thank you. steve weiss? >> moderna, and to go over wyatt, and good to go against the new variants and that is why it is a good tech today and in the future. >> up nicely today. and j.o. >> j.m. and smucker. >> okay. thank you. "the exchange" coming up next. i'm melissa lee, and this is what is coming up on "the exchange." busy day, and this is anomaly, if you missed the beat, you rally and if you didn't, you will drop. and we will talk about the spac takeovers, and the most compelling story in what bud is doing something it has not done in decades. and dom has a new story. >> and like you pointed out, melissa, it is the busiest time

in earnings, and we have 100 stocks reporting this week, and 134 of them dow components. and speaking of the 13 dow stocks, underperforming but well off of the session lows and down one-third of 1%, and so the s&p 500 is flat on the day, and the nasdaq had been outperforming and still is, but up one-third of 1% at this stage. looking at the big themes over the last several months developing, and melissa mentioned the spacs and those special acquisition companies, and they had been tracking closely with the s&p 500 and look at the line, bigger and bigger and the divergence is the widest level that we have seen over the last 12 month, and the ipos and the new issuance is outperforming and maybe a caution flag for some investors out there, and speaking of the crazy market action. we have been talking about the

gamestop for a while now and the massive short squeeze happening and the people closing tout losing bets and buying up the stock, and to put it in perspective. gamestop has now returned crazy amounts more over the last year than even bitcoin has, and just to put it in graphical perspective, the white line, melissa, up almost 1,500% in 12 months and that is off of the highs. bitcoin is a respectable 300-some point gain, but look at the performance gap, because bitcoin is underperforming by a wide margin, and gamestop shares are at the highs today, $159 and change, and we will see how it changes this afternoon. >> it turned negative and i feel like we should go negative when it dipped into the red. >> so many trading halts already today. >> it is unbelievable. we will keep watching that one, dom. and weekly earnings report with the s&p 500 reporting quarterly including apple, and tesla and so many more, and some companies

have seen their stocks fall and while others who have missed the estimates have seen their stocks rise. how can this be? for more we go to samir in term of what we have seen in tend of the third quarter. to date, we are seeing the s&p going up by something like 400 points. so we are anticipating a lot when it is coming to earnings season. >> yeah, exactly. that is the key, and so much of the investing comes down to expectations versus the reality, and what you are seeing is the areas reporting the growth continues to be, you know, at a pace that is less robust than it was for much of the last few years, and so people are continuing to rotate away from those growth areas and towards some of the cyclicals, although the earnings may be disappointing, the people are looking at the reopening trade,

and what the world is looking like a year from now, and seeing much more room for the areas to appreciate from the stock standpoint and the earnings could rebound faster. >> michael, do companies get a free pass when it is come toerngings caltoerng ings -- when it comes to the earnings call, and sameer is talking about the calls, and what is the incentive? >> there is not much incentive really, and the thing that is difficult with the earnings is that there are so many variables at play at the moment that the investors have to sort through, that it is hard to make any assumptions or predictions based on the future, and general consensus views that have some accuracy to them, and the post covid trade, the reinflation of the economy, and there is growth at some level going forward, yes, and the feds are on the sidelines and more fiscal stimulus, and all of these things are real, but it does not

translate easily to specific predictions is right now. so you will see the scenarios where the companies are beat, and they are issuing weird guidance going down or the opposites where they miss and the stock goes up which is to the original point, melissa, where we started the conversation, and you will see it continue throughout the quarter and probably well into the 2021, and the interesting thing is that on the earnings basis, the comps get real good after q1 because of last years, but the question is from the valuation standpoint if we have frontloaded the gains here from 2021 and further. >> yes, from the depth of the pandemic, things are rosie. sameer, are things from the data going to justify the rotation of the stock going from the values of the stock and into the cyclicals, because last week we saw mega cap tech rally, and so it seems a reluctance to go full

