dollar has been weak and you have had the commodity bounce back but you are not going to get inflation without wages. it is not going to happen. i think that's very much conditional. the fed is getting ahead of it right now, talking about it. i don't think it is going to happen until we get really sustainable strong growth. that's an if. >> it is already on the table this early why the year. thank you. the markets are decidedly higher at this hour. thanks for watching "power lunch. "closing bell" starts now. >> it certainly does thank you tyler and kelly. well to "closing bell. i'm wilfred frost along with sara eisen stocks climbing despite high tensions in washington following yesterday's riot on capitol hill nasdaq leading the gains today climbing up above 13,000 for the first time ever. what's driving the action? congress officially confirming joe biden as the next president of the united states early this morning in a session delayed by a mob breaching the u.s. capitol. on the economic front, jobless claims coming in a bit better than expected.

8,000, and the ism services index also topping estimates tech leading the charge today. facebook, microsoft, alphabet and amazon all up 2% or so tesla climbing some 7% on the session. elon musk the richest man in the world. 59 minutes left in the session. >> stocks keep surging ahead on today's show, business leaders weighing in on the unrest in d.c. we will talk to former facebook chief security officer alex stamos who called yesterday on facebook and twitter to cut the president off from those platforms. more moves from the social media giants today on that front and billionaire investor nelson pelts who has been a longtime supporter and friend of president trump out with this statement -- quote, we condemn president trump's efforts to overturn the election results which cull minutated in yesterday's shocking events at our capitol this president must free to a

peaceful transition of power every i think issel american citizen deserves better governance nelson pelts joins us now by phone. thank you for phoning in i wanted to give you a chance to expand on your statement with further reaction to those incredibly hocking, terrible scenes that we saw, violent riots at the capitol yesterday, and the president egging them on. >> first of all, happy new year, sara. >> naep new year. >> ithas been quite a year so far. i thought last year was difficult. this one is off to a horrible start in what we all saw occur yesterday in d.c i mean, it was so, so sad. it was scary whoever said it is a stain on america. you know, what we've learned is that we cannot continue to have

our elected officials fight with one another. the enemy is outside the room. the enemy is not across the aisle. but what happened yesterday is a disgrace as an american, i'm embarrassed. you know, i didn't vote for trump in '16 i voted for him in this past election, november today i'm sorry i did that i supported many of his policies, which i still think were good ones, trade efforts, economic policies. i think they are good for our country. but so much good was undone yesterday with what we all saw and my partners and i all felt that we -- we needed to speak out. and that's why we issued that statement. you know, it's -- america has

been through hell and back it has become so tribal. and i just hope that president-elect biden will act to bring us together he's got full control of both houses he needs to do that. we need to heal from trump it was really a devastating blow and we just can't go on. and you know, black lives matter took a lot of heat from certain sectors. and yesterday -- and yesterday, with what was going on, i saw one -- at least one demonstrator standing in congress -- i don't know whether it was the senate or the house -- with a camp auschwitz t-shirt on. >> i saw that. >> nobody really got so upset about that i mean, there's a lot more to be upset about, by comparison to

how upset they were about black lives matter i mean, that kind of stuff, just, there is no place for it in our world i mean, we are supposed to not be doing this. >> 100%. you do point the finger squarely at president trump and you just said that you regret voting for him in the last election. do you regret the support, financial, friendship you have had with him a lot of people look at business leaders like yourself and wonder if you have enabled him. he has always had sort of these inclinations and behaviors even though as you say you have been supportive of the policies, a lot of them economic. >> i do -- look. the policies -- the economic policies that trump put forth with, you know, with our secretary of treasury's help, which were great policies, they are something we needed in america for decades. we have exported tens of

millions of jobs, and finally we had a prescription to bring them back and i hope -- i hope biden doesn't throw the baby out with the bath water and takes some of that to heart and stay with it but there is no room for what happened yesterday this is -- we are not a banana republic this is the united states. and for what happened yesterday, and unfortunately, i have to say, it was garnered by our leadership our leadership has got to understand what the priorities are. the requiremenpriorities are ama first. then if you want to support your party, that's fine but it must be america first and that was -- that was out the window since this election was over and trump could have taken a different tack he could have accepted the

results. he could have offered his friendship, his support, and his help for a transition to biden had he done that, his legacy would be 180 degrees different from what it is today. and that legacy -- >> do you think this will be his legacy >> unfortunately, i -- i -- it's hard to believe that it's going to be something other than this. i mean, we have people shooting at each other in congress. i mean, it's beyond belief and how could you say that is anything but his legacy? you know, i come from -- i have a large family ten kids i have got to ketell you, some e republicans, and some are democrats. and i argued with my democrats because i felt that theydidn't

understand the economic implications of what the trump administration had put forth but all the good was gone thrown out over the course of the last month and finished yesterday it just -- there is no place here for that. i mean, i'm emotionally upset. it takes a lot to get me upset i have been through a lot. i have never seen anything like what i saw yesterday and i would never have believed it happened in our country i hope that yesterday -- >> mick mulvaney -- yeah >> i hope we can learn from yesterday. i'm hoping that yesterday was a real turning point we need to get out this pandemic we need to deal with some pressing issues -- climate change, et cetera. our leaders have to get to work. they have to work together

and we have to make yesterday a distant memory >> 100%. i am just going to bring up something that mick mulvaney said that i wanted to ask you about. on "squawk box" earlier this morning, he also stepped down in protest from his position with the administration and was asked about joining the administration to begin with. he said that the president is a very different person than he was, say, eight months ago do you agree with that have you spoken with the president at all in recent weeks about this issue >> i -- i haven't spoken to him in the last several weeks. because somebody put a new thing on my phone that says "spam risk". and that spam risk put the white house calls in that category so every time i got a call from the white house -- >> really? >> yeah. real because, you know, that's just the way it happened.

and i didn't realize that until yesterday. the day before yesterday pardon me. but, you know, this -- his -- and trump did a lot of very good things he really did. he did thing that neither republican nor democrat had taken on and he took it on successfully and he started to change the way we dealt with our trading partners, our financial enemies, and our military enemies and that was good. but with this, this was way beyond anything i had ever seen. and trump, the election, not to take anything away from president-elect biden -- it was trump against trump. trump lost to trump. that's what happened and it's unfortunate and i just hope that

president-elect biden will pick up the pieces and make yesterday a turning point for this country. because we really need it. >> before that, there are concerns about what the next 13 days are going to look like, nelson w tso nelson, with the democratic leaders how calling for invoking the 25th amendment is that something you think should be done is there a security risk here of president trump remaining in power for two weeks? >> look. i'm not a constitutional expert. i'm terribly disturbed by how polarized our government has become in my humble opinion, they should let the next week and a half go by we don't need any more of this, and let's move on to president-elect biden. let's swear him in let's hope that he understands where the center is. because this country operates

way better between center right and center left than any of the other stuff we are seeing. we see so many people who are preaching socialism for this country. it doesn't work. there is no place in the world it has ever worked and why people think that it can work here is beyond me i mean, if they want to spend the next ten days removing trump from office, my, god, we've got so many more important things to work through we've got a pandemic we've got all the other stuff that needs to be dealt with. we've got a pandemic that's now mutating into something that's more difficult to deal with. let's deal with positive things and go forward trump's leaving office on the 20th so be it let's move on. >> well, i think the concern is, he really has not strongly condemned what happened yesterday. and it's not really clear that -- i guess he's committed

