people good luck. >> thank you. >> so much the ceo and founder of hop in. >> you have got make the relationship, you have got build the relationships. they are different things. i think the one thing they do very well -- by the way the cnbc events are on their platform they do a great job. i met tillman 15 years ago at the milk in conference signature around, cnbc, whatever, you have got to make the relationships first, and that's best on in person. >> amen. may we all do that next year brian seal you next time thank you for joining us today brian sullivan and "power lunch." we hand it off to "closing bell" right now. >> thank you kelly and brian welcome, everyone to "closing bell," i'm sara eisen. with wilfred frost as always stocks losing steam throughout the day. dow, nasdaq, s&p and russel all lower, slipping away from those all-time highs we are at session lows what is driving the action a debate over the size of fiscal stimulus as congress takes up $2,000 checks. the future of that in the senate

uncertain for now. small cap momentum names losing steam throughout the day the russel down more than 2% right now. break surging, now up 7% taking some other chinese internet stocks with it as well more on that later in the show now, the dow is down 70 points or know, low was down at more than 100 59 left of trade. >> coming up in a few minutes, the vaccine and the path forward for states we will speak with the governor of colorado about how the rollout is going so far and the potential challenge of implementing the latest rounds of stimulus measures plus we usually turn to investor dan niles for his thoughts on tech but we will bring you his latest top picks across the entire market for the new year last year his return of his top five picks was 60% we will find out what makes the cut for him this year. first let's get to the stores we are watching mike santoli is tracking all the

market action. ylan moi has the latest on stimulus and what comes next in the battle over $2,000 checks. and leslie picker has details on the call for change at intel mike let's start with you. the rad broader markets off the lows but of a the highs at the open. >> at the open, the s&p went up a tag, 3750. i mentioned the last couple of days it seemed like an upside. we hit it, went a few points higher and backed off. we often use profit taking as a place holder explanation today there is truth to it the stuff that was up the most is down the most over the last days here is a four-year chart of the s&p which i put up here against its 200-day moving average to show how extended we are relative to the longer term trend line

in september it was 16, 15, 16%. the covid crash, late february of this year it was more like 14 or 11. also, jan, 2018 it was under 15, but well stretched as well what does that mean? nothing specific except that the conditions are there for a calming down of the market, some kind of a pullback, some kind of an air pocket if something comes along. we saw here it crashed through the trendline because it had the huge shock of a shutdown of the economy. barring that, positioning and technical adjustment in january of 2018 you never got down to the trend line same thing back in the summer when it was a 10% pullback look at some of the subsectors that are up the most on a quarter to date basis but now curled lower in the last week. that's the solar stocks. thises the cloud software names. this is junior biotechs and that's ipo the etf one week ago today they all

peaked they are giving some back. still up quite a bit in the best case a protation out of red hot stuff into stuff that lagged a worst case is it is a destabilizings action across the market and creates a little more leakage lower in the indexes. >> so, mike, was the russell even more stretched relative to its 200-day average in the short-term relative to the s&p. >> russel was vastly more stretched, about twice as far above its 200-day average than the s&p is right now it is smaller, more volatile relative to big caps but it doubled off the march lows, up 10% over the course of nine months. the s&p, 170%. slower moving but both well stretched. therefore you could get a milder reversion of w457d to the russel relative to the s&p if that's

the path we are going to take. now the washington where the house passed a bill for $2,000 stimulus checks to americans whether the senate will approve the measure remains up clear at this hour. ylan moi with the latest on where things stand. >> what we know is that the senate will not take up a clean bill to increase those stimulus payments to $2,000 today the top democrat chuck schumer tried to force a vote on this issue but he was blocked by senate majority leader mitchh mitch mcconnell himself saying the president wanted congress to look at three things, stimulus checks, protections for 230 and voter fraud. >> those are the three important subjects the president has linked together. this week the senate will begin a process to bring these three priorities into folk news mcconnell is leaving himself plenty of wiggle room for exactly how he takes action on those three items. it is possible they could be

packaged together in a single bill then democrats are almost certainly going to be against it meanwhile the president is ratcheting up the pressure on republicans to do something n. a strongly-worded tweet he demanded that republicans pass the $2,000 checks asap and said that $600 not enough guys, he said that republicans need the get tough >> further complicating the matter, ylan, the republican senators in georgia that are running for re-election are now coming out in support of the $2,000 checks, agreeing with the president. how is this all going to impact that race? >> yeah, i think what they are fencing here is they on the ka be seen as going after something that president trump has identified as one of his top priorities we are also seeing that the president is planning to campaign with those two incumbent senators as well next week so flowing his support behind them as they throw their support behind him we are also now hearing from senator susan collins who says

she supports the $2,000 checks but has concerns of when they might phase out in terms of income level there is growing support within the republican caucus to do this additional measure the question is how many senators are going to support it will there be enough and will mcconnell let it come to the floor thanks. now to intel, seeing a spike midday after hedge fund third point called for big changes at the company. leslie picker has the story. >> those changes include urging intel to hire a banker to advise on strategic alternatives including whether the company should remain an integrated device manufacturer and whether it needs to divest some of its assets n. a sharply worded letter, third point criticizes their loss of manufacturing leadership as well as its lagging position among competitors. lobe notes intel sat risk of losing customers as well as

talent third point said it is preserving the option to nominate directors to the board if lobe sense as reluctance to work together to address his concerns a warning shot there the size of third point's stake in intel is not disclosed in the letter nor in s.e.c. filings just yet but reuter's reports it is worth about a billion dollars, about half of a percentage point of belle intel's market cap n. response, intel says it quote welcomes input from all investors and goes on to say they are looking forward to engaging with third point. >> leslie b a billion dollars, based on the reuter's report in terms of sizing investment do we know about the timing. intel has been a significant underperformer certainly relative to its sector which has been very strong where abouts are third point with regard to profits or losses

at this level. >> we checked back on september 30th or society. it wasn't listing as a holding at this time perhaps sometime between then and now they were acquiring this stake. third point is over 12% on the year they are doing quite well. they have taken a tilt toward tech and media in recent months and throughout the course of this year. that of course has helped them perform this year. but certainly today's boost should be helping with a gain of about 5%. >> leslie i am trying to think of dan lobe's track record the last one i covered that was close to when he started a fight with campbell's foods. >> i knew you were going to say that. >> he tried to force a sale and tried to take the entire board slate and ran into trouble when some of the family were board members. i think they made a deal but he did not get what he wanted what is the success of things like that where he is essentially forcing a rethink of the company's future >> i went back to check the last

time he ran a full on proxy fight. campbell's was about two years ago. they settled that fight. that's common, to go ahead and settle before it actually reach as vote. as i mentioned he has a .5% stake at the $1 billion amount he could acquire more from there, could be teaming up we don't know. but this is common among with other investors to have more power in the proxy fight if it comes down to that interesting, though, because oftentimes, and this was true with the disney letter earlier this year, oftentimes we don't see this type of strong language in these letters the fact that he's saying he's expecting reluctance out of the gate in saying that if we sense that reluctance we reserve the right to nominate directors to the board and try to institute some of these changes. so that is an interesting tone

and it will be one to follow, i think, in 2021. >> the disney one, quite a big success, so far n the short-term, whether that was down to his own letter or other factors are harder to decide leslie thanks so much for that. after the break, getting vaccines into arms we will speak with the governor of colorado about the rollout in his state and his outlook for the economic recovery in light of the latest stimulus bill. you are watching "closing bell" on cnbc. ♪

