exand -- >> defense stocks have been hard hit even as commercial stocks like virgin galactic particular to soar. >> with that we look ahead this week to apple earnings amongst others that stock is lead the dow w. that, thanks for watching "power lunch. "closing bell" starts right now. >> john, morgan, thank you for that coming up on "closing bell" today with me, wilfred frost and sara eisen, all the latest market moves of course on friday we did have a record intraday close as well or the nasdaq. let's look at what's driving the act. values cyclicals driving, tech is high. apple up stimulus negotiations in washington continue though hopes for a full $1.8 trillion are slipping and speculative parts of the market continue to heat

up game stop up as much as 100% today. bitcoin climbing back as well. the dow is lower the nasdaq and the s&p are around all-time highs. anything positive for the nasdaq will be a record close sara. >> yeah. we are well there so far, .4% higher ahead on today's show, president biden expected to sign an executive order. this one on american manufacturing we will take you there live as it happens we will also be speaking with biden's council of economic advisers member jared bernstein. plus check out shares of amc today, the stock, the movie theater chain surging almost 30%. the company just secured nearly $1 billion in financing. the ceo adam aaron will be with us to discuss how he is staving off bankruptcy and nba legend kareem abdul-jabbar will break down his effort to encourage people to get the vaccine and much more. he appeared at the inauguration. let's get to the big stories worry watching in this final hour of trade. mike santoli tracking the market

action, unusual trading activity in names like game stop. meg tirrell has updates on the coronavirus vaccines, mike, kick it off into jumping activity around the story stocks. but it is netting out on the index level to more of the same, a retation into growth stocks out of some of the cyclicals and it is keeping the s&p in this steady orderly channel earlier this morning when we did get a downside air pocket in the s&p it kind of broke out of this upper range but reasserted it is without much trouble mostly because of apples of the world with a we are seeing is a layered story of call option speculation that's been going on social media crowding into certain names and attacking the heavily shorted stocks this is a picture from deutsche bank the call option activity. bullish bets, short-term usually, low cost bets on further up side in stocks. the blue line here is small orders

in other words, only a few contracts or a single options contract look at the volume flows, how it has surged over the last few months in that type of act sift whereas you see large trader action is much more muted. yes, it's all going up and it is part of the same story but what we are really seeing here is the whip end of this recent surge in the markets. especially in some of the again more speculative areas is happening through initiating bullish bets on very small orders of call options that lastst as long as it lasts talent attack on heavily shorted stocks is ironic because there is not much of a short base in this market. this goldman sachs it shows you a percentage of market value of the median s&p stock. it was above 2% less than a year ago. here it is down around 1.5, 1.6% essentially, this is not a market where the shorts are entrenched and piled in. it is only in these select names that we are seeming to be in

long term decline. a lot of that is getting hashed ott right now in the market. might have seen a cli marketic move earlier today in game stop. >> is game stop indicative of anything broader we have been talking about for a long time that this is a market, certain stocks in particular disconnected with fundamentals or the economic realities. i see it a little bit like that. do you see any broader takeaways for investors? >> there is not really a macro story involved except for eventually there will be a reopening and you will have a lot of stores out there and people will shop this is a combination of circumstances, a he tailer who struggled for a very long period of time, very, very depressed stock. it was not an institutional stock anymore. then you got an activist investor or involved investor on the board. bought a stake in it that was a spark for getting

people excited about maybe there is a strategic comeback plan for game stop. then hunting the shorts. game stop was one of the most heavily bet against stocks in the market that fed on itself. and again, you have the -- that are sort of amplifying all of this saying hey guys if we keep doing this we can pay ourselves with the upside. it is not that easy but it seems to work until it stops. >> mike, thank more to come from mike throughout the show. let's turn to the latest on the coronavirus. merck and moderna both giving updates on their vaccines today. meg tirrell as ever has all the details we need. >> wilf, let's start with merck. this is one of the most experienced and storied vaccine developers in the world saying today they are discontinuing their covid-19 vaccine program because early results showed that they generated an inferior immune response when looked at when natural infection gives and also at what the more advanced vaccines have been able to to. they are going to be focusing on the treatments for covid-19 in

their pipeline, including one that's an oral anti-viral, a capsule you can take by mouth where they expect to have data by the end of march. so a lot of eyes focused on that one, guys. on the moderna front, the company saying heavy been looking at variants we have been hearing so much about, the one associated with the uk, known as b 117 and south africa, b 151, those two in particular, they looked at their vaccines and those variants they saw a similar level in the b 117 variant. in the b 15351 they saw a sixfold decline, they are going to be testing a booster dose of the original vaccine and make a

new vaccine that is more effective for the b 1351 >> if everyone gets vaccinated with what's available today over the next six months then we break the back this virus and can kind of go back to life as normal he is that the key question there. >> that is the hope. dr. fauci has been talking about getting 70 to 85% of people in the u.s. vaccinated hopefully by fall to start talking about normalcy that is not going to eradicate this virus we don't think i mean that would be wonderful so it might stick around and we might need to have these updated vaccines to keep protecting us against it we will need to see how this virus plays out. but that's the way we are looking at it now. >> meg tirrell, thank you. after the break, the davos agenda we will speak with the ceo of philip morris about his message for the global community and how the biden administration could

impact regulation of his toke coindustry you are watching "closing bell" here on cnbc dow is down about 108 points

philip morris international making a big push into smoke-free tobacco products. it has been a multiyear effort for the company. the fda did authorize pmi's i coast a heated tobacco system as a modified risk tobacco product. joining us to discuss the davos agenda is philip morris ceo. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me happy new year. >> happy new year. not the same as being in the swiss alps, you and i have been there and talking to each other a few years now. you have been trying to make this case to the davos elite i am not sure they extended an invitation to the forum to you because your tobacco company that you are trying to promote a smoke-free future. is that working in this time of

