this is meaningful to you and if it's not then you just accept the fact one day the market will top and it will be painful and we don't know when that will be. >> everybody give me a name, josh, then tiffany, doc and steph. >> i'm sticking with uber. think it will have a good year. >> nixter energy. >> jon >> boeing. >> steph >> halliburton oil service >> good stuff. thanks for watching. "the exchange" starts right now. >> thank you, scott. hi, everybody, and welcome to "the exchange. i'm kelly evans. investors are anxiously awaiting for the results of the georgia race the outcome could affect everything from beg tech to banks and infrastructure we will break it all down. plus, morgan stanley says the fed will announce tapering this year and one prominent fed member says that it's on the table. could it leave to a taper tantrum like it did in 2013, and as bitcoin's rally just a repeat of 2017? one expert says it's different

this time because of the big money. he'll join us but we'll start with the markets this hour mike santoli has more on that. hi, mike. >> hi, kelly markets are moving kind of in lock step all across the index yesterday they were down a percent and a half pretty much in harmony shows you regaining a third of yesterday's losses. look at the s&p 500 over the last few months. little shakeout we got yesterday didn't disturb what's been going on for at least a month or so, december 4th closed at 3419 and january 4th closed at 3700 under the surface a lot of churn and stocks down a fair bit from their highs so maybe this has been a refreshing in consolidation or start of a new choppy phase energy material this, stuff is moving crude is higher above $50 a barrel, wti, opec meeting, but also there's been a global reflationary sentiment and sentiments going up and we do have all commodities running, especially miners related to cold and silver and take a look at treasury yields you know really good ism number,

nunging this hard, .96 this was your high back in november .88 as a close so pretty much that trend remains intact as well >> 0.96% that was a scorching number so we're definitely going to be watching that. mike, thank you for now. appreciate it. today's runoff election in georgia has turned into one of the most expensive senate races in history let's get to ylan mui as the companies and monies pouring money into this high-stakes elections. >> reporter: the numbers are really staggering. if you add up how much had the candidates themselves raise and add in all the outside money, the total amount that has been cement on these two races is over $880 million according to the center for responsive politics let's break the number down. here's how much was donated directly to the candidate, david perdue, the gop incumbent, has raised $9 million but his challenger jon ossoff has pulled

until a whopping $138 million and republican senator kelly loeffler has received 1892 million compared to raphael warn yog with $124 million. the industries that are driving the numbers are also very different. for democrats the top sectors are education, law firms and tech companies for republicans it's all about real estate companies and investment firms, though interestingly the health care sector has been a major donor to both parties now, when you start to look at some of the outside money the dynamics change because most that have has been deployed on behalf of the republicans. the national association of realtors and the american bankers association together have spent millions of dollars in support of senator perdue and then, of course, there's the georgia victory fund which was set up to help senator loeffler's campaign and her husband who runs the new york stock exchange is one of the major donors there, and that fund has spent $18 million on her race kelly? >> you know, it's interesting to dwell on each of these times,

ylan the national association of realtors pouring money in, more than the banking group what are you hearing and what do we know about this point about how this may be tilting outcome, and where are we right now on what many people have been calling a coin toss? >> yeah. you would think that the money would go where the winning candidate might be, but it's really not clear that all of the money that's sloshing around here is going to make a difference at the end of the day. what we saw in the general election back in november was that democrats outspent republicans almost 2-1 overall democrats spent about $6.9 billion compared to republicans spending $3.8 billion but the blue wave, the democrats spent all that money hoping to achieve it didn't materialize. they won the white house and lost seats in the house hand now we're down to this coin toss in the senate, so it is unclear what the return on investment for all of this money might be p. >> it's true it was a big reflection point already for the last several

weeks. ylan, appreciate it. check back in with you soon. for more on what's at stake as georgia tallies its vote, i'm joined by james pethokoukis, a cnbc contributor you had a good note that really boiled it dumb a lot of people have been looking past this event interestingly. i mean, yes, it's getting a lot of play, but at the same time maybe not as much as you would think given that it, you know, we have the senate hanging in the balance. tell us what had you think some of the kind of big differences might be based on who retains control. >> i'll tell you if republicans win one of these seats and they maintain control of the senate, i think the biggest macro thing accomplished by congress for 2021 already just happened. that would be the $900 billion stimulus i don't think anything will happen over the next two years that will be anywhere close to as important as that stimulus. i'm extremely skeptical of any

