4 trillion >> no, look, joe, i think fair point. i mean, we're -- you know, we struggle with the case for outperformance for both stocks i think the risk in tesla's case is ultimately the stock could underperform and potentially underperform meaningfully if it disappointed in even the smallest way next year in apple's case, the stock trades at 32 times earnings. this is the highest it's traded in multiple years. it's not as clear what the bull case is for apple in 2021. >> tony, thanks. aren't you glad i don't ask you that you have to write this that's why i like doing what we

do i don't know, might go up, might go down. no skin off -- >> what tony said. >> worry about your editor messing with your story. >> never. >> they never do that? >> no, carte blanche for tim gentlemen, thank you tony and tim happy holidays merry christmas. happy new year we'll see. fingers crossed. when we come back, the ceo of century 21 real estate will talk home sales amidst this pandemic what they've been seeing as people are leaving the suburbs -- leaving the city for the suburbs. "squawk box" will be right back. in a land not so far away,

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breaking news on the mortgage market. >> this is the very last weekly mortgage applications report as the mortgage bankers association goes on vaca next week what a year it was a sharp down turn and suddenly took a hair pin turn and kept going. refinancing soared they set 15 record lows. it ended the year 88% higher.

it's a full percentage point lower than it was a year lower refi ended higher. purchasing a home fell 5% for the week but we're 26% higher than the same week one year ago. that is the second decrease as potential buyers run up against the severe housing shortage and fast rising prices the average loan balance set another record high at $376,800. that's because the bulk of the sales activity is on the higher market because that is where supply is more plentiful no report next week but that's it for this week back to you guys. >> oh. >> i know. >> i look forward to it too. >> reporter: you're going to miss me next wednesday you know you are >> that goes without saying. anyway, have a great holiday we have a little time off, right? it's never enough.

goes so fast now, doesn't it anyway, enjoy the time off and happy holidays merry christmas. >> i don't have the time off but i'll be here anyway. >> you have friday off, don't you? >> reporter: yes, i do have that >> we'll take anything any day you can -- i can sleep till -- past 7 anyway, beck i know you feel that way, becky. i don't know, you've got young kids what's the latest you sleep now? bar none >> every once in a while i'll get 7, you know, but, look, if i can sleep until 6, i'll take that that's a win 7 rkts:7:30. >> anything beyond 3:35 is good. >> victory. the stimulus package going to the president's desk included $25 billion that was going to be used to pay past-due rent, future rent, utility bills and other household expenses, but the latest developments of course out of washington could put that on hold at least for

now. joining us to talk more about the housing markets and the trends that might continue into the new yearis mike needler. the president of century 21 real estate thank you for joining us we know what a crazy year this has been on just about every level. housing market no exception to that rule. i think what may be the biggest headline to write home about at the end of this year is the incredibly low supply. this is the lowest supply level you've seen in terms of homes on the market going all the way back to when you first started tracking this back in the early '80s >> yeah, way back when we're at 2.3 months of supply right now, gang, which is way outside of the normal range, which is generally a six-month supply 1.28 million homes on sale in the market it's the biggest impediment to getting homes in here. with interest rates where

they're at and so much more purchasing power in people's pockets, you have a lot of household formations there they're tired of renting and they're looking for more space and moving out to suburban and even rural communities looking to start their own homes and start increasing their equity it's been an amazing run but i expect it to continue into 2021 based on what we're seeing now in the marketplace around the country. >> there were some interesting trends we were seeing before you had the pandemic that started back in march. we had been seeing some of the millennials actually getting out there and buying homes, delayed from what previous generations had done millennials were out there buying their first homes and starting to do that, then we had the pandemic that saw so many people fleeing the big, urban areas trying to get out of their apartments and their own homes when the pandemic goes away, what's this going to look like

how much was driven by the pandemic and how much changes once we get vaccines out there >> a lot is driven by the pandemic $1 million plus homes are up 40% by the mid year mark it's not just the first-time home buyer millennials, this's 90 million of them out there. they're really the driving force behind the demand and what we're seeing, unfortunately, you get a lot of first-time home buyers who are making 5, 10, 15 offers and nothing getting accepted so i think they get a little bit frustrated you might see a little bit of a lull during the holidays and people taking some time off from the home buying process or looking. i was talking to one of our brokers down in dallas last week they had 100 families for an open house over a weekend. the demand continues to remain strong in almost every market that we see. i think you're going to see that continue into 2021 and beyond as

this generational shift starts forming more households across the u.s. >> what's that done to pricing >> it's been crazing for pricing. that's the one thing you start worrying about is affordability in general, right? we've now had 105 straight months of year-over-year price gains. the median price is $311,000 here's the thing if you look at the median price of the home at the interest rates we were talking about earlier, it's still cheaper to buy a median price home and pay the mortgage than it is to pay the rent it is a concern as prices continue to creep up. >> that's the median on a nationwide basis, but obviously not every geographic area is created equal at this point. where are you seeing the hottest markets, the biggest price spikes >> yeah. as you guys can imagine, a lot of folks are fleeing the cities. the new york's, san franciscos,

bostons, they hadded to places like new jersey where you are headquartered across the river in edgewater where i am a couple of miles away. new jersey has been one of the biggest state gainers in terms of net population. 9 million people have relocated. you see people going to mountain towns, even rural areas. folks in salt lake city, jackson hole, wyoming. all seeing huge surges in demand and year over year transactions. it's incredible. people want a space. they want a zoom room. they're home schooling they're working from home. it's their home gym. people are looking to spread out and do a lot more from their personal residence >> mike, happy holidays. a little housekeeping. you were founded in 1971 and you were so forward looking because you were century 21, you know what i mean? now here we are and it's the