to the peaceful transfer of power after yesterday, after last night but still contesting this election, and till the language that he continues to use -- i think people are afraid he will continue to rally his supporters and the mobs like we saw yesterday. >> look, if that's what he's doing, then he's a greater fool than even i would think he would be i mean, the election occurred. america has spoken okay, what else do we need we had people killed yesterday in the most hallowed place in the world, in our congress people killed there yesterday. and we're still contesting an election yeah, look, it was close but that's what happens. somebody comes in first, and somebody comes in second and where president trump doesn't like to come in second,

he did he did and move on, like a gentleman. and give biden your best and let's hope that he can -- he can bring some healing into our nation but to sit there and contest this further i think is just more -- just more fuel on the fire, which is so unnecessary. >> question about campaign financing. do you think you and others who have donated to his campaign bear any responsibility? and will you rethink how you allocate money to politicians, republicans, say, who supported this effort, going forward >> you know, first of all, i want to tell you, i'm not a republican i'm not a democrat i'm an independent registered as such okay and -- and today, unfortunately,

before yesterday, if you disagreed with a democrat, you were an extreme conservative the fact is, i voted for al gore i voted for clinton in the second term, not in his first. so i voted for democrats before. and probably and hopefully will do it again if they represent what i believe they should represent. and do i think that we have a right to -- there are campaign contribution rules if congress wants to change them then so be it. let me tell you something, it would save me a lot of money, a lot less mail, email, and otherwise if they did it and a lot of time. >> yeah. >> so go for it, congress. you have got my blessing. >> and spam calls. finally nelson, i just want to ask you about the markets. dow is up above 31,000 it surged yesterday, which was

an odd juxtaposition against some of these scenes continues to power higher. does that make sense to you? are you a buyer off of the new government, having democrats control all three houses >> the market shocked me yesterday. really shocked me. i refused to look at any prices at all yesterday i didn't look at the market until i got my report about 5:00 or 6:00 to see how we had dorn and i thought there was a typo and yet, it continues to do the same today which says there is hope for america, i think or rapid -- rampant inflation coming i don't know which you have got democrats that have been elected and, as a result, they are going to spend a lot of money. in this time, i think they

should and trump spent a lot of money, too. and we needed to spend the money then and we need to spend more money now. i worry, really worry about america's balance sheet. the only thing that gives me some peace is that probably the rest of the world's balance sheet, with rare exception, probably looks like ours and maybe we have a complete worldwide restructuring. some of the chapter 11 lawyers who might be listening will have a ball with that one but i do worry about that. but we're not alone in doing that and i think we get a pass today for doing that so i can understand the market i am really surprised that it went the way it went and it says that america wants a change

they really do i mean, the last four years were very intense for america and what i said, when you get on a plane, you root for the pilot. i was rooting for trump in 2017. i'm rooting for biden in 2021. and that's the only way i think every american should approach this forget who you voted for we're all americans. okay and we've got to root for the ceo. it's joe biden some americans are not happy with it. too bad. that's what we got and let's go with it and let's give him our support and let's let congress finally come together and do what's right for this country instead of what partisan politics tells

them they should be doing. so we can get -- we can make yesterday, sara, into a turning point. and i hope we can do that. >> i thank you for coming on to talk honestly about your support and how you are feeling today. nelson, always good to hear from you. >> thank you bye. >> nelson pelts. wilfred, and the president is increasingly isolated today. in terms of the reactions we are getting. >> certainly 41 minutes left in the session up 1.5% on the s&p still ahead we will hear from more business leaders with reaction to yesterday's events and how the country moves forward. alex stamos will weigh in on social media's actions over the last 24 hours. and later we will hear from the ceo of the national retail federation who called yesterday a sad and distressing day for our country. you are watching "closing bell."

let's go to mike for a look

at market action study in strength. we bobbed up around ,800 in the s&p 500 in the morning motionly sideways, an upward tilt in the last few minutes a. two year chart to show in the past couple of years we have entered the year in a similar steady orderly up trend ofs that 3% gut check in late january last year and we were coming off the low in early 2019. very similar we also talked about how the market kind of sat still on an index basis through much of december into this year and allowed some of the overheated stuff to cool off. today it is a faang mega cap-led move f. those stocks which have remained sideways for months catch a breeze it could get the market moving again. this goes back to the mid '90s i like the fact we are basically on a relative basis looking at

historic lows. tech bubble here nasdaq was ripping higher. small caps were abandoned. when this turned around and small caps came roaring back it was in the context of a bear aircraft when tech stocks and mega caps in general were collapsing a. lot of people are getting excited about this turn higher maybe it has more to run perhaps so, but it doesn't mean it is going to be one of these mega turns that many many years running where small caps kind of win. it takes a lot for to that happen a look at long term treasury yield. maybe, finally, the 35 year bond bull market -- from half a% to 1.07%. again, looking a the down trends plenty of room to go up here, above 2% without suggesting it is a mega turn we thought the bull market was over there in bonds.

we have had head fakes of this sort in the past sill looks like head room for yields even if it is not a mega generational term. >> every year the strategists call the end of the bull market for bonds. >> this year in a more muted way. who knows if that psychology is working in the same direction this year. >> right as we surpass 1% >> yep. >> mike. thank you. 36 minutes or so left to go before the bell. look at the markets. we are still surging on stocks the dow is up more than 200 points the high of the day was 364. walgreens, aem, jp morgan powering the dow higher. the s&p up 1.6%. as mike said, it's the nasdaq leading the charge up 2.6%. there is a new person on top the global wealth leader board we will tell you who it is next. plus, a huge move again today for bitcoin, setting a new record high. breaking above $40,000 we've come off those highs

still up 4.5%, above $38,000 tom lee from fun strap is coming up he made big bullish calls on bitcoin. you won't want to miss that on "closing bell. - [narrator] and it's it. - [group] yay! - [narrator] you did it, high five! - southern new hampshire university. - [man] that gets a hug. (laughing) - look at that! master's degree, i did it! - i did this for my children. i am very proud of myself. - [narrator] finish your degree at snhu.edu.

for as little as $5, now anyone can own companies in the s&p 500, even if their shares cost more. at $5 a slice, you could own ten companies for $50 instead of paying thousands. all commission free online. schwab stock slices: an easy way to start investing or to give the gift of stock ownership. schwab. own your tomorrow. but before we sign i gotta ask... sure, anything. we searched you online and maybe you can explain this? i can't believe that garbage is still coming in. that is so false! frustrated with your online search results? call reputation defender today to join tens of thousands who've improved their online reputation. get your free reputation report card at reputationdefender.com

or call 1-877-866-8555. welcome back there is new person on top of the global wealth leader board elon musk officially becoming the richest person in the world today with a net worth of $185 billion, surpassing amazon's jeff bezos

tesla's stock already up double digits this year after climbing more than 700% last year musk reacting to the news on twitter, how strange, and, well, back to work there is always an amazing metric for tesla share prices. mid november or so stands out. it almost doubled from there extraordinary of course given the return they have had throughout the early part of the year. >> best performing stock in the s&p, which it just joined for 2020 up 7r more than 700% another 7% today time now for a cnbc covid update with sue herera. >> hello, everybody. we start, unfortunately work some grim news from the west coast. at more than 1,000, it is california's biggest two-day death toll of the pandemic, with almost 600 of those deaths reported today the state's overall total count is above 28,000.