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welcome back the house voting to increase covid relief aid to $2,000 from $600, but the fate of the additional funding remains uncertain in the senate. while the federal government struggles to reach an agreement on the need for additional aid some states are taking matters into their own hands the colorado governor extending an executive order to provide one-time stimulus payments of $375 for those hit by the pandemic this as the state begins its phase one rollout of the covid-19 vaccine

more than 60,000 doses administered so far. joining us now is the governor of colorado. governor, thank you for joining us >> good to see you, wilfred. >> let's start on the rollout of the vaccine. has it been harder or simpler than you imagined? >> i would say about as expected we knew there were a lot of logistical work that went into it we incorporated our colorado national guard commander and many others in the process there. has been a little bit of lack of surety about what we are getting each day and each week from the federal government it has made it a little bit harder some supplies running a week or a few days behind. implementing our original plan has been a priority to get it to front line workers and most vulnerable populations in nursing homes and those who are at greater risk. >> what is your wish on the stimulus that's being discussed at the moment? should the direct checks be

increased from $600 to $2,000? if it was, and even if it is not, where would you stand on your $375. >> it is easy to sit here at the state level and say of course they should send it out. obviously -- i used to be a congressman for ten years and i had to weigh the federal fiscal situation in that and whether and how you pay for the $400 billion to $500 billion is certainly an issue in colorado we sent it to anyone who experienced any unemployment if they filed for unemployment at this time between march and october even if it was for one week they got it some reduced income because of the crisis many of them back at work. it is a back to work reward for being whack to work. if they were still unemployed they got it. maybe there is a way to get the price knocked down by focusing it more. general concept, get money out, help the people who need it, we need a stimulus now and i think

they can do more unanimous what they originally did. >> with a that be used to allocate state and local funding? some lawmakers were pushing for billions of dollars for states who need to it keep firefighters and police on the payroll. >> i think support through the states letting us locally administer some piece of it makes sense. if we got some we would probably use some as a direct payment but we might cut taxes, find other things we can do we did defer taxes on all of the restaurants. they get to keep the sales tax they collect and not remit to it the state for the next couple of months i think the way that the state can tailor it to their needs, the better direct payments are certainly part of what we would do anyway. i think it is fine if they would do that at the federal level and it would help. >> how concerned about a short-term second spike this

wintertime in cases following the christmas and new year break. >> i am concerned. we see the height at the end tunnel vaccine is going into people's arms but we have a few more months before it makes a difference in the meantime we have to keep it up for the next few months. it is not time for a victory dance yet. it is exciting every time we see it i was at our veteran's long term living facility. to see it go into the arms of some of our brave folks who fought in korea and teeth vietnam was wonderful. >> where do you stand on stay-at-home orders at this point and whether we need them i know you have implemented -- there is one in california, yet that state is leading is nation now per capita in covid cases and hospitalizations do they work >> we largely stayed away from those. we were one of the first states to end ours last april or may. i think that the psychological social economic toll is greater than the benefit

obviously, there is caveat if your hospitals are literally overflowing, people are dying who could be saved, i think states and within states, cities may need to look at more extreme measures but we are open for ski season people are coming in more areas of our state all the stores are open. restaurants are opening increasingly in many areas i think there is balance nobody has really figured out how you can have night life and nightclubs and bars and that sort of thing in the middle of a pandemic other than that, i think trying to strike that balance is really the important work that's being done at the state and local level. >> governor, if we reach next summer and the most vulnerable have been vaccinated but we have a huge portion that haven't because they are refusing the vaccine and therefore we haven't reached the necessary numbers for herd immunity what will the plan of action be then will it be back to normal, those

people are at risk by their own choice that's the way i would view it we have to get back to normal at some point it is unfair if people choose not to get it to those people who have known allergies and can't receive it there are obviously folks who miss out in the that scenario. i would encourage who can to get it i am going to get it you should get it. next summer 70 or 80% of the folks should have gotten it. that should be enough. doesn't mean the disease isn't gone but at least it won't be the daily threat that it is today. >> amen. governor, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. after the break, kicking around a deal. adidas may have a surprising new suitor for its reebok brand. we will tell you what it is. next on "closing bell. dow isliing ck cmbba a little bit. only down 30 points. 40 minutes left of trade

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37 minutes left of trading let's check in on individual market movers as we are seeing a little bit of a rebound in the major averages shares of insurance company lemon aid on the move on the heels of its lock up expiration. it went public in july it went up 6706% on that day shares fell sharply after expiration there was a momentum selloff yesterday. arturist therapeutics. the buyio tech company reporting new data on its covid vaccine

that analysts are calling underwell ming the stock is down more than 50%. we want to show you shares of adidas we have been following the story about how the company might be spinning off its reebok brand. rapper p. barren davis is in talks to buy it. adecember das ceo joined "closing bell" a couple of weeks ago. >> the industry has been hit like any other industry this year the medium and long term should do word doing self care, healthy good the underlining for the sporting industry is even better than before what is happening before has

nothing to do with the consideration. >> one big question will be the price. there are reports and rumors they are reporting $2.4 billion. remember, adidas bought reebok several years ago for $3.8 billion when it was in its peak. never rebounded but this is an interesting set of buyers because there has always been hip hop in this brand's blood. jay-z had a sneaker with reebok. more roonl they signed cardi b. and other hip hop stars. it is interesting. it would make sense. and i think people, consumers would be happy about it. >> if that price of $2 billion or so comes out, clearly that's lower than what they paid. i saw they wrote down the value in their accounts to less than $1 billion an uplift in that sense whether expected or not. my question is whether this is a bit of a lose/lose or

neutral/neutral for adidas, that it needs to break out and be on its own to recover its full value and they have to sell it cheaper than they would have liked in order to achieve that. >> they have tried to turn this brand over the years it had a resurgence when old school retro brands were more popular but it hasn't been a growth brand especially when they have brands like yeezy, much more front and center to the brand. but it shows you hip hop stars, cultural icons even more so than athletes are sellers in the retail world master p. could make sense and want in on this deal. >> great that you ask fhim abou this back in december. you also asked him about arsenal. >> he said he didn't row get it. he hopes they will win more

games. >> he said that he has to tow the party line i don't think he said it with all of the passion and conviction he could have arsenal just won today would you we have to move on. still ahead, investor dan files joined us last year with his top five pictures. collectively they returned 60% on average this year coming up next, he will tell us what his top five picks are for next year. (♪ ) keeping your oysters growing while keeping your business growing has you swamped. (♪ )