21st century and now you're antiquated, old, you're not looking ahead. what about century 22? why be century 21? have you thought about that? seriously. >> it's a great question, joe. we are probably the original disrupter. i always say it all the time. >> not anymore not anymore. you're just -- you're just back in the 21st century. i even think 20th century fox changed, didn't they is it available? just an idea, mike, just an idea >> i appreciate you saying that. look, at the end of the day our val sue's really in our real estate professionals it's all about delivering a great experience people don't recognize this but there's literally 180 steps from the time you make an offer to getting the keys and it's really not in the name, it's all in your local professional. >> i kid you it's like -- anyway, the producer said, come on, we've got to go. at great risk to myself i do

these things, mike thanks happy holidays. >> appreciate it. coming up, president trump saying the $900 billion covid relief bill passed by congress is, in his words, an unsuitable disgrace we're going to talk about that we'll be right back. time now for today's aflac trivia question. according to "forbes," who is the highest earning youtuber in 2020 the answer when cnbc "squawk box" continues coach saban... i crutched out to the mailbox and there it was - a medical bill for twelve-hundred dollars. i had no idea i'd have to pay that. that's right. it's hard to know exactly what your health insurance is going to cover, so you gotta protect your blind side. aflac! aflac pays you money directly to help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. really? aflac. get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover.

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in a video released on his twitter feed, president trump said he wants congress to amend the coronavirus relief bill to raise the amount of stimulus checks and eliminate some

wasteful spending. >> congress found plenty of money for foreign countries, lobbyists, special interests while sending the bare minimum to the american people who need it it wasn't their fault. it was china's fault, not their fault. i am asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple. >> president trump called the bill a disgrace. joining us now to talk through the latest, stephanie kelt toond michael strain from the american enterprise institute how often do we hear, stephanie, that if everybody's happy, there's something wrong with it? both sides need to be unhappy? at least we're getting something? is that how we should look at this is there enough there to say,

let's just go with it? it's been forever. we finally got something, let's just do it is it fair to say that >> we did go with it it got through this package, managed to get through both the house and senate in a sentences sense we did go with it. it's just we seem to have this 11th hour disruption now coming in the form of the president's remarks about being dissatisfied with the bill that his own treasury secretary took part in negotiating, right was this the perfect package no did both sides have to swallow some things and make concessions? they didn't get everything they wanted, but at least they arrived at something right before christmas time as we know the income support is expiring for millions of workers. you've got the extensions on moratorium on rent, congress finally did something way too late and way too little. we are where we are at this

point, joe what are we going to do, blow up the deal at this point it looks possible. >> michael, both sides are in their corners. some people -- i don't know where trump is he wants $2,000. the republicans probably want to get rid of a lot of the wasteful spending i'm sure that democrats would agree, $600 doesn't seem like -- it's like a drop in the bucket for people truly in need so is that what you're hearing from the opposing sides? those are the sticking points? >> yeah. part of the -- $600 is not a drop in the bucket for households who are in need, but a big problem with these checks, even the checks that are currently in the compromise, are that they go to households that make a six figure income that -- when i look at what -- the worst part of the bill that congress put together, the

direct checks, in my view, are the worst part it does not make any sense to me to give thousands of dollars to households making a six figure income when those households haven't lost their jobs, they're still employed we should be focusing money on low income households, on households who are truly in need and if we've done what we need to do for those households, then we should just have a smaller package. we shouldn't be giving away this much money to households that are well off and doing fine. the president wants to do even more of that he wants to give even larger checks to households that haven't lost their jobs and that are earning up to $150,000 a year and that seems to me, you know, republicans are going to have a big problem with that for sure, but i think democrats should have a big problem with that, and they seem willing to go along with it.

>> drop in the bucket i call it. nancy pelosi called $1200 crumbs falling off the side of the table. so i don't see how this is not -- how is this not crumbs? why isn't it means tested? that was impossible to do it that way or it was unpalatable why should people that don't need it get it why not double it for people who do need it >> it is means tested. >> stephanie, go ahead >> that's the point, right, joe? you don't get it if you -- if you're an individual and you're making more than $75,000 a year, then you don't receive this payment, but i think it's a mistake to pretend that these payments are only going to people who -- that these payments are also going to people who remain employed who have suffered no loss of income. millions of people who are still technically employed have suffered enormous financial distress as a consequence of the pandemic they have lost income.

so it isn't the case that these payments are going to people who are very well off, all of whom have been completely held harmless in the wake of the pandemic you can't target this thing so that every dollar only goes into the pockets of people who have suffered no income loss. just impossible to do. so congress came up with a threshold. their threshold was 75,000 at the individual level that's not a whole heck of a lot of money, but a lot of people who are making 50, 60, $70,000 have lost income and are having difficulty meeting the mortgage payment, making the car payment and other recurring bills. so this is providing relief for a lot of people. these are working class people they're not the uber rich in society and so this is targeted relief >> that's a moving target for democrats, stephanie i'm not sure what a lot of money -- a lot of times people will say -- >> it is $150,000 for household. >> go ahead. >> it's $75,000 for individuals,

$150,000 for households. stephanie's right, of course, that it doesn't only go to households with a six figure income, but a whole lot of it is going to households with a six figure income who haven't lost their jobs there are many better uses for taxpayer dollars in a stimulus package. i would have rather seen that money go to state and local governments, i would rather have seen it targeted on low income households and i would have rather seen a smaller stimulus if the only thing congress can -- >> michael, is there wasteful spending is there pork in here? things in here that shouldn't be in here or is it that business as usual, it's a given with congress >> yeah, there's always -- there are always things that shouldn't be in a bill like this, and some of it is wasteful but, again, the most wasteful part of it in terms of dollars -- >> stephanie, we're talking about foreign countries,

president trump mentioned foreign countries. you can find stuff in any of these bills but i've seen some just on face value looking at, what, where it's earmarked how much of that >> what you've got is the covid relief package which doesn't have a lot of objectionable stuff in it. let's be honest. this is a pretty well-targeted relief package the kinds of things people are complaining about, including president trump, are part of the larger spending package that is intended to keep the government funded through most of next year so these sort of payments -- joe, if you add this up, this amounts -- these payments to these individual countries he's talking about, a little bit over $3 billion you spread that around and say maybe we could have used that money to, you know, provide more relief to individuals who are struggling yeah, it's 13 bucks a person we're not talking a lot of money here to michael's point, this isn't a zero sum game. it isn't as if congress is in a position where in order to do