a cdc study published today estimates that 59% of all covid-19 transmissions are from people without any symptoms. that is the sum of the 35% who experience symptoms later and 24% who actually never develop symptoms the cdc also reporting today a link between in-person college classes and covid case it looked at data from 101 counties with large colleges and universities which resumed of the classes last summer. it saw a 56% increase in cases in the county if college were in person but an 18% decrease when remote learning was in place. you are up to date something to think about as we go into the spring semester. >> see you again next hour. still ahead, facebook says it will block president trump from posting for the remainder of his term. we will speak with the company's former chief security officer who yesterday called on him to

take action like that. the ten-year holding comfortly above 1% 1.07, where we stand "closing bell," back in a couple keeping your oysters business growing has you swamped. you need to hire. i need indeed indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/promo

26 minutes of left facebook and instagram now blocking president trump from the platforms until his term ends alex stamos, facebook's former chief security officer joins us next to discuss here on "closing bell." we're excited to do business with you

but before we sign i gotta ask... sure, anything. we searched you online and maybe you can explain this? i can't believe that garbage is still coming in. that is so false! frustrated with your online search results? call reputation defender today to join tens of thousands who've improved their online reputation. get your free reputation report card at reputationdefender.com or call 1-877-866-8555.

social media companies taking action against president trump's accounts following yesterday's capitol riots. facebook extending its original 24 hour block on trump's facebook account until his term is complete and indefinitely thereafter twitter locking his account for 12 hours it also warned if the president continues to violate twitter's rules it would result in a permanent suspension of his account. for more, let's bring in alec stamos former chief security officer at facebook thank you for joining us >> thanks for having me. >> what's your reaction to facebook's decision to remove -- to block his account indefini indefinitely >> so, i think it was the right move to make yesterday, that all the tech companies have a really difficult balancing challenge here, which is that we as a

society don't want incredibly powerful corporations deciding who are legitimate speakers are in our democracy they have given leeway to the president. they gave him a lot of leeway they would not have ichb given to another k. i think there were good arguments for that. not all of their decisions of what content they left up do i agree w. i agree with the basic idea that you don't want facebook and twitter just making that decision. that has changed because the argument they were making was based upon the idea that they was a democratic actor, that the easy were was part of a democratic process and you want to give him free speech. the president has effectively rejected democratic action, calling for violence he has stepped outside of the norms that he was expecting facebook and twitter to follow. i think it was the right move for them. >> some would argue alex in recent years facebook and other social media companies have been

reactive to problems rather than proactive in preventing them to what extent is there a wider issue that these platforms because of their algorithms, because of the way they work accent weighted polarization in society and the proliferation of inaccurate news or videos is that they need to do more than this and actually be proactive rather than reactive. >> two issues. on the proactive -- reactive i agree. they have not announced the red lines that if somebody crossed them, such as the president that they would enforce i think that has to change the fact they are making these decisions in reaction to the president's activity and to people on the other political side means they are going to be a constant political football. they are going to have to change that on the responsibility of the companies we have to be careful to be actually evidence based. there is a lot of loose talk about algorithms and

amplification that isn't backed by the empirical evidence. someone like the president is a news worthy figure he has the republican party, fox news and a huge media ecosystem. the things he says are amplified massively. when it comes to the president himself talking about algorithmic quliks i don't think he is that refusal this is about the equity we want to balance, and a democracy and what are the responsibilities of the companies to respect the democratic process versus the responsibility to take down speech that could possibly cause violence. >> did you see chris baca's note note, he went really hard after these companies saying for four years you have rashlt rationalized this terror insight violent treason is not a democratic exercise. shut it down how much responsibility do you think the companies themselves bear for i a louing this speech, promoting this speech, allowing these groups, this mob, to

organize and to carry out something like what happened yesterday? >> they do have responsibility i mean the primary responsibility for the actions of these individuals are them. for primarily responsibility for spreading election disinformation has been the president and the rest of the republican party to be honest. facebook and twitter took action on the president's accounts. but you have more than half the republican members of congress vote to back his completely ridiculous and evidence-free claims about the election being stolen so we are talking about a larger issue than just social media also, to be frank, the traditional media has responsibility here. there is no corporation in the world that has done more to mainstream donald trump than the national broadcasting corporation. avenues showman, a reality thchb tv star. there is a failure of many levels at the tech companies and

honestly there is a failure within the republican party and a big failure within the traditional media as well. >> you are blaming nbc because of his prior tv show before he entered politics >> i am saying that one -- >> it was a reality tv show. meant to have those aspects. >> it was a reality tv show that convinced those peoples out who are going to the capitol that he is a real billionaire, he really speaks for them. there is also the readia, think back to 2015, 2016, during the time during which donald trump was seen as a side "the news with shepard smith" it was the media that lifted him up and covered him in a way that was not true for any of the other 15 or 16 candidates in the republican primary he has been able to manipulate the way american media works, including social media there are a lot of different failures arc lot of retro active looks where people are overlooking their own responsibility and saying if twitter and facebook made him disappear he would have

disappeared. that's not true. it was not true in 2015 and 2016, it is not true about the lies he has been telling that's not true or other networks there is a network right now partially justifying what happened yesterday and still contesting what happened during the election there is a bigger issue of how do you deal with someone who has no idea as to the truth. >> ultimately, though, mainstream media ranks where relative to social media platforms whose very algorithms actually accentuate what people believe? >> i don't thinkthere is an easy ranking here. that's one of the i think thing trying to say. you have his ability to speak direct to people on social media. you have massive ample pick of his speech on television and the newspaper. you have those stories making it back to social media it is a complex environment for

which none of the companies has total control. i think it is appropriate for the companies to take him down at this point. just as the media has been dealing with the fact that the things the president of the united states says are news worthy, there is also a difficult balancing act of what power do we want zuckerberg and dorsey to have to decide who is a legitimate political actor donald trump is a really special case he is an extreme case. after his presidency is over which hopefully ends peacefully at this we have to come back to the idea of for the next cycle how do we not allow somebody to manipulate us this way i think it is too pat and easy to say that jack dorsey could have just made donald trump disappear. i don't think there is any evidence that that's truchl there is responsibility for these companies but it is tied up to the responsibility of lots of players >> alex, thank you for joining us that's certainly true. i guess all eyes will be on lawmakers over the next year as well the i had they up the rules and whose responsibility that

might all be alex stamos, thank you for joining us. straight ahead, coca-cola getting its fourth downgrade in four days. we will speak to the analyst behind the latest score next in the market zone. new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home.

so give your businesss more than resolutions... give it solutions, from comcast business. work more efficiently with fast internet and advanced wifi. make your business safer with powerful cybersecurity solutions. and stay productive with 24/7 support. make this year's resolution better solutions. bounce forward with comcast business. get started with a powerful internet and voice solution for just $64.90 a month. plus, for a limited time, ask how to get a $500 prepaid card when you upgrade. switch today.