esg and stake holder capitalism. >> sure, he is it is resonating increasingly, i would say. as you know, in any innovation, there are always critics and opponents initially. but i think as you know, smoke-free products are increasingly being adopted by people who smoke, and today our production i koss has already more than 17 million of people that bought and it switched off of grets i think they will arrive at the consensus this is the right thing to to. first of all for the 1 billion smokers around the world and for public health in general and i think the fact that more and more government agencies like the u.s. fda have reviewed the science behind these

products and they authorized the product for public health and recently under the pathway worldwide urged the adoption this product. >> why has the fda ruled that smoking this is safer than smoking tobacco, normal cigarettes. >> well, i think the fda has reviewed heated tobacco products they have not yet finished their review of the products now for a fact, all of these products should be compared with cigarettes if cigarettes are the most lethal way of delivering

nicotine and taste to smokers, all products that are not -- as a common denominator have at least 95% reduction in toxicity. in the continuum of risk, i would say there is a cliff that is the absence of combustion and all the products that fall in the non-combustible category are vastly better alternatives than cigarettes. and that's the key thing to retain for, you know, the smokers that would not otherwise quit now, it's clear that heated tobacco products may be slightly more in certain toxins than vapor products 95% reduction compared to cigarettes but reality is they are closer, also, to the taste of cigarettes, so they have much

higher adoption rates. and worldwide, we are now in 63 countries with the heated tobacco product we have. and we see adoption rates 75% plus which is three or four times the rate of adoption of cigarettes, and that's very important for public health. but the comparison here again is cigarettes it is an enormous reduction in toxicity. >> i guess andre the follow-up to that is why should the comparison only be to cigarettes as opposed to nothing? you mentioned that i think your products have helped some 17 million people give up actual cigarettes, which is fantastic how do you way that very positive outcome up against people that are getting addicted to nicotine by vaping in a way that perhaps they wouldn't have done if vaping also didn't exist? particularly of course i am talking about the young, who seem to be very drawn to vaping.

>> well, first of all, heated tok tobacco products are not when we call vaping products that have any liquid inside. secondly, the teenage use of any nicotine product is a problem and it's something we are very serious about when we commercialize our product. and we have to do everything, including introducing technology, that limits or minimizes the access of these products to teenagers. so there is one problem to resolve. but oen the other side there is billion adults who smoke today around the world and they will continue using cigarettes if we don't offer them alternative products. and this is exactly the audience we are addressing with a heated tobacco product and where also where e vapor products must be

focused. on one side we must work with regulators worldwide, adjust our sales, introduce technology that activates the devices only after age verification we are experimenting with this technology in a couple of countries right now. we hope that' 23 all of our products will have this technology it is clear that the best thing any spoker can do is quit and the best thing is to never start. there are 1 billion people who smoke and we should take them into consideration. >> andre, thank you for coming on to talk about your big push again, especially as you transition to chairman ceo of philip morris international. >> thank you for having me. we have 43 minutes left and we are just lower on the s&p and just higher on the nasdaq. after the break, it's today's frothy trading action a red flag for the market we will discuss the broader

outlook and where to find value with chief investment officer at t roe price giroux president biden is expected to sign an executive order on american manufacturing that's expected this hour. when it happens we will take you there live back in a couple do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy, even a term policy, for an immediate cash payment. call coventry direct to learn more. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized that we needed a way to supplement our income. our

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welcome back a mixed trading day for stocks the dow is lower by about.4% s&p is flat. nasdaq is up about .3% anything positive in the nasdaq will be a record close despite today's moves the major averages performed strongly this month, the nasdaq and russel leading the pack for more on where investors can find opportunities from here, david giro from t. rowe price. david, good to see you thank you for joining us reading some of the notes you shared with us, you said that the market is aggregate expensive, what do you mean by that >> when you look at earnings not on '21 earnings but on 2022 earnings, the s&p 500 at 20 times 2022 earnings on a historical context is quite expensive. but what i would say that level of expensiveness, if you will is

really concentrated in a couple of areas apple that used to trade for 15, 16 times earnings is now trades for 30 times earnings or tesla, or on other side of the spectrum, cyclicals that are pricing in at a very, very good recovery but there are parts of the market, utilities, garp stocks, even financials, in particular banks, where you see pretty good value. not only relative value but actually good absolute value as well. >> what about the u.s. versus the rest of the word at the moment >> i -- i tend to actually favor u.s. stocks over international stocks obviously, we had a period of time where the dollar has been a little bit weak. with you i think an investor owning u.s. stocks is a much better group of companies, tech titans, a higher proportion of the portfolio is is the garpy kind of stocks that we like on

the long term basis and also you get international diversification as a lot of those companies generate 30% of their revs or more outside the u.s. >> given the environment that we are in, the approximately sees we are looking frat washington, and the feds, david, what pockets of the market do represent the best value >> like i said, i think the places where you see the most value is kind of stuff that's been left behind in this kind of tug-of-war between kind of deep value and low quality and maybe the tech titans or technology or covid winners on one end of the spectrum you look at utilities today where you can earn 3.5% kind of dividend yields, where you see them trading at a lower valuation than they did back in '18 when people thought the ten-year was going to 4% looks attractive we like the garp stocks. i think that's where the best risk reward is in the market today. global payments, pfizer.

march mccleanan. they are trading at mass discounts to the market because they don't fit with the consensus macro focus of the market, if you will. we try to find things that are mispriced because of concerns or economic yut looks, but if you have a five-year view, you can compoundwell and a low double digit rate and only cyclical risk >> there is froth and speculative action as i am sure you are well aware of, the likes of game stop if this activity unwinds, do you fear it will drag the entire market down, or do you think these stocks that you like do you think they will power on through regardless i think if the market -- it is a little bit like what happened with the.com bubble. we had a portion of the market that was really expensive.