more on the unemployment relief, more targeted towards those who have lost jobs we have to do less in the form of individual direct payments. they could do both they should have done more of both this package is at least half the size of what it should have been >> stephanie, michael, we're going to end it there. thank you. happy holidays merry christmas. >> joe, i've got santa on my tie. >> i see that. merry christmas. you're looking for the santa claus rally. >> i wore that for you >> nice. thank you. beautiful. we'll see you later. we'll talk again in the new year you wonder, becky, whether we -- i forgot how much we had actually done with the flying pig for the pork that was a real segment that we're thinking about bringing back. >> that was a running segment we had for a long time. >> we did. our crew, there's some pork getting into that bill there's some foreign countries involved but on break there they were

playing all of the video we had for this we had -- actually using the -- throwing money down the drain as you can see. pigs presiding over that we had the pigs on a treadmill that's cnbc headquarters they're on a tread mail. they have to hover so that's difficult. they haven't lost any weight though, as you can see so i'm proving to you, this was a real segment for us. we used to look at pork all the time we've been remiss. >> maybe it's time to look at it. >> here's the center part of the cnbc angle. >> we spare no expense when it comes to production quality. steck holding the wire above >> these guys have some time what do you think, becky >> all right when we come back, we're going to look at some stocks on the move this morning, then oil

prices, too. that's been a huge mover as we've gone in towards the end of the year, but there could be some headwinds ahead maybe. we'll see. a case for both sides of this. wti trading at $47.09. we'll getan outlook for market with dan yergin with ihs markit. we'll be right back. and in an emergency,

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welcome back to "squawk box. rockefeller center with the ice skating, let's check out what's happening with themes in december it has been a huge year for stocks post pandemic one of the big catch up trades that's been playing out in addition with the invesco, it's been a straight line higher for the small cap stocks in the s&p 500. it's one of the themes developing in the past couple of months so far this year. also what's developing in december take a look at what's actually outperforming. it's been technology and energy returning to some kind of

leadership form. tech up 5% and energy up 2.5%. the worst performing sector has been utilities at 3% the biggest market cap ones in the s&p 500 continue to kind of outperform check out apple shares up 11% just so far month to date in december microsoft up nearly 5% and amazon actually lagging, so to speak. only up a hair over 1% keep an eye on megacap communication services check out these stocks these ones have been real momentum play so far in december they have been all year long etsy up 22 perce rup 22 percen 2 etsy up 22 perce 2% paypal up 15%. that hit a record high in trading as well. twitter not a record high but, still, 18% so far in december. massive moves among the best performers so far in the s&p 500 in december. now keep it right here "squawk box" returns after this quick break. we'll tell you more after this yeah...uh...

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welcome back, everybody. we have a clash of nations

is it still the virus front and center >> it's absolutely the virus front and center and the vaccines you can see in china where the vaccines are -- people have been vaccinated and they've dealt with the virus oil demand is actually higher than it was last year, but number one thing out there is how long is it going to take to get the vaccine out to people. that will get oil out of the 40 to $50 range >> out of the $40-50 range to where? >> i think it's reasonable to think that 50 to $60 range is what you will be looking at, and you'll see world oil demand probably by the end of 2021 or 2022 back to where it wasin 2019 before this all started >> hey, dan, there have been people who look at the industry and say that, you know, this is an outdated industry we are moving into the future. you have electric vehicles that are going to be taking down demand for oil and all kinds of other things

what do you say to that idea >> certainly the electric car is coming to your discussion earlier from apple both from a regulatory point of view and the automobile companies and electric cars. it's going to take a long time to turn over the automobile fleet. 280 million cars in the united states 279 million of them run on gasoline i think the notion of oil peaking is like a decade away, not tomorrow. >> you actually see another big threat though, and that's a threat of any potential clashes with the united states and china, any additional clashes from here, that but that could be something that disrupts the oil market and energy market >> i think that would disrupt the global economy becky, it's been quite striking if you add up all of the things that are happening, the relationship between the u.s. and china across the economic front, not only on trade but on investment and technology. it seems to be accelerating and

particularly if you look at something like the south china sea where u.s. and chinese naval ships have several times come close to colliding, that's the worry there. and it's the biggest political problem, geopolitical problem that the biden administration will face. >> dan, we're almost out of time very quickly is opec going to be as strong as it has been to this point or are there other forces that are going to -- >> well, it's going to be opec plus the relationship to saudi arabia and others are critical. they had a joint barbecue together if they hang together, you'll see that stabilization, but their problem going into 2021 is to get out of the production restraint. countries will start thinking more about market share. i think the other factor's when the u.s. starts to recover the oil production and grow again. >> dan, thanks for your time today. happy holidays and we'll see you next year. >> thank you

coming up, we're going to talk to "the new york times" tomorrow friedman for the latest headlines on stimulus, the vaccine and much more. "squawk box" coming right back [♪] life is busy, and sometimes odors can sneak up on you. for a convenient life hack. try febreze unstopables fabric refresher. with 2 times the scent power of regular febreze, unstopables fabric finds, neutralizes and eliminates tough odors trapped in hard-to-wash fabrics, like couches or smelly sports equipment; leaving an irresistibly fresh scent. and for a tropical burst of freshness, try new paradise scent.