12 minutes left in the trading dame we are now in the "closing bell" market scone, commercial-free coverage of all the action going into the close. nbc's senior markets commentator mike santoli here as always to break down these crucial moments of the trading day touchdown we have got stephanie link from high tower here as well welcome back, stephanie. we will kick it off with the broader market we are now on record close watch for the dow, the s&p 500, the nasdaq, and the russell 2000 dow set to close above 31,000 for the first time ever, steph

while so many around the world are sitting we are jaws dropped, watching what played out in washington, investors are buying, thinking ahead to stimulus and the end of the pandemic what are you doing >> yeah, i mean you hit it perfectly. i know yesterday was unsettling, and very disturbing. what's going on in washington is unsettling and disturbing in general, right but i am focused on kind of fundamentals as an investor. and what i was encouraged about is that we have this certainty with regards to now biden being the president. we have this certainty with congress and the makeup of congress and it is a blue wave, and it was a surprise to be a blue wave but now we know what we got. we are going to get higher taxes but i don't think you are going get higher taxes in the near term and you hit on it perfectly. we are going to get more inf infrastructure stimulus, that's going to lead to better growth in gdp and earnings growth, which is the most important. we are off to a good start in

economic date. ism manufacturing and service beat, imports and exports. unemployment is down three week in a row hiring sbekss were up 193% over the month of december. good and promising numbers all the stimulus is going the lead to better data ahmed. it is also very encouraging to see the cyclical stocks participate. you know i have been a big fan i am impressed with financials i'm impressed with energy. maybe they take a pause because they are both up huge on the year so far but i like the barbell approach of having cyclicals and also having defensive growth. >> mike, i guess today we are seeing that the big tech, expensive nasdaq stocks are able to shrug off what has been a big move in yields over the next two days or so suggesting rates are going to have to be closer to 2% as opposed to just above 1% before the multiple compression talk point comes in. >> the bull market dynamics of

finding the next thing to buy which hasn't been participating in the last leg is also at work. forget about the high cash flow earn evers nasdaq like the top five stocks. how about the arc innovation etf up more than 7% today? that shows you where the energy is, people are looking for the next big score it is not just about carefully valuing long term growth based on treasury yields even though, yes, at some level, the treasury yields theoretically should pinch the growth stock valuations >> as stuff mentioned banks were on a tear yesterday. adding to those gains again today, the kbw banks index was up nearly 7% at the close yesterday. not pulling back despite the unrest in d.c. adding to those gains with a healthy 2.6% move today. they are now up 40% during the past three months during which time we have had positive

vaccine news a vote of confidence for banks, share prices with the fed allowing buybacks again and fiscal stimulus and more likely to come. the last two days have been helping the banks because yields jumped so much the ten-year moving from below 1% to 1.08 almost. the sector is cheap relative to the s&p 500. but with such a strong recent three-month run focus turns to earnings which kick off next friday steph, you mentioned it briefly there, the three-month performance, even though it is still cheap relative to certain effectors, does suggest that we need some good earnings to come through over the next couple of quarters to drive similar returns we have seen in recent months. >> absolutely. i don't really like the setup into the print i mean the big six up anywhere from 8 to 11% just this week alone, year to date. those are crazy, crazy moves

but if the your point we see a steeper yield curve it will help earnings, help net interest margins. i think you can own a basket i own bank of america for the we would curve trade. i own morgan stanley because they are diversifying their revenue stream and i think wells fargo, goodness it is still down over 30%, right, from last year so it is still very i think cheap. it is a turnaround story i think the asset cap news to come in the future will be another catalyst for the shares. a. >> where is the sentiment on the bank, mike it was so negative and down beat for a lot of last year feels like it is really starting to turn here with the price outperformance. >> it is rounding toward positive i think it take a while, though, to turn that if you look at aggregate analyst sentiment i think the price targets are pretty muted people are not as loud about it. to be honest, they have also normalized on a valuation basis. certainly wells fargo remains at

a steep discount about of a, jp morgan around their five year average in terms of price book value options. if we are off to the races on yields then that's going to go higher i think it is in the process of becoming popular, but maybe not overpopular yet. >> bitcoin back to 39k shares of coca-cola falling flat down nearly 9% so far this week. four wall street firms downgrading the stock to neutral in as many days. jp morgan and deutsche bank citing tax occurrence. gooeg guggenheim expecting beverage companies taking longer to recover and rbc is taking a caffeine break saying valuation is near full andrea teixeira joins us from jp morgan she downgraded the stock today thank you for joining us i did some investigating whether the company held a call with investors and analysts last week or something, why you all downgraded the stock

it doesn't sound like they did did they why do you think they have experienced four down grades in a row? >> i think what happened - thank you for having this and me specifically on this name. the decision was on the back of their announcement yesterday that they were hiring a judge. i think that weighs questions about what has happened. that was back november 18th when the irs had an opinion regarding, and the tax court has had an opinion regarding this matter that goes back to 2007 to 2009, and that's about $3.3 billion that they were deemed as an opinion it can be appealed i believe coke will appeal to that but that becomes an overhang for the stock that's what i think investors should be worried about. not so much in retroactive terms. but also what the future can bring if that would mean eventually they would have to raise and close those potential tax loops holes.

>> what about the sentiment around staples as well it feels like investors right now really want reopening trades they want to be tied to the vaccine plays. and value trades that's what's popular. where does that leave consumer staples and overall sentiment toward the group >> yeah, definitely, sara, i think that relative to the higher growth names, definitely staples -- and that's a house view that jp morgan has, that staples should relatively underperform in the reopening trade. specifically on coke, there is still a reopening trade there. but i think that, in general, staples should underperform in a scenario of recovery. >> steph, are you still a holder of coke? >> i am a holder of coke i do think this tax issue will be an overhang in the short-term but i am still focusing on

fundamentals it is down 9% in four days it is yielding 337%. and it is a reopening stock. 40% of their revenues are derived from on premise is and 10% from gas and convenient stores as we reopen they should do better the ceo is great they have been doing a great job in terms of streamlining their products they are gaining market share. they have pricing power and they are doing a great job on operating margins and cost controls operating margins last year were up to 230 basis points i think they can get back to the 8% organic growth rate and i love the setup into reopening options because they are set up here. >> it was coke who was the away from home play and pepsi was the at home play is that still the case i notice pepsi has gotten down grades of its own this week. >> i think what stephanie had

said, it's right on. that's the reason why we still like it long term. fundamentally, coke and pepsi -- i think coke obvious leap has a bigger portion it is about 50% in total exposure to on premises. between pepsi and coke, i don't think that pepsi will have that overhang in the tax. and pepsi has less exposure to on premises, 17ish, 15ish percent. so there will be less of a benefit there. by the same token it is a pretty defensive game and it's also an accretive name on earnings. pepsi is the better stock here into the print we have an overweight ratie ining on pepsi >> got it. >> you heard the two minute warning sign two minutes left in the trading day. mike what are you seeing in the

fundamentals. >> certainly strong. not quite 3 to 1 look at bonds. high yield etf versus the investment grade corporate etf the price of the bonds are down, the yields are up. high yield trading with equities holding up fine. credit is looking supportive of this equity rally. vix is down, almost two or three points today taking away some of the uncertainty perhaps around the electoral college. we will see if it bleeds below 20 after january 20th. >> we have got 45 seconds left topg we are set for record closes on the dow and the s&p, though not quite for the nasdaq, which is leading the charge, though, in terms of intraday -- sorry -- the nasdaq also set for a record close as well, up 2.6% 175% for the s&p, the dough up .7:%. tech and consumer discretionary the best performing sectors.