kind of grand bargain between biden and mitch mcconnell, even on things like infrastructure. maybe something but i just don't think it's going to be that big. on the other hand, democrats take those seats and now all of a sudden you have the mini blue wave situation re-emerges then you're talking probably another stimulus package maybe that's $500 billion, $600 billion, still a lot of money. you're talking -- talking some tax hikes, not through the roof but, you know, not insignificant tax hikes, and -- and probably a pretty big infrastructure plan those are two i think starkly different outcomes. >> yeah, and so as you put it, you know, it's the difference between tax hikes and no tax hikes, public option or no public option, section 230 reform or no reform, big infrastructure, maybe no infrastructure, stimulus or no more stimulus. doll markets care of more about tax hikes or stimulus? that's also the question hanging in the balance here. it's one of these events that i

guess between the closeness of the outcome and just how big those policy moves could be over time it's going to take markets some time to digest this. are we even going to know tonight who the winner is? >> well, certainly if it's a repeat of what we saw in november, we have many hours, days if it's going to be that close and it very well might be that close it may take some time to digest it, but i think, listen, no matter which way it goes, even if democrats take these two seats, it's still a very narrow senate and a very narrow house, so who -- who will be sort of that median democratic senator well, listen, it's going to be somebody like kirsten sy nema, mark kelly, joe manchin. that is going to prevent some of these wilder ideas, you know, totally getting rid of all of the trump tax cuts, taking the corporate tax rate up to 35%, the total green new deal that kind of wilder stuff i

think is off the table either way. still, what could change is significant. >> yeah. and finally, who do you think -- i mean, again, just watching the polls for whatever they are worth, the predict it had odds, you know, twitter. what is your - >> nothing more important than what twitter is saying i think you can acknowledge that. >> so what feeling are you getting here, you know, as we've seen some of the really long lines, the heavy turnout, and maybe some questions about how strong the turnout will be on the gop side. >> right from everything i hear democrats are not confident they are going to win this. i realize -- i realize the 538 poll shows democrats doing better i think -- especially after what just happened, everyone is going to be super cautious about predicting a democratic win here, and listen, you know, i thought the big markets did pretty good, you know, two months ago they showed the republicans

winning, and, you know, i think -- to me that's not an insignificant data point, but pretty close. >> yeah. pretty close the that does seem where we are this afternoon could be exciting to watch it come in. jimmy, thank you so much james pethokoukis from aei. who stands to benefit from the possible outcomes for senate control? my next guest is here to say which sectors remain big if the gop remains control and which would be better off with a democratic sweep joining me is a chief investment strategist very interesting to juxtapose what you are about to say with what ylan. tech has been one of the industries pouring money in on the democratic side of the race but tech could actually do better if the gop retains control. explain. >> yeah, indeed. tech stocks have been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the prolific fed liquidity that we've seen since the covid crisis began, and if the dems win both seats, expectations

will rise markedly for a big physical stimulus program and that big physical stimulus program benefits, we think, some more beaten up areas of the market and in particular value stocks, regional banks because yields will likely back up and spending concerns and higher debt and so -- and furthermore potential tax increases would cause investors to sell some of the biggest winners since the pandemic began the. >> so let's go through this one at a time. we can show what you think are the outcomes here if the gop holds the senate for investing style, you think growth and some of of this would be counterintuitive. if the gop holds the senate the investing style is growth. rates are range bound and sector winners are big tech, managed care yes, the oil sector makes more sense. you say on the flip side, if democrats take control and you were just alluding to this, then value wins

the yield curve steepens and regional banks, you know, those could do better. yes, green energy, electric vehicles a little less surprising but explain what the difference is. >> it's really the toggle between physical policy and the fed, right, so if -- as your prior guest alluded to, if the gop holds the senate, they will be very stingy in terms of physical stimulus. they will only do if they really need it and the economy slows so who is going to make up for that will be the fed, so the fed we think if the gop holds both seats or one seat will likely upsize the asset purchase program sometime in the first quarter. that favors the bubble type high valuation growth stocks led by the nasdaq is 100. health care will be a relief rally because there won't be any big changes with health care and in particular managed care on the other hand, if the dems take both seats we expect expectations will increase