came under a tremendous amount of pressure in the next two years but the rest of the market actually did okay, right you could see a similar dynamic where you have all of this speculative assets at one end of the market, as some of the gains come off i think some of the funds might find their way into utilities, garpy stocks, maybe even a bank or two as well >> yeah. garpy value kind of growth blended strategy there just for people who aren't as familiar you mentioned utilities, david do you have a view on rates? a lot of people think rising interest rates could get this the way of a rally say in utilities which are a low rate alternative. >> one of the interesting thing about utilities is that last year the ten-year fell 100 basis points plus or minus a little bit and utilities

underperformed if you go back to 2018 in the first or second quarter where the ten-year was above 3% and everybody thought the rates were going to 4% utilities today are in some cases at a lower valuation today, and the debate is more whether the ten-year is going to go from 1 to 2, 1.50, stay at 1? you will have see rates rise by 150 or 200 basis points to make an argument that utilities are no longer attractive today. >> doesn't sound like many people are going that high david, thank you we will leave it there david giro, we appreciate it. the dow down 119 points. news in on the hedge fund world? there is an interesting and relatively rare transaction in the hedge fund world

melvin capital, a firm headed by gabe fought kin. it has done very well in recent years. like many hedge funds it has found itself on the wrong side of many short bets which had surged in recent weeks led by some of the speculation that we talked about a lot on our air as of recently. as a result, the firm has actually obtained investments from both sit dispel point 72s fellow firms steve cohen's firm point 72 seated steve years ago ask citadel is also a prior investor basically, they are come in, taking a non-controlling revenue share of the firm, of melvin, as a way to help them get through these difficult times providing liquidity to the firm as they have seen performance suffer about 30% for 2021

through last week largely due to the short book we have some statements from the two firms that are backing this new investment ken griffin of kit del says dave plotkin and team have delivered amazing results over the history of melvin. we have confidence in him and his team and the ceo of point 72, i have known dave plotkin since 1976, and we are pleased to take a non-controlling interest >> interesting turn of events as we watched some of the impact of 2021 and how it is impacting some of the investors on the other side. >> some painful ones thank you leslie picker. the show must go on. amc announcing today it secureder inially $1 billion to keep the struggling theaters afloat

according to the ceo any talk of an imminent bankruptcy is completely off the table he joins us next to discuss. a quick on bonds yields lower to start the week the ten-year yielding just around 1.04% some buying of treasuries, which vibes with the softness you are seeing on equities we'll be right back on kbhel on "closing bell."

welcome back just under 30 minutes left of trade amount of live look for you right now at the white house, where we are expecting president biden to sign a new executive order. this one aimed at u.s. manufacturing. and bringing more of that to the u.s., expanding the content, say, for federal purchases to be made in america. he's also expected to take questions. we will bring you the president as soon as we see him. wilfred. >> currently looking like probably by design on his part he will fall into the "market zone" here on "closing bell. an extra reason to tune in >> time now for a cnbc update with sue herera. >> good to see you wilf.

here's what's happening at this hour, everyone america's new climate envoy says the world must take zisive action to combat climate change. john kerry apologizing to world leaders at a climate summit for the u.s. leaving the paris accord and saying the biden administration will work to make up for lost time. >> we have an administration that believes and is seized by this issue and president biden knows we have to mobilize in unprecedented ways to meet a challenge that is fast accelerating. in utah, dramatic dash cam video of a crash between two cars that sent them down into a creek. only one was injured seriously as if there was any doubt about how cute baby pandas can

be this baby is six months old and clearly does not like being left alone. the video has 4.5 million views on youtube she's very attached to that guy. look at that cute little face. panda, pandemic, video going viral. >> that's a good one yeah i can see why. >> i try. >> funny, too. sue, thank you >> uh-huh. >> sue herera. shares of amc jumping today after securing a big fonsing deal to rdwa off runs. up next, ceo adam aron joins us to discuss sales are down from last quarter but we are hoping things will pick up by q3. deal to ward off runs. up next, ceo adam aron joins us to discuss ifonsing deal to ward off runs. up next, ceo adam aron joins us to discuss nfonsing deal to ward off runs. up next, ceo adam aron joins us to discuss you alright? [sigh] [ding] never settle with power e*trade. it has powerful, easy-to-use tools to help you find opportunities, 24/7 support when you need answers plus some of the lowest options and futures contract prices around.

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dow down 133 shares of amc entertainment, though r surging after it announced it has raised $917 million in new financing to help it remain open through this year $506 million of the funding coming from the issuance of new common shares and an investment deal with mud rick capital management while the remaining money coming from upsizing and refinancing its european credit facility the latest lifeline coming as amc and other movie theater stocks continue to get slammed

during the pandemic. joining us with more, amc ceo adam aron. you must have been relieved. the obituaries was written, the bankruptcy lawyers and bankers had been circling. >> mark twain says the rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated. i would be remiss if i didn't point out that amc is based in kansas city. the chiefs were victorious last night and heading to the super bowl but amc weren't the only business in kansas city that won this weekend amc raised a tremendous amount of increase to our cash reserves it means we will make it through this dark coronavirus winter all talks of bankruptcy is off the table. for now, we are very optimistic encouraged and enthusiastic as we look ahead.

>> what does the capital structure of our business look like when it is all done the percentages of silver lake and wanda. what happens to them. >> wanda is still our largest shareholder, but now that's less that 20% of our total shareholder base silver lake was a debt investor in amc not an equity investor. $600 million in our debt position want ka and silver lake still have board seats at this point we are now a big public company with a diverse shareholder base and creditor base more important than that, we are a company with a lot of cash in the bank and that bodes very well for us to survive through this crisis. >> adam, it is certainly a lot of cash in the bank relative to where it was and as you said, it should be enough to get you through to the summertime.