utilities, the worst performer we have gotten a decent amount in the dollar, a third of a% gold up a third of one percent today. bitcoin is around 39.6k. a extraordinary run for bitcoin. at the bell, 1.5% of gains for the s&p 500, and a record close. >> a quadruple record, as we like to say. nasdaq above 13,000. dow above 31,000 wow. welcome back, everyone, to "closing bell. if you are just joining us i'm sara eisen with wilfred frost and mike santoli, cnbc senior market commentator look at how woe finished the day on wall street stocks continued to surge. the dow closing up 11 points at a record high, above 31,000 for the first time ever. walgreens, apple and jp morgan powering the dow higher. 3m, coke and p and g lag s&p 500 up 1.5%.

technology the star today. consumer discretionary, energy, communication services a mix of the cyclical value stocks and also technology, utilities and staples were the losing sectors the nasdaq, big winner of all four, up 2.5%. technology made a comeback today. tesla, apple and amazon all higher the russell 2000 index of small caps hitting a new record, up 1.9% we are back in the black for the week erasing monday's big selloff. we are minutes away from micron's earning we will break those numbers as soon as they cross plus the ceo of aurora cannabis is here the weigh in to speak about what the biden administration could mean for the legalization of pot especially with democrats holding majority in the senate stephanie link is still with us. tom lee joins us welcome, tom first to you, mike santoli, on

this record-setting day. many of us are wondering, with questions out there, what is the future of democracy, and the two-party system, and what do the next 13 days look like until inauguration investors aren't asking questions. they are just buying. >> sorry it will take a second. >> investors are playing offense. nothing that has gone on in drk is undermining the process of the transition the market is willing to set aside some of the unsettle issues because it is getting exc acceleration at the same time, i think people are grabbing for risk. yes, the economically sensitive stuff moving, the small caps, the villes the banks, treasury yields going up. the rest of it bitcoin flying,

tesla fridaying almost every day, no explanation. asset momentum at this point both those things happening at once, starting to run a little hot again on that front. >> tom, where do you stand on things running too hot in the short-term, the bitcoins of this world and the s&p 500. >> i would be in the camp that i think there is still room for a lot of more upside, potentially exprosive. it has a lot to do with the level of fear. the vix last year averaged almost 30 for the full year. that's the third highest level in history the only two times it was higher was 2009 and 2010. in the year where visibility returns the vix should actually make a big dive, maybe to as low as 15 this year. i think that's going to take scared money off the sidelines we know in the last ten years 94% of all inflows went into bonds. very little went into equities

i think if we get capital moving into stocks i think the stocks could make a big move in the next few weeks. >> which part of the margaret? what kinds of stocks, tom? today it was technology and mega cap growth names, the faang names back on top. yesterday it was value trades. it seems to alternate. where are you looking? >> i think if we look at just the first few days of this year the leadership has come from things like energy and the cyclicals including financials and industrials, or even discretion father, excluding amazon i actually think that's kind of a precursor to what the full year should look like. as stephanie mentioned, the isms have really strengthened and we have a lot more visibility out of washington. and given how much fear and cash has been sitting on the sitelines, i think people might be willing to put money into cyclic cyclicals. >> steph, do you feel like the

cyclicals or the broader market has a whole have already priced in the extra stimulus to come from the new administration? >> that's a tough question to answer by the way, i hope, tom, you are right on the cyclicals, because i am definitely tilted bigtime to the cyclicals i just think that people don't expect to see the better growth this year. s&p earnings by the street is expected to be up 21% this year. what if we do 30 what if we do 35 the reason i say that -- we have -- we are getting more certainty. if you have the top line, the growth, better gdp, and you have strong margins you have huge operating leverage that's why the cyclicals will outperform secular growth. that's why i want to have expezzure. some of these stocks are down a lot still. wells fargo, bank of america all -- some of the financials, most of them are still down, right, from last year. so i think there is upside there. i don't think anybody really is overweight on the industrial side just yet.

i think they are actually in those what you call the higher quality industrials. and i think some of the real like leveraged names with a lot of data are interesting here as well energy -- i think we all got fed up with energy over the last kefrl years and we are all wondering if this is real. for me i have been adding on the energy side in chevron and slum better jae that's where i am going to keep it i hope that tom is right that's the way i am positioned. >> specifying wondering whether this is real, how about bitcoin prices, tom lee, now back -- trading around $40,000 even hitting $40,000 you have been a hero in the bitcoin community as someone who put on some bullish price targets. how do you explain the action we are seeing >> bitcoin is pretty unique because as a blockchain, it is one of the most secure in the world. and it's also a network value

asset, meaning it really benefits from additional holders. similar to how facebook and other networks have exponential rise in value because of the increase if users. i think the usefulness of bitcoin really proved itself last year. we had a lot of disruption globally and i think people wanted to fwind something that was sort of sound money. and that was bitcoin but interestingly, 2021 is the year that's after a happening, a lot like 2017 -- so as good as 2020 was, which was a lot like 2016, 2017 was theier we saw a parabolic move in bitcoin. i think bitcoin could be up more than 3 hundred% this year. it is an early sign but it shows appetite and inflows into bitcoin. i think it is also becoming more institutionally credible.

>> what about regulation would that be derailing for that $300 view for this year? and is janet yellen with her background the type that would want to clamp down on it. >> if there was regulation that would try to obliterate the existence of block chains that could be bad but governments are more interested in making sure people don't avoid paying tax whether it is around self custody wallets, i think these are constructive and important thing and in fact would really help strengthen its institutional case corporations are considering using bitcoin as a substitute for bonds in their treasury. i think it could be wise for their business but they have to worry about the operational issues around custody of bitcoin. >> we have micron numbers crossing josh lip ton has got them for

us. >> micron is reporting q 1 eps of 78 cents versus expect aces of 71 cents. revenue also beat 5.77, street was at $5.73 billion q 2, they are looking for plus f -- >> comments here from the ceo saying that micron is simultaneously leading on d ram and nan technology says they are in excellent position to benefit from accelerating igs digital transformation of the global economy fueled lie a.i., 5g, cloud and the intelligent edge this stock has been a rocketship, up 60% in the last three months alone conference call is coming up. >> steph, is this the type of thing you are alluding to, how earnings can come through