markedly and yields are likely to break up and regional banks will benefit there will likely be a infrastructure bill, green and clone will work as well as part that have and, you know, people will probably sell the traditional energy refiners and stocks that are up into higher oil prices today so it's about the fed verses fisk boiling underneath the surface. >> a lot of this will be the knee jerk reaction i'm sure as we move throughout the year and different levers are pulled that will there are other reasons why you might want exposure to some of these areas for instance, thinking through the ism number this morning which without any other stimulus, you know, on tap, you wonder how much more the fed would need to do could you see a scenario or even fiscal would need to do. could you see a scenario in which we could get a yield curve steepening either way even if

it's gop control >> we could, and that's the risk, you know, with some of these high multiple stocks here is we do have rates -- >> we think the fed will try to contain rate below that 1% ten-year yield, magical level, if we can and there's met odds to do that with yield control or doing a twist type of strategy in a meeting later in the spring and, remember, there's is.5 trillion of excess savings out there, and so we could have a scenario even without additional stimulus where the economy in the late spring, early summer is really humming along and that could favor all types of stocks, but i do think that would be more of of a value rally and the dems take both seats in the georgia elections. >> thank you, sir, with some picks for each outcome that we could see as we tally the votes tonight. if you're looking for more stock picks, btig's favorite names for

2021 get the full list at cnbc.com/pro brian sullivan joins us with an opec news alert. what's going on? >> reporter: yeah. if i have to pop off because i'm on the press conference, the saudis shocking everybody in announcing a 1 million barrel a day surprise cut the saudi minister prince abdul aziz joked at the beginning in a he had a surprise for the meeting, and he wasn't kidding they are coming out and cutting by an additional million barrels per day. oil is soaring right now oil stocks are soaring right now. nobody saw this coming i mean, opec generally either leaks all the time and we tend to report on things that are being whispered about. a lot harder to do that virtually. we're seeing the price of oil up 5% right now the xop etf is up 8% and some of the more heavily shorted names up 9%, 10% as well the saudis doing it unilaterally

doing it on their own, basically a gift to show solidarity and, in fact, the russian minister called it a new year's gift and actually briefly smiled. if you know alexander novax, that's a rarity. they will increase production with kazakhstan. a little opec new year's surprise, kelly. >> brian, it's coined of hard to believe that saudi arabia would willingly cut a million barrels of its own output and say it's a gift to the world, happy new year i mean, maybe they looked to the oil price reaction we have wti above $50 for the first time since february. brent would be more of their focus. maybe they think they will make up the declines in the price seems like there has to be more to the story >> there is more to the story as always, and i'll get a little deep here very quickly or may have to hop off. get this the russians want to increase

production in part because they are angry at the united states and certain senators for opposing their nordstream pipeline leading the charge against this is senator ted cruz from where, texas? so it's not opec versus texas. it might be russia versus the texas/ted cruz pause he's been so vocally opposed russia doesn't mind gaining market share, increasing production even if they have to drive the price down because, a, they want the market share, but, b, it's also kind of a message, if you will, to the united states that they don't mind shoving it a little bit in the nose of the u.s. and our oil interests as well. i think the saudis have to may it it a little more delicately especially with the incoming biden administration so the russians get what they want. get to raise production by i think 120 barrels a day.

this is kind of a masterful political move by the saudis as well the russians, one million senator ted cruz going on. a lot going on as always it's truly a geopolitical mystery of epic proportions but the saudis are the ones pulling out the professor plum in the library with the candlestick by dropping the million barrels a day cut and dollars are flying. >> exxon is up 7.5% and bp up 8% and the etf up 8%, cheffon, occidental and marathon up 13% wow, pretty big news the thanks so much for bringing it to us our brian sullivan with the latest on opec and ally's surprising decision to be cut production by a million barrels per day. to trim or not to trim, the

bond buying program could see a slowdown and ism manufacturing hitting a two-year high. how will the market react? and three chinese telecom stocks are being de-listed in a move that's being called confusing and bizarre. what does that tell us we're back in a couple new projects means new project managers.