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good morning disgrace that's what president trump is calling the latest covid relief bill worked out by congress. he wants bigger checks for americans. democrats seem possibly ready to oblige. pfizer and biontech strike a deal with the government to deliver 100 million more doses. we're 30 minutes away for merely a half dozen new economic numbers. the data, the instant market reaction is coming up as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now ♪ ♪ ♪ good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc we'll let this run for a minute, drive everybody crazy. ear worm here it comes. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen andrew's off today

♪ ♪ >> alvin >> let's take a look at the u.s. equity futures at this hour. you're going to see right now we're in the green dow futures indicated up by 59 points a little weeker. up by 4. nasdaq up by 1 point this comes after a down day. a lot happening in washington. meanwhile, we've just talked about this at the top. president trump demanding last-minute changes to the nearly $900 million coronavirus relief bill negotiated and passed by congress that wasn't good-bye parting is such sweet sorrow, diana, so you're back. joins us again with the latest >> reporter: yeah, it's called a holiday week, joe. last night president trump put out a four-minute video on twitter about the just passed stimulus bill. he didn't actually say he would veto it but he did ask for changes.

>> i am asking congress to amend the bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple i am also asking congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill. >> reporter: now that amount was actually the opening position of democrats on the stimulus, so it was surprising to come from the president since it undercut his own party. now republicans had always called that one a non-starter. for a democrat, of course, they see this as an opening nancy pelosi said republicans repeatedly refused to say what the president said for checks. at last the president agreed to $2,000 democrats are ready to bring this to the floor this week. let's do it. this would happen under unanimous consent where they could bring it up in the house and pass it as long as no one is

there to object. there will likely be a republican there to object it puts the senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell, in a rough position as he's trying to defend the votes in georgia. that vote on january 5th. >> diana, a lot happening. i guess it raises so many questions. as you said, he didn't flat out say he was going to veto this, but there was some strong suggestion that he'd like to do something. does this mean game on with the negotiations again >> yeah. i mean, look, it's a lot of political theater at a time where we thought it was done, it's christmas week, people expecting these checks to come you heard treasury secretary mnuchin on air that he expected to have checks out by next week. it doesn't necessarily mean it's over in any way. this bill could still go through as it normally would along the normal channels. it just throws a big wrench into it. >> is congress even still in town i thought they got this passed and kind of went home because

they were planning on going home last week. >> reporter: well, a lot of them are gone, but leadership is still there. if they need to bring people back, they certainly will. the democrats could launch something on the floor and republicans could send someone nearby in to object to it if they want to they will definitely bring people back when they need to. >> diana, thank you. we'll check in with you soon joining us right now to talk more about the relief bill, what's in it, what's not, what this all means is tom freedman "the new york times" foreign affairs columnist. the author of thank you for being late and his latest column in today's "new york times" is titled, will trump force principled conservatives to start their own party? i hope so. tom, you may be getting more of your wish on this. the president's move on this does put republicans in a pretty difficult position what do they do? >> well, you know, it really is a problem, becky, because as you guys have talked about earlier this morning, mcconnell really

wants this stimulus bill through now because in georgiathe two republican senators there running for re-election have been hammered by the democrats over their party standing in the way of a stimulus bill and right now if you look at the latest polling from there, both the democratic contenders are leading. so obviously mcconnell has a big challenge there. i really don't know what he's going to do. you know, i'm sure right now there's furious negotiations with the white house asking the president, what the hell are you doing? where do you think this is going to go? and the fact that the president made this announcement last night effectively, if you read the stories, they're so bizarre, sort of slipping out of his office with a tiny film crew going down to the basement of the white house filming this announcement and throwing it out into the public with zero consultation, the whole thing is so suboptimal.

this isn't just washington sausage being made, this is just so suboptimal for a serious country in the middle of its worst public health crisis in its life >> you know, it's a fool's errand to try to figure out what happens next, but i'll ask you anyway do you think that something gets passed before the holidays before the end of the year it's not just this that matters but the spending bill that's keeping the government open right now was part of this, too. the relief bill is tied to that. >> i have to believe it will, becky, because the moment is so critical you know, we're about to go into i think a much deeper and darker month of the pandemic. we have so many people whose relief is running out and are truly, truly hurting so i have to believe at the end of the day the power and logic of those things will produce a bill it will produce another

compromise i can't tell you what the contours of it are. >> earlier this month you spent an hour speaking with president-elect biden and laid out his thoughts for what he'd like to do during his term what struck you as the most important things, the things that our viewers could care the most about >> you know, becky, i think one of the most interesting things is his approach to china it happens to be very relevant this morning basically what biden said, he's not going to try to tackle the whole china market access issue as a bilateral issue between the u.s. and china what he's going to try to do is leverage both our asia pacific allies and the european union. i would say the chinese red that column very closely. you may have noticed this morning in europe they announced that they're close to a deal with the european union to have their own bilateral trade agreement with the e.u the trade is not done.

biden last night, his aides tweeted out to the e.u., hey, hold on. don't go there so what you see, what the chinese are doing, very important for every american company, they understand the thing they fear most, the thing they knew trump could never organize was a global coalition against them they think biden can, and biden has declared in my interview that he intends to so the chinese are trying to divide right now basically the two great global economic send ders, the e.u. and the united states, to make sure they can't gang up. so what's playing out here is very, very important. >> the e.u., what will their response be? >> it's not clear. there's a lot of division in the e.u., beck, between the germans -- chinese are very smart about this they gave the germans unprecedented access for german automobile exports and so that -- but there are other issues that other e.u. countries care about there's tension in the e.u. here

over this. you can see what the chinese are going to be doing is offering incredible goodies to anyone who won't line up with the americans in a global market access coalition against them >> tom, let's talk more about the vaccines, the rollout, how things are going as you mentioned, it's anticipated that it's going to be some dark days ahead of us still. where do you think we're doing i mean, great news just announced this morning that the united states and pfizer have struck a deal for an additional 100 million doses of that vaccine to come. there are other vaccines that could get approved in the next month or so, we hope how are we doing so far? >> you know, becky, one of the things i learned writing in my last book about moore's law is the power of an exponential. it's hard for the average person in their mind to grasp something grows exponentially, 2, 4, 8 it's not only about micro chips,