also of course a lot of debt on the balance sheet. what is it realistic for you to hope to pay some of that down and see the equity value recover accordingly? >> thanks for the question wilf, i think we have proven over the last nine months that we are a smart financial engineer here at amc. we have raised money five times since april of 2020. we have gotten enormous support from our landlord community, to whom we are very grateful. we got that support in 2020. we are counting on more landlord support in 2021. i do believe we will put those skills to work each this year. we were able to in july of last year for example, to wipe out $555 million of debt through a fairly sophisticated debt exchange i would expect that similarly in 2021 we will look at the debt

exchange options, possibly debt for equity options we do need to right the capital structure this business. it's clearly one of the action items on our list. the first one, though, of course, was get the liquidity we need to survive this winter, which we can put a check in that box. >> so the liquidity is key, adam but there is still this lingering question about when business really comes back in any sort of normal way we have administered what now, 21 million vaccines in this country. is there a magic number you are looking for when you think that people will be coming back to the movies in a way that can work for your business >> the health and safety of our fellow countrymen is important to me as a citizen but as the ceo of a business, the health and safety of our customers is crucial to our survival we have been consulting with the nation's top health experts all

the way through 2020, starting at about april or may. we devised these amc safe and clean health protocols to make sure that our theaters were safe and clean. now we have vaccination at hand. >> adam, excuse us, we have to interrupt up and listen in now to president biden, due of course to sign a made in america executive order. last week, we immediately got to work to contain the pandemic and deliver economic relief to millions of americans who need it the most today we are getting to work to rebuild the backbone of america. manufacturing, unions, the middle class it's based on a simple premises that will reword work, not wealth, in this country. the key plank of ensuring the future will be made in america i have long said that i don't

accept the defeatist view that the forces of automation and globalization can keep union jobs from growing here in america. we can create more of them, not fewer of them. i don't buy for one second that the vitality of the american manufacturing is a thing of the past american manufacturing was the arsenal of democracy in world war ii, and it must be part of the engine of american prosperity now that means we are going use taxpayers' money to rebuild america. we will buy american products, and support american jobs, union jobs for example, the federal government every year spends approximately $600 billion in government procurement to keep the country going safe and secure and there is a law that's been on the books for almost a century now to make sure that that money when spent, taxpayers dollars, for procurement is spent to support american jobs

and american businesses. but the previous administration didn't take it seriously enough. federal agencies waives the buy american requirement without much pushback at all big corporations and interest interests have long fought for loopholes to redirect american taxpayers' dollars to foreign companies for the products that are being made the result, tens of billions of american taxpayers dollars supporting foreign jobs and foreign industries in 2018 alone, the department spent $3 billion -- the defense department, on foreign construction contracts leaving american steel and iron out in the cold it spent nearly $300 million in foreign engines and on vehicles instead of buying american vehicles and engines from american companies, putting americans to work. under the previous administration, the federal government contract awarded

directly to foreign companies went up 30%. that is going to change on our watch. today i am taking the first steps in my larger build back better recovery plan that invest in american workers, unions and businesses up and down the supply chain and i know that prefs entered offici prolsing to institute the buy american policy. here's why this is different and not the same i will be signing an executive order in just a moment tightening the existing buy american policies and go further. we are setting clear directives and clear explanations we are going to get to the core issue with the centralized coordinated evidence look, today i am creating a director of made in america at the white house office of management and budget who will oversee our all of government made in america initiative

that starts with stopping federal agencies from waiving buy american requirements with impunity as has been going on f. an agency wants to issue a waiver to say we are not going to buy an american product as part of this project, we are going to buy a foreign product, they have to come to the white house and explain it to us we are going to require that waivers be publicly posted, that is someone who is seeking a waiver to build this particular vehicle or facility, and it is going to buy the following foreign parts that waiver, the request for it is going to be posted then we will work with small american manufacturers and businesses to give them a shot to raise their hand and say, yeah, i can do that here in my shop, in my town it's about -- as you have heard me say before i used to have a friend who was a great athlete he said you have got to know how to know. these small businesses don't

each know they cancompete for may going the product that is attempting to be waivered and to be able to be bought abroad. and i am directing the office of management and budget to review waivers, to make sure they are only used in very limited circumstances, for example, when there is amg overwhelming national security, humanitarian or emergency need here in america. it hasn't happened before. it will happen now here's what else we are going to be doing under the build back better recovery plan, we will invest hundreds of billions of dollars in buying american products and materials to modernize our infrastructure and our competitive strength will increase in the competitive world. that means millions of good paying jobs using american-made steel and technology to rebuild our roads, our bridges, our ports, and to make them more climate resilient as well as make them able to move faster and cheaper and cleaner to transport american-made goods across the country and around

the world making us more competitive. it will also mean replenty iring our stockpiles to enhance our national security. as this pandemic has made clear we can never again be in a position where we have to rely on a foreign country that doesn't share our interests in order to protect our people during an national emergency we need to make our own protective equipment, essential products, and supplies and we will work with our allies to make sure they have resilient supply chains as well. we will also make historic investments in research and development, hundreds of billions of dollars to sharpen america's innovative edge in markets where global leadership is up for grabs, markets like battery technology, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, clean energy the federal government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles. which we are going to replace with clean electric vehicles made right here in america by american workers, creating millions of jobs, a million auto

worker jobs, in clean energy and vehicles that are net zero emissions. and together, this will be the largest mobilization of public investment and procure men infrastructure in r&d since world war ii and with the executive order i will be signing today, we will increase buy american requirements for these kinds of projects and improve the way we measure domestic content requirements for example, right now, if you manufacture a vehicle for the federal government, you need to show at least 50% of the components of that vehicle were made in america. because of loopholes that have been expanded over time, you can count the least valuable possible parts as part of that 50% to say made in america while the most valuable parts, the engines, the steel, the glass, are manufactured abroad. so, basically -- basically, we are batting 0 for 2.