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30 minutes left of trade time now for our daily coronavirus tracker. more than 2 million americans have now received a first dose of either pfizer or moderna's coronavirus vaccine. that's according to the cdc. but dr. anthony fauci says operation warp speed will fall short of its goal to vaccinate 20 million americans by the end of this month. more than 11 million vaccine

doses have been distributed so far. dr. anthony fauci telling cnn this morning that the u.s. is, quote, certainly not at the numbers we wanted to be at at the end of september meanwhile the seven-day average of total cases in the u.s. has been falling but overall december has been a record breaking month more than 5.6 million cases have been added so far, surpassing november's record already. wilfred? >> it is time for a cnbc news update leslie picker has got it for us. >> here's what is happening at this hour. new york state is reducing its quarantine rarmts for people exposed to the coronavirus can now end their qunts after ten days instead of waiting a full two weeks new york reported nearly 11,500 new cases today, just below the one-day record set earlier this month. the "associated press" says alabama's davante smith is this year's top player in college

football he would be the first wide receiver to win the heisman trophy since 1991. in russia, state investigators opened a new criminal case against the kremlin critic alexi navalny he is being accused of defrauding organizations he worked with of millions of dollars. it is suspected he was poisoned. russian intelligence says there was no poisoning. state ahead, elon seeking answers tweeting yesterday he met with oracle's larry he willistson to seek advice. up next we will ask mark fields who advice he would give musk right now. first up is this exquisite bowl of french onion dip.

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try nature's bounty hair, skin and nails gummies. the number one brand to support beautiful hair, glowing skin, and healthy nails. and try advanced, now with two times more biotin. welcome back elon musk was in hawaii supposedly seeking advice from oracle's executive chairman larry ellison.

according the one of his tweets. it comes months after he reached out to apple's tim cook during the darkest days of the model 3 to ask about apple's acquisition. >> i know it is hard for you to speculate what elon musk is thinking but after theier he is wrapping up, at the end of his quarter, up 700% in terms of stock price. what advice should he be seeking? >> well, you know, obviously, going to see larry ellison on his board -- he could be seek advice on anything from strategy to tell me about how you moved your headquarters of oracle to texas. if i -- i think, you know, given the year they have had in & the run-up of the valuation in the stock and the company some of the advice that i would give him and he is probably thinking about is first -- in 2021e has to focus, him and his team, on execution, to grow into the earnings -- or grow into the valuation of the company he has two plants under

construction here in austin and in germany he has a number of products launching like the cyber truck and the roadster and the semi truck. focus on execution secondly, i would recommend that he continues to he had into up battery and product innovation there is a lot of competitors coming in next year. you have new battery tech following like solid state coming down the road in the next five years keeping that lead both in battery technology, product, and software innovation is going to be really important. thirdly, i would also just -- you know, prove to the market that you can actually make money on the base business of manufacturing, designing, and selling vehicles, and have more transparency on his margin and net of the co 2 credits that he sells. finally, there is interesting m&a they can do, snapping up an

innovative supplier or on the other end saying, hey, is there an established oem that he might want to acquire to bring them the manufacturing expertise they may need. >> that's an interesting idea. mark, i mentioned the apple conversation that musk said he had with tim cook. and this comes after news reports that apple's getting into evs what's your reaction to apple taking that on >> well, at the surface, you know, it's difficult to get into the car business it's not like making a cell phonist could be a big stretch but if you dig deeper, if you see some of the huge assets that they would bring to the car business -- obviously, battery expertise, software expertise, they know how to manage a supply chain and do it well you know, at of the core looking to tesla, those are some of the things that have helped them be successful and aem may be looking at it saying, hey, you know, if you look at the whole approach for tim cook, it is around growing

the business, and there is no bigger market, no addressable market that's as big as the car industry it dwarves the cell phone industry so he is looking for growth. it is a difficult endeavor it is not like a cell phone but if they align themselves with the right partners and suppliers it could be done, although i doubt in the time frame that was told, the 2024 time frame. that's a little bit close but it could be later than that. >> when you consider the rules imposed by european economies on electric vehicles by 2030 or 2035, do you think the biden administration can do the same thing? how quickly will that drive the transition to evs from combustion engines. >> what drives ev sales around the world first are government regulations and second government incentives.

when you look at china and europe, they very focused on that that's why the electric vehicle market is gaining as a percent of the whole market. i think here in the u.s. particularly in 2021 you are going to see some pretty significant growth in evs for a couple of reasons. one is the products are coming ford coming out with their mauck e. ge is coming out with new products volkswagen is coming out with an electrified suv. secondly i think the biden administration will provide incentives to support their approach on the environment. when you combine that with more charging infrastructure that customers will see, and then lastly, what i call the neighbor effect, is when you start seeing your neighbors actually buying electric vehicles and a new technology, it almost then allows you to buy it as well, because you don't want to be viewed as being left behind. whereas now, it has always been

more of an experiment. next year i think it is going to go more mainstream. >> hmm how would you play that? how would you tell investors to think about it is it the traditional automakers parts suppliers? who are the winners? >> i think when you look at the major automakers, they are not just giving this market up you have some very compelling products coming into the marketplace. ford with their mauck e. they are sold out. there is going to be competition there. i don't think that's been recognized yet in the valuation of the established automakers. secondly, i think key suppliers that -- it is the old pick and shovel analogy if you are a supplier that has a unique component that provides for the electric drive train or the thermal management of the vehicle, that could be very interesting. i also think, though, that a lot of the ev companies that have gone public thissier through spacs, my prediction for next

year you are going to see a number of them come under operational and financial pressure because it takes a lot of money to get into the auto business they raised -- went public to get the capital. that's their main reason they are going to immediate more capital at some point. the question is will the market allow them to do that. >> there is optimism about a big consumer recovery next year. auto stocks benefitted over the last quarter because of that how quickly could that optimism be own dochb if rates raise? as it relies on financing more than many other consumer purchase items >> it could impact it. the three factors that impact car demand are low interest rates. that helps it. did we have that yes. secondly is low employment do we have that? no but it is getting lower. and the third is, do you have wage growth? we haven't yet seen that yet since covid. but now that we have this vaccine, it could.

but, clearly, interest rates play a big part because, obviously, as interest rates go up and as people want to finance their cars, their monthly payment goes up. that could crimp the market for next year. i am pretty bullish. i think next year you will see the market up 10% or 12% but i think it will be a tale of two halves the first half inventory is going to be a problem. you will see nice praysing for the automakers but they won't have a lot of stock. they are rebuilding their stocks second half of the year as they get the production out you will see more incentives in the marketplace which could make the market more difficult for the oems but overall i think the demand will be better than this year. >> mark fields thank you for joining us great to see you as always. >> thanks, wilfred. we have got, what, 17 minutes left we are well off the session lows a good final hour of trade so far at least the dow is only down 28 points

now. it was down by 130 up next, boeing's 737 max takes flight and snap soars those stories and many more when we go inside the "market zone. hey, dad!

hey, son! no dad, it's a video call. you got to move the phone in front of you like..like it's a mirror, dad. you know? alright, okay. how's that?