it's also about a virus. when you have the numbers we're reaching now, you know, 200, 250, 1,000 new cases every day and each one multiplying, then you factor in the idea that we may see a variant of the virus that spreads even more easily, then you factor in right now the hospitals in california announced this morning, many of them are just completely overwhelmed. we've got pop-up emergency rooms. people doing surgery in storage areas. it's really frightening. that's the spillover from thanksgiving now amplify that you pick up the "times" yesterday i read about record number of travelers, compared to earlier parts of this year and january's going to be just -- it's going to be hell on wheels >> i mean, i don't know that there's anything we can do to stop that at this point. >> yeah. it feels like we have to lead the path at this point of what we're going to see. >> we've never been through

something like this before, this kind of exponential around a virus and it's all going to be happening when we're going through a transition in our national government with a president reluctant to leave and so i think the amount of instability we're in for, and from a cnbc point of view, for markets to sort through all of this and try to see the light at the end of the tunnel, you know, i still believe the great news today, you know, joe was talking about this earlier, you know, we're going to have johnson & johnson, astrazeneca, it will be fantastic. i'm 67 and i'm probably the second big group, cohort that's probably not till the end of february, maybe march for me. so i'll be able to stick it ll t one, but how do you think of people who haven't run out of money or facing eviction the next two months could be really unprecedented in terms of

the pain of a lot of people in this country >> tom, i can remember back in the lab, when i was in the lab we would seed agar -- a solution with one -- not one but minimal amount of bacteria and then we'd grow it and it grows exponentially and the word was within 2 1gs 2 daze -- 2 1/2 days if it had plenty of things to live on the entire planet would be covered by eight feet of that bacteria, that's how it worked the thing that stops it though is that it can't do it because it doesn't have the -- you know, it doesn't have the food, doesn't have the room. there's constraints on it. thank god there are some constraints on the virus, because if you do the exponential math on where we'd be already to where we would be, thankfully we are not there. we have done some things we can still do some things. i'm just worried about christmas, i guess >> yes. >> and what happened after

thanksgiving and just such a weird thing to watch as the vaccine rollout is running head long into what's going to be probably the worst period for transmission. it's weird, isn't it, to watch, tom? >> yeah. >> i wish one would just go a little bit faster. i wish the vaccine part would go a little bit faster. >> yeah. >> no hope for anything like that, tom? where the dark -- we've heard dark days are coming for so long, i guess i don't want to hear it. >> your mind fights against it, joe, because of we aren't -- you know, we've never been up against this kind of force from the natural world. >> not in our lives. >> there have been some worst things at least we got guys sequencing the genome in a day and a half you know about the science of this think where we were with polio we were flying totally blind trying to figure that out. >> i mean, again, you know, it

gets to something i mentioned once before i think on the show is that i think, joe, we are on the cusp of an amazing era of creative destruction why is that? never had more people had cheap tools of innovation. never had people had more access to high powered -- >> singularity i think each of us have to live about -- can we go 40 -- we've got to go 40 years and then we might make it to the singularity where we can be half machine, half man and live forever. do you want to do that maybe we don't. >> i don't want to do that. >> think of all the columns. you'd have so many columns, you wouldn't want to live on deadline still. >> all i know, it's going to be a lot of amazing innovation after this pandemic and it is going to destroy a lot of businesses, but it's going to accelerate and spawn i think amazing new opportunities.

>> especially in medicine. all of the chronic things. >> what about my putting >> don't even start. don't even start we both know we both know how good you are, which means you must have a lot of time, i guess you should your age yet? you shoot your age yet >> not now, baby >> have you shot your age yet? >> i have not, i'm afraid. that's way off that's in my rear-view mirror. >> i've done it for nine hole. all right. are you done, beck are you going to say good-bye or do you want me to? >> tom, thank you for joining us happy holidays. >> any time you guys be well. >> all right we'll see you. happy holidays coming up, that holiday retail rush is almost over if you can believe it christmas just hours away. after a break, michael rubin from the sports swag giant fanatics tells us what customers

are shelling out for companies have reached a deal that will see pfizer and biontech produce 100 million more doses of the vaccine. stay tuned, you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc

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one of the biggest shopping weeks of the year. consumers are leaning on ecommerce to deliver for the holidays emarketer projects online sales will grow more than 30% this year joining us, michael rubin, executive chairman of fanatix. we'll get to your new partnership with barnes & noble. we had plans earlier things happened. we want to ask you about retail in the final push before christmas. what's the biggest selling jersey what else is going on? anything else going on in the nba? did i miss something are we playing again how are the sixers looking start and go >> definitely ecommerce has been terrific we skipped ahead two or three years. general retail has been strong

there's been so much pressure on the different shipping networks to deliver as good as business is, it could have been better it's been very broad based joe, i'll ask you a question you're generally very good knowing what team's the best, what are the best players are. what do you think the number one selling team is today across our entire business? >> across all sports >> all sports. don't get this wrong there's big pressure on you. >> i don't think i'm going to be able to get this >> you know the answer and you're generally so good. >> the bengals >> definitely not even a possibility. it starts with the same first initial. it's the buffalo bills. >> the browns? >> the buffalo bills are the number one team. >> i would have never gotten that i would have said the browns before that because all of the

excitement about. >> buffalo bills they've got more business this week than two, three, four combined that hasn't happened in 25 years. dodgers doing great, lakers doing great, chiefs, bills, steelers it's the first time i could ever 12u stump you on the hottest team. >> mahomes and brady. >> mahomes and brady number one and two, nothing changes always tommy number one and two, mahomes number one and two lebron two is new to the list mookie betts continues to do great as well. the top five selling jerseys today. overall question, ecommerce, 30% plus across the board. we had a terrific year again, interesting thing was the demand could have been better if they had worked faster