the content threshold of 50% aren't high enough the way we measure the content doesn't account for u.s. jobs and economic activity. we are going change that as well the executive action i am signing today will not only require that companies make more of their components in america, but that the value of those components is contributing the our economy measured by things like a number of american jobs created and or supported at the same time, we will be committed to working with our trading partners to modernize international trade rules, including those relating to government procurement to make sure we can use -- we can all use our taxpayer dollars to spur investment that promotes growth andresilient supply chains and here's what else the action does when we buy america, we will buy from all of america. that includes communities that have historically been left out of government procurement --

black, brown, native americans, small businesses entrepreneurs in every region of the country we will use a national network of manufacturers called the manufacturing extension partnership. that's in all 50 states and puerto rico to help government agencies connect with new domestic suppliers across the country. this is a critical piece of building our economy back better and including everyone in the deal this time, especially small businesses that are badly hurting in this economy. the executive action i am taking also reiterates my strong support for jones act, and american vessels you know, and our ports. especially those important for america's clean energy future and the development of offshore renewable energy i will close with this the reason we need to do this is america can't sit on the sidelines in the race for the future

our competitors aren't waiting the ensure the future is made in america we need to win not just the jobs of today, but the jobs and industries of tomorrow we know that the middle class built this country, and we also know unions built the middle class. let's invest in them once again. i know we are ready, despite all the -- all we are facing i have never been more optimistic about the future of america than i am today. given even just half a chance the american people, the american workers have never ever let the country down imagine if we give them a full chance that's what we are going do. i will stop here, sign the executive order, then come back and take some of your questions. this executive order is entitled ensuring the future is made in america, buy american, all american workers

>> we are going to continue to watch president biden as he signs this executive order, made in america we will take you live as soon as he begins to make questions from members of the press in the meantime, let's bring in our washington correspondent kayla tausche to -- well, hold on, kayla, let's go back to president biden. looks like he is taking the questions. >> two topics if i may the first, you have made reopening schools a central part of your first 100 days agenda. you have long portrayed yourself as an ally to the teachers and unions right now the chicago teachers union has refused, they defied an order to return to in-person classrooms because of a lack of vaccinations do you believe, sir, that teachers should return to school now? >> i believe we should make school classrooms safe and secure for the students, for the

teachers, and for the help that in those schools maintaining facilities we need new vent nation systems in those schools we need testing for people come in and out of the classes. we need testing for teachers as well as students and we need the capacity, the capacity to know that in fact the circumstance in the school is safe and secure for everyone. for example, there is no reason why the clear guidance will be that every school should be thoroughly sanitized from the lavatories to the hallways this is about making -- and none of the school districts this i am aware of -- there may be some, public school districts have insisted that all those tools be in place. i made add this is the same

thing i hope we can do with businesses, small businesses, making sure they have the capacity to test their workers when they come in, to make sure they have plastic dividers between their booths in their restaurants, to make sure they can sanitize it is not so much about the idea teachers around going to work -- the teachers i know, they want to work, they just want to work in a safe environment and as safe as we can rationally make it and we can do that and we should be able to open up every school, kin der gar tin through eighth grade if we in fact administer these tasks and it will have the advantage i might add of putting millions of people back to work. all of those mothers and fathers hare home taking care of their children rather than going back to work. even when they can work, they are not able to do it. this is about generating

economic growth overall as well. >> thank you, mr. president. i'm alex hall period of time from reuter's. i wanted to ask a question about navalny. if you are considering imposing sanctions on any of the individuals involved in his attempted poisoning and/or his arrest when he returned from ger germany? if not, that related the your concerns about potentially derailing a new start extension? thank you. >> i find we can both operate in the mutual self interests of our countries in the new start agreement and make it clear to russia that we are very concerned about their behavior, whether it is navalny, whether it is the solar winds, or whether it's the reports of bounties on the heads of americans in afghanistan i have asked the agencies in question to do a thorough road

for me onni every one of those issues and update me precisely where they are and i will not hesitate to raise those issues with the russians >> a question about our covid relief deal. on friday you said the nation is in a national emergency, we should act like it given that, the scale and the severity of the need how long are you willing to get sufficient republican support before you would greenlight democrat attempts to use reconciliation for instance to pass that bill >> look, the decision on decision on reconciliation will be one made by the leaders of the house and the senate but here's the deal. i have been doing legislative negotiations for a large part of my life. i know how the system works. and what i am not -- i can't guarantee anything at all. but i can say that what i am going to be doing, and we have already begun, is making it

clear to the leadership in the house and the senate as well as the group of 16, the bipartisan group, as well as republican individuals who have an interest in the issues that are in my package and say here's what i am doing, here's why i want to do it, here's why i want to do it what kind of support can you or can't you give to that then we go on and deal with the way we dehe will with legislation all the time you know, we didn't have any votes for the recovery package when we'll be when barack and i came into office we thought we were short three votes until the day of the -- the dave bringing it up. but here's the deal. you know, alts interesting and i know you ask a lot of the questions, you know the answers

but you have to help educate the public as well i am not suggesting you don't know what i am about to say. no one wants to give up on their position until there is no other alternative. they have to make a decision that they don't do -- they don't support what is being proposed or they insist on what they have or they let it all go away fall down. i think we are far from that point right now. the decision to use reconciliation will depend upon how these negotiations go. let me make clear about negotiations i have always believed part of negotiation on the part of a president and/or a chairman of a committee trying to get a major piece of legislation passed is about consultation it's not enough for me just to come up to you and say i like you, i expect you to support it. i want to explain to you why i think it's so important in this package that we have to provide

for -- money for additional vaccines, why i think it's so important why we provide for money to extend unemployment benefits, why i think it is so important that we provide money to provide for the ability of people not to be thrown out of their apartments during this pandemic because they can't afford their rent. and to make the case to you why i think and what i think the priorities within this piece -- we think the priorities are -- i apologize -- were within this legislation. i don't expect we will know whether we have an agreement to the extent the package will pass or not pass until we get down to the end of this process. which will be probably in a couple of weeks. but point is this is just the process, beginning >> thank you, mr. president. annie listenski with the "washington post." >> hey, annie. wanted to ask you a little bit about one of the sort of major themes of your campaign and how you sort of intend to

measure and enact it and that is the idea of unity. if you could talk a little bit about what you see unity as being. there are some people who are defining it as being bipartisan. others are saying it is what most the people in the country defined by some poll might believe. or any sort of -- perhaps it is 50 plus 1 or 50 plus 2, or 75% given it is such a key part of your message and your promise, can you talk and reflect a little bit more about what is unity as you see it, as you define it? >> i think it makes up several of the issues, the points you made one is, unity requires you to take away -- eliminate the