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welcome back to "the exchange." ism manufacturing gauge jumped to its highest level since august of 2018 roading more support to expectations of a v-shaped economic as raphael bostic says the fed could start trimming its bond-buying program by the end of this year. how likely is it to going to taper? join me is the chief u.s. economist at morgan stanley. ellen, it's great to see you again. what's your best case expectation for any kind of tapering right now >> so i think that definitely president bostic is still in the minority at the fomc, but definitely expressing more optimism, especially as we've seen the efficacy of the vaccine now even with some bobbles of it being rolled out on time in the beginning of the process

so at some point by the middle of this year we would expect policy-makers to sort of coalesce around firming up the discussions on when should they start tapering and we think they will start tapering in the beginning of 2022 which means signalling it at the december meeting and certainly depending on how the vaccine plays out and how the economic activity rebounds on the other side of that can certainly shave that by a month or two in either direct. to me the comments were not that inconsistent with what the market is currently expecting in terms of the timing it and tapering what struck me as very surprising was that he said he wanted to get back to a pre-covid balance sheet in short order, and it's the pace of that tapering that i think would be very surprising. >> i mean, it seems impossible that they will ever be back to a pre-covid balance sheet and a member of the cleveland fed came

out and said she's not expecting a reduction in next year and we're seeing interest rates slightly on the rise, up to about 96 basis points or something. what would happen if markets started to sniff out that maybe the fed will be under pressure to turn the dial back more quickly? >> so i think for the fed the balance sheet is going to actually be very important in terms of anchoring those rate hike expectations. they have to begin tamering the balance sheet and finish that process well before they begin raising rates. that's the order of operations that is currently in the framework of the fed, and so how long they want to take to taper the balance sheet, when they want to start to taper the balance sheet. that means that they can start to take their foot off the gas pedal to use a favorite phrase of former fed chair yellen's, take the foot off the gas pedal

but still control rates and rate expectations because the market is going to not be willing to price in rate hikes until they actually finish tapering so the separation between balance sheet operations and rate hikes is very important for the fed to rain tank, and i do feel like the market remembers the lesson learned from the taper tantrum as does the fed, and i do think that they can stilly separate the two. >> well, you know, you're right in that accepts, but it's still going to be a tough dance i guess to pull off smoothly for the next year or two so the real question becomes how do they respond if the market seems displeased with that, you know what is more important, making sure there's not a policy mistake of premature tightening which which they is the biggest takeaway from this fed or that we're not creating bigger problems with asset bubbles and,

you know, stock market valuations and other asset prices being where they are today. is that something that they would be willing or need to lean against? >> yeah. i think you're getting right at the heart of it, kelly, because this will be a struggle for the next couple of years there is the idea out there that the felled will not allow long-term traits to lower, they want to be able to able to meet the inflation goal, unemployment goal, but the idea that they can't let the ten-year rise at all is just false. you know, the ten-year yields needs to be rising if you have a stronger economy and stronger stumtal backdrop means that will they will increase so naturally expectations for

tapering should come forward naturally. rate height expectations should come forward as we start to bear the fruit of our labor in terms of getting the vaccine rolled out, seeing that rebound on the other side of that and being convinced it will continue so the fed has to have a certain amount for the rates to rise they will have to talk double the financial stability rate or risk rates rising too soon. >> i didn't think this tension would start this soon on january 5th. here we are. thanks so much the. come up, we'll look at why the recent rally in bitcoin is different now than in 8/17 and what the money flows are telling us about what happens next and a more than 400% rally isn't enough for stooefl why they think peloton has more room to run even if the pandemic

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also send this free guide. humana, a more human way to healthcare. welcome back to "the exchange," everybody we're looking at a dow up near the highs of the session, 139 verse us the 116 session high. half percent gains after yesterday's declines take a look at the sectors though only two are in the red right now. consumer staples down a third of a percent but leading the way is energy up feverly 7% right now. just had some big news out of saudi arabia and opec, saudi

saying it's going to be cutting about a million barrels a day of production we'll talk to brian sullivan the whole sector, the stocks are flying crude is up sharply as well. let's take a look at some of the individual movers. we've got shares of first solar lower on a double downgrade on a sell from a buy from goldman citing concerns that earnings and profit margins are peaking and more cyclical headwinds are ahead. it's up 85% in the past six months and shares of alibaba are higher our sources telling david faber that founder jack ma is lying low but not missing. a lot of speculation after his whereabouts after a speech he gave criticizing china's regulators and shares of polty group are down on valuation and increased affordable concerns. hearing a lot more about that later. down 2.5%. let's get over to sue herera for a cnbc covid update. >> hello, kelly. good to see you.