bore into the value area. >> that is a great question. and earnings are not the catalyst that they have been in the past, and the better data to track right now is the high frequency indicators and looking at what the case data is doing, the vaccine is unrolling, and how the containment measures are ratcheting up or down, and it is those types of things that are driving the market on the day-to-day basis and the rotation that you mentioned back to technology and back to working at home coincides with the uptick in covid with some slowdown in the vaccine rollout, and the measures in the u.k., and that is the biggest driver for the markets and the next stimulus market, and that might not be for the next month and month and a half. >> and the clients for the appetite risk and i ask you that in the context of the gamestop, dom, and that is one area of the story out there, and there are pockets of the high flyers out there, and there is a search for

the yield and the return and we are seeing it in the spac market that is one of the signs of a frothy market according to goldman sachs, and what is the desire to go higher despite what the market is telling us. >> spac and bitcoin and gamestop. so the trader and the retail investors and the alpha generator type you are seeing investing in these thing, and starting to see the valuations exceed in those areas, and then the more traditional institutional type investors and the more conservative investors who are not quite buying this stuff yet. it is going to be interesting to see which of those investor groups is ultimately accurate in the long term, and are the conservative types left behind or should they have been involved in some of the areas more quickly or vice versa from our standpoint, we are a more conservative type investor base, and we are looking at the traditional areas, and looking

at diversification, and gold for example as a hedge against uncertainty versus bitcoin, and we are looking at the value stocks, and the post pandemic stocks on the valuation basis as well as the sort of the macro trade thesis. so we are not getting involved in spacs or gamestops so to speak. but there are two markets and yen/yang going on with neither reporting. >> neither of you are in reddit any time soon. thank you, sameer and michael. and now, moderna is announcing that the vaccine is offering protection against variants that were first discovered in south africa and u.k. and meg sat down with the ceo, and she is joining us now. >> well, melissa, that u.k. variant has been detected here in the u.s. as well.

there are multiple variants of concern that are being tracked and that one with the u.k. is known as b-117 and one in south africa calleded b.1.351 and the did find that the titres were lower, but they believe that the vaccine high enough to be effective against the strains. they are testing a new vaccine targeted toward that strain 1351. and we talked to ceo about it this morning, and this is what he said. >> it will not be need for

history, and that has to be confirmed by the regulators. and if you are thinking of the technology, because it is a platform, that new product, 1 nt 351 is the same chemistry for it, and the same manufacturing pro process, and just a little change like the natural virus. >> so he is talk about how quickly they could make the pivot there, and also how it could end up looking like the flu in terms the of needing to get a booster ri year, and that is boosting moderna's stock today, melissa. >> recurring revenue is what the analysts want to see for a company like moderna, but meg, this is good news for them unlike merck who is ending the covid vaccine program. >> yes, and it is interesting to see this smaller company moderna going ahead to continue testing when you are hearing from one of

the vaccine giants merck saying it is stopping the develop of two of the vaccine programs today, because early stage studies show that the immune response just was not stacking up either not as high as natural infection and not as high as the vaccines that are more advanced. so they are discontinuing those, but they are continuing the work on drugs for covid-19 which is something that people were paying closer attention to for merck anyway, because they are in the lead for the antiviral drugs for the first quarter, and that will be closely watched. >> thank you, meg tirrel. >> if i were a regulator, i would be hyperventilating a. and this is what the ceo of bitcoin says as a new administration is taking the over. and the stimulus sales boom, and some say that the check is in the mail brought some into the door, or is that a one and done deal. we will look at that ahead.

and the stocks in retail, and the compelling stories. that is ahead. this is "t ehae"hexcng on cnbc. well i'm an existing customer and i'd like your best new smartphone deal. oh do ya? actually it's for both new and existing customers. i feel silly. but i do want the fastest 5g network. oh i want the fastest 5g network. are we actually doing this again? it's not complicated. only at&t gives everyone the same great deal. like the samsung galaxy s21 5g for free when you trade in.