vitriole we have to get rid of that i think that's already beginning to change. but god knows where things go, number one unity also is trying to reflect what the majority of the american people, democrat, republican, independent, think is within the fulcrum of what needs to be done to make their lives and the lives of americans better for example, if you look at the data -- and i am not claiming the polling data to be exact but if you look at the data, you have -- i think it's -- i hope i am saying it correctly correct me if i get the number wrong. i think it is 57, 58% of the american people, including republicans, democrats, and independents, think that we have to do something about thecovid vaccine, we have to do something about making sure that people who are hurting badly, can't eat, don't have food, are in a position where they are about to be thrown out of their apartments, et cetera, being able to have an opportunity to

get a job, they all think we should be acting, we should be doing more unity also is trying to get at a minimum -- if you pass a piece of legislation that breaks down on party lines buttet gets passed it doesn't mean there wasn't unity it just means it wasn't bipartisan i prefer these things to be bipartisan because i am trying to generate some consensus and take sort of the -- how can i say it, the vitriole out of all of this, because i am confident -- i am confident from my discussions there are a number of republicans who know we have to do something about the food insecurity for people in this pandemic i am confident they know we have to do something about figuring out how to get children back in school there is easy ways to deal with this if you are anti-union you can say it is all because of teachers if you want to make a case, though, that it is complicated, you say, well, what do you have to do to make it safe to get in

those schools? we are going to have arguments for example, you know, i proposed that we -- because it was bipartisan, i thought it would increase the prospects of passage, the additional $1400 in direct cash payment to folks well, there is legitimate reason for people to say, do you have the lines drawn the exact right way? should it go to anybody making over x number of dollars i am open to negotiate those things that's all -- i picked it because i thought it was rational, reasonable, and it had overwhelming bipartisan support in the house when it passed. but this is all a bit of a moving target. in terms of the precision with which this goes. you are asking about unity -- 51 votes, bipartisan, et cetera the other piece of this is that -- the one thing that gives me hope that we are not only going to sort of stay away from

the ad hominem tack on one another is this is that there is an overwhelming consensus among the major economists at home and in the world that the way to avoid a deeper, deeper, deeper recession moving in the direction of losing our competitive capacity is to spend money now. from across the board, every major institution has said, if we don't invest now, we are going lose so much altitude in terms of our employment base and our economic growth, it is going to be harder to re-establish it. we can afford to to it now matter of fact i think the response has been we can't afford not to invest now we can't afford to fail to invest now and i think there is a growing realization of that on the part of all but some very, very hard-edge partisans maybe on both sides but i think there is a growing

consensus. whether we get it all done exactly the way i want it remains to be seen but i am confident that we can work our way through we have to work our way through. because, as i have said 100 times, there is no ability in a democracy for it to function without the ability to reach consensus. otherwise, it just becomes executive fiat or battleground issues that get us virtually nowhere. i don't want to hold the -- my colleague may know, the vice president, but i think there were very few debates on the senate floor the whole last year on almost any issue. >> that's correct. >> well, that ben nits no one. doesn't inform anybody didn't allow the public to make judgments who they think is right or wrong so i am -- i am optimistic that it may take some time. but over the year, if we treat each other with respect -- and we are going to argue like hell. i'm confident of that.

believe lee me i know that. i have been there. but i think we can do it in a way that we can get things done for the american people. >> last question josh, from -- [ inaudible >> josh, they don't trust with you a mic. >> i wouldn't either thank you, mr. president, i appreciate you taking the question you mentioned just now you might know in a couple of weeks. can i ask whether it is more important to get something passed in a short time frame like that or would you be willing to wait longer to get more bipartisan support? i might also ask one of the pillar is the vaccine funding. when do you think any american who wants to get the shot will be able to get the shot? >> well, i will try to answer the three parts of our question as i heard them. one, time is of the essence. time is of the essence and i must tell you, i am reluctant to cherry pick and take out one or two items here

and then have to go through it again because these all are kind of -- they go sort of hand in glove, each of these issues. number one number two, we are optimistic that we will have enough vaccine in very short order. as you know, we came in office without knowledge of how much vaccine was being held in awayance or available. now we have been here a week or so and we have that. and we have gotten word from some of the producers they will in fact produce more vaccine in a relatively short period of time and then continue that down the road i am quite confident that we will be in a position within the next three weeks or so to be vaccinating people at the range of a million a day, or in excess of that. that is my -- i promised that we would get at least 100 million vaccinations

that's not people. because sometimes you need more than one shot, the vaccination, but 1-000 -- 100 million shots in people's arms of the vaccine. i think with the grace of god and the good will of the neighbor and the creek not rising as the old saying goes, i think we may be able to get that to 150 -- 175 million a day rather than 1 million a day. but we have to meet that goal of a million a day. and everything points that we are going to have, a, the -- enough vaccine b, enough syringes and all the paraphernalia needed to store, keep, inject, move into your arm the vaccine. three, the number of vaccinators, people administering the vaccine, which is not an easy task of those who have those facilities like the nursing homes and hospitals. they have people to do it but they don't have the capacity to

do everyone. so i think we are going to have -- we are leaning hard into areas where we produce more vaccinators. we feel confident we can do that thirdly, it's really important that we have the forra, the place, the facility, the circumstance where people can show up, stand if line, and get their vaccine without having to stand in line for eight hours. being able to pick up the phone, call the pharmacy, and get your name on list, et cetera. all of those mechanical things are really -- they sound simple, but they are all consequential when you are trying to get out a minimum of 100 million vaccinations in 100 days and move in the direction where we are well quound that in the next 1-days so we can get to the point where we reach herd immunity in a country of over 300 million people does that answer your question >> my question was when do you

think anyone who wants one will be able to get it? er some, fall? >> no. i think i think it will be this spring i think we will be able to get that this spring but it will be a logistical challenge that exceeds anything we have ever tried in this country. i think we can do that i feel confident that by summer we are going to be well on our way to heading toward herd immunity and increasing the access for people who aren't on the list all the way going down to children and how we deal with that but i feel good about where we are going, and i think we can get it done. >> thank you guys. >> one more, one more on vaccines mr. president, one more on vaccines. >> wait, wait, wait. i know he always asks me tough questions. and he always has an edge to them, but i like them anyway go ahead and ask the question. >> thank you, mr. president. so you just said that you think within three weeks or so we will be at the point where there are