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stocks hit record highs straight after the open, dipped into the red straight afterwards. but they are off their low dow down about 10 basis points the russel lagging down 2% mike, clearly, only positive briefly. but we are off the lows. what are some of the other factors you are watching today we talked about the s&p levels the vix picking up as well >> it has. it bounced on the selloff this morning. it has been resistant to going lower than the low 20s for a while now. the ig issue today is the broad big cap market has had mild moves. yes it tagged this all-time high and then backed off a little bit. really the pressure that has built up on the relentless kbrind higher in the market is being let out by the over heated areas of the market getting a sharp pullback the ipos and all the other sectors that everybody looked at and pointed to and said aha it is frothy and muddy.

they are coming off a lot. the rest of the market is sitting there. we have the strong seasonal tail winds that are usually to have the fight as we get to the end of the year. >> there is also the headlines come out of washington, charlie. the market got what it wanted in terms of a stimulus bill passed. now there is a new debate whether the stimulus checks should go from $600 to$,000. something the president is urging is that something investors like you would want to see. >> i think we were happy with the general stimulus bill that did have a lot of non-specific non-direct payments. it had stimulus for infrastructure it had payments to transit workers. i think, you know, this is what is always tough, if it is good to give $2,000, why isn't it good to give $5,000? why not $10,000? the obvious answer to that is we have a budget problem, we have a deficit problem. i think the market is starting to care a little bit about deficits all in i would say somewhere between $600 and $2,000.

>> why do you think the market is starting to care? where do you see that? >> we are starting to see interest rates tick up and starting to see people worry about inflation. a year ago when you and i talked about this sara people said there is no inflation, no chance of any inflation now you are starting to see people talk about the effect of massive deficits there has never in history been this kind of government spending, deficits, without inflation and higher interest rates. people talk about japan. but even japan didn't have the kind of federal deficit and debt as a percentage of gdp that we are building to. >> the reason for the higher yield. >> i am saying between march and april of next year i am predicting we are going to have 2.5% cpi maybe even 3% as we start lapping the down months in march, april, and may. when we have 2.5% inflation i think we are going to have a higher treasury rate. >> we will put you on the record on that call, charily. let's talk intel shares popping on news third

point is urging the company to explore strategic alternatives that's according to a letter obtained by cnbc n. a statement, intel saying it, quote welcomes input from all investors regarding enhanced shareholder value n. that spirit, we look forward to engaging with third point on their ideas toward that goal let's bring in stacey rap confrom bernstein. the idea was to explore strategic alternatives what does this mean? >> i doubt this is new the company has been exploring strategic alternatives ever since they amade the announcement in july in fact they are supposed to give some sort of a plan to the street in january on what they are going to do. i think the second thing is that it is up clear even from intel's standpoint how any of this is going to create value. you can create value from this in two different ways. one is you can try to fix the fundamentals or the multiple on

the stock. i don't know that anything they are talking about, splitting the company into design and manufacturing -- none of it fixes any of the fundamental problems that intel is going to have to work through n. terms of picking the multiple, if you split the company for example, you would be faced with a product design company which is losing share and a manufacturing company which is la guardiaing and fully dependent on one customer i don't know why you would want to put any kind of a multiple on either of those. i think it is really unclear how any of this would help or change the situation that intel already finds themselves in. >> stacey, tell us about the multiple where has it got to? how low is it and where is it standing relative to rivals. >> it's cheap. i have been saying, the bull call is it is cheap, very inexpensiv inexpensive. even our numbers, which are below the street, it is very inexpensive and maybe something will go right. i forget where it is trading,

nine or ten times. other names in those stocks are higher than that it is cheap for a reason semis and broadly in tech you never sell a stock just because it is expensive. and never buy one because it is cheap. i think that's the real call from the bulls that it is inexpensive. that is not an attractive call in my opinion. >> one of the claims in the letter is that intel's decline represents a national security concern. we fear america's leading emg in semiconductor supply will erode. is that what is happening. >> this is one of the few areas for suspect support in washington right now is support for semiconductors the u.s. share of manufacturing in semis has been coming down for tech aids. only three companies doing

manufacturing. taiwanese, and korean: you know i have said this before. we have written about it most of the tsmc is by far the leading manufacturer they are taiwanese taiwan is almost becoming strategically the most important country in the world it is and 150 miles off shore from china and they think they own the ground that it sits in there are geopolitical aspects to this. this is not new. intel has been front and center on a lot of the lobbying going back and forth around this issue. i don't know what third point brings here but certainly it is an issue that intel and frankly the u.s. industry, and the u.s. government and the semiconductor industry has whole has to wrestle with. >> stacey thanks for that. charlie, quick question. where do you stand on intel? >> it is a cheap stock as a value investor we love

these non-p/e stocks but technology is the one wrais place where you really can get burned here. obviously there aren't a lot of barriers to entry in the chip world. they are clearly losing customers. in general we love low p/e stocks but this is one we stayed away from. shares of snap chat surging today, jp morgan raising their insight to $70 a area. it is currently at $47 the shares up about 5% off the back of this mike, snap's performed well this year both on its fundamentals and its share price of late. i guess it is a sign not just of some of the multiples in that sector but eps might play catchup next year? >> it will have to if you look at the proo to

earnings multiple it is three times twitter. three times the market cap and twitter, 45. one of the things it is benefiting from the social media digital advertising play that's essentially free of regulatory concern. it is the switzerland. that's probably bolstering it. the street has never been more bullish on the stock in terms of rating it has this narrative momentum, the price momentum and it will have to substantiate that with results next year i would think. let's turn to boeing it is higher today the company's 737 max resumed plays for u.s. passengers after being halted for nearly two years. phil lebeau just got off that flight and joins us now from la guardia airport in new york. tell us about it. >> reporter: this is the day boeing has been waiting for. the good news here, it was an uneventful flight, which is exactly what all the airlines are looking for regarding the

max. when we took off in miami they said here we go, this is the first 737 max flight in 20 months it was an uneventful two and a half hour flight it was uneventful. when people on board were asked did you know this was a max clearly some people on board the know it was the max. they did want to be on that flight but there were a few customers who were simply taking a flight from miami to new york who said i thought about it as we were taking off but it was like any other flight. shares of american airlines -- they have 34 737 maks certified to go back into service. they are going to feather those back into the schedule over the next several months. the shares are down a little bit today. we all understand what is going on with american and the entire industry, the pandemic and what it means for demand in the first quarter. that's driving the stock right now. >> what's the expectation for global regulators to still approve this plane and for other

