anyway as we move towards the end of the show, make sure you join us tomorrow, i'm going to work on that, andrew, actually, i might be out tomorrow. got some things to do. got some things to take care of. some fun becky, andrew. >> work are you going? >> school, starting again. got to help some people go back to school. "squawk on the street" is next good monday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber dow futures as you can see a little sluggish this morning as we kick off the busiest week of q4 earnings. and fed decision, vaccine rollout and more warnings of what goldman is saying are signs of bubble-like sentiment. 13 dow component, more than 100 s&p companies will report this week plus we do have more vaccine

optimism moderna saying its shot is shown to work against emerging variants of the covid-19 virus >> and of course, you just heard dom talking about it we're going to talk about it as well, these epic short squeezes. all you have to is look at shares gamestop to get a sense as to what is playing out here we will try to break it down for you, carl. >> yes, jim, that's a good place to start the behavior of a few of these names which we have been talking about the last couple of weeks, i mentioned david's note over the weekend, pockets of the market have recently appeared to demonstrate investor behavior consistent with bubble-like sentiment and they point to smacks and high growth, high multiple names with ev sales above 20, a quarter of volume. >> well, i love david, he is terrific, and he does point out the spac, let's say festival, there were three today, they all seem legit, they always seem to have something going, it involves let's say ev, or health

care, hard to pin down, but we're seeing a phenomenon that i have, i never see. and that is a phenomenon of david, you're not necessarily going to like this >> tell me. >> it's the wall streetbet people and they have ganged up, arguably it's a loud, by free speech purposes, to center on a few stocks, gamestop, and the arguably the reason why they're in it is because this guy ryan cohen, who he did a great job on, he did a great job on chewy. so people get very excited he owns a lot of stock joined the board last week that makes people excited. but what is most important, david, is it is concerted but it may be protected by free speech. and this is the paradigm you will see from bed, bath and beyond and the loop upgrade and you will see it for adam aaron's company, amc they will go after that one. >> i mean i'm already seeing it. and jim, i feel like we've seen some of this movie before.

it does have reminisce sense certainly of the late '90s, in particular the vitriol of some people if you challenge their belief in some way and the ability to coordinate in some way, even though they're not necessarily coronating what is going on in game stop, rite now, could conceivably take a couple of firms out, hedge funds if they were stupid enough to go all the way. >> and option sellers. >> because of the fundamentals you had the downgrade of it, as 65, by dana tellsy who pointed out it was trading at 33 times enterprise value over ebitda, 33 times for a retailer, by the way a retailer that many would argue is not particularly well positioned, jim. that's a fundamental debate that everybody is certainly welcome to have but what's going on now is a bit different than that and not to mention the things you brought up on friday, involving the short seller andrew left and the threats he had gotten as well. >> this is one of the situations the early morning action is looking to be force covering,

and that's from the short calls that were exercised on friday, and there's no stock around, and open interest in this one, in the 60s, it's insane i want to thank my friend tim collins who does option work on this, and there is - >> borrows easy. 140% 44%. >> but the mechanics are rather shocking, and carl, what i think is happening, i disagree with david, that it is reminiscent of the '90s, from the point of view is it is not necessarily froth here it is the mechanic was market are breaking down. because it's arguable that these people are all one group, but my securities lawyer said, listen, free speech covers it. so you can have cheerleaders buy it it is no different, carl, than an analyst saying buy, gamestop, it's going to 200. i think it's protected speech. i do believe that yes, like david said, there are companies that can't get through this but it is wall street bet, it is

worth going to the site because it is incredibly compelling. you see what they're saying. you may think it's froth but they're using arguments that they think hold up under scrutiny i don't think they do. but it doesn't matter what i think. >> the stocks are up 81% in three months. >> sorry, carl, go ahead >> jim, i guess the question for those who were not in these particular names, is how much risk is there to broader pockets of the market. it's not just about spacs or high growth, high multiple, the b of a's out today, saying that companies that are beating on estimates are being punished in ways we've not seen since. q2 of 2000, right before the s&p went down, 13%, in a matter of weeks. well, what i would point out is that again, i love david, and what david said about high cost, that's not what is going on, what is going on is the wall street bet people are looking at what the high short interest is.

whether it is the short interest in gamestop. or the short interest in bed, bath and beyond. or the short interest in amc what they're saying is no one can cover the 67% that's short, bed, bath and beyond, and someone comes out and raises the price target they are very specific to break the shorts >> there's no doubt. and you got great money managers like the hedge fund manager at melvin, who has been short a lot of this, probably has the ability to continue the excess capital to stay short but some can't and it will be fascinating to watch you pointed out with bed, baghdad and obviously we know that the issues that -- bed, bath and obviously we know the issues that amc has had to stay out of bankruptcy and here it is, not in some ways dissimilar that we saw from hertz this summer where suddenly they had the run and thinking about selling stock despite the fact that they were bankrupt. >> and the million dollar fundraising this weekend has been pulled off. >> and go for it, right?

>> i think theoretically, you can take the stock up enough, and adam aaron, who is very clever, will recognize that this is an opportunity to sell stock. however, the younger investors, david, who are doing this, with the bet, have regarded offerings as being a sign of strength. >> i think you said that >> it's true >> no, i understand. >> and carl, again, when you see this buying, before the, you know, there was buying at 4:00 a.m. on this thing >> i followed 49: -- the 4:30 traders. >> you were? >> yes >> and i'm up way before that. >> and they go to work and another one that has moved up pallentin. a great company. but we can have the discussion about valuation at this point in the marketplace in terms of what deserves to be and carl, it's not unconnected we'll get to them from spacs there is a way of speculative nature prior to announcing and

the after-market performance as i call it once they do announce and five in front of me right here that we'll get to and there are probably more that have announced their transactions this morning, and even the ones who haven't, and i have pointed it out many times, boy, you know, jim, ccib, you know, you got to watch out on that one, we'll see if they do that deal with lucent or not but it hit 30-something this morning. >> the deal with lucent, after what is happening with tesla, of course this weekend, it is going to be very good, it is really i'd say creating this move in cciv, because this car that they're interested in is very, very, i think it's one of these things that people are very, very excited about we have not yet seen lucent motors deal, david it just keeps going higher and higher, in anticipation. and i think that we are allowed to, if you do a spac, david, you can make any payment in the world. >> within reason i mean you can't, but you can talk about, right, you can give

projections perhaps that you don't have to be held to quite as tightly as you were if you were taking the company directly tabula is an example of that they are giving you a sense of what they're going to do given their deal today, to list through a spac ion acquisition corp there's a list of all of the ones we're talking about here today. cnbc 50, right. >> you can see the overall values, bill foley will join us later by the way. >> oh, really? >> great booking >> thank you >> but to your point, jim, they're talking about, i'm looking here, sorry, the applied valuation for tabula, they're giving you some projection, you know, over 375 million of ex-pac revenues and 300 million of operating income of 1.2 billio in revenues in 2020. but your point is they don't have to hold to them quite as tightly as they might if they were filing directly as opposed to the spac having been the filing entity originally