here's what's happening at this hour, everyone a new study from pfizer says just under 47 million americans have gotten covid-19 that's more than twice the number of confirmed cases but still far short of what is needed for herd immunity israel will begin its third national lockdown to slow the spread of the pandemic this despite a very aggressive vaccination program that has already vaccinated more than a tenth of their population. and in scotland first minister nicholas sturgeon says the pandemic is now more serious than at any time since the spring she is urging scots to abide by the national lockdown and stay home she also told president trump not to come to scotland to play golf during joe biden's inauguration she was responding to reports that the glass co-airport had been told to expect the arrival of a u.s. military plane previously used by the president. >> we are not allowing people to come into scotland right now and

that would apply to him just as it applies to anybody else coming to play golf is not what i could consider to be an essential purpose. >> you are up to date, kelly i'll send it back to you >> sue, thank you investment our sue her rare a. coming up, the nysc reversing course and allowing three chinese companies to continue trading despite the u.s. government's request. some are calling the move bizarre. we'll dig into it as all the china stocks are high fliers today as a result. it's a bird, it's a plane, no it's amazon. what's going on there and the rrttle of the bike versus the it's on rapid fire in just a moment i mean, who doesn't love obsessing over network security? all our techs are pros. they know exactly which parking lots have the strongest signal. i just don't have the bandwidth for more business. seriously, i don't have the bandwidth. glitchy video calls with regional offices? yeah, that's my thing. with at&t business, you do the things you love.

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welcome back, everybody. let's catch you up on a few stories that should be also on on your radar. time for "rapid fire." here to break down the headlines a peloton is expecting robust post-pandemic growth for what they call the world's first

global fitness platform and like the pre-core acquisition shaking off yesterday's weakness still up fivefollow. give it a 160 price target and it's at 147 today. >> yeah, and kelly, this is all about introducing this new way of working out, digital acceleration that is -- that has led to the rise of these connected fitness apps kelly, i just even tried the yoga part of the peloton, and i was pretty pleased with it so there's a lot to discover and one of the most interesting stats from its rise is how often people are use the app because it sort of breaks it up into bite-sized pieces so it's not surprising that the brokerage says that there's room to run. i'm a little bit more interested in one that is adding, a buy rating to room this is the digital used car dealership that uses ai to improve its efficiency, just an acquisition to further go down that road, so this is all about the themes that we've been talking about about, kelly, for the last year indeed which is

that digital acceleration which pelton and room are a part of. >> used cars are hot we know that bob? >> where do i start? they are expecting robust pandemic growth for the world's first global fitness platform. where were we, $20 on this stock in march, what are we now, 145, five, six times. think they have figured that out, maybe, and maybe people are going to stay home forever, but maybe some people like me are going to go back to their gyms in 2021. i'm looking forward to that. maybenot use your pelotons as much maybe they will be profitable some day, not right now but next year, maybe 50 cents or so, is 45 divided by 50, 2770 times forward earnings don't worry. the revenues are are expected to growth am i being a curmudgeon about this >> it's a bargain. >> i love it, bob. >> do people keep using peloton, but do they keep adding new customers at the same rate they

are adding them this year, julia? >> well, i think one really interesting place to look for that, kelly, is the deal with precore. this deal not only enables them to ramp up their production and also start making different types of products but also precore has relationships with hotels, clubs, universities and other commercial business partners and this is a great way for peloton to expand there as well to add to bob's curmudgeonliness, there's questions of what kind of apple's fitness app will play in there. i love the pelton fitness offerings, i've done yoga and the cardio but will apple's fite necessary live plus be a rival to that. let's move hey lon and talk about the major move out of the new york stock exchange. they will no longer de-list

three telecom companies. the plans are being dropped after further consultation with regulatory authorities telecom companies run 8% to 12% and shares of other companies are also flying. >> is this an embarrassment to the new york stock exchange or what now, i have to give them a little slack here because what actually happened here there was an order by the president and the treasury department is issuing regulations so obviously what seems to have happened here is they have decided now that these three companies actually don't fall under the regulations anymore. okay that's fair, but why didn't they figure that out before they decided to de-list them? that's the embarrassment and the obvious answer is the regulations are so vague, so