companies to start making orders >> the expectation is that you will see other countries eventually, in the next couple of months if not sooner sign off on the max european airlines will bring it back into their fleets over the next few months. then the question is when will china? when will the regulators say okay you are good to go with the max. in terms of orders we expect that to pick up over the next year or so >> phil lebeau thanks for that under two minutes left in the session. down .2 on the s&p what are the internals telling you. >> weak. more volume to the downside than the upside today over allindexes are modestly lower. you see the average stock is underperforming and you have heaviness in terms of the internals. light volume overall not a lot of urgent selling necessary tree do want to look at the small

caps, russell 2000 against the s&p 500. russel was the clear leader. still up month to date and quarter to date since the lows but just about the same return as the s&p 500 then volatility, as we were saying earlier, it hasn't given way very much. the pullback in the s&p this morning gave it a little pop above 23 i have been waiting for this move below 20. it sort of could be a trigger for some hedge fund strategies to start to get more aggressive in the market. it hasn't really happened. maybe it is the georgia runoff keeping things at this level. >> there is the dow, down 63 points intel leads today. apple lags as far as the s&p 500, it is down about a quarter of 1% right now, as we speak there are some sectors that are actually higher today. that would be health care and

consumer discretionary real estate, industrials and energy bringing up the rear in terms of the selling tech is not having a great day the nasdaq isdown.4% all of these are coming off of record high levels the russell 2000, down almost 2% is going to make it the worst performer. but it too has been soaring lately and is also coming off record high levels there is the closing bell. dow down about 70 points we were down 120 at the low? we were down 10 at the low, closing down 68 points on the dow. welcome back to "closing bell," i am wilfred frost along with sara eisen and mike santoli cnbc senior markets commentator down .2 for the dow and is s&p russel continued its relative underperformance so far this week, down 2.2% over the last couple of days compared to the s&p, still up .6% so far this week.

health care and communications were the sectors in the green today. the others all in the red. coming up an exclusive interview with noted investor dan niles. his 2020 picks fared very well we will get his top five stock picks for 2021 biotech stocks surging 60% for this year. an analyst will outline big themes yin that space. charlie is still with us and sally joins the conversation mike santoli i will pick up on what you briefly mentioned there in terms of an even risk coming up on the plus side, if we did get $2,000 would that joet the market higher? on the downside how much might the market react to the runoffs in georgia >> i think the market would welcome the extra support payments if it happened. i don't think it is priced in. i don't think the market is banking on something like that it probably would have more reflgs to the types of stocks that do better

you could top off the spending estimates for the first quarter, the first half of the year that would be about the consumer and the cyclical trade as opposed to the defensive and tech stuff i don't know if that's the major swing factor but you have the georgia runoff coming. a lot of people are focusing on it a lot of wall street firms are insisting that's the next event risk catalyst or something maybe it is too widely watched i don't know what the inference is supposed to be f. the republicans hold the senate does it mean lesser chance of more stimulus the market is overbrought enough there would be no surprise if you get a wobble or a shakeout a little bit lower but there is nothing in terms of fundamentals or credit conditions or all the other stuff that tends to knock things off course. >> sara let's ask you that question what do the georgia runoff results mean for investors we know they are watching and talking about it we mentioned it a hundred times on our air lately.

what is the best result for the market >> the friendliest result for the market is a divided government historically they tend to be republicans. i think today that's what the market is expecting. today we got a little bit of disappointment as a result of the higher stimulus check but we think consumer spending will be strong with that 2 thuds check we expect strong earnings growth because companies have been cutting costs during the pandemic, there should be a lot of operating leverage. earnings should be able to beat consensus and continue to move up for 2021, which is bullish for the market. >> charlie, we know your preference for value stocks. if we do see a bit of a market correction as we enter the new year, say 10%, 20%, which of the big cap tech stocks would you be most drawn to? >> big cap tech stocks unfortunately at this point will

aren't any you can call a value name we obviously should have grabbed apple when it was at a low p/e multiple you are asking me to pick a good stock out of a bad world we love the russell 2000 value names. the small cap value names. mike talked about how the 2,000 value is performing so well this quarter. it beat the s&p 500 yet there is still upside there i would go with lockheed martin. >> i was going to ask which is your favorite value pick for 2021. >> it is still msge. madison square garden trading at about two thirds of the value of its assets when people start going back to knicks and rangers' games, people start to go back to las vegas, msge, at $60 was trading at less than cash. made a run all the way to $100

but we still think it is worth more than 130 there as people go to concerts and basketball games again. >> sara, is the weak dollar we have seen pushing you to invest more overseas? >> we are fans of emerging markets and national markets in 2021 based on the weak dollar and valuations we like latin america and brazil, which was hit hard by the coronavirus could have a strong recovery as the vaccine rolls out. mexico we are bullish on as the relations between u.s. and mexico get better. and asia, impacted , like thailand. >> it is getting awfully crowded that short dollar position thomas peterffy making headlines on cnbc earlier today when he said his customers are net short the market right now >> fantastically unusual thing

happened among our customers about a week ago our customers are almost traditionally long the market. a week ago it has changed. so the interactive brokers are short these options. so it is a very interesting situation. it has never happened in our history that our customers as a whole were net short the market. but as of yesterday, that is the case >> mike santoli, what do you make of that >> he's drying a distinction between the kinds of clients and the tactics that interactive brokers customers are using relative to the rest of retail traders which seem to be gorging on very expensive call options which give the right to own an individual stock going up a lot. that has been rampant. investors who sell a call option

are making advantage of the heavy demand for the upside speculation. they are taking the income -- petter fe was suggesting they are giving a little bit of upside essentially trying to say you know there is a little bit of nuttiness out there, people overpaying for upside exposure his customers are willing to sell into it it is not an outright bet that the market is going to fall apart. he is saying they are going opportunistic by taking some of what this retail is giving them. >> charlie, nonetheless, do you think there is quite a few signs out there of overbought factors that make you think we might have a bit of a putback? >> we run a program in 64 eighth grade schools in the city of chicago where the kids pick their own stock. for the last 12 months 58 of those schools beat the s&p why?

they were buying tesla, amazon, google they think it is easy to buy the high flying stock. it can't be good for the market when eighth grade remembers crushing it. >> are you saying the tide is going to turn in 2021? >> imsaying it is not's easy as the kids think it is and it cannot be that inthe way to win at investing is to buy what's going up in the last couple of years. that's good in momentum markets and when it turns it is ugly. >> president-elect biden speaking this afternoon about the coronavirus. ylan mois that highlights for us >> biden slammed the trump administration for failing to meet its stated goal of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of the year. so far, the cdc reports that only about 2 million people have been vaccinated so far >> trump administration's plan to distribute vaccines is falling behind, far behind we are grateful to the

companies, the doctors, the scientists, the researchers, the clinical trial participants, and operation warp speed for developing the vaccines quickly. but as i long feared and warned, the effort to distribute and administer the vaccine is not progressing as it should >> biden reiterated his administration's own ambitious goal of vaccinating 100 people within his first 1-days. but he said he can only do that if congress provides necessary funding. he also said he intends to invoke the defense production act to ensure there are enough materials to produce the vaccine domestically as well as increase manufacturing of ppe guys, he also warned that the next few weeks and months could end up being the hardest of the pandemic but that he does see a return to normalcy in 2021 back to you. >> ylan, 100 million in the first 100 days would be a great result of course he also just reading the wire said this is going to take years