positively in the next couple of months. >> yeah, i think this looks like a really good report the stock is up 40% in the last two months alone and we had an upgrade earlier this week. expectations were really high. i am happy to see it green d ram is just beginning to see its recovery and micron has a 60% expezzure to d ram and we have a supply exposure imbalance. these are the kinds of stories i like i own lamb research, it is also going to benefit from d ram and nan recovery you pick your spots, you pick your companies and what you like i think you definitely want to have exposure, though, to this particular theme. >> up 2% offhours on top of a strong run into earnings let's get the latest from washington kayla tausche is there. what about the growing calls to remove trump from office. >> there is a tidal wave, lots

of resignations from inside the trump administration and questions whether or how there would be enough of a movement to remove president trump via the 25th amendment or through the impeachment process. certainly, there have been the most calls from democrats on that front although there are some rumblings from within the administration that some of those options are being explored as far as the work to bring to justice the individuals who stormed the capitol yesterday a press conference wrapped up from the office of the u.s. attorney of the district of columbia where they talked about the fact that there are charges being brought. 40 individuals have been charged in the last 36 hours the majority of those charges relating to the unlawful entry into the capitol there are also charmings for assault and possession of firearms there was one individual according to the acting u.s. attorney michael sherwin who possessed semiautomatic rifles and 11 molotov cocktails

there is going to be morings to about that filed late they are evening and 15 federal cases presented to a judge later today. so, certain, law enforcement officials are trying to put some identities on the people who were at the capitol yesterday and have started identifying some of the perpetrators in yesterday's siege. sara and wilf? >> kayla tausche thank you for the update tom lee i don't know if you heard our interview last hour with nelson pelts. >> i did. >> he said he was absolutely shocked to see the action today and yesterday in the markets, the buying, despite the scenes we were all seeing he says it is either a sign of great hope or of rampant inflation. how do you interpret it? >> i would say that a third reason to explain it is there is a lot of money on the sidelines. i know people say they think everyone is ebullient and bullish. but when we speak to our

clients -- you know, we touch nearly -- i think close to 40,000 institutional money managers every week, we find the vast majority are still cautious or negative. i think yesterday, as -- you know, it was shock what happened in washington. but the market was able to see through this because number one i don't think anyone felt this was going to affect the transition of power to biden and more importantly, i think this was an excuse for people to put money which has been sitting on the sidelines into the market they were hoping probably for a bigger pullback.i think the ricks is still your best indicator for how much fear is out there. it is still elevated. >> s&p up 3,800. quhaes a short-term one month target which you think we could rush up to >> a couple levels i think are important. one is from my friend tom demark who thinks we make a run to

3,900 on the s&p but what's more sort of consistent with our bottoms up work and maybe would move below on the vix would 4,000 3,900 is 4,000 is when i would like to start to look for a draw down to start. and that would be something painful, towards 3,500. >> tom, thanks for that. thanks to stephanie link for joining us as always on a thursday. pot stocks got a bost after the democratic sweep in the georgia runoff up next, the ceo of aurora cannabis about what the new senate makeup could mean for marijuana legalization 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.

welcome back pot stocks are rhett hot this week names like aurora, canopy growth and till ray up double digits as democrats won control of the senate joining us now, the aurora cannabis ceo thank you for joining us >> thanks for having us. >> what is your expectation in the year ahead in terms of rule changes, legal changes, in your industry do you think you will get something federal? or is this a case of hoping more states legalize it >> that's a great question i think it is sort of both prior to the democrats taking never to the senate i would have told you the states' act had a greater likelihood now that the democrats -- i think the war act which opens up interstate commerce obviously has a greater likelihood

we are bullish on that the comment on the states one is astute getting to the tipping point we had five states pass come prpr precomprehensive legislation we are close to the tipping point where you have enough economics, enough states that we are going to see momentum. i think it is consistent with also when we are seeing globally in key markets like israel and western europe. >> i was going to move onto that in terms of international markets. i guess large parts of western europe are a long way behind the situation in the u.s what is your outlook on a two-year view for europe >> pretty bullish. if you look at what is happening in the eu, we just had a great tender in the netherlands. if you look at the israeli market where we have a partnership and had great success in the fourth quarter of this year we are definitely seeing progress. many of those countries are taking a compliance and science based approach we are only two years into the

canadian experience. there has been a lot of sharing a lot of focus on the science and compliance aspects particularly on the medical side companies like aurora who have made investments in that are seeing advancements in key markets such as germany. >> i think the question for investors is how aurora is positioned if we do start to see legislative changes in the u.s., in new york or potentially federally in the country you stock was almost $200 a few years ago. it is now trading at $12 what happened here how are you going to make money and position yourself for when these change does come >> i mean, listen, there is no question there has been a massive reset in the cannabis companies. if you look at how they were valued and look at what everyone expected it is dwraumtly different. our company has had a tremendous rans formation sg and a down from $140 million to low 40 million in a quarter

the violent we are focused on making muchbl i think you will see that in the upcoming quarters when investors look at companies like ours and they think about something like the u.s. what i would encourage them to think about is what are the assets that companies like aurora have around genetics, ip, trademarks, science. those are the core assets that are reportable if you think about the u.s. today, the mso is operating in a state by state market. there is no question that the fda, which is very close to help canada will enact a structure that will look a lot like the canadian environment and companies like aurora have been successful -- we are the number one medical company in canada we will do exceptionally well this the u.s. because we are the only company like that that have had that experience. >> i guess what i am wondering, to get to the heart of it, do you need a partner to get into the u.s. market? we just saw a merger

do you need to do a consolidation as well. >> i don't think so. going into other markets we haven't needed a partner i understand the u.s. is different. if we need a partner we will be in the position to be able to do it what is important is that the assets that aurora have will be attractive whether that's through a friendship and getting more value through that partnership whether it is through m&a where we get more value because of our experience or in a lot of different ways there is a lot of ways to monetize the canadian experience, i, the, genetics, compliance, trademarks, brands, the other thing. there is a lot of talk about thc, the non-thc bearing products -- ingle we are well positioned regardless of how the u.s. ends up. >> thank you for joining us. we have breaking news on boeing phil lebeau has got it for news

wilf, boeing has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement regarding the 737 max investigation. this is with the u.s. department of justice remember, we have known for some time that the d.o.j. was investigating boeing regarding the max, regarding the certification. as part of this agreement, by the way, which is what many people on wall street expected, boeing has agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion. there are a couple of terms within there in terms of things that boeing has to meet on the compliance side. also as part of this, this charge will be essentially dismissed after three years if boeing meets all the stipulations in this agreement again, this is a deferred prosecution agreement between boeing and the d.o.j. regarding the 737 max certification process. this essentially ends the criminal investigation, if you will, by the d.o.j. looking into what boeing did or did not do in the case of the certification

process. again, they are agreeing to pay $2.5 billion guys, back to you. >> does that also end any potential threats to any individual executives at boeing? >> apparently. we do not see any criminal charges filed against individuals as part this complaint. now, theoretically -- we have to read through all this. they may say hey there may be a specific individual who may be charged separately but there is no indication of any individual charges that will be pursued by the d.o.j. >> boeing moving just under 1% after hours. american households have been building up big cash piles over the last year up next, mike santoli looks at why that could give the consumer aonomy a boost in 2021. as remind e you can always watch or listen to us live on the go on the cnn app. we'll be right back. ♪ you can go your own way

it's time you make the rules. so join the 2 million people who have switched to xfinity mobile. you can choose from the latest phones or bring your own device and choose the amount of data that's right for you to save even more. and you'll get nationwide 5g at no extra cost. all on the most reliable network. so choose a data option that's right for you. get nationwide 5g included and save up to $300 a year on the network rated #1 in customer satisfaction. it's your wireless. your rules. only with xfinity mobile.