hard to figure out and so difficult to interpret that not even the lawyers at the new york stock exchange working with the treasury could figure that out this is a bit of a black eye for the nyc but also a sign that it's very difficult to actually set up regulations that are clear and that everybody understands what the rules are >> yeah, and -- >> and also, deirdre -- the ownership -- the ownership angle i was going to say on this i think is part of the issue so if you say you can't own or invest in the companies that are -- what is the wording tied to the chinese military, involved with the chinese military, and we all can also probably guess what's going on here, pressure from china. i mean, let's not forgot that they were already talking about ways of retaliating to that move, deirdre. what were you going to say >> yeah. i was going to pick up on bob's curmudgeon threat and your point is exactly right, kelly. china says that wawa doesn't

ha - that huawei doesn't have any real ties to the government. i have one note. $144 billion that's how much chinese companies have raised in the u.s. stock market over the last two decades. you think that the nyse and nasdaq are really going to cut off their nose to spite their face there this is all about dollars. the combined market value of china-based companies with at least a portion of their shares traded in the u.s. that's about $2 trillion and i think that's what it comes down to here, money >> absolutely, and you have to wonder where it's going from here the a black eye, like you said, bob, but also i think a sign of just how deep some of these conflicts run that we iron creasingly going to have to face and maybe they are just betting it will be less acute under a biden administration. >> right. let's talk amazon and talking about what they might be up to. >> kell? >> go ahead. >> s&p today announced that they were not going to remove these three stocks from their global indexes because the new york stock exchange didn't do it so

you see the knock-on effects and you have all of these effects on the global indexes around the world. today the s&p decides we can't do that because the nyse isn't doing it so there's really serious consequences to all of these discussions. >> exactly. >> not academic discussions that we're having >> no, not at all. it's -- it's all about the money like deirdre was just saying all right. as i mentioned amazon up to some new business it's their first ever purchase of aircraft today. they are buying 11 planes from delta airlines and wet gest, boeing's 767s. the expansion of the prime air fleet comes at a time when we're all demanding faster, cheaper delivery for all the goods being ordered online amazon investing big time to keep its delivery edge putting some pressure on shares of fedex and ups today. what do you make of it, julia? >> well, i think this speaks to the fact that amazon understands that its advantage is its scale and its speed, and now it's going to be able to continue to grow and continue to hold on to the growth that it's seen

through the pandemic if it can make the delivery times shorter. this is another way to make sure it's controlling the process it's not reliant on other carriers that might be delivering packages from other companies and to make sure that it can really shorten that delivery time as much as possible kelly, i think we've all gotten spoiled during the pandemic thanks to these short silvery times from amazon and even as people go back about their lives, maybe bob is going back to the gym but i don't think he'll be buying less stocks from amazon >> bob that's absolutely right, and what you said is absolutely correct. sometimes we spend a lot of time trying to dig beneath the surface, what's going on, but you said it right, julia amazon wants to be faster and more efficient and buying their own aircraft is the natural way to do that the story is actually what it seems. it makes perfect sense. >> and -- and -- >> and -- we won't talk about what the usps experience has been like this year. deirdre, go ahead. we'll give you the last word

>> i think it all comes down to one word and that's control. the statement from amazon was so telling. having a mix of least and own aircraft allows us to better manage our operations. comes down to that control, that integration from top to bottom that makes amazon so efficient and that flywheel so powerful. >> yeah. i'm sure boeing doesn't mind either they are getting into the game in a bigger and bigger way. thank you all very much. deirdre bosa, bob pins and julia boorstin for "rapid fire." still ahead, always fall back on winning long-term themes that's how jim cramer says to approach any market selloffs one of his key themes for 2021 is sbeeiler security we've got his picks in the space next and watch us live on the go using the cnbc app any time. we're back in a couple ♪

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march lows and amid a shift to remote work during the pandemic. jim cramer made the industry one of its top ten investment themes for the year for a closer look to some stocks to watch i'm joined by frank holland. >> cyber security stock some of the top in tech over the last month. cramer giving his top picks. crowdstrike and paloalto and someof his picks include okta and cramer citing northern lifelock with a stock with a great dividend over 2% and might be a target for m & a and the tech-heavy index is up 2% over the last month so compared to those cyber security stocks, but cyber security's rise not a surprise due to recent corporate headlines. microsoft accessed the company's source course and a breach of cyber security company fire eye and in september hospital operator uhs was hit with a

ransomwear attack and throughout 2020 vaccine companies, targeted by foreign hackers cramer adding with so much data up there in the cloud the cyber security stocks are the ones to watch and invest in for 202 is kelly, back over to you. >> frank, thank you very much. frank hole land. for all of jim's top investment themes for 2021 head on over to cnbc.com. still ahead, bitcoin is trying to stage a rebound after yesterday's declines, but the question on everyone's minds is whether its price these days is sustain hnscabl coming up a look at why the run-up has been very different this time versus three years ago. we'll dig into it and tell you why. we're back in a moment jessie one more. is the reflection of an unstoppable community in the mirror.