welcome back. former goldman sachs chief lloyd

blankfein says that bitcoin could be a nightmare and that makes owning them a nightmare in the first place. >> if you cannot monitor who is paid in the financial system, how many regulators do we want that to work out well in the long term. like a lot of things, this could be workable, but it will undermine thefreedom and liberty and kind of the lack of, lack of transparency that people like about it in the first place. so that is the conundrum that bitcoin has to deal itself out of. if i were a regulator, i would be, kind of hyperventilating at the success of it at the moment, and i'd be arming myself to deal with it. >> incoming secretary treasurer janet yellen said the government could curb the use because of illicit activity. and phil, glad to have you with

us, and somebody operating in the bitcoin space, whether a fund or elsewhere, they say that regulation is good for the industry, and so what type of regulation, would you like to see happen, because a lot of the people are talking about the use for illicit activity and not being able to trace it, but what are the real uses that need to be traced? >> thank you for having me. i think that we have the regulation already in place, and it is regulated in the u.s. under the secrecy act, and the task force. a lot of people have been buying the bitcoin in the last year, because the industry has made the strides to control the illicit activity. in our company at genanalysis, we have been able to track it, and track illegal use, and it was less than 1% of all of the

flows tracked to illegal activity, and so there is a framework already, and people are getting it in place and comfortable with it. >> i would like to get to the notion that you can't trace where bitcoin is coming to and from, because in a blog post, you tracked the bitcoin flow surrounding the capitol riots december 8th, and your company said that one donor sent $1.25 billion worth half a million at this time to 22 separate addresses in a single transaction, and can you walk us through in terms the of what you are able to see in those transactions >> yes, this is where mr. blankfein gets it wrong. there is an enormous amount of transparency that happens in bitcoin, and so we can see where the money moves from what is an address to another address which is similar to the bang ack acco number. the key that was needed in that investigation is to connect that

address to the people involved in the capitol riots, and many of them had posted the addresses publicly, and so we were able to see with this address that they said was theirs, and the bitcoin go into it, and other investigation, that was linked to the donor. >> can we say that perhaps these people are fairly unsophisticated bitcoin users to post their addresses publicly, and that if you are a true criminal, you might not be so brazen, and might be harder to track the addresses. >> it certainly is harder, but that is where the regulatory framework exists and is so important. the law enforcement can actually go to a cryptocurrency exchange and ask for information around who holds the account, and they have to have that information around the know your customer information and it must be submitted. in the last year, the software

has been used by law enforcement to make these exchanges from groups in north korea that mr. blankfein said was not capable, and it was used. >> and are you saying that is the primary reason that we should regulate bitcoin and doesn't that argument fall by the wayside and there are ways for people to request payment by bitcoin and it is difficult to trace them. >> they do request payment in bitcoin and people do illicit goods and services using that, and that is the case for all currencies, but the thing that is unique about cryptocurrencies is how traceable it is. it is like if you get one end of the string and keep pulling, you will find out where it is ended up, and different if the dollar system where it could be hidden

through money mules and other place, and this you can be traced back to the exchange, but it is true that people are using these assets to buy illegal thing, the but at least we can e it. >> philip gradwell, and thank you, you can see the entire interview at cnbc.com/gladwell. and now, coming up, we will talk about the pipe dream, and how the new administration is going to help speed up the slow rollout of the vaccines.

welcome back to the "exchange" and checking on the markets because it is a different picture from the dow which is opened, and sit down from the low, and s&p 500 and nasdaq in the green, but again, it is a very, very big week for the earnings and 20% of the s&p 500 reporting this week. taking a check on some of the sectors that are moving. it is looking like a bid for safety right now with the utilities higher by 2%, and real estate is doing well up 1%, and energy and materials are the laggards here. financing spac takeovers is one of wall street's newest investments and attracting big names in finance, and leslie is joining us with finance. >> yes, for many, it is a pipe dream, and pipe is private i

investment in private equity. and this is what helps to fund takeover, and a few reasons for this. number one, the pipe investors are privy to details the of what the spac target is before the merger announcement, and pipe investors are often given restricted shares at a discount either to the ipo price or the market price. in 2020 pipes generated more than 20 million in supplemental capital to fund 26 spac mergers according to morgan stanley, but with all of the dry powder raised in spacs last year, there could be more than $100 billion spacs committed over the next two years. >> the alpha generation that it is represents is attracting broader group of investors which is helpful, and benefit the product as we move through the balance of the year. >> but if you are not one of the select few investing in pipes, there are a few things that you