let's sends it over to mike santoli for a look at house hollywood financesings amid talk of potential further stimulus from washington. >> a lot of talk of stimulus that's sort the bull case for consumer spending in the coming year but there is a lot of cash sloshing around already in aggregate in consumer accounts

it is all check deposits mostly retail, also some money market the normal retail would have taken you to $1.5 trillion, so it is about a trillion dollars of build up in savings out there in aggregate again there is a lot of folks without work that don't have the saving overall it looks okay. look at household debt burdens pretty much as low as they have been in 30 years people have paid down a lot of credit cards haven't been able to take out more loans this shows you with rates at this level there is a lot of latent spending power and leverage power if the consumer economy right now. sara. >> one reason a lot of people are bullish on the consumer this year mike, thanks. frozen food, it's red hot for coning aa. up next the company's ceo on how the changing taste for consumers for frozen foods is driving sales growth right now we'll be right back. your grooming business is booming.

you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base.

claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/groomer

frozen food may be heating up but conagra shares are cooling off. the company reporting q 2 earningset noing an 8% growth in sales from last year that of course being driven by people continuing to eat at home during the pandemic ask. the food giant forecasts comparable store sales to grow between 6 to 8% in the current quarter. joining us now by phone for an exclusive interview with conagra's ceo sean connolly.

you and other packaged food companies are putting up these tremendous quarters of growth and forecasting more growth. and the market is just not convinced it is going to last. what do you make of the share price reaction today >> well, obviously, i don't love it when we put up a great quarter and the stock drops. frankly i am focused on maximizing long term value creation versus daily movement it was an excellent quarter. we had broad based strength in excellent fundamentals and our consumers in frozen food and elsewhere discovered the massive food infusion we have launched and they are coming back again and again but food stocks haven't been up even when posting strong numbers and the market is clearly demonstrating a wait and see attitude toward food stocks. what i keep pointing out is not just the absolute strength we are seeing but the relative strength we think that's the critical leading indicator as to who will emerge stronger. >> expand on that a little bit

and try to make the case for why you see staying power in the consumer behavior changes around eating that we've seen, say buying frozen foods, why when the vaccine comes and we hopefully get back to normal we won't resume normal eating habits which is ditching a lot of the kind of old school brands that you and others have. >> it is an interesting question certainly arc lot of companies have had a bit of an automatic tail wind because of covid i will point out not all companies are performing with equal strength in trial and repete and indefinite repeat we didn't just show up after covid. we have been transforming our flavors for five years now it has been a massive overhaul one thing we are experiencing is all of these consume who are had an antiquated mental model of what frozen food is, they are realizing the frozen food is

outstanding. fresh food flash frozen and on call whenever they are it is a great value. they are buying it again and again. and they are telling us geez this is not what i thought i was going to experience when i bought frozen. we are seeing similar dinics mchl i will point out an interesting fact, which is the last time there was a significant macro ---ed a veers macro environment in the 2008 crash we saw sustained at home eating occasions when we saw the pandemic hit we saw a larger shift to at home eating occasions and we see no reason why some of that won't sustain. basically the way to think about it, we believe we are experiencing an acceleration of product trial that in normal times could take years and hundreds of millions of dollars. and we have the portfolio that has been pleasing our consumers. and we are seeing them coming back again and again. >> how much do you need to spend then on marketing to sustain that are you getting this all for free because people are not

being forced to experience your products but i guess being pushed towards them somewhat and how lasting an impact do you think you get particularly on new consumers who might not be reminded of your brands but be trying them for the first time >> that's an excellent question. one of the strange thing around our company is we are focused on how do we generate more demand in the past nine months we have focused on how do we generate more supply. we have built back some of our capacity our inventory levels are strong. our marketing investments have been opportunistic, where we have capacity, where we see strong roi as an example one of our very modern brands is gardine we have seen tremendous response our frozen business is doing well, within frozen gardine is

leading the pack we got behind and it are trying to maximize it >> what about duncan hines, sean how big of a growth driver is that, with the at-home baking trend? how are you capitalizing on that trend to make it more lasting. >> we have seen people investing their homes. they are expecting to have home offices going forward. they have been investing in their kitchens, in appliances. one of our strongest categories have been the baking category. moms and dads everywhere are seeing sons and daughters learning how to bake and they are cook with products like duncan hines that is an example of the kind of product that you see growth in when people go into a nesting mode duncan hines or row telle tomato business people are looking for

breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. many of these younger consume remembers experiencing the art of cooking for the first time, and they are liking it >> i don't know. i'm kind of sick of the at high pressure home baking thing finally, sean, i wanted to ask you about groceries. and what this industry is going to look like say in the next ten years. on line ordering has really accelerated during this pandemic along with on line everything else how do you see it playing out? is it going to be third parties like instacart or are the companies like walmart and kroger going to go at it alone? how big of a chunk of sales is it going to be in eight say ten years? >> it is going to be huge. it is already significant. we have had a growth of over $100 in our e-commerce i made the point on the call today you have got to market to consumers where they are if you think about where they are these days, they are on their devices. they might be seeking information, entertainment, or

shopping we reach them there, and then those orders increasingly are becoming fulfilled from there and being delivered directly to consumers' home or curbside pickup i don't see that trend changing. it's really all of our customers. pure blood e-tailers as well as traditional bricks and mortar retailers. we are going to be partnering with all them to make sure we keep up with the consumer trend. >> sean, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. the national association of manufacturers suggesting president trump should be removed from office after yesterday's capitol hill riots coming up we will ask the head of the national retail federation if he agrees. you bel. you bel. we've been online for more than 25 years and have helped thousands of students reach their goals. as a nonprofit university, we believe access to high quality education should be available to everyone. that's why we offer some of the lowest tuition rates in the nation, and haven't raised tuition in nearly a decade. so no matter where you want to go, snhu can help you get there.

visit snhu.edu today.