>> latch merges with tishman spire, the whole building operation, carl, the last i looked, the building operations in the city not that good but i think people like the deal because we just think it is. >> that's part of it and lloyd blank, of course, everyone has an opinion right now about where spacs fit in in terms of the overall market narrative and certainly earlier on "squawk," lloyd blankfein weighed in. >> if investors lost money, people are going to say, you achieved the economic equivalency of an ipo, but where was the process and diligence that we all associated with a rigorous ipo diligence process and that kind of drops out now, i'm not saying that they're all bad, or that any of the ones that you could bring up are better some of these won't work and my advice to people who are doing this now would be really,

really diligence, really, really document, but you know, again, in hindsight, if something goes bad down the road, people will look back and show charles to follow. >> wow >> jim adam, made the argument this morning, that look, we're all trying to be well behaved public companies on the other side why should you look negatively upon us as we go through this crucible in a different way? >> well, look, i think that people are genuinely excited a lot of what is going on are younger investors, i hate to keep coming back to them, but they're very excited about what these companies are doing. and the way they express their excitement, is to buy stock. they don't just sit there and say, boy, this is interesting, david, they placed bets on the stock. >> they do and you can see these moves, many of them are having, not the handler, not the lancadia one,

handler doing that deal this morning, but everything else is moving up significantly. foley of course, remember they did their last deal, it was at 19, eft might be the symbol on, it they haven't closed it yet but they announced it. >> but there's so much money there's so much money. >> and by the way the investment banks are benefitting. it is funnily listening to blankfein but they're underwriting the spacs and also getting merger credit as well when the deals are done, because remember, they are a merger, even though really it is a way of course to go to public, it is also credited as a merger, so wall street is very happy with this and it will continue for some time. and of course, to his point, there are going to to be those that are not good and plenty that succeed as well there's no doubt and we're just pointing out some of the moves here, ahead of time, and you know, they are already valuing many of these companies far above where they were valued on their last round when they were private, having

raised money and they're then getting a boost in the stock market to the tune of 30, 70% in some of these names which is pretty extraordinary at this point. but not unlike what we've been say seeing to a certain extent in some of the ipos that we've been seeing. >> yes, if you look at snowflake, if you look at door dash >> airbnb. >> very, very skefl. never really came in i want to go back if you don't mind to bed, bath and beyond, so the note today, say they do periodic pricing, price gab is narrowing. it doesn't matter, david it's 67% short it just gives these people another reason to break the shorts and that's what this is about. there's this, not the spacs but the big short position, the shorts better cover, because the longs are coming for you >> yup that's is more ef vident every day. >> a lot of calls to get to salesforce, comcast, our parent, and moderna as well, and the ceo

of the company saying their vaccine does retain some neutralizing activity against these emerging variants, including the ones first discovered in the u.k. and south africa we're back in a minute broken windshield... take 1... hey guys, my windshield just got broken, i feel like i need to blow off some steam. let's go... 1, 2, 3, 4... mr. blanks? there's no need to be stressed. geico makes it easy to file a claim online, on the app, or over the phone. yeah, but what if i never hear back? that's gonna make me want to go jab...jab! nope! your geico claims team is always there for you. that makes me want to celebrate with some fireworks. 5,6,7 go... boom, boom, boom, boom boom boom boom boom boom, yeah! geico. great service without all the drama. geico. great service labradoodles, cronuts, skorts. (it's a skirt... and shorts) the world loves a hybrid. so do businesses. so, today they're going hybrid with ibm. a hybrid cloud approach lets them use watson ai to modernize without rebuilding, and bring all their partners and customers together in one place. that's why businesses from retail to banking

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we're looking at growth. especially in the variant just

found in the u.k. and 501 found in south africa. the good news, we broke the virus into a very highly event antibody the v 117 strength from the u.k., we basically saw the same relevant antibody as we did see in the strain that has been separating in the u.s. >> that's moderna this morning announcing results of neutralization that they say, jim, remains above levels that are expected to be protected against these new variants, although out of an abundance of caution, they are watching a clinical program on some boosters. >> yeah, i took, that's the one i have taken half of and take the other half next month, and of course, you all wish that they would give you that ne, but what he just talked about, but the fact is, it is a very effective vaccine, and look, everybody knows that if you get it, even if you get, if you get covid, with the shot, the covid is very light. so i'm not saying that this can

stop everything, but david, the prospects are pretty good, if you come in contact. >> which is great. other good news is of course hospitalizations nationwide are down cases are down seven-day average at least, about 173,000, down from 244,000. that's good. still real questions about vaccine distribution what we're going to be able to get to and obviously, jim, still a concern about these new variants which are more transadmissible and scott gottlieb was making a good point this morning i thought, saying given how, the reasons why they're more transmissible, it would make sense that they also in fact may be more unfortunately, more pathogenic, but it is just deadly and this is one where people view it as an aerosol issue. this is good i don't mean to make this tougher for people at home but the mask you need is an n95, it is the special one that has a better filter.

they don't let the filters that are plastic on planes so you have to get an n95 that doesn't have that. but check to see if your mask is if it's n95, it's going to do a lot better against these additional strains because this one is easier to catch if you're just wearing a scarf, if you're just wearing any kind of covering that has got something that doesn't repel the aerosol so carl, it should make people feel twice, about what the face covering is, but if you don't have a face covering, it just seems like you're going to get it >> yes, the times piece over the weekend, how the double mask is now the new mask >> right. >> the cdc jim is expected to sign an order today that would finally require masks on all plane, train, and ride sharing, and then of course, we got to keep our eye on merck which is basically getting out of the vaccine game to focus on therapeutics after seeing what they called a basically weak immune response. >> this is the big worry about j & j, whose stock seems to go up

38 to 58 to a dollar every day, they played it close to the vest and they do report this week, people are wondering whether this is the week where they unveil what the percentage is. >> j & j has given us a lot of data along the way and merck was not nearly as far along, right >> yes, but j & j's tomorrow >> you're saying j & j earnings tomorrow they may say something on their vaccine. >> they may not choose to disclose it tomorrow but i think that when you look at the 100 million, 100 day, carl, that's going to need j & j to happen. they cannot do it with pfizer. >> keep an eye, listen, i talked about merck and the anti-virals for way longer than i thought i would because i actually expected they might be out prior to some of the vaccines. the nk-482, that is going to be an important drug for them >> how many days can you, i mean remember, the ones today, the first two days - >> this would be, even take it

phrophylactically, if you were exposed, take it because the safety profile is. there and they are waiting on the phase three data to finish up i think they said late march. but given these strain, it's not like this virus is going away any time soon, it will be with us probably for as long as mankind is around now, hopefully in the background but it will be good to have the anti-virals out there. >> i think it is forever and we can't forget that merck was the one last summer that told us be easy on your expectations for what a vaccine can do we'll take a break here and be back in a moment turn on my tv and boom, it's got all my favorite shows right there. i wish my trading platform worked like that. well have you tried thinkorswim? this is totally customizable, so you focus only on what you want. okay, it's got screeners and watchlists. and you can even see how your predictions might affect

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let's get to "mad dash" six minutes before the opening bell as well. apple. >> david, one of the things you would not want if you own apple which reports this week is one, two, three, four, five different firms coming out, either raising price targets or saying it's going to be a super cycle, a solid quarter, improvement mix, china going to be great, blockbuster beat david, these are not what you want these set the bar too high >> is that a concern for you >> yes i think people have to own apple, don't trade it, when you see this kind of thing, initially, it's entirely possible that the stock takes a dip, because these expectations are crazed i think that apple is fantastic. that china is going well that president biden is going to have better relations with the chinese. but this kind of thing does make it so it's a dice yer call,

ahead of the quarter. >> you saw four of the largest market cap companies that we have will be reporting earnings this week. apple, is still number one, by a good amount. 2.3. going to be even higher than that trillion dollar market value. >> it is rather amazing. and again, i think it's fine, but it's not a wall street bet now they're operating, i just can't, i don't even want to say it >> keep it to yourself >> we got a lot more "squawk on the street" coming right back including an opening bell five minutes from now