should know. these deals with dilute your spac stake, and also pressure on the stock once the pipe investors are able to sell, and that is a few weeks after the deal closers and pipe investors may have information about the target that you don't have. >> leslie, stick around, because we want to bring in asham from the law firm of ashame and baker. >> thank you for having me. i appreciate it. >> what is the issue with the pipes, because this vi existed forever, but obviously with the surge in spacs, it is a more prominent area of finance. >> well, it is a great question, and there is a lot of reasons why these types of transactions make sense. pipe investments provide strategics and other institutional investors much more than early mover advantage, and much more than early advantage, and when compared to retail investors, there is much

more information advantage. and they have the upperhand because they enter into confidentiality agreements and that gives them a peek behind the curtain and they have diligence and the time to structure and negotiate the structure of their investments sot at the end of the day, they know the company better and they have thought through the contours of the business. >> so, leslie, the issue is for the retail investor in a spac is almost like a double disadvantage of investing in a spac, because you may not have information about the spac, itself, and also not have the same information that a pipe investor may have. >> right, it is the information asymmetry and also the risk of delusion of these -- dissolution of these things, and with the

dissolution of the spac, and also the owners of the pipe who are no longer restricted and able to sell their stake which is important to note if you are an investor, that takes place weeks after the merger closes, and usually with the ipo, you might be looking at the lockup as a potential event to put the tres pressure on the stock, but that won't take place for months, and with the pipes it could take four the six weeks depending how it is structured. that is something to keep in mind if you are the own ore of the -- owner of the spac and purchased it at the ipo. >> so you are busy these days, and can you tell us about what the pipe looks like over the next six months or so? >> well, the spac market has had tremendous activity in 2020 and a banner year, and we can expect m&a activity flowing from that, and it is only natural, but you are talking about the risks to the retail investors, and i

would like to say risks and rewards. and yes, the risks relate to potential dissolution, and historically, that is always the case, and with spacs, you are talking about the dissolution of the sponsor shares entering the market, and essentially now, the retail investors will be thinking of the dildilutetive shares entering the market, and that gives them an opportunity to grow the company a a, and alf that benefits the retail investor. >> i get that, leleslie, but do it give the benefit to the stock investor >> after the post month closure,

there was morgan stanley data that said that given the spac merger, they were up 40% in the month post that closure of the deal. those without a pipe saw returns of about half of that up about 20%. and then there was some goldman sachs data that took a look at the longer term returns, and they found and compared it to the s&p 500, and found that both with the pipe and without a pipe lagged the s&p by three basis points without a spac, sorry, with a spac, and with a pipe, sorry, and then 30 without a spac. so, you know, over time, they are both returning negative to the s&p, but at least in the short run, they seem to be providing benefit and that double of those without a pipe. >> leslie, thank you, and also

to assam shaikh. >> thank you. and now to sue herera. >> this hour, bill de blasio says that vaccination facilities can not guarantee people lining up for a shot can be vaccinated. he 123says that the city can vaccinate 500,000 a week, but they are not getting the supply. >> we are expecting 700,000 more in the next few days and again, look at the number, because it does not give us the beginning of what we need for a week. again, we have a supply problem. >> in france, the number of covid patients in icu wards has hit the highest level since december 9th, and france's finance minister says no decision on the lockdown has been made, but tighter restrictions is going to make it difficult for the country to hit the economic growth targets. here at home in colorado, those workers a at cafe are expressing thanks to a generous

customer who left a $1,400 tip, 200 for each employee, and the person added a note at the bottom, covid sucks. you are up to date, melissa, and i will send it back to you. >> good samaritans out there. thank you for bringing us that story. and rcb says that the american eagle is ready to soar. and amc says the show is going to go weiser is goin to do something it has not done in decades. rapid fire is back in minutes.

nice game. your crosscourt shots are killing me. give any thought to that proposal i sent you? v 7 x 9 7 4? semi colon 8 d 3 f lowercase p uppercase t, you know? okay. 7 4 8 9 2 % . $ ) h b. oh, hey roger. 4 9 6 8. listen, k 9 3 b 4 8 6 2. h n 7 e. i can do h n 7 e. got to keep the shareholders happy. echoworx, the leader in email encryption solutions.