- ( phone ringing )es offers - big button,lized phones... and volume-enhanced phones.nes. get details on this state program. visit right now or call during business hours.

and accessoriesphones for your mobile phone. like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. - ( phone ringing ) - get details on this state program visit right now or call during business hours. welcome back time for a cnbc news update with sue herera hi, sue. >> hello wilf. hello, everybody here's what's happening at this hour house speaker nancy pelosi says she is joining chuck schumer's call for president trump's immediate removal from office. she says if vice president pence won't invoke in 25th amendment, congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment for insighting a pro-trump crowd to storm the capitol building. >> in calling for this seditious act president trumps that

committed an unspeakable assault on our nation and our people. >> as he said, the justice department will consider bringing charges against anyone playing a role in the capitol riot the acting district attorney in the clk of columbia today refused to rule out indicting president trump for encouraging his followers at a rally to march to the capitol. in sports news in a move made possible by new owner steven cohen's willingness to spend a lot of money, the new york mets traded for cleveland's all-star shortstop frin francisco lindor one of baseball's best players he is scheduled to be a free agent at the ends of the season and will be earning top dollar and a long term contract. up next the head of the national retail federation on how businesses are rgeintoeantg the capitol hill riots yesterday and what it all means for the economy. we'll be right back.

business leaders and industry groups calling out and condemning the actions of pro trump rioters who stormed the capitol yesterday. the national retail federation among them responding, calling the riots repugnant and calling on the administration to move quickly to provide the

leadership that will end this affront to our democracy joining us for now, nrf president and ceo matthew shay goofed you to join news sure. >> we have been collecting statements and reactions from business groups like yours, from ceos condemning what happened. some people are asking, where was business the election was months ago, and president trump has contested this, has egged on these protesters and rioters this was somewhat predictable and business should have been more outspoken then. how do you react >> sara, i think yesterday was a sad and embarrassing and in some ways tragic day for our country. you heard the soon to be senate majority leader chuck schumer say, as was said about pearl harbor day, it is a day that will live in infamiliary it was a real embarrassment, it was a shock. it was something i don't know anyone could have predicted until yesterday. and a lot of questions need to

be answered how it was allowed to happen and how we weren't prepared for this after we saw the statements that essentially incited this kind of behavior. up to that point i think the focus was trying to get through those legal challenges and there was no expectation i don't think most of us could have wildly imagined that we would see what we saw yesterday. i think that's one of the reasons you saw such broad statements of outrage about what did happen, because it's completely unacceptable. there is no place for that in american democracy and one of our most cherished tradition is the peaceful transition of power. for more than two centuries we have been able to observe that peaceful transition of power even when we had closely contested elections. let's face it, this one wasn't that closely contested measured against trev elections and yet we had the behavior we saw yesterday. it is outrageous, and ought to be condemned we need to move back to the business of americans. millions are suffering and we

need to address their needs as quickly as we can and we need to move beyond this quickly >> speaking of moving beyond it. the national association of manufacturers went a step further and called on vice president pence who they say was evacuated from the capitol toers isly consider working with the cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment. was there any discussion among retailers, your group to put that out there, to call for invoking the 25th amendment as well >> sara, we have not had that conversation i am not sure how manybusiness organizations are seriously discussing a constitutional amendment at that time like this i mean's for the vice president and the cabinet to be discussing, duly elected political lead e not trade associations our job is to represent our members and the people with and whom and for our members work and the communities that they serve. our objective is to keep those people safe, to keep them

healthy, to fight the pandemic, to move on and address the issues related to distribution of the vaccine, to put those millions of americans who are out of work back to work and to do some of the things that we know need to be done for this economy. and there are lots of things that can and should be done. and maybe they will be done. let's look at this as an opportunity. you saw the way the markets reacted. you have been talking about this all day long and i think these record highs in the market demonstrate that markets value certainty and predictability more than they fear single-party control of the congress and the administration. let's do some work here that the american people need let's work on the pandemic let's work on vaccines let's put people back to work in employable jobs. let's get infrastructure done. let's talk about immigration there's a lot we can do. and we ought to be focused on that and we have got what, another 13 days to get focused on it. let's move ahead and look to

the. >> looking ahead, how optimistic are retailers? how much does it rest on further stimulus and including direct payments >> i think wilfred one of the great paradoxes of this past year has been the fact that the dual realities we saw. we saw these millions of americans suffering. we saw the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of infected americans and families struggling, communities struggling, business failing. and we saw that contrasted against the backdrop of relatively healthy consumer behavior in the aggregate. again as mike said earlier it is hard to understand how there can be literally trillions of dollars in savings and reduced consumer debt sitting on the sidelines at a time when the world seems to be falling apart. yet for many american families business communities organizations things are relatively good. so with all of that i think as a

prelude to the coming year when we really focus on the priorities -- let's admit we have a problem with the pandemic isn't that the first step? admit you have a problem we have got a problem. that's job number one. fight the pandemic, get a vaccine, let's get america safe and healthy. wear masks, socially distance. let's move ahead in an optimistic way there are going to be challenges but we want to get through that. when this finishes, i think consumers will come back all that money is on the sidelines. no doubt we have had some business failures but we'll merge stronger, better prepared and i think in a good position to keep driving the economy forward hopefully in as good a way as week. >> the spac frenzy strikes deilagn. tas of fintech company's sofi's move to go public when we return ne in the s&p 500,es

even if their shares cost more. at $5 a slice, you could own ten companies for $50 instead of paying thousands. all commission free online. schwab stock slices: an easy way to start investing or to give the gift of stock ownership. schwab. own your tomorrow.

take a look at these shares social capital

it's up 58% on the news that this will indeed acquire sofi. it includes the more than $2 billion in cash proceeds infused from both the merger and the corresponding buy. they ask members to borrow and save their money it is put at nearly nine times value. this is the fifth iteration. his previous acquisitions include -- >> leslie, we will watch it. thank you. straight ahead, why nelson

peltz is apologizing for voting for trump in november. next we're excited to do business with you

but before we sign i gotta ask... sure, anything. we searched you online and maybe you can explain this? i can't believe that garbage is still coming in. that is so false! frustrated with your online search results? call reputation defender today to join tens of thousands who've improved their online reputation. get your free reputation report card at reputationdefender.com or call 1-877-866-8555. all day on cnbc we have been covering business and wall street reaction to the reaction of yesterday

nelson peltz, long time supporter of president trump was on our show joined us and apologized for voting for trump back in november >> what happened yesterday is a disgrace and as an american i am embarrassed. i didn't vote for trump in 2016. i voted for him in this past election, november today i'm sorry i did that i supported many of his policies which i still think were good ones, trade efforts, economic policies, i think they are good for our country, but so much good was undone yesterday with what we all saw. >> i think in nelson's comments

it encapsulates the complicated the president has had with business leaders i remember covering those photo ops when they came to the white house to talk about policies and after those groups disbanded, it was a balancing act between supporting the president's policies, lower taxes, booming stock market and economy and some of this other stuff what we saw yesterday was that balancing act shifted and what came out of it was a wave of statements from ceos who had worked with this president and some of his friends, like nelson peltz, rejecting the election and inciting the violence on capitol hill >> there was always a balancing act throughout the course of the four years it's one thing to support policies in the face of some comments that perhaps you may

disagree with. but i think post-election was when the balance was firmly tipped in terms of not accepting the results. the first line of his statement doesn't tally with his first appearance, monday night, six days after the election when organizations had already declared the result and he didn't fully accept the result i think there is a gap there and i think there will be a number of people in that position >> if you supported the economic policy, the tax cut, december 22 of 2017. i think there was an elevated level of fear among wealthy business people and investors

about the potential tactical features that president biden might bring. and the stimulus comes along potentially with a new administration so may have been misplaced fear. >> and stability >> we are out of time. "fast money" starts now. >> i'm melissa lee and this is "fast money. tonight's lineup -- the last straw social media companies blocking president trump from posting to his account after a mob of supporters entered the white house. and you will hear from one of the most high investors. an