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as we said at the top of the show, busiest week of earnings season, names like facebook, apple, tesla, and a couple of firms this morning, getting in front, raising targets on texan, going to 176, and on microsoft as wedbush goes to 270. >> i mean, look, there is a concerted effort by everybody to get ahead in the semiconductors, the internet of things, we're

seeing notes that are implying that we're going to get some blockbuster numbers for all of the semis, and that's because, carl, there is an amazing, amazing, really bad supply and demand situation for the customers. they can't make them fast enough and when i see all of these, i have to say, i have to be encouraged, here's a good example. we are seeing some people with, this is citi, they raised corva, teredyne, nvidia, battle line, the battle lines here, david, are incredible, because very few people can get in the way of these, given the fact that the 5g cycle is here. >> so you think this recally will continue, broadly speaking, in a lot of these names kwl. >> samsung and taiwan semi can't make them fast enough. >> we have a very tight system and i've got to tell you, the

number of phones, they're indicating that apple is going to have such a big quarter, by looking at all of these stocks, carl, they're very strong. don't get in front of them don't sell them. not yet. >> we're going to keep that in mind, jim, as we watch the opening bell here at the number nyc and the nasdaq, and we will watch chip, samsung considering an investment, as much as $17 billion to make a chip factory in either arizona, texas, or new york. >> we are so, that is just fantastic. a lot of the, this is why that president biden really has to get involved, because he can make a difference. i say that, because these companies are doing it, they don't have to put it here, we're a high cost country, but it's very important that they do that, because we're protecting their country, and they sense that, so i am very involved with looking at what they are going to do because we need much more research, applied material, all

of the semiconductor capital equipment companies, we need all of that at work, in order to be able to meet this incredible ship shortage. by the way, i want to revert to gme for a second, you're wondering what is happening there, the people who are short the 60 calls are being bought in, they're being covered there, and they are not, and a lot of times, they're long the 40 calls and short the 60 calls and not to be too technical here but the 40 calls are not being sold at the same price so it is entirely possible that people are shorting this and they didn't realize they would be shorted and that's what the covering is. >> we've also got covering by some of these hedge funds. >> and thinking it would crack at some point and to find out that the people they are up against are unified in their opposition. >> if they're unified -- >> continuing to buy. >> if they're unified just by free speech and love of the stock, the government does not have a case. >> but i mean if you are running a hedge fund and you had large position in this thing, you

can't cut, you can't risk, you can't take that kind of risk. >> no. carl, you know what this reminds me of, i once went to a dog racetrack in monticello georgia, it was georgia, and you know what they do, they have the mechanical route, and the dogs all follow it and they chase it, and the mechanical rabbit broke and the dogs went nuts and they feasted on the rabbit. i feel that the shorts here david are the rabbit >> okay. so when are they going to break? >> they feasted on them already? >> it was a nettle rabbit and smelled like a dog or smeged like - >> do you remember the short squeeze in porsche years ago that cost them, i mean i actually took some funds out, i think. that was resorts international the great resorts international short in the '70s. the casino. >> i don't remember that. >> all i can say is, if you are trying to get involved and play this, i think you got to like

the smoke, but the smoke cleared today, because it is entirely possible that after the covering, there could be a bit of a vacuum, is the stock worth this it doesn't matter what i think it's worth all it matters is what the buyers think it's worth. >> yup it's a great point, jim. and it's powering the nasdaq, but even on the dow, apple is the top-performing component, and we still have some of those lingering bears, b of a there says, i think the report was titled last gasp for a tech rally, as they say, continue rotating into value. >> i think that this rotation into value needs the value to be valuable and i think a lot of the value stocks, as little as they are, there's 50 s&p stocks that are industrial, and almost all of them have been buying back stocks, so there's not a lot of stocks let's see them rotating, ingersoll rand, or you want to rotate into nucor, the stocks aren't that cheap.

a lot of people who are rotating into pay pal, and etsy and the small cap companies that, square, that are dominating the people who are trying, david, to create businesses online, and get away from brick and mortar, of course, gamestop is a brick and mortar, so it is a little surprising, david, to run like this. >> yes, i think that was part of the thesis for people who were shorting it. right, that it was a difficult position and digitalization of games and the fact that it was brick and mortar and at 65, it was trading at 33 times enterprise value over ebitda, i can only imagine that, at where are we now, 87, down from the high, it was over 100 not long ago. >> how about tilray. >> bed bath and beyond is moving up dramatically and another one you highlighted and could be a focus. >> why are people -- >> mark is doing a fabulous job. the new ceo. john dustin moved in there has created a lot of what are a

whole new way of doing business. they had a lot of skus, they weren't focused, and mark tritten has done a terrific job in bringing it to the 21st century, but you know, carl, i don't make any bones about this. it's 67% short and the wall street bets people and other smaller investors are really gunning, and i've never seen the guns like this. it's too heavily shorted and carl, they can break shorts, and that's what they're doing. >> yes we do have gme halted now. >> they do. >> for volatility. just as we did last week and we'll see how many of those we get, depending on the price action today jim, over the weekend, a lot of discussion about how the stimulus package is shaping up a big phone call with the white house and some senators, ron klain talked about how big biden will be able to go in this era where bipartisan is challenged list en. we're reaching out to

people i don't think bipartisanship and speed are enemies of one another. the need is urgent the the american, both republicans and republicans are dying. kid's schools that take care of both democratic and republican kids are closed. people are on unemployment people are in food lines that's not a party issue so i think let's try to move on a bipartisan basis, let's try to move quickly, and speed is very important here, chuck. >> are you willing, for instance, to table your push for upping the minimum wage if it got you the ten republicans you needed and you got everything else >> we're very dedicated to passing the minimum wage we think that's an urgent prirlt we're going to push the congress to push our priorities and that includes the minimum wage. so what we want to do is reach out to congress and reach out to members of both parties and see what we can get done as quickly as possible and we certainly think minimum wage should be part of this urgent relief package. >> all right jim, goldman's view is we're going to settle somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.1 trillion,

but it's kind of jarring to hear klain talk about real economic need in this country, even as we see new highs on the nasdaq. >> yes, i think the separation of the two economies is pretty apparent the stock economy, people who have jobs. or took the, they took their little benefit and put it to work, which is fine. because what else, they have to invest, and they can do cash, and they can do stocks and they seem to be liking stocks ron klain is a different kind of chief of staff ron klain, for people who have followed him for years is, a technician, meaning that he's not ideological, and the previous administration had ideal ogs, and i think klain can get a deal done simply because this style, his style is not in your face, as this nation is not in your face >> no, nor are they in your, on your twitter feed. >> no. no they're not. >> different

>> and you think that does what? >> i think that it brings a little more calm. >> consistency. >> i once tried to demonstrate that the president's calling the speaker names, somehow came out that i did geez, i've known her for years kind of crazy. you apologized to her. i think she does a very good job. i felt like i just didn't do it right. but that idea of these different names for people, in the democratic party, that's a dumb thing. and that hurt the case of trying to get something done by secretary mnuchin and that's not happening here ron klain wants to try to get some sort of thing going and do it in a way that appeals to everybody. i know carl, that's out of fashion, or certainly wasn't the way of president trump, but i think it's going to be more successful because what it is, it is hey, listen, everybody, the country's in trouble, let's get together and you can argue that the country is not in trouble, just the people out of work but aren't those people part of the country?