not months to vaccinate the american people. who was the ultimate bottom line that we will be on track by the middle of next year? >> he said that if vaccinations continue at their current pace, that it could take years in order to vaccinate the entire public however, his administration is proposing more money to go to states to help them distribute and administer the vaccine he said that's what's going to be needed in order to reach that goal of 100 million people vaccinated in the first 100 days again, this all goes back to money, wilf. >> ylan moi, thank you very much sara, should it change investors' time line for when we can expect the u.s. to reach herd immunity if we are going at such a slow pace versus expectations already >> the logistics of rolling out vaccine versus the increase in the third wave of the virus are definitely a risk for the markets. i think the markets most likely will start to look through that because we have a light at the end of the tunnel. and we have a good backdrop for

equities low interest rates, low inflation, we expect lower volatility next year and lower correlation between asset classes. even thinking about why people are shorting the markets that's mostly a valuation game. i think that could be a challenge because earnings growth should pick up and that should be what helps the markets move forward from here we think it is probably a looser's game to try to time the markets and short them blink and you might miss that dip that you could see because of a slow down in the roll out the vaccine. >> hopefully we will get more supplies from more companies on line we will leave it there. shares of amd soaring this year up nearly 100%. last year alpha one capital dan niles named that as a p topick for 2020 up next, we will outline his picks for next year. "closing bell" in just 90 seconds.

the market ending the day in the red after hitting record intraday highs earlier in the session. year to date, the nasdaq surging more than 40%. dan niles of apple won capital partners came on "closing bell" at the end of 2019 he gave us his top five picks for 2020 leaning on the tech sector as he often does. he picked amd, disney, facebook, lieument up and nvidia with an average year to date performance of 60%

let's bring dan niles in and find out what he is picking for next year. before we get to those picks for 2021, give us your thinking of why you picked those five names -- great picks by the way, the average return 60 odd pores if you they would them throughout the year. i know you traded in and out a bit. what was your thinking this time last year for those names? i think to admit an element of that return was stay-at-home economy. >> you have luck and problems as well obviously, disney, shutting down all of their parks and movies wasn't great we have sort of this combination. i think the nice thing about last year, especially for a name like facebook for example, it held in really well even though we went through a recession and obviously advertising drops quite a bit during a recession but there was enough money going into the internet economy that their advertising revenue actually held in really well

it was a great acid test as i like to call it for a lot of these names and how sturdy their business models were that makes me feel good about these names. last year we thought we were cheap, thought they had good growth in front of them. that turned out to be the case as you or sara mentioned in the lead-in. this year our picks only has one tech name in there and the rest are outside that sector where we think there are better values to be found. >> so your five picks this year, jp morgan, the xle energy etf, magna international, oracle, and gan limited. we will go through the five names individually in a moment talk us through why the pivot away from tack into signals out of the core tech sector for a couple of the names, custom is not typical for you. >> i mean, i think when you think about the markets, a lot of this comes down to a very big

picture view we have whichis inflation really hasn' been in existence arguably for the last decade. and if you look at where prices are right now for a lot of different commodities. you look at zinc or copper or nickel, they are up over 20% year to date in the middle of a recession. you look at food pricing around things like wheat or corn, that's up 10%, plus, as well and even high-priced items like homes are up i think 7% year to date and used cars are up 17% year the date this hasn't shown up in the inflation numbers. but when you look at ten-year treasuries they started the year at 1.9%. they are now at .9 understand. i think if you see economies open up next year, custom i firmly believe they will, it wouldn't surprise me to see ten-year treasuries to go well above 2% which most people aren't looking at right now. if you believe inflation is already here, today, what happens when economies reopen, that changes your play back at

what you want to look at and tech stocks like low interest rates because they are long duration assets without getting too fweeky on it, ecf multiples like very low interest rates to discount those future growths if that goes up then those become a lot less attractive to names that benefits from higher rates like banks for example. >> typically doesn't benefit from higher rates, though, this is a sector that borrowed heavily. i would argue they look appealing. the bear case is high rates. the bear case is that this is in a secular decline, this industry, and esg has pushed a lot of investors away from these types of names why are you investing there next year. >> if you look at the energy space, which is what you are referring to sara. you have had underinvestment in things in commodities, agricultural mining and oil and

gas for arguably the last decade that's where a lot of the value names you could potentially find if you believe that economies open up again, we all go driving, we get on airplanes again. oil demand is going to pick up it started the year at $60 a barrel after a year, it is continued under investment even though we are in a recession oil is trading in the low 40s we think there is a shot it lits the high 60s next year i actually had to charge my truck yesterday because i haven't driven it in a while these are names that are picking up because we view this as a place play where demand will be driven by reopening. we think the oil and gas space, energy sector, xle is nicely

diversified. that's good thing that will bounce pretty heavily if -- you know, for all the reasons you cited, esg, et cetera, all of those things are already embedded in those prices some of those concerns start to switch again we are not going to switch to electric vehicles overnight. it is going to take decades. >> dan, tell us about mga, nag in a international, what does that company do? >> that company gives the other side of what sara was asking about on energy. magna plays is other ends of it. they are in the automotive space. for those not familiar with it the company trades at about a 14 or so p/e -- actually a 12 p/e and they have agreements with fisker automotive, waymo, which is the subdivision of google for electric vehicles and it was rumored several years ago they were working on apple when they started up their vehicle effort. so it is a very cheap way to get

exposure to electric vehicles because you may have seen last week they had an agreement with lg electronics to get the other pieces of technology that they didn't already have and they set up a joint venture for that. this is a very cheap way to get exposure in that theme in something where you are not paying an exorbitant multiple to get exposure to that space having said that, we are early only 3% of autos are evs obviously that's going to grow with time. wanted to pick out your tech pick of the bunch, oracle, one of the least sexy names i can think of in tech and hasn't seen growth in a while. the stock moved up a little bit but nothing compared to the broader tech sector or the nasdaq or the s&p 500. what changes in 2021 >> you probably sara asked -- that on the margin might be my favorite pick on a risk to reward basis it doesn't necessarily have some of the upside that some stocks in energy might, or other

spaces but this stock as you said is not sexy it hasn't grown in three years on the top line. and arguably, the space that has seen the fastest growth, which is software. underneath the covers, what is interesting is finally, if you look at it, they have got their cloud business -- don't forget, they host companies like tiktok, which was a new customer for them that cloud business is growing close to 140% year over year, it is about a billion dollar run rate right now and they have an autonomous -- business agreeing at 60% year over year. that business is half a billion dollar run rate. they are starting to get big enough to matter for a company that has had no revenue growth and trading at a 14 multiple with the s&p trading at 21. if they get into the 5 or 10%

range, which could happen as people say google, microsoft, amazon are fantastic cloud plays but we already use oracle daibs and applications, if some of those customers decide to use them they could see mass multiple expansion don't forget what happens to microsoft when settia took over as people changed the perception as to what microsoft is. oracle isn't in that vein but it is a process it won't happen overnight but i think that's the ribest risk to reward play. >> you saw the letter to intel from one of its shareholders today. >> it would be more interesting if intel weren't already trying to make a lot of hanges. they talked about the fact they are thinking about outsourcing to tsmc.