let's catch oun a few stories on the radar, and it is time for rapid fire to break it down, mike santoli and julia boorstin and mike from cme strategies. and now, upgrading from american eagle, and they say that the new brand is the most compelling growth story in retail. they are raising the stock to outperform the price target of $20 to $33 and declaring that the growth is real. and american eagle has been

flying under the radar, and their shares are up 266% from the 52-week low. and mike n this day and age in the context, it is worth noting that it has 16% short interest. >> yes, like a lot of the mall-based chain stores and this structural bets against it thinking that it is a declining business and not only up that much off of the lows and it is outperforming the s&p, and as has abercrombie and it is not looking terribly cheap, and not overvalued if arie can have this line. and it is a comeback story when people least expect it. >> mall-based brand and i thought why are you bringing that up. it is not a good time to talk about the mall-based brands, tim, and yet, we are seeing amongst the retail movers today and over the last few months, a lot of the mall-based brands left for dead companies in some

instances are up. >> yeah, i think that it is a case of the retail for many of the stories less is more. so, store rationalization, and being able to in some cases being able to close doors with better negotiating power than they might have six or nine months ago is the story for the american eagle, and it is the story for macy's, one of the stories accelerated by covid is that it needed to close, but the story is not terribly cheap, and you have a case where 18 times or so in a great scenario outlook for arie and i think that a lot of good news is priced in here, and we have seen the stock. it is a stock that you have multiple runs in the last four or five years where you have had 60, 70% down drafts and drawdowns outperformed by the massive run, and i think that we have had it. >> and up next, the tampa bay

bucs and kansas city chiefs are going against each other in the super bowl, but budweiser is going to sit it out, and pepsi and coca-cola is not going to be advertising, and who is replacing them chi chipotle, and scott's miracle-gro, and hvroom, and are some of these newcomers going to be paying the same >> well, $5 million is a hair less than that $5.6 million last year, and so what is interesting is that we will see budweiser and pepsi and coke continue to try to tap into the conversation around the brands and the ads that happens around the super bowl, and pepsico will advertise with frito-lay even though it is not for the pepsi beverage in there, and it is going to be puts the attention in there and

focus on the halftime show, so there is going to be a lot of energy around those brands and super bowl ad season, because that is what it has turned into, and the other companies like doordash and the stocks have skyrocketed since it is a stay at home play, and how much they need to use that to amplify all of the growth they have had this year. >> i thought that budweiser's excuse was interesting that it is using the ad spend with the ad council which is a nonprofit group to advertise the benefits of covid education and the vaccine program, et cetera. >> yeah, it is kind of a high road version of really a lot of brands have done during the super bowl. remember, whenever there is a prevailing social issues, the brands have attempted to do it through the commercials to send a message on the right side of a lot of the issues for the lack of a better term, but it is fascinating for budweiser in particular, because they used to, and the super bowl was its

super bowl. >> and are we going to be seeing a cannabis company advertise, tim? >> well, we have had this, and the rumor was enough to give the acreage a big boost. but scott's miracle-gro, and you think of food safety and hydroponics and some of the themes are alive and well, and there is no question that cannabis as a national issue would be well received, but good for bud to giving away a free bud, a beer on bud.com to spend some of the money, and god bless watery beers versus the ipas that mike drinks. >> well, going back to 2000s with the companies using ipo cash to plow it into the super bowl ads like doordash, and vroom. >> and moving on amc is saying

that the show must go on and they have secured $917 million in financing to keep bankruptcy at bay. it executed a commitment letter for $400 million in debt financing while raising $500 million in equity since mid-december n. a statement, the ceo said that imminent bankruptcy for amc is off of the table, and the investors like what they are hearing and the stock is up double digits, and best pace since last april. julia, more and more by the week, more and more movies delayed in terms of release, and not good news for amc and they need a good movie into the theaters or they are burning the money? >> yes, a stock that is so volatile, and every announcement of vaccine progress of the states and cities closed, and i'm here in los angeles, and the movie theaters are not open, and other areas where it is open, and one-third of the market now where the theaters are open, but