it doesn't matter blue state, red state, everything is part of the country and i think that's what klain is bring together party. >> i want to focus, get back to spacs, that we focused on at the top of the show and see how they're performing and we want to make a point, we had popatilla on the show many times, with spacs, and interesting to note with five of the deals, he is in four of them taboula. there's chamath palihapitiya. >> and we will have bill foley joining us later >> he is in tabula premiere solar, platform, listing through apollo spartan in that one. and also in latch. so i mean he is, jim, he has become the poster child for spacs. >> yes >> just like kathy is the poster

child for -- >> it's incredible that the numbers that came into her arc funds and one that she heavy done yet and the name is moving up, kathy wood, unbelievable. >> and i suggested clover health, i suggested i needed to do some work on it and that was met with he did rision, the idea that i had to do work on it, i thought that was important. >> and so his last deal, wasn't that his last deal that he announced? i think so he has had so many, so quickly but again, it's not just being the sponsor, but these pipe investors are all, that go in to provide this financing as well, at the time that the deal is announced, they are all part of each other's deals >> yes. >> so they're all, it's very incestuous but he's in so much. and obviously seems to be making a lot of money. >> he has the midas touch.

i'm always requesting him to be on i always have ceos on. >> very articulate fellow. >> and not a pied piper. much more a midas touch. >> we'll see that's the good part we get to see over time. he can sell out, of course >> that would be king midas in reverse. >> right >> right >> carl, it's an amazing time. >> and by the way, tesla is up 1.5, 2% right now and still being outperformed this month, by both gm and ford. which are both up 29%, to tesla's only 22% thus far in january, carl. >> indeed, guys. one last thing you probably want to touch on is some media, we do have roku, b of a goes to 500 from 380 and we got the news about pea cob, and the world wrestling, peacock and the world wrestling and morgan stanley names our

parent a top pick with a bull case of 77 which they say is now in play. >> i love this case. comcast. overweight shares move from cheap to really cheap. and reopening tail winds at nbc news sky, return to buybacks, david, these are all very traditional things that could make it so that this stock goes much higher. we work for comcast, but i note that morgan stanley is really changing its tune. they have not been a big fan, and now they are david? >> i'll take it. the only stock that we can own, right? >> you'll take it but what do you think of the analysis? >> i haven't really focused on their analysis. >> please don't. >> it doesn't have as much influence as wall street bets on reddit, that's for sure, shoe get that analyst on there, and then you might have some impact. >> what's daunting is if you do the research, you're the late bird you don't get no worm.

that's the strategy. >> they're already up. that's for sure. >> record on the nasdaq. up five straight days and the s&p 500 up four or five. let's get to bob pisani. hey, bob. >> and the dow is having a lot of problems today, carl, and that's because wall street can't quite figure out what kind of trend it wants to start following. remember in the earlier part of january, it was all about cyclical, all about energy, and all about banks, and material, and that kind of reversed in the last fow days. take a look at the sectors that we are seeing today. sudden you will the last few day, wall street wants growth and technology and that means china and china is the outstanding story of the year. it is far and away the biggest market gainer at the year. that is mchi at the top there. consumer discretionary and the banks and the energy market leaders later on, they're kind of lagging here and you can see the problem in the dow, all showing up in the dow, while the dow is underperforming today, because financial stocks, and energy stocks, in particular, if

you put the dow up, the dow components, chevron, boeing, goldman, american express, visa, they're all waying on the markets, weighing on the dow as you can see here this is the opposite of what we saw just about a week ago, when the market leaders were all, the january leaders were all energy stocks, and bank stocks, and they're still the leaders for the month, so it is starting to flip around. and technology is now starting to come to the fore. semiconductors have been really strong for a while consumer staples generally the defensive names like consumer staples and utilities have been lagging throughout the month and again, do we want to buy technology and growth or cyclicals? that's what the market can't seem to decide the one thing it can absolutely decide, it loves apple as you know, average knows, reporting apple on wednesday and boy, the talk about this apple iphone super cycle i see numbers 240 million iphones may be sold in 2021, some people are getting 1250 i th-- 250

i think the record is 250. listen to jim. there's a lot of bullish expectations built in here and what is concerning is you make the expectations and then you sell on the day after. this is actually a genuine phenomena that has been happening in earnings season. >> we have about 15% of the s&p 500 that reported so far, i'm including november-ending quarters here, and of course, the beats are really high. 87% are beating but here's what is important, the average beat has been enormous. the average beat has been close to 20% overall that's really important. that's a big, big beat that we've been seeing here here's what's amazing. wells fargo noted that among the companies that have reported, next day, for those that have been beating, the average price is down almost 2%. wait a minute. they beat the numbers? and they are still down? that's a problem that is sell on the news, because the prices have run up, going into that. that could be a genuine issue for apple so i think jim is really on to something there as far as the quarter goes though, it's good. the numbers keep going up, this happened in the third quarter, the fourth quarter numbers keep going up and we were down, 10%,

in the first of january and now fourth quarter is only down 8% that's a steady improvement. remember in the past it always used to go the other way same thing for the first quarter. and that's what we care about. we care about whether the earnings estimate will keep rising for the first and second and third quarters and that's where the big numbers are and the big expectations are and even here, it is getting a little bit better from january 1st to today, the estimates keep getting a little bit better and a little bit higher and with estimates this high, with multiples this high, 22.5 forward numbers, those numbers have to keep going up to meet the expectations >> a little concerned about these numbers though, in these price moves up ahead of the earnings. carl, back to you. >> yes, that's going to be a busy one, bob. thanks bob pisani. go to break here time for the bond report this morning. take a look at how treasuries are doing. ten year did hit the lowest level in almost three weeks. across the atlantic, a key

survey shows german business sentiment down more than expected this month. as lockdowns take their toll on europe's largest economy separately, the president la guard, will address the numbers. and "squawk on the street" is back in a moment we just had.

the nfl gearing up for a super bowl ratings blockbuster brady going for his seventh ring after he and the buccaneers defeat the packers in the nfc championship the bucs will face mahomes and the defending champion chiefs after they beat the bills to win the afc title. jim, as for the ad market, we have got our first look at chipotle's first ad. doordash will be in there, too although budweiser is going to take a different stance for the first time in 37 years and give some of that money to help support recovery as we work through covid-19. >> well, i know there is another

price target boost for chipolte. doordash is doing quite well i think this there are a lot of people who regard this as being a super bowl that truly has stars on both sides, and that's very rare. i mean, you usually have stars on one side and an unknown group on the other this is an old quarterback versus a new there are so many narratives we hear about it endlessly i think people are going to love it those who watch snoop dogg on the corona ad, i think that's a big win. i found people talking this weekend saying, i ought to try corona did you see what snoop dogg is doing? it's very rare, once again we have this generation that acts on things, and i am trying to get a handle on people who act on things that they see in advertising. i wonder if they go buy -- david, do you think they buy f-150 trucks because they like the way it looks >> not a clue.