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america's leading plumbing brand. we need this bath. yes. yes you do. a kohler walk-in bath provides independence with peace of mind. call for $1,500 off your kohler walk-in bath. visit kohlerwalkinbath.com for more info. welcome back bitcoin is having a volatile gain we're at 33,380, near all-time highs. it was up more than 300% in 2020 that was in part just some big players buying in from square and pay pall to investors like bill miller giving its backing it can could rise to $146,000.

coindesk acquiring crypto data services and start-up trade block. let's bring in mike emcasey. mi -- mike chael case even the migration of journalists, the professionalization of the crypto industry is unremarkable. >> this institutional body in this it's quite a change, right we saw largely a retail play in this space certainly last time we had a boom in 2017 now it does feel quite different. it feels like we've got institutions that's exactly what coin desk is positioning itself for an index provider. those institutions are going to need reliable data, reliable pricing and we think we're well

placed to do it. >> yeah, i want to go over because you guys are going to go over and be this repository for all this data, we're able to start combing through it and figure out some lessons and takeaways from what's going on with bitcoin this year most vikistriking to me is it's nowhere near today what it was in 2017. some of your findings echo this, that a lot of the participation is from the whales really. the retail side hasn't been the presiding force. >> again in 2017, this was largely retail-led phenomenon. it wasn't just bitcoin everybody was piling into icos and ethey are ether and everyt. what we actually saw at that time was the so-called whales and they measured in the bitcoin space and the addresses that have more than a thousand bit coin in them

in fact, the number of those large were falling at the time of the last bubble in 2017 this time those numbers are now at record highs. at the same time as you point out, google is not showing quite the same level of engagement so very much a story around big numbers, rather than this sort of broad-based >> you said the number of bitcoin addresses is down from its high, about 1.1 million or so but it was 1.3 back in 2017 what does this tell you about the nature of this the run-up of this time, and the ownerership that's changing hands? >> it had a broader base of addresses. there are a lot of people who have gone in in 2017 who said

i'm not touching that thing again. it lost a lot of money as we came off those highs and now these other guys are coming in. the numbers of active addresses are rising as well the question of sustainability is a really interesting one. one would think as big money comes in, there's massive al occasion that seems to be a long-term play and that's a very legitimate view of this. of course bitcoin is always volatile we've came up 17% just in a day yesterday and then we're almost back at all-time highs again i do think that there will be traders who take advantage of this they've got cme bit coin futures and all of that gives me the opportunity to take profit, to short it volatility is not going away sustainability, going up and down so many times now i think the fact that we're back up again really does give some real evidence to the idea that this

is a thing this is not just a flash in the pan crazy idea >> absolutely. no, it's the professionalization. again, that's why i'm struck by the number of again even journalists who are now covering the space. i wand ted to ask you quickly about the regulation coming down if you have authority saying wallets need to track and anyone who is dealing that bitcoin needs a name atransaction and parties, square obviously has skin in this game but it could be necessary to comply with anti-money laundering laws so it seems inevitable that we're going to need some track record is that going to hurt bitcoin's adoption process >> it's a very big issue in some respect it may speak to more of this bifurcation this is supposed to be a technology that gives broad-based access, that financially includes it.

the thing about privacy is not about whether they can get away with it, it's about freedom, the idea of money being this important tool that people have to even express themselves as much as anything else and there are many, many people in the world. are we going to create mutuals to a lllow the broad base to participate as wall vestreet is doing. >> michael, again, very good to see you. thanks for joining us today. bess of lu best of luck. mike michael casey is with coin deck we're going to talk to earl hesterberg i'm see you on othe other side o this break with tyler mathisen

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good afternoon, everybody. welcome to power lunch i'm tyler mathisen, along with kellyan