this is a band-aid to holdover until the theaters can reopen which people are hoping in the second half of the year. melissa, the real question is when are the audiences going to want to come back in big numbers, and do these theater chains need to invest to make sure that the experience is meaningful different not only in terms of safety and all of that, the but meaningful different from what we have gotten used to at home considering that we will be able to stream the movies on hbo max that are also available in theaters. >> tim, the market cap is $977 million which is almost as much as they raised in the most recent fund-raising. how do you view a stock like th this >> to me, it is a no-touch, because you have had a major short squeeze and funding well into 2021 does not tell me a whole lot. covid dynamics are a headwind on top of the trends going into this, and look at what disney,

hbo max, and time warner, and at&t have done in terms of the new releases through their own streaming platform, and if anything, it is a story of where you might see some strategic involvement, and when we had the whisper of amazon around amc and what it did to the stock. so you have gotten a lot of great news and a couple of more days of the squeeze, but this is not going to change the story at all. >> and don't miss this statement today on closing bell from the ceo. and now, the podcasting brings in less than a billion as a whole, and more than people listen to brands like box media tend to bring in eight figures, but joulia, it is difficult to break through, and if you and i started a podcast, it could be

the hottest ever, but the chances of breaking through and toppling the top ten are nil. i don't want to say nil, but slim. >> if we started a podcast, it would be obvious, melissa, but the top 1% of podcasts draw something like 90-plus percent of all listens of the podcasts, and so there is a question of how to monetize the mass of those, and it is generated in ad revenue means that there is more potential, because people are listening to more podcasts through the pandemic, and concern that it would drop off as the commute times declined, but what is interesting right now, melissa is the question of what apple wants to do with the podcast network. for apple, it is not going to be generating ad revenue, but much more about keeping people of the ecosystem to subscribe to a lot of services, and the podcast is another thing to keep me paying the monthly bill to apple.

>> the contrarian part of me, mike, it tells me that in the pandemic, the podcast can't generate more than a billion, when is the industry going to generate more than a billion in advertising? >> it is interesting and gaining more of a market share in terms of attention hours than it is gaining in ad dollars so legitimate question of how much of an ad load you can lay into the podcast and just a couple of ad breaks and there were spotify saying that the ad shares were not that great. so it is a huge question overhanging the area, and not one of the automatic digital plays that grows and grows. >> and podcast is a reason to be in the spot, tim >> if you and julia are putting one out in long form, no question, mel. and so the ebt to revenue, not one, but the reason they are consolidating the assets and the

megaphone deal with the different format and demographic and business form they are meeting, they have to figure out how to properly monetize this, and the valuation is extraordinary, but, but, they are out there, and i think that you stay there. >> mike santoli, and julia boorstin and tim, thank you. and so, with the latest round of stimulus checks still not out, what could a third round mean we will eak spto francis allen about that, and "the exchange" is going to be right back.

the holidays weren't exactly smooth sledding this year, eh santa? no, but we came through smelling of mistletoe. the now platform lets us identify problems before they became problems. if only it could identify where my ball went. this you? hmm... no, mine had green lights. whatever your business is facing. let's workflow it. maybe i should workflow my swing... servicenow. - [narrator] at southern new hampshire university, we're committed to making college more accessible by making it more affordable, that's why we're keeping our tuition the same

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. restaurant executives from the likes of tgi fridays and checkers and noodles and company are crediting the stimulus checks for a bounce in sales and with more stimulus coming, will

there be a bigger boost? joining us to discuss this is the ceo of checkers. >> thank you, melissa, for having me on. >> have you seen the bump in january and what would you expect if the consumers got another round of stimulus, and would that be spent on fast food or diverted to other areas >> yes. so, you know, as you know in the restaurant industry, it has really suffered through the pandemic, and so checkers, we feel incredibly fortunate to have had a good year in 2020. and we projected that we would be up significantly in q1 of this year, and that has been boosteden more by this stimulus checks. the stimulus checks are always helping the qsr industry, and many of the other segments as well, but it is short-lived. it is for a week maximum three. >> when you say better in q1, and that is year on year, and