>> but you don't -- >> i did enjoy watching the football game, did you see the advertising? >> yeah, i'm aware advertising. i get it tom brady, ten super bowls what's the average length of a career in the nfl? five years >> some people say five. >> this guy is going to his tenth super bowl. >> the great thing is there are some players that can't be stopped. i think it's very hard to stop kelsey, travis kelce tyreek hill. t >> incredible watching that offense yesterday. >> i'll take the chiefs, david i will give you a point. >> a point yeah. >> i think i want a little more than that. >> so what >> are you trying to take advantage of me? >> yeah. >> i could tell. >> it's a hard call, jim in tampa, i might take the other side. >> whoa! >> the home team back in a minute

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reported a people didn't lake, stock got hammered they boosted the dividend, a nice buyback, 650 million. the organic growth so excellent. the stock is up four maybe this is value. stock yields 3.3, but they want it, carl they want to go back into a stock that is a household name >> yeah, i think the forward yield takes it to 345. we will see how many div likes we get in the days to come as the earnings print what's tonight >> boot barn excellent company that has been able to do a lot of direct to consumer i am going to be looking @-home test that you would take every day. if it showed the wrong color, then you would not go to work. it's the way to slow down the epidemic and we do it right on tv because it's getting crazy here that we don't have at-home testing. it's what we need to do in order to slow down the pandemic. mr. president, please do it.

>> yeah. and i see this morning, jim, new york city is now postponing the opening of citi field and yankees stadium because of lack of supply. they say you need 200,000 doses to even open those sites. >> wow what can i say new york is doing particularly badly in terms of amount of vaccine. but we need to stop people from going to work in order to be able to stop this or slow it >> jim, see you at 6:00. >> absolutely. >> "mad money" with jim cramer at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. good morning, welcome to "squawk on the street. i am carl quintanilla with david faber and morgan brennan all-time highs on the nasdaq and russell. as the tech rally dovetails with the crazy action in hey-growth, high multiple names. our roadmap begins with the growing vaccine optimism moderna saying its covid shot appears to go be effective against the faster spreading

variants. how public/private partnerships could address the vaccine distribution challenges. and then bill foley and his $7 billion spac deal, the legendary investor will join us and give us information about his latest venture in a few minutes. carl. got a lot of news, guys, on the pharma front pfizer working on a trial involving teen merck is out moderna saying that these vaccines appear to be effective on new variants. meg tirrell. >> hey, carl so these new variants we have been hearing about, of course, from the u.k., from south africa, another from brazil known as b.1.1.7 moderna saying that they took a look at the vaccine and the level of neutralizing antibodies against specifically b 117 and b 1351 against that u.k. variant they say they noticed similar neutralizing antibody levels

however, against that b 1351 variant associated with south africa the neutralization level was six-fold lower they still expect the neutralizing antibodies will be high enough to provide protection, they are looking at a booster dose of the orange vaccine and a new vaccine mrna 1273.351 for the variant to see if a booster could increase the neutralization levels. we talked with the ceo this morning about why they are looking to do that here's what he said. >> what is unknowable is what will happen in six months, 12 months, especially to the elderly, because, as you know, they have a weaker immune system and because of that unknown and moderna wants to always stay at the forefront of the fight against covid-19, we decided to

take, out of an evidence of caution, a new vaccine for the south african strain. >> moderna's stock up quite a bit this morning after this announcement part of that could be, yes, it looks like the vaccine should work against these strains another part of it could be he is talking about this in a similar way to how we talk about the flu shot, you could potentially have get a new one every year that is great business for a company like moderna the stock up 11%. >> i want to make sure i have this clear we are talking about potentially a third shot and then at a time where production is such a key focus and seeing that we can get the supplies ramped up enough and then distributed out fast enough right now, what does that actually do to that production line >> yeah, it's such an important question we are talking about still getting the first two shots a month apart, and then

potentially having that third shot as a booster sometime later. interestingly, moderna says they expected that booster could work with other vaccines as well for covid-19 so potentially providing that booster shot if everybody needed it now, in terms of production, of course, they are ramping up as fast as they can they tell me because the technology is so similar, you are essentially inserting a new construct for the pike protein for the new vaccine, that it's very quick to make the switch and that dosing could potentially be different as well they don't anticipate any, taking their foot off the accelerator in terms of production of the original vaccine. this is an augmented thing and they will see how they need to change their production in the future it's really important if you are making two different versions, how do you split the production. as of now, that doesn't seem to be a problem yet >> yeah, meg, you answered my question, which was how quickly

could they make that variation of the version i guess this all goes back to the technology itself, which, in part, is responsible for how rapid pfizer and moderna were able to get rapidly they were able to get to a vaccine in the first place? >> yeah. i mean, it's so great that mrna vaccines work so well with this 95% efficacy biontech, which is partnered with pfizer, said it would take about six weeks. now we are hearing that moderna in coordination with the nih working on this variant. what will be important will be the regulatory pathway forward for that we need the core lits of protection. knowing what the actual antibody levels or t-cell levels need to be to see in the blood of people who get the vaccine in order to provide protection against the disease. we expect we should have that information within a month or so once we have that, moderna's ceo saying that's how flu shots are approved every year. he expects that's how covid vaccines would get approved,

too. >> meg tirrell, thanks shares of moderna are up about 11% right now. corporate america is looking to aid in the distribution of a vaccine. eamon javers has how companies around the country are helping with that process. eamon. >> good morning. what we are seeing is a new relationship developing as the push for the vaccination 100 million doses in 100 days takes place by the biden administration we are seeing companies interfacing with their state and local governments, trying to offer help and develop new relationships with those state and federal leaders. take a look at some companies who are getting involved starting with starbucks, which is offering in washington state to help develop starbucks vaccination centers. they are calling it a starbucks with one product in the state there. they are talking to the governor the amazon just last week, i think a lot of people noticed they offered the biden administration help with vaccination of its own employees as well as communications and personal assistance. personnel assistance in terms of people on the ground

google is offering $150 million to promote vaccination education around the country honeywell in north carolina offering logistical health with last mile vaccine distribution other companies getting involved as well. i talked to eric hop lin, the new ceo of the national association of wholesaler distributors an important lobbying organization and trade association here in washington, d.c. he wrote a letter to the biden administration on friday offering to help of his members, and he told me what he thinks they can do to make a difference >> what will be different is the scale because immediately we have the trucks, we have the network, the technology, and remember a lot of these vaccines are, we need to use cold storage. so we have the ability to move this type of sensitive vaccine quickly and thoroughly >> guys, the wholesalers see an opportunity under the biden administration a little bit different than what we saw under trump. they say the focus under trump

was much more on distributing the vaccine through federal ex and ups. what eric is talking about here is a broader effort in terms wholesalers to use the entire supply chain fascinating dynamic in the relationship between these companies and the state and federal governments where they work. >> that's where i was going with my question. as we see president biden signing executive orders for a blanketed federal approach to the pandemic right now, what the pic private partnerships have looked like and how that could continue to morph. i realize government contracting is big and broad, but i have to think this could represent a whole other silo, especially where all of those tech and logistical partnerships are concerned. >> yeah, because these big companies and big supply chain management entities, you know, they have the boots on the ground they have the logistical operations in the states and in

the cities already so the biden administration can turn to them what we'll see as this develops, you know, now we are seeing the press releases, the letters, the announcements of these offers being made what we will have to see is how those can be knitted together by the biden administration it takes an enormous amount of coordination to take all this goodwill and offers and turn it into something that's useful and practical on the ground in terms of getting to the goal they are trying to achieve. >> eamon, thank you. target announcing 200 million in bonuses that the company will be giving to its workers. the fifth time it has done so during the pandemic. courtney reagan has more for us. great to have you back, courtney. >> hey, thanks, david. it's great to be back. target has been a winner during the pandemic initially identified as an essential retailer and today announcing another round of bonuses for the employees that's helped along the way. all hourly target employees will be getting a $500 bonus in