they have a lot of products already being manufactured they are already doing a lot of things this doesn't really fix that issue in my mind because intel is already aggressively trying to fix things. their revenue is up 5% the stock down 20% in a tape where everything is going up because of multiple expansion. the reason is you have got customers like apple which launched their own pcs with their own chips that they designed internally. a week or two ago microsoft talked about designing their own chips that they were going to use in some of their products as well let's not forget the competitive environment. amd continues to gain share because they switched to tsmc a long time ago and worked out all of those kinks and nvidia which is looking to acquire arm, the technology in a a lot of the processors companies -- the internals that they are designed on which will make them more formidable for

me, i think intel is a melting ice cube obviously they benefitted from the stay-at-home working that's going to taper off. super cheap shot might be worth taking a shot on as a small portion of your portfolio but you are really banking on it being a cheap stock and hoping something improves as opposed to any catalyst for change. orac oracle, which i like much better is in the same vain. legacy tech. unsexy stock but at least they have businesses growing super fast that could make the stock go up for fundamental reasons. >> dan, to round things off clearly there is a big shift in the theme of your top five picks for 2021 fired to 2020 as we have been discussing are you also outrate bearish on the nasdaq or the big tech outperformers of this past year? do you expect them to pull back 10%, 20% >> i think if you have a view

that stimulus has driven the market, we wrote some of the stuff on dan niles.com so there is a lot of detail there for investors if they want to look at that. if you believe inflation is going to be an issue next year and rates are going to go up and given money supply is up 25% year over year -- if all of that stuff starts the become more problematic, then you have to believe multiples compress so, yes, i'm definitely on the more cautious side i am definitely thinking, where can i find value in tech, which is why oracle is in there, for example. yeah, i am a lot more concerned that 25% year over year money supply growth -- by the way at the peak of the financial crisis it was only 10%. that gives you an idea of how much more stimulus we have thrown into this yeah, you would think multiples have to compress a fair bit next year custom makes me more cautious. >> dan niles thank you for your picks. thank you for joining us and sharing them with us first. >> thank you. coming up, mike is back with

a look at the measure of market uncertainty right now. plus, more inowe vague than ever, bye-byeio tech analyst michael thieve s feels the bullishness continues into next year and has stock picks as well through the year 2021. - i knew snhu was the place for me when i saw how affordable it was. i ran to my husband with my computer and i said, "look, we can do this." - [narrator] take advantage of some of the lowest online tuition rates in the nation. find your degree at snhu.edu.

stocks pulled off record levels today, pulled off from those highs. let's go back to mike santoli for a look at the economic surprise index. >> the u.s. citi economic surprise index, the magnitude of the shock, the depth of the decline, also the policy response and the upside surprise in terms of the economy fairing better than economists expected. that's probably never going to be repeated again. a consistent show of better than expected results now they have adjusted this is going to come back down as economists raise their vos and the data coming closer to consensus but we are trending lower. that happened at a time when the overall markets are much more focused to just turning their sights to next year. the numbers coming in now are less important than what happens post vaccine and during the

first quarter of 2021. ten-year yields minus two-year yields three recovery cycles, early 2000s, then of course right in here in the financial crisis recession, coming out of that. then you see this steepening move it has been pretty steady. in other words the bond market is still positions for better economic results looking on meanwhile with the fed very much anchoring short-term rates near zero it seems like the markets themselves are not worried you wonder how long it could last if things continue this way next year. >> i think that index is going to be key next year because expectations are rising so much for higher growth. >> no doubt about it now, i think it is still a wide range in terms of gdp growth for next year and unemployment for next year. but there is no doubt everybody expects an acceleration.

we are going to have to see that proven out before too long. >> mike, thank you. coming up, moderna has been a big winner in 2020 but the stock's 30% off its highs this month wnad irithe analyst who dogredt ght near the top. we will ask him what comes next for that stock and other names in the sector. d which supermarket gives you the most bang for your buck. something else that's good to know? if you have medicare and medicaid you may be able to get more healthcare benefits through a humana medicare advantage plan. call the number on your screen now and speak to a licensed humana sales agent to see if you qualify. learn about plans that could give you more healthcare benefits than you have today. depending on the plan you choose, you could have your doctor, hospital and prescription drug coverage in one convenient plan. from humana, a company with nearly 60 years of experience in the healthcare industry. you'll have lots of doctors and specialists

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options, answer any questions you have and, if you're eligible, help you enroll over the phone. call today and we'll also send this free guide. humana, a more human way to healthcare. welcome back it has been an incredible year of innovation and growth for the biotech space capped off by the rapid development of the covid-19 vaccine of course

the s&p 500 biotech etf has been up more than 50% year to date. michael ye managing director at jefferies says these valuations are here to stay and joins us now. first credit where credit is due on the moderna call. you downgraded it and it has been significantly off of its high after the tremendous run-up into the vaccine is this buy the rumor sell the facts. >> i think that was part of the downgrade. there were massive expectations on the positive date everyone has big numbers for 2021 and we have competitor news from around the corner from j&j and astrazeneca. stay tuned for that but obviously the stock had a huge run. >> some are bullish on it and say that the mrna platform has been working and they have a number of other contenders -- other drugs or potential vaccines they can use around the

technology. >> absolutely. i think that's absolutely true i would say in the short to medium term let's let the covid-19 vaccine angle play out a bit. but absolutely moderna has other programs coming right behind it. we are positive on those let's get beyond the next quarter or two on the rollout. >> i know, michael, you don't cover the stock specifically, astrazeneca, in the uk but what is the latest expectation on possible approvals whether overseas or here for their vaccine >> absolutely. in january we are expecting astrazeneca to come out with a brand-new phase three study run in the united states i do expect that study to be positive, show very good efficacy that's one of the competitor data sets that are going to read out. and i think that that product will be distributed around the world. and i know that united kingdom is about to approve it out there. the expectations that's going to work -- i don't think it is going to be as good as the moderna one, but certainly good

enough, and usable and we need a lot more vaccines. so i expect that shortly. >> you are not too hot on moderna but you do expect xbi to be a good bet after already such a big run-up this year what will drive it up? >> i want to separate the covid-19 vaccine stocks from the biotech innovation thesis. we were talking about this in 2020 i think the market is on board with that for 2021, which is in this low interest rate environment innovation, growth and disruption is going to be a key these nis 2021 i can't imagine one of the more important sectors where that is playing out is in biotech. i expect with drug pricing behind us a market where technologies are working like moderna that also going to be 200 companies in the index that are going to be exciting stories for 2021 i expect they have breaking out