with coronavirus delivering vaccines for the first time, so much pressure on the shipping networks this year. >> still thinking about buffalo. i guess you think that they could do it, you think remember in the old days it was sad. jim kelly, get there, it would never happen. >> i don't know if they can do it buffalo bills fans are excited this week. lakers fans and dodgers fans have been our top teams. they said we haven't been there for 25 years we're going to show you how excited we are and they've opened their wallets. >> when you said it was a b, i would have said barnes & noble to give you a segue into this partnership. tell us about it >> we're super excited for us at fanatics and lids, we want to create the single best experience of the 775 universities that barnes & noble

education works with we're leveraging three great companies coming together for college students and 775 universities a lot of pressure to make more money and innovate we'll put it behind to offer the better technology, better mobile, broad assortment, enhancing our marketing. lids which is the number one retailer of licensed sports stores understands the young consumer barnes & noble education is a company we've admired for a long time operating 775 campus stores for us to work together to strengthen the offering, to benefit the students i think is going to be terrific it's a great company the company has been under understood we thought we could work together to strengthen this offering >> when it rains it pours in

terms of sports. have you looked at what's on today. if you want to -- i guess it's coming all the way back, michael. can you tell me when when in 2021 i guess the vaccine rolls out. do the ratings immediately come back fragmented from streaming and all of these other outlets what's going on? >> i think a couple things happen first is the shift in calendar has confused sports fans i think in general going back to more normalized calendar is going to help ratings. in addition, what i always talk about, it's so difficult to look at a television rating only. again, that is the same thing of looking at a brick and mortar retail without sales and ecommerce. i consume most of my sports clips through social media i think you need to look at all media pieces cobbled together in one number i don't think -- i think there's always going to be pressure on the broadcast partner media ratings. social media, divisional

consumption continue to get bigger and bigger. i think in general sports are going to have -- look, fans want their sports i think there will be tremendous consumption. i think it will be exciting in the second half of the year to get fans back in the stands with more normality and return to some level of what the new new is. >> michael, we've got to run we have data coming. >> go ahead. >> we've got to run. we have data coming. really quickly you have more eyeballs coming from social media networks are those profitable is it a losing proposition in terms of profits >> today the dollars we receive from social media eyeballs is smaller than traditional broadcast. that's our job to figure out how to do more interesting things. the ways we communicate is so much more interesting. today it's smaller over time i think the sports leagues, teams, ownership figure

out how to create a better experience, make more money long term >> all right >> that's what everybody is trying to figure out >> take us out. >> have a great holiday. >> you too. >> happy new year's. >> we'll see you. >> thanks, guys. >> happy holidays. when we come back at the bottom of the hour, we have lots of economic data including jobless claims and durable goods. plus, what's it ouabt apple's change that has facebook up at arms 2012 and even now many experts predict the next gold rush is just beginning. so call us money reserve the only precious metals organization led by a former director of the united states mint as one of the largest us gold coin distributors in the country. us money reserve has proudly served hundreds of thousands of clients worldwide. there may have never been a better time to start diversifying your assets with physical gold and silver.

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welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc we're just a few seconds away from a bunch of numbers. economic data including initial jobless claims, personal income and spending and durable goods in the meantime, you can see that we're higher. dow up by 55 let's get over to rick santelli. take it away >> reporter: yes, a litany of numbers. so i'm going to take it slow on durable goods side, look at our november preliminary, it is up .9. up .9 on durable goods even though this is sequentially less than the 1.3, it is the seventh month in a row of a positive durable goods number. if we strip out transportation it is now up .4 sequentially following 1.3. it's a little light based on expectations

capital goods orders non-defense, ex-aircraft, it's not out yet but shipments are. they were up .4 and it was a disappointment last time up 2.4 when the proxy for spending comes out we will hit that let's go to the money numbers, shall we jobless claims number, 803,000 803,000. this is definitely better than expected and it is 82,000 below our last look, which was 885,000. on continuing claims, 5,330,000 also a bit lower than expectations and a bit lower than the last look and it represents 14 out of 15 of the past weeks that continuing claims have moved lower. on the personal income side, real disappointment here shouldn't be shocking. down 1.1 people running,families runnin out of money here and those that are working of course don't see how nasty this can be.

they are not going to have the holiday season many can. it's not nearly as big of a miss as the income numbers were finally, let's go back to the money ball umbers. light on expectations, very light when you consider the revisions coming out last month went from .8 double it up to 1.6 not good there did i miss anything? let's see. have we gotten everything? spending planes, income, durable goods. that seems to be about it. if we look at the numbers right now on the market, you know, we're hovering 92 basis points if i had to count all of the trades over the last three weeks, .92 92 basis points would be the high volume trade. we want to pay close attention to that level for most of the session and of course we're not done yet tomorrow's half session but we're going to have university of michigan sentiment coming up. that's always important.

joe, i'm out of breath hey, did you read those 5600 pages? i know that i went to my local print shop and i had to put up three cards to get a copy of that one >> evelyn wood yeah we brought out the pigs, the flying pigs because of all the pork that we're seeing you're out of breath not a single higher. maybe we'll hear one -- >> not a -- >> maybe we're going to hear one in 2021. there was something else i wanted -- oh, yeah high on the 10-year in 2021 will be >> 1.6%. >> okay. that's about -- that's a pretty -- that's a good number i have to give some predictions for our "squawk pod. i'm going to use that myself. >> 1.59. >> share and share alike, joe.