february and then between $1,000 and $2,000 for store directors, executive team leaders and salary distribution leaders. all of that totals $200 million for 375,000 employees. as you mentioned, this is the fifth time that target has given out bonuses or additional compensation to its work force during this pandemic totaling more than $1 billion when put together compensation relief and benefits this fiscal year compared to the previous fiscal year in april, target issued beanises and raised the hour by play by $2 during that height of the early outbreak then in july issued another round of bonuses for two groups of employees and raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour permanently. in november, more bonuses were doled out. the retailer can afford it if you look at the performance, it's quite interesting while the details for the total holiday quarter have yet to be released, target's holiday sales for november and december up

more than 17%. in-store sales up more than 4% and digital sales up more than 102% in the third quarter target's comparable sales up nearly 21% with digital up 155% target's shares up about 68% over the past year back over to you all. >> courtney, it is so good to see you. welcome back. >> good to see you, morgan thank you. >> given all these actions, this flurry of actions that target has taken the past year, does this make them the trend setter now within the retail space? i mean, i feel like historically we think about amazon pushing the brick and mortars with actions or even walensky but target, is this a new trend? >> you know, it could be, morgan i think another part of the trend-setting point is target had already started pretty heavily introducing the curbside pickup, the drive-up pickup, pick up in store well before the

pandemic so that he started that, shoppers were already responding to, particularly during the holiday periods and all the other retailers started to play catch-up with that and when we're talking about the minimum hourly wage that target pays, it was several years ago that they laid out their path to $15 an hour. so they didn't get there as early as amazon did, but they laid out their path and they did end up getting there a half a year earlier than originally planned. so there is a lot of talk about that $15 an hour minimum wage and target at least is one of those retailers that is already there. as we pointed out, they can afford it. look at the performance over this last year >> courtney, thank you again, great to see you back look forward to seeing you a lot more courtney reagan for us. coming up, bill foley on his new $7 billion deal for his spac he is going to join us with the

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foley, one of larger spacs out there, taking blackstone's alite public this morning. roughly $7.3 billion, although you see the market is sending that a bit higher. joining me is bill foley, the founder, and scattered showers is the ceo of alite. gentlemen, thanks for being

here bill, let me start but i know you looked at hundreds of potential candidates for this spac but you went with a similar blueprint for the last time we had you on blackstone business, they roll in a lot of the same pipe investors. is there something in particular about blackstone and what they own that you like? >> well, they are just a great partner to deal with and they have a lot of interesting assets that they have acquired over the last several years or many years. in this particular asset, it was acquired about four years ago by blackstone a different division than pay safe was located in. but a highly scalable company. ubiquitous a real company, really revenue, real ebitda and the utility is what i look for. something, there is a key ingredient in the marketplace that will, that is almost -- can't be disintermediated. that was the theory.

i like the company a lot. >> bill, when i have steve schwartzman or jon gray on they will say a do a good job managing their portfolio companies and get the margins up how much is left for improvement if they are right and they are doing such a good job in terms of overseeing the companies? >> well, of course, in the private equity, it puts a lot of leverage on their businesses we are taking the leverage down five to one, down to 3.1 to one. it gives them the ability to make acquisitions, to do a little will everying up to 3.5 or 3.6 to 1. they are going through a transformation, moving through a bur-based business or services-based business to the cloud. it's a very successful blueprint. stefan is way ahead of me on this one it's terrific to partner with him. he has been involved in this transformation for serve or eight months it's a fantastic situation

>> tell me about that then in addition, obviously, to the de-leveraging, you will be able do as a result of the transaction, what else can you do now that you are a public company that perhaps you were unable to when you were, well, as a private company >> thanks, david and really a pleasure to be with you today. having bill foley aligned with me as an investor along with blackstone takes us to the next phase of what we are going after. our mission is a simple one. we are aligned on the fact that we have to help employees today with two of the most important things in their life, which is help them be financially secure and make the right health care decisions. you talked a lot about this on your segments where a lot of employees, half in fact, feel they have made a wrong decision on health benefits 60% can't retire when they want to in the last year we have launched for the first time in the market a true enterprise employee engagement platform and it brings together the data from payroll, health, and wellness and allows us to bring the most

complete cloud-based a.i. solutions to go back to employers, give them the data. many of my customers today, as bill said, we serve 72 of the fortune 100, half of the fortune 500 already. they are spending billions and they need help to make sure we give them the data from clients, from the employees so that they invest the proper funds into the products and then on the employee side we take all of this complexity, and everybody knows 401(k)s, hsa super complicated. taking this platform, permlizing it to the employee allows us to help an employee make the right decisions around investing in 401(k) and putting the right amount of money in hsas. >> you have aggressive growth targets. revenue growth 6% today, 10% is the long-term hope there you want to get your revenue per employee up from 175,000 to 250,000 per employee and your adjusted ebitda margins up to 30 plus percent from where they are now to roughly 20 plus

percent. what gives you the confidence you will be able to do that? >> we already come from a great base the customers that we serve are taking five-year digital roadmaps and bringing them down to two yers. we are at the center of the most complete set of data because we already have served these flients for 15, 20, some cases 25 years they are coming to us to take this data set. we launched this thing in july and we have created billions of dollars of pipeline towards these offerings. the best part, unique in the market, we put on roi guarantee. we are going to the cfo, the c-suite and saying you are spending millions on massive budgets for health care, for example, an ter going 10, 15% double-digit rates we are going to help you save money against those budgets. we have seen in key deals one and a half times revenue uplift in deals closed through july and

september. >> you mentioned 401(k)s and hsas you are serving 30 million people and families according to my notes what specifically do employees want from companies? i am wondering whether covid has actually changed the demands and the needs of those employees and what they are seeking out. >> yeah, listen, one example one of the fortune 20 companies who spent $3 billion and built 22 new programs because of the pandemic and the complexity on the programs, none of the employees took most of those programs. and so they ended up at the end of the annual enrollment period, the end of fall season, and 45% of the employees making less than $40,000 a year didn't have a health care program. now, this is a company that's one of the biggest in america, and, you know, the reason was because they didn't get the right information back 22 programs were done in a vacuum without the feedback from the employees, and that's we are bringing to the table. we are translating that people

do want to save. people are oversaving in hsas and not enough money in 401(k)s. that's the data set to go back to these companies companies are spending enough money. it's putting it into the right product set. the second part is, it's going to the employee and making sure that you bring specificity to their history. taking 22 programs and launching them to all employees didn't get you there. it's specific to the individual needs of that person that's going to make this much more successful going into next year's annual enrollment. >> we have had a couple of reports in the last couple of days from wall street, i am looking at one from goldman sachs, pointing to froth in the market and specifically calling out spacs as one area of that. i mean, you launched four spacs. i wonder how you see it? >> well, a lot of us do business differently. in my case, i am a value investor always have been the spac is a vehicle to allow a private equity or a sponsor to

access the public markets expeditiously. but as i mentioned earlier, we look for real companies with real revenue and really ebitda that are utilities they are for the rises for the moat so the market is hot right now but we're very conservative in the fashion in which we investigate and look for companies to partner with, and so i believe we're a little unique in our approach to the marketplace. >> well, investors seem to agree. i wonder, is it getting more competitive? are you finding fewer opportunities, bill, given your value orientation at this point and so much money chasing these deals? >> you know, we still have a lot of different targets we have now deployed on two of our three spacs. the third we are working very hard on. we have had a lot of opportunities. again they are value type investment opportunities we also have great contacts in the financial sponsor community.