a million vaccines per day. >> no, i think we will get there before that. i misspoke i hope we will be able to increase as we go on until we get to the 175 million a day that's my hope. >> the follow-up to that would be now that you are president and you are saying there is nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months -- what happened to two months ago when you were talking declaratively about i am going to shut down the virus. >> i am going to shut down the virus. i never said i am going to do it in two months. i said it took a long time to get here, it is going to take a long time to beat it there are millions of people out there who have the virus correct me if i'm wrong, i have been doing other things this morning, speaking with foreign leaders, one of the things i think this is the first day the numbers have actually come down the number of daily deaths, and the number of hospitalizations

and, et cetera it is going to take time, a heck of a lot of time and we still have, as dr. anthony fauci constantly points out, it is one thing when we have mass -- how can i say it politely, mass disregard of the warnings about not wearing masks and wearing masks and social distancing and failure to social distance and people getting together on holidays in ways that weren't recommended, et cetera we see first thing that happens is we see the number of infections go up then you see the hospitalizations go up, then you see the deaths go up we are in this for a while where are we now, 410,000 dhets? also going to be more. the prediction i said from the very beginning of getting here, after being sworn in, the preadditions were we are going to see a total of sw between -000 and 650,000 deaths before we begin to turn the corner in a

major way. again, remember, the vaccine -- most of the people taking the vaccines, a vast, significant number, require two shots. and they are an average of three weeks apart. and it takes time for it to be sure that you get to that 95% assurance rate and so it's beginning to move. but i am confident we will beat this we will beat this. but we are still going to be talking about this in the summer we are still going to be dealing with this issue in early fall. and last point i will make -- i know you are tired of hearing me say it particularly you may be tired of harg me say it. that is that if we wear mask between now and the ends of april, the experts tell us we can save 50,000 lives, 50,000 people who otherwise would die thank you so very much

>> president biden taking questions there about a range of issues talking vaccines, talking stimulus relief negotiations and talking about manufacturing in america. let's get to kayla tausche in washington with some of the key news headlines kayla? >> sara, two of the newsiest parts of that question-and-answer session i think centered on stimulus and centered on the effort to vaccinate a broad swath of the american population. on stimulus he said that he doesn't expect the know whether there is an agreement with lawmakers on a bipartisan basis until the very end of the process, which he said could approach in the next couple of week that's an important distinction because there have been some lawmakers like senate democrat dick durbin on meet the press over the weekend who said they hope there can be some agreement reached before the february 8th impeachment trial start date for president trump. they believe that partisan

positions will only harden after that date. it is clear that biden is expecting if an agreement were to happen it would happen in the next couple of weeks and wouldn't drag out for a longer period of time on that note he said he is open to negotiating the income threshold on the checks which has been a key position of many of the lawmakers even though biden says he doesn't want to be cherry picking and proposal and telegraphing what he is willing to leave on the cutting room floor. then on the mass vaccinations i thought it was notable that while his administration has been very delicate in talking about the goal of 100 million shots in the first 100 days which they said was an extremely ambitious and bold goal just a few months ago and now as the vaccination effort ramped up there have been questions whether that goal needs to be higher and they haven't really wanted to move the goal post for fear of overpromising and underdelivering.

but there you saw president biden saying he expects there could be a ramp up to 1.5 million shots a day and 150 million shots by roughly that time frame although he appeared to stop himself before he very clearly stated that. certainly, it appears there are discussions happening behind the scenes whether they did expect more people to be able to get vaccinated once that distribution ramps up. >> kayla tausche, thank you for that we want to continue this discussion before we do markets close record close for the s&p 500 nasdaq also record close, up .7% the dow was lower, only 36 points lower having been down 400 points or so at the low of the session jared bernstein, a member of president biden council of economic advisers joins us now good afternoon to you, jared interesting there, the executive order sign asking the discussion around it during which the president in fact said the

previous administration didn't take buy america seriously enough is that overall an admission that president trump's trade policy particularly as it relates to some countries like china -- the gist of it at least was in the right place >> certainly one of the things that president trump gets credit for is recognizing that lots of people and places were left behind by globalization. i mean, this is something that joe biden has talked about and campaigned on for as long as he has been a politician, as long as i have known him. and he's always had a i think very realestic view of both the up sides and the downsides of global trade flows we know of these increased flows. i am a former cnbc contributor i can tell you that i know from markets perspective that these

increased trade flows are very important to our economy they increase the goods and services, put downward pressure on goods and service many economists and politicians haven't been as up front about this as they should that they have left many communities behinding and they have been problematic for our manufacturing sector the problem with the trumped a iz administration is not only did they not deliver on buy american, the trade sector recessed which it was doing before the pandemic hit what we saw today is real approaches with teeth into flowsing the buy american loopholes to get us back on track. >> will you accept some circles who criticize you and the president everyall for being xenophobic in december you wrote quote democrats luis link mr. trump's trade agenda to his racism and

xenophobia they must recognize every import is an insult to him and every trading partner is a villain, thus tariffs must protect us from the outside world what is your take on how president biden -- >> what's my take on what i said yeah i tried to make a nuanced distinction there. i appreciate the chance to underscore it. you can't treat imports and exports as a score card. you can't treat the trade deficit as a score card. in fact one of the points i just made is that trade flows are an important events in economies across the world they are important for us. they are important for our trading partners important for developing economies. however, what you can't ignore is the impact of increased trade flows, particularly in the u.s.'s case, the persistent and large and economically important trade deficits on people who have been hurt by them that means you have to have poll