what's mine is yours isn't that what congress says? >> i don't want to get you started. anyway, thanks the market currently higher. coming up, former dallas fed president richard fisher weighs in on the $900 billion stimulus bill president trump's new call for even more aid to americans stay tuned, "squawk box" will be right back

as we've been telling you, president trump isn't happy with congress's latest coronavirus relief package he's panning the idea of only $600 of checks calling for $2,000 check joining us now, former dallas fed president richard fisher he served on greg abbott's strike force to open texas he's also a cnbc contributor and father to the famous actor miles fisher richard, thanks for joining us >> good morning. good morning, joe. happy holidays to everybody. >> yeah, you too we haven't talked in a while i think -- i don't know if after covid we have, but you used to

express quite a bit of concern about how over extended we were in terms of the fed and our own national debt. if we could go back there, we would go back to give anything to go back to where we were. where are you now? >> we have two santa clauss, the federal reserve keeps on giving, hyper low interest rates, building the balance sheet, pump willing pumping liquidity into the system this gives rise to the old saying there's no difference between republicans and democrats when it comes to spending money but democrats enjoy it more. here's trump i think trying to come in and be a big santa claus at the very end here i can't help but worry how we continue to leverage the balance sheet of our country, but that

is compared to what? look at what they are doing in japan. look at what they're doing in the european sphere, et cetera i don't like it, joe i don't think it's healthy and i think we're going to have to pay for it at some point. but right now things seem to be pretty tame as far as interest rates are concerned. we'll have to see if it actually works. it's temporary, but then how do you claw back this enormous leverage on the balance sheet. what political figure will have the guts to do it? that's what worries me >> the current bill that we're looking at, specifically, richard, santoli just pointed out, it's 5600 pages we can read it after we pass it, i guess, it's one of those, but is it -- is it -- is -- we've heard complaints today that 600 is going to some people that are already employed and not bad off, not enough is going to people that need it. is there anything to people that

you think is needed, is a positive in the bill there's a lot of pork. >> there's always a lot of pork. that's the way congress tries to work they're trying to satisfy whoever is giving them the worst r most money and whatever constituents want. i do think something was needed here, i just did not want to see someone pile on like we're seeing from the president right now. to me that's reckless and wrong. so we'll have to see joe, you know as well as i do, we've been around a long time, that whatever congress does is laidened with pork it's just the way it works i was hoping senator mcconnell and the republicans in the senate would con strain this we'll see. i would also hope, i don't see it right now that they would have enough to override the president and just pass this thing through and make it veto proof. the trouble is, the democrats want more. so it's a mobius strip

i can't tell the difference between donald trump and what the democrats did. reducing the regulatory burden, providing a tax cut for folks. now he's just talking more and more debt. >> you're a emocrat. why are you using it as a pejorative you just said, i can't tell the difference between trump and a democrat how do you -- how does that work with you you're a democrat. i don't understand are you self-leveling. >> i was a lloyd benson democrat i was a conservative democrat, responsible democrat >> way back. >> i go way back i check my politics at the door when i went to the fed in 2005, i've never looked back by the way, it saved me a lot of money because no one asked me to contribute to their campaigns. i'm not a democrat or republican, i want be to be a responsible american who is fiscally prudent and i don't see it right now. >> i wasn't making that up you have been a democrat.

>> i was and i ran for the united states senate. >> exactly. >> i read against k. bailey hutch chin son, my friend. i ran to pay down the u.s. debt, reform welfare and balance the budget nobody talks like that anymore >> what do you think of the -- well, we hear one thing from parts of the democratic party. we hear other things from president-elect biden. what do you think it's going to look like in terms of tax policy and regulatory -- things that we've seen in the first year are you concerned or positive? >> takes a long time to get this stuff through. i don't think it will happen right away in the first year on the tax front. we'll see what happens in the georgia election we'll see who keeps the senate or loses the senate. but every company i serve on the board of, every cfo and ceo i talk to expects to see tax increases not just here, worldwide.

governments are starved for revenue. it has to be taken into account in terms of your forward planning that always is difficult in terms of how it impacts margins. so i do expect to see further tax increases. we're going to have to pay for what we're leveraging here at some point >> all right. >> economic growth won't make up completely quickly enough the leverage burden. on the regulatory front, that's what i worry about the most, joe. trump deserves enormous credit for cutting back on the growth of the federal register where everything is registered businesses were thriving with more leeway on regulation. it got to be too extreme during the obama years. and we'll see what he can do by executive fiat or by implementation there you have a lot of leeway as the nation's ceo, as the president. we'll have to see what happens here. >> is that lloyd behind you? >> that's my father, joe

>> you guys all look alike you should wish you looked anything like miles who i was channel surfing and i saw him in some -- it wasn't the greatest movie, but something about wofs at the door. i recognized him immediately don't you watch it because he dies a -- well, i'm not going to tell you i won't ruin it. don't watch it do not watch it. it's about like the manson family or something. it's crazy did you see that spot he did where i'm running for office did you see howell-produced that was? it was hilarious that miles did. >> yeah. he did it himself. it cost him very little money. made a huge fortune for him. it's tom cruise. >> miles fisher running or something? >> just go on to that, type in miles fisher thank you, joe, very nice of you. >> he's so good at tom cruise. you know how he does all of those mannerisms he's amazing

thanks, richard. >> wait, joe, before we leave. i have to tell you last time i played golf i shot a 77. >> you shot a what >> same ball, 77. >> do you have like a stand-in playing for you or something that is -- you got through the big clown mouth? you hit it right in and the window was going and it went right through? no, congratulations, richard merry christmas. happy holidays good to see you. >> merry christmas, happy holidays great to see you >> beck. when we come back, why apple could make 2021 a difficult and costly year for digital ad giants like facebook we've got that story next. stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" right here on cnbc ♪ ♪

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next year could be a mixed bag for the lucrative and growing online ad industry giants like facebook are staring at new threats even as new opportunities open up for them julia boorstin is with us with more good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, becky facebook has warned about headwinds to the digital ads in part because of apple's digital operating system they can opt out of ads. another big change to ad targeting, google is joining chrome and firefox inphasing out third party cookies that

will follow you around the web that will happen by the end of next year. ftc indicating there's more in the works and it directed nine companies including facebook, youtube, twitter, snap to provide information about their data gathering algorithms and advertising. the e.u. just proposed new tech regulation including letting google see parameters for targeting ads to modify or eliminate the targeting criteria truist's youssef squali said their share of the global digital ad market is peaking and should show stabilization in 2021 with the potential for some decline thereafter on the flip side of that, though, the ad giants have a massive new opportunity in shopping emarketer forecast worldwide retail ecommerce will reach $6.3 trillion by 2024 that's up from 3.9 trillion this