so happens these first two transactions were down with blackstone we have been dealing with many financial sponsors and they recognize that we bring a little different playbook to the table when we acquire a company. and we're very rigorous and diligent about the way we investigate the companies and the management we partner with and the types of companies we are really looking at. so i feel like we're just a little unique. >> yeah. well, your last deal pay safe has done very well since you announced that deal. bill, you mentioned acquisitions i didn't get to you last time, but i wanted to, which is core logic. you made a bid for that company in, let's call it, the high 60s. they went to auction mode. they are very close. it would seem, at least, to potentially having a deal, although we will see you sold most of your stock. why? >> you know, once it was clear that we were not going to be able to acquire the company, we felt like we did a good job in terms of putting some new

directors on that would give the company a little different focus. but we just aren't in the business of paying up to the level that the company was looking for. so when that happened we made a public announcement and said we were going to start moving out of the stock we still have some shares, but as time goes on we will be disclosing that -- disposing of that stock at that level it wasn't the right investment for us. again, we are value people and we try to be conservative in the way we look at different businesses core logic is a good example. >> when you, with that value orientation when you look at the broader market now, in particular technology, obviously you are dealing a lot in that area and the businesses you are dealing with in terms of even here moving to the cloud, are you surprised that some of the valuations in the public markets right now? >> i am a little surprised they have kind of moved away from where we traditionally invest but there always are

opportunities. and as i mentioned, the spac is an interesting way for a financial sponsor to access the public markets, take some money off the table, roll a good piece of their investment and be our partners going forward so we're still seeing opportunities. there is still value in the marketplace. you just have to really be careful and really look hard, hard and long and go deep into the business. >> yeah, i know the sponsors are embracing that opportunity finally, we keep saying you are the golden knights owner how is the hockey season going what are your expectations for getting fans potentially if the seats or getting vaccinations for all your players give me a feel for the season ahead here, bill. >> well, we are doing well we are 5-1 we just won last night, beat arizona 1-0. the state ofnevada, the pandemic has kind of gone, moved over the top of the curve. and we are hopeful that we will get 10 to 15% occupancy in our

arena around the middle of february we'll see. it's up to the governor. but we feel like we are making the right moves in the pandemic with the pandemic and getting the vaccinations out and we are very confident in our team it takes a lot of puck luck to go all the way to the stanley cup. but we have a good team. >> well, bill, we got to hockey this time in addition to other things next time we will get to my favorite subject, wine we are going to talk about foley wines. bill foley, scattered showers, thanks to you both for joining us >> thank you, pleasure it is now time for our "etf spotlight. the vanguard small company etf ticker vb up nearly 25% this year it's up about 1% again today it's getting a boost from amc. the movie theater operating securing new financing to allow it to keep operating without having to file for bankruptcy. that stock is up better than 80%

the last month am c's ceo will join closing bell later this afternoon. meantime, "squawk on the street" will be right back

♪ good morning everyone, i'm sue herera here is your cnbc covid update u.s. covid cases have topped 25 million, but the pace continues to slow. on sunday, the daily new case count remained under 200,000 for the eighth consecutive day at 132,000, it is the lowest we have seen since christmas eve. the supreme court today declined to here an appeal from a nevada church that has been fighting covid attendance rye restrictions imposed by the state's governor after limiting worship services to 50 people, the state included

religious institutions in the capacity-based limits which apply to places like restaurants and casinos. british prime minister boris johnson satd the u.k. needs tighter border restrictions to protect against the theoretical possible of a vaccine-proof covid-19 variant. and amazon hosted a pop-up vaccination clinic that gave th shots to more than 2,000 people in one day they hope do it again when more doses become available you are to date. back to you, carl. >> thank you very much. the action if gamestop remains remarkable just surpassed 120 a couple of moments ago. this was a $19 stock just two weeks ago. as our dominic chu points out, outperformed bitcoin for the past year. back in just a moment.

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another record high. up more than 450% to star the year our next guest says the stock has disconnected from fundamentals anthony joins us, recently dropped coverage of the stock. thanks for the time. >> thanks for having me. >> i think i can guess why you dropped coverage but can you explain? >> well, as i said, this stock has completely disconnected from the fundamentals i am a fundamental analyst i am not a technical analyst i am not a momentum analyst. look, the company's fundamentals are heading in the opposite direction of the stock price this is very much being driven by retail investors, individual investors, many trading on robin hood, many trading options, and game stop has incredibly high shorts and the shorts are

getting squeezed i don't think in this scenario i can add a lot of value as a fundamental analyst. i am reminded that the markets can remain irrational as long as you remain solvent, and that's what's happening here. >> do you see the company trying to take advantage of the mechanic dislocation here and try to raise some capital while they can >> i don't know if they are going to do that, but that would be a wonderful idea. i mean, you know, do a convert or even just selleckty clearly, this stocks is overvalued here. build a war chest. make hay while the sun is shining. that's a wonderful idea and i would encourage management to consider that. >> i don't want to put you at risk given some people negative on the stock have gotten threats and the like, but i am curious as to your view of the at this point. one would imagine a brick and mortar retailer in the video

game distribution business might not be that well positioned. how are you seeing it for the fundamentals for gamestop? >> they are terrible you know, look, gamers are increasingly doing full game downloads. they are just downloading these games. they are not buying the physical games. gamestop doesn't participate in that in addition to that, if a gamer downloads a game, there is not a physical game that they can then, you know, sell to gamestop to have gamestop resell. and that's gamestop's highest margin business, is that used business in addition to that, the used business is also being impacted by the fact that more and more gamers are signing up for xbox live or playstation network, spending, you know, 10, 11 bucks a month where they can play a catalog of older games as opposed to going and buying a used game from gamestop. in addition to that, gamestop is clearly losing market share. when the pandemic hit, video game sales took off because people couldn't leave homes, so they are playing more games.

gamestop's numbers continue to get worse. that's why i say there is a massive disconnect between the fundamentals and, you know, and thestock price action we are seeing the stock is at all-time highs right now. >> it's insane there is no other way to put it. we watch the stock up 100% just today. i am going off of 65 it was trading at one analyst's 33 multiple, enterprise value over ebitda but, anthony, when you talk about the long-term ability of the company to actually stay in business, do you have concerns or wonder about their viability longer term? >> absolutely. this is blockbuster all over again. you know, like i said, you just have more and more gamers who are downloading games. there is really little that gamestop can do about that, quite frankly. they need to sort of reimagine their business model but i don't know where that business model goes. the fact that you have the founder of chewy, you know, ryan cohn with his 13% stake and

three seats on the board, that's all well and good but i am not sure what selling dog food online has to do with selling video games. i am not sure what he is going to bring to the table to turn this around much less make it worth, you know, what, eight, nine, $10 million. >> yeah, anthony, already we are hearing people talk about the gme-fication of the stock market we can talk about that next time today it's a story about this individual price action. appreciate it. good to see you. thanks. >> anytime, guys wow. before we head to break in what will be the busiest week for earnings, industrial heavyweights reporting in coming days raytheon tech nols, lockheed martin and ge all set to release results before the bell tomorrow we have got boeing, general dynamics, north up grumman and caterpillar later in the week. industrials are the second worst performing sector in 2021 with a

and d names among the weakest thanks to worries about a defense spending peak and the on ingog impact of covid on air travel back in two.