you areare comep -- comping the prepandemic, is that correct >> yes. and we have stimulus help of what is considered to be more of the pandemic-proof model if there is such a thing. we have closed kitchens, and double drive-through lanes, and we have actually converted one of the drive-through lanes into dedicated ecommerce lane. we put 15 new procedures in, and the focus is really in keeping our guests and our employees safe. we put in 15 new procedures to help do that. and people are feeling much better about coming to us. so we are outperforming the qsr segment by over 600 basis points right now, but it is not only that, and there is a number of different initiatives that we put in place as overall rejuvenation package from the mother cruncher chicken platform

to make a shift to premium products and the higher priced combos and leaning into the delivery and ecommerce, and as i mentioned before and so a number of thinthings to take advantage. >> and advantage it's a one-off, the consumer will get a check, the check is spent and it's gone. how do you think about stimulus in terms of how it's allocated do you think they should maybe go for targeted people for a longer-lasting impact of that dollar amount? >> i mean, it's hard to say who should get it and who shouldn't. there's a lot of people who have dipped below the poverty line during this pandemic, and i do think it's very important that we put in the best possible programs we can to help people who really, by no fault of their own, have fallen on to very hard

times. at checkers and rally's we're fortunate to november have had to lay off anybody in fact we were able to give our very valuable team members a bonus and thank-you pay for much of the pandemic. we're really proud of supporting those that we serve. >> fran says, great to speak with you we appreciate it >> thank you very much still ahead, it's not just amazon looking to help the biden administration battle the covid vaccine. thousands of companies are ready to pitch in. we have the deils tanext "the exchange" will be right back and in an emergency, they need a network that puts them first. that connects them to technology, to each other,

and to other agencies. that's why at&t built firstnet with and for first responders the emergency response network authorized by congress. firstnet. because putting them first is our job. flexshares etfs are built with advanced modeling. to fill portfolio gaps and target specific goals. strengthening client confidence in you. before investing consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. go to flexshares.com for a prospectus containing this information. read it carefully.

welcome back corporate america has letted biden administration know it's ready to help combat covid-19. eamon javers has the details. >> reporter: we're seeing this partnership emerge sort of on the fly. different companies and trade associations decide they want to get involved in helping as the

biden administration trying to ramp up to 100 million doses in 100 days that's their set goal. take a look at some of the companies that have weighed in, starting with starbucks, that is offering in washington state, models for vaccination centers amazon, of course, last week offered to help the biden administration to help with vac nations of its employees a google is offering $150 million to promote vaccine education efforts. honeywell in north carolina offering logistical help with what they call the last mile of vaccine distribution, getting it all the way to its destination microsoft and costco are also involved airbnb made an interesting offer to set up locations for vaccination. that can be used in medically underserved areas. i spoke with eric hopland earlier today. he's the new ceo of the national association of wholesalers and

distributors he said his organization wrote a letter to the biden administration on friday offering their particular expertise. here's how he described the effort. >> we have relationships with about 180,000 healthcare providers across the country, pharmacies, hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, where we supply their medicines and medical equipment every day. we have those existing relationships to start accelerate and help the country meet that 100 million goal >> reporter: the idea is to use the existence supply chains and existing networks now to serve as acsell rants. and of course, guys, there's opportunities here on the business side, for all of these companies to make some money doing some of this work. there's also an important opportunity for them to step up the global economy, right? you can't get the economy going again if you can't get the vaccine out there to the last mile

there's some self-interest here, and anytime you're dealing with companies dealing with the governments state and local, at the federal level, there's a lot of opportunity for relationship building as well >> thank you, eamon. coming up on "fast money" tonight, we have speculative mania in the market could spark two scary scenarios. that's at 5:00 in the meantime that does it for us up next, "power lunch," gamestop is all right in the world. it's up more than 167% over the past week alone. the valuation and when this incredible rally could end "power lunch" starts after a quick break.

welcome to "power lunch. i am jon fortt morgan brennan will join us for the house in a bit heavywaters are continuing to climb higher plus viral valuations. why gamestop is surging. why one analyst says this rally will come to a screeching halt xi jinping warning again growing tensions