year ecommerce is facebook's largest ad vertical so it's well positioned in this secular shopping shift becky? >> hey, julia, i will admit it during this pandemic i've actually off of instagram. but i guess i have to wonder, which platforms besides facebook will benefit the most from all the social shopping that has been taking place this year? >> well, you're right, becky and you're a perfect example instagram and facebook have both made a big push towards shopping but we also have seen pinterest do a lot here and, of course, pinterest has the advantage that people often when they go to pinterest are looking for things to buy we have seen snap make big moves to try to make shopping easier within that platform and tiktok. so facebook is not alone in its effort to tap into that e-commerce growth. >> julia, good to see you. happy holidays. >> you too coming up, how should

investors balance positive vaccine news with the new worries over the uk's coronavirus strain all while trying to figure out if d.c. stimulus package say done deal or not two top market voices will weigh ay next. st tuned "squawk box" coming right back some people have joint pain, plus have high blood pressure. they may not be able to take just anything for pain. that's why doctors recommend tylenol®. it won't raise blood pressure the way that advil® aleve or motrin® sometimes can. for trusted relief, trust tylenol®.

welcome back, everybody. the futures are higher as we approach the opening bell. you're looking right now at the dow futures up by about 86 points s&p futures up by 10 the nasdaq up by 15. jointion ing us to talk abot catalyst anz ts and risk for the market, edgar denny, the president of yardenny research welcome to both of you we have been talking about the santa claus rally and what happened to it earlier this morning. you say we got it. it came a little early this year. >> yeah, hope everybody enjoyed it it really occurred in november to a large extent. after the elections at the beginning of november, first monday in november we had the news from pfizer about the vaccine and following monday moderna and after that the following monday after that we had astrazeneca and that all fed

a huge rally, unprecedented november rally, so the santa claus rally occurred early it doesn't look like we're going give it back or much of it back during december, we may build on it a little bit. >> joanne what do you think happens next i know you think a lot of the good news has been baked in with the vaccines. >> well, sure. and the stimulus as well despite this morning's uncertainty investors are forward looking and looking to economic recovery, resuming in 2021, and really catching hold in the second half of next year but i think it is important for investors to remember at this point that we're likely to see over the next couple of years more asymmetry in stock performance than we typically do not this year, than we typically do so while, you know, the indices may move higher, i think what we're going to want to look for are those individual stocks where the valuations are particularly attractive. those that are likely to benefit

from that economic recovery, some of those smart cyclicals and financials in energy or industrials, and stick with the secular growth opportunities there are some really big movers out there like 5g. i think picking the stocks is going to be really important over the next year own two years. >> ed, i'll ask you both, item actually what you think the next catalysts are. when we talked to you yesterday at this time, you said you figured it would be the elves in congress who would be pushing things along you didn't anticipate we would hear from president trump he might not actually sign this. >> no, he's a very quirky elves. can't really rely on them apparently usually this time of year they do deliver but the ones in congress should have known better. you can't -- nothing is done in washington until it is actually done so, look, something is going to be worked out. i can't imagine that they're going to leave for the christmas holidays or even -- maybe

they'll have to come back after the christmas holiday, but something is going to have to give here in terms of giving people who have really been distressed by the pandemic in terms of losing their jobs, losing their businesses. they really need help and just a matter of a few months really because by the middle of next year, with the vaccine, we should be getting back to some semblance of normal in the second half of next year i completely agree that looking ahead here, it will be about stock picking more than it is necessarily about getting the sectors right. >> joanne, let's just play this out. look through the scenarios if something doesn't get done with stimulus or alternatively if a bill gets passed and it has $2,000 checks or much bigger checks for individuals, what are the two sides of how the market reacts to that >> well, something doesn't get done with stimulus this year, i think everyone will expect that it will happen next year and so while a lack of a stimulus bill will be really

painful for a lot of people right now, you know, ultimately for the entire economy we have, you know, a lot of savings built up from the previous stimulus, we still have depressed economic activity, that's not going to change for the next few months if this stimulus does come through with a bigger individual check, yeah, that will have a marginal impact on consumption, but ultimately the market valuations are really about the second half of 2021 and beyond and so i don't -- i think people will be a little discouraged, you know, certainly hurt a lot of people if this doesn't get passed, but investors are really forward looking and going to look beyond this >> let me ask you each for a stock name or two, if you think it is all about stock picking. joanne, i'll start with you. >> right, so i mentioned 5g earlier, the new cellular technology one of the names we like there is a company called qorvo. and they provide really critical chips to go into smartphones what is more important about what they do, of this a deep

moat there is two companies in the world, maybe a third, marginally that can build the kind of filters for dealing with those radio signals that they do so they have a deep moat, they have 40% content increase on the new 5g phones. plus they're providing chips for the cellular towers and the other infrastructure so we think they have a long road ahead of them to grow and we think that's going to be one of the big outperformers for the year, in the 5g space. >> ed, we're almost out of time. got something you can tell us in 20 or 30 seconds >> i would focus on the midcaps, the small and midcap area of the marketplace. they had a nice rally here since november and i think it continues as the market -- as investors look forward and anticipate a continuing recovery in the second half of next year. >> ed, joanne, thank you, both it is great to see you we'll talk to you both soon. happy holidays >> happy holidays, becky.

>> thanks, let's take a final check on the markets you'll see now the futures are indicated higher green arrows across the board with the dow up by 80, s&p up by 9, nasdaq up by 10 we're both off tomorrow, merry christmas, happy holidays, everybody. >> glad we're here glad we're here and healthy and want to stay that way for our families and everybody out there too. been tough. >> happy holidays. >> better days ahead >> it is time for "squawk on the street." good wednesday morning welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with morgan brennan and mike santoli cramer and david faber have the morning off. premarket pretty steady, record highs for the nasdaq russell stimulus relief gets a last minute curveball but market is more focused on this government deal for new pfizer vaccines, jobless claims better than expectednd