a contrarian call from one of wall street's biggest bears why now may be the time to sell stocks that's on tradingnation.cnbc.com more "squawk on the street" coming up. ♪ ♪ - [narrator] if you're thinking about going to school online, southern new hampshire university is where you belong. 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. vaccination rollout continues in the sunshine state. last week the governor making changes to help curb vaccine tourism. brian sullivan is on the ground of marlins park in miami there he is. brian. >> reporter: i want to be clear. i am not a vaccine tourist if you are going through this line, do not have the license plate of another state or maybe another country. to your point, 45,000 people came down from canada, flew up from argentina there is a report about a guy who rented a motor home, drove from california to florida to get vaccinated

they are clamping down on that you have to have proof of residency. have to be here 31 plus day, show a utility bell, et cetera they are clamping down to make sure that the vulnerable population, which there are many here, over 65 in the state of florida, are able to get the vaccines they need this is a mass vaccination site. this is as close as we are allowed to get for obvious reasons. you see the cars coming through here, guys they are doing about 1,000 a day. that's the supply that they have got. they get about 1,000 doses a day. they are using all 1,000 doses the problem is the appointment getting. you get stories, guys rg of people on three or four computers for the elderly parents. when the slots open they are gone in about two minutes. they have built a hotline by phone. i have friends who have 91-year-old fathers, they are not on apps. they are using a flip phone because they are not hooked up to t-1 lines and high-speed internet everybody is coming out giving thumbs up to the first responders here. so the cars come through

it's a long line but they all have appointments they drive through here and they go into the staging area where they sit for 15 minutes, 30 if they have allergies, guys, to make sure there are no adverse reactions. so the process was slow at first. it's getting faster. i know everybody wants it to be faster than it is, but they get 1,000 a day. they use 1,000 a day so far, that's where they are. the mayor continues to ask for more. >> yeah, everybody's asking for more of course, that problem in terms of people trying to get appointments is not confined to florida. but i have been hearing from people, and we all have friends down there, it's been something of a free for all. all off this designed to stop that, so to speak, brian >> reporter: yeah. that's a great point there is a lot of inequity here. later today we will go to a part of the underserved community the wealthy are getting vaccinated at a much faster rate some have concierge doctors that were able to get it. some of the zip codes in fischer island and wealthy areas have 30

and 40% of the population vaccinated in the interior of florida, 1 and 2% of the population has been vaccinated. if you have a son who is hedge fund manager and has six computers at his desk and they are refreshing trying to get an appointment. it will be easier. they are hoping to solve that to make sure that everybody in the first group, first responders, over 65, front line health care workers, that they are able to get it by the way, totally separate unrelated note, but a cnbc story. i moments ago talked to the mayor. we recorded an interview with him. at the end of it i asked him, how many financial services firms from new york and other places are you speaking with about moving people or their entire operation to south florida or miami he said infinity and he said, i'm not kidding every one of them has been calling me so welcome to the new wall street, guys i have decided to stay i am breaking some news. i am never coming home

i am here forever. >> you buried the lead right there, sully you know, a big part of the story is these new variants and the degree to which the existing vaccines might have to be adjusted or boosted over time to fight them is that even part of the discussion down there, or is it more about we got the jab, we're good for now >> reporter: yeah, it's the latter, carl but i saw, by the way, the interview this morning with moderna was fantastic. really good news right now i think the logistical process that we talked to -- not just here, by the way. louisiana and other places one of the reasons people are frustrated by the pace, is that we are allocating the vaccines let's not forget, guys, we vaccinate 175 million every year for the normal influenza the vaccination distribution and supply chain is well built out now, this has to be kept very cold and, of course, we have prioritization groups. the logistics of the cold temps and prioritizing certain groups

makes it a much more difficult logistical challenge what everybody is saying is, once we get through group 1a or group 1b, whatever the prioritization groups are and open it up to everyone, it's going to be like our flu vaccine. you are going to go to a local pharmacy, of which 90% of the country lives within a mile of one, and the pace hoo pick up. they are doing a great job here. it's hard. it's hot 1,000 a day coming out the smiles on these people driving through, i am not going to lie, it gets to you it gets to me. but i am a softy we know that interesting story in florida. >> hugely interesting. to have you on the ground is so valuable to our viewers as it is every time brian sullivan, of course, covering vaccines in florida today. let's get a sector sort with dominic chu.

>> so, carl, markts off the rye right now. technology really helping to lead the charge. now within that sector apple the leader there trading at all-time highs this morning chipmakers like sky link or skyworks and xilinx and amd also holding up well. another outperformer is n phase energy that cop is involved with things like solar technology. that stock is benefiting as investors increasingly turn to the clean energy and green-focused stocks up 20% this year so keep an eye on the technology stocks and clean energy stocks, carl back over to you >> all right dominic chu. thanks very much when we come back, the virtual art market starting to heat up during the pandemic. the ceo of sotheby's will join us after the break dow down37 1

shares of gamestop have been halted for volatility. the stock had hit $159 a share that was taking it up i think 130%, 140%

this was halted for volatility this, of course, is incredible and a short squeeze the likes we don't often see. the percentage gains are not quite as high. take a look, gamestop is a mall rich look at that again, short covering, perhaps by those who actually have already been short as well on game stop. tanger factory malls is up significantly. there it is 15%%, and even names like viacom up 10% not sure what's going on there either not fundamentals there are some interesting things going on in this market, carl, right now that we have to keep a close eye on. >> actually, david, i'll pick it up and i would throw a couple more names in the mix.

pretty big moves in blackberry and another name i wouldn't highlight, only a couple hundred million, but express, which is another one of those mall-based retailers that has been ripping higher as well, speaking to these pockets of froth in the market you're pointing out right now. i want to shifs gears and focus on another assess class, the art market it's been a challenge during the covid pandemic but sotheby's has been able to embrace digital innovation joining us is the ceo of sotheby's, charles stewart thanks for being with us today >> thanks for having me on happy to provide a relief from the covid news flow. >> well, not i am curious to know what that meant for the art world in terms of some of those changes and transformations we just teased to >> i think art, in fact, did

provide a very welcome distraction and form of solace for our collectors during the pandemic period. that continues today, of course. likewise our business was heavily changed by technology and innovation we were able to bring to bear. while art is fundamentally physical we were able to expand our audience by using all kinds of digital tools and broadcasting our auctions live in a digital first format as well >> will there be a place for these festivals or the other events we see through the year that have been canceled or do you think increasingly more and more sales done online >> for us about 80% of our bids last year were online. in our view when you see that adoption and change in almost any industry it doesn't really go back. i do think this is here to stay.

of course everyone is looking forward to physical experiences and being able to enjoy a work of art or a luxury object in person what we'll see in 2021 is a little bit of a hybrid, the best of the adaptation of last year coupled with the re-emergence of physical experiences as the restrictions hopefully ease. >> what is your expectation for valuations given the fact we do continue to have this low interest rate environment? >> we look at art as a passion category more than as a pure investment category. but that said i do think that valuations of the things we seal have been supported by the dynamics in the market i think we'll continue to see that this year and certainly low interest rates, inflation risk, potential of weak dollar, things that historically have been things that supported the art market as well as the buoyancy of the markets around the world. >> charles stewart, thanks for

joining us today. >> thanks for having me. keep our eye on the markets and some of the price action on some of the high multiple names. we'll talk to google's chief health officer about vaccine distribution when "squawk alley" starts in a couple of minutes.

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good morning, it is 8:00 a.m. at google headquarters in mountain view, california, 11:00 a.m. on wall street, and "squawk alley" is live ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ looking out my window ♪ happy monday welcome to "squawk alley." i'm jon fortt with carl quintanilla and djulia boorstin the competition director on possibly breaking names up an inside look a