soes that look at capital flows. that means you have to have bye american policies. you have the look at your trade agreements and making sure -- this, again -- this is not new for joe biden. you have to make sure that when you are considering trade policy, whether it is a trade agreement or buy american, that the right people are at the table not just the lobbyists, not just the big connected folks who always dominate that table but labor, consumers, environmentalists. they need to be at the table as well and that is a joe biden value that you are going the see as this administration moves forward. you have already seen it by the way in the buy american executive order. >> jared, it's sara. witness thing i wanted to follow up on that the president mentioned as part of this order is updating the federal fleet, which i thought was interesting. all the cars that the government owns are going to become evs he said they are going to be made in the u.s. we saw ford and gms stock come

off the lows on this what can you tellis about this fleet? how many cars is that exactly and which companies are you going to buy from. >> it is a good question i don't have the answer to those precise questions but i will certainly look for them. this is one of those intersections that i really love, though b the kind of policy that we are trying to bring to the table clean energy, manufacturing policy, buy american, good jobs for the american people, particularly in parts and places of the country that have been left behind. this is doing well by doing good it should be great politics. it's great economics and i think it's very strong enter section of those policy spaces >> got it. keep us posted on that one, very interesting. jared, just as far as the posture generally, i mean, in early days, the president has now canceled the keystone xl pipeline which hasn't made the canadians very happy, implemented these buy american clauses and rules when it comes

to procurement which a lot of nations and our trading partners see as protectionist what is next how is the president going to deal with china, and should that be the takeaway from some of these early actions? >> on your last question about takeaway, let me push back on some of these. if you actually look at procurement agreements across advanced economies, we are a laggard. that is the folks with whom we compete have much more ability to bid on our contracts than we do on theirs so one of the things we are doing here is simply playing catchup in terms of procurement around our domestic purchases. now, when it comes to a much more collaborative and inclusive trade policy and international policy and for policy i think there is just a ton to be seen from our administration going forward. what we are talking about here is $600 billion a year of

procurements and we are trying to catch up to our competitors and make sure that we give our workers a fair shake to bid on these contracts. >> and on china, jared are there plans being discussed when it comes to issues like huawei and tiktok and the terr tariffs on more than $300 billion worth of chinese goods >> oh, yes, there are definitely plans being discussed. i am not going to talk about them yet because i am in a position where i don't want to lean over my skis and talk about processes that are not ready for public discussion yet. when they are give me a call and we will talk >> we know how to reach you, jared bernstein, thank you very much it is good to see you zbheen my pleasure. up next, salesforce's chief medical officer on the company's vaccine passport partnership with ibm and how it could help more businesses reopen safely.

>> plus president biden's call to vaccinate 175 million people per day in the near future -- is that realistic we are back in just 90 seconds n. so do telcos. that's why they're going hybrid with ibm. a hybrid cloud approach with watson ai helps them roll out new innovations anywhere without losing speed. from telco to transportation, businesses are going with a smarter hybrid cloud, using the tools, platform and expertise of ibm. good work little buddy. ♪ ♪ ♪

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up to 1.5 million people per day soon carpet america is stepping up. companies like salesforce are offering health care organization asks governments a vaccine management platform called work.com for vaccines salesforce is also working with ibm on a digital vaccine passport to help people verify and share their vaccination status joining us now to discuss is dr. ash ashwini zenooz 175 million vaccines per day, does that sound optimistic, realistic? what does it do to the time line for when we can get to herd immunity >> thanks for having us on first, we have already reached over 400,000 deaths in this country. even one death is too many i am excited to hear they are ramping up the efforts i hope it is 175 million and

more we have already reached 1 million doses a day, vaccination as day so far. so i am expecting a lot more than that. and you know, i hope that what we just heard from president biden, you know, keeps moving. i am excited to see that they added the defense production tookt get vaccine supply out there. they are bringing in agencies. they are really steppinget up. they are talking about bringing in the national guard, fema. all of that is really positive i was very excited to hear that we should have more vaccines, more doses to the market by spring, and hopefully reaching herd immunity. my goal is to at the end of the day have as many people vaccinated as people i have kids in school. i want everybody to be returning safely >> you mentioned there that they are talking about bringing in the national guard to help should they be bringing in sales forsz, too, to help? what exactly are you guys doing in this space or could you be doing if asked >> look, we have been involved and committed to helping with this pandemic from day one

you know, we mobilized a unit back in march of last year to get 50 million ppes to facilities that needed it. you know, health care workers. in may, we released technology called work.com for organizations that were opening safely that provided contact tracing, emergency response management, a command center in september, we released additional capabilities around vaccine management, everything from supply chain, logistics, administration, capabilities for scheduling, outcome monitoring so we have been on this from day one and we are going to continue to listen to our customers, partners, governments. we will do everything we can at the end of the day, we are all in this together >> so you guys have been working with other tech companies on this notion of a vaccine passport i get having a digital record of who are vaccinated my question is, how do you envision this works in reality is it that people have to show to it get on planes?

if so, then what about pregnant women or people with allergies or kids or people from other countries? is it just seems like a hard thing to actually implement. >> yeah. i mean, we have to wait and see what local regulations are, right, around the world. some countries will mandate requiring vaccines to get on planes, et cetera. we have to wait and see. our goal on our end as the technology provider is to make sure we are part of the solution we have partnered -- you mentioned ibm -- we partnered with ibm for example, to provide that last mile what that means is, you know, you going in to get vaccinated and you are going to hop on blue sky airlines and blue sky requires to you show your vaccination status we do all the heavy lifting on the back end for blue sky airlines and ibm and you to be connected. you can store the information

like you do your credit card on apple wallet, google pay and you can scan your qr code. for people who don't have phones you can print it out and go on with that qr code. for everyone else, we are going to work with the governments to see what's required, their solutions. >> doctor, thank you for joining us appreciate it. happy to be here. we have breaking news on leon black leslie picker has the story. >> leon black is stepping down from his role as ceo of apollo, the big private equity firm that he founded he will be replaced by his fellow cofounder, mark rowen as ceo although black will continue as apollo's chairman also, the board of apollo will be expanded and will include four new independent directors this is in a press release it comes in conjunction with another press release that concluded the epsten review