here, and we have mid cap stocks that we like going into 2021. >> mike we were discussing with dan niles the possibility of higher interest rates hurting broader tech valuations. does that apply here as well or not? >> i think interest rates are one of the many components that i think people think about as a driver for the overall growth of the market and whether we should be coming off. i would say more important leonor biotech investors people taking a 12 or 24-month view that many of these small and mid cap biotechnology companies have massive innovation playing out both with the technology w the platform, and the new innovations from gene sequencing over the last year, gene editing and that's truly what is driving the growth in this sector. moderna i think is one gigantic example of that, but there are many others. morphic and schrodinger and alena. many of these companies are exciting for 2021. that's the place i am focused

on. >> one of the key risks is always the politics. once a key politician utters drug pricing regulation that scares investors is that off the table because we are depending on the sector so much because of covid? >> i think that's part of the recent run-up as well as the fact as the fact there was not a complete blue sweep post november 4th that's really when the xpi started to take off. we expect a pullback here. it has had a tremendous run. i am expecting a pullback and a breather in january and february we would be buying the dip because while drug pricing is still going to be a topic, i think the tail winds, the growth, the innovation, the science, that really takes the brunt of the -- the attention here that's driving this group and will drive it in 2021.

expect more noise around drug pricing but i don't think it is going to be disastrous for this sector like four years ago. >> michael yee thank you for joining us. >> thanks for being here yep. alibaba is in the cross hairs of chinese regulators and it has put serious pressure on the share price. one analyst says he is sticking e oc his bullish stance today. thstk is up 6% in part because of that call he will join us next came from . really. my first idea was "in one quarter of an hour, your savings will tower... over you. figuratively speaking." but that's not catchy, is it? that's not going to swim about in your brain. so i thought, what about... 15 minutes. 15 percent. serendipity. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

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welcome back time for a cnbc news update with leslie picker. >> here's what's happening at this hour. president-elect biden says vaccinations have not been happening fast enough. he plans to use the defense production act to ramp up the country's response to covid-19 in the meantime, biden wants americans to mask up >> i am going to be asking the american people to wear a mask for the first 100 days of my administration it is not a political statement. it is a patriotic duty our administration is going to require mask-wearing where i have the power to do so -- for federal workers, in federal facilities, on interstate travel like planes and trains >> in boston, a controversial

statue of president lincoln has been removed from a city park. the emancipation group statue featured a freed black man on his knees next to link on. >> in new mexico, a rare baby hippo has beaten the odds, he is now in good health and starting to eat solid foods i wish i could say the same about my baby, sara. >> hopefully he's in good health. >> he will have to take a cue from the hippo he is in good health he is just stubborn. >> i know that feeling only french fries in my house. >> yeah. >> up next, the chinese e-commerce company bouncing back after a brute week, finished up 6% one analyst says it could climb another 30%. he will join us to explain why, next sometimes, you want speedy but reliable. state-of-the-art but dependable.

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have squalli with truist thank you for phoning in it is one thing to buy u.s. tech companies, but do you want to really going up against the prc in china >> sara, thank for having me on. that's a very fair question. i think that's the driver for the 30% plunge that the stock has seen in the last couple of months that said, we go from the assumption, which i think is an important one, that we don't believe that the chinese government is out to destroy alibaba or any of their other large national champions but in this particular case, i think they are really out to get jack ma back down to size. we have all seen and read some of his comments in late october that did not sit very well with the chinese, you know, leadership that said, we think that, you know, alibaba and ant have been

the primary drivers of china's new digital economy really b benefiting the chinese consumers but carrying the torch for chinese ingenuity and entrepreneur around the world. i think as long as they are able to keep jack ma under control, quote, unquote, and get ant to play within existing rules and stay within its lanes as it has reported then i think alibaba is going to be fine if you look at the numbers, it is the fastest growing tech mega cap that we cover. it's the most profitable and it is the cheapest we think it really offers a very attractive risk reward here. >> what about the chinese government potentially taking a stake in that country? doesn't that represent a risk for u.s. investors >> not necessarily ant financial already has partial ownership by the chinese

government if you look at the prospects for its ipo which got obviously turned down at the last minute we were talking about a $313 billion valuation, more than any of the buy said or the sell side anticipated. i don't think the chinese government being a partial owner of a chinese asset through its multitude of businesses is in and of itself an issue if anything, what could twist that on its head and say, well, it's in chinese government's best interests to make sure those businesses are well run and do well. >> do you like this stock, yousef, in its own right with all these risks considered or is it just that it is attractive, say, relative to an amazon based on valuation multiples? >> no, we like it. we think, like, the chinese -- i mean, we initiated a round of the ipo. it dates us. the country risk, the political

risk, the voorks ie risk, the currency risk, et cetera, all of these risks having around since day one. even with that this has been one of the fastest growing mega caps they really -- against all odds they have been very successful in dominating i think they are going through a tough patch. we cover google and an zahn and the others and we know they are under government scrutiny. it is another thing altogether to be dealing with totalitarian regime like the chinese government to a large degree i think that is baked into the stock where we came in this morning and reiterated the buy

>> thanks for joining us much appreciated up next, tackling long lines. long lines of people waiting in front of stores and doctor's offices. virtual waiting lists. which other companies are adopting it, coming up new projects means new project managers.

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we have the governor of colorado on as our guest in the last hour. news from his office he just tweeted since then >> the worry is that the mutation could be more infectious, but our vaccinations should be more effective we haven't heard about it being anything more different in terms of mortality, just that it's 20 more transmissible >> it is more likely around the

world but just not identified in other countries, not to downplay the significance of it just that we have probably already been dealing with it and it hasn't derailed the market. up next, long lines amid the pandemic and virtual cues. the technology and companies behind it. and don't miss tonight's "streets of dreams." amd sissto crack the code on the dionbune in new york city's notoriously secret diamond district

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hey, worried about long lines outside this winter, but it's controlling lines inside that others are worried about, like retailers, lulu lemon

introduced this and 100,000 people signed up hartford health system has signed up for a while. the co-founder thinks the communication should outlast the pandemic >> after covid, having people be more aware what the wait time is before they even choose to go to an office or space >> like zoom for meetings, telemedicine for doctor's appointments this could change the way we meet for good. if you have to take your kid to the pediatrician, you want to know if they are running 45 minutes behind >> 100% i do >> i am going to use that technology tomorrow for a test following my return to the city. i hope it works efficiently. thank you for that

final thoughts on the market mike, one thing that stands out, the dxy today below 90, so something to keep your eye on. >> the trends that have been in place. and overnight rallies in the equities future. nobody wants to get in the way of that leaf tags move >> two more days in the trading week that does it for us. "fast money" begins now. >> i'm melissa lee this is "fast money. tonight on fast everyone loves a comeback story, but which of this year's stocks comebacks can keep up the momentum and a value investors dream. recently sold off stock that one of our traders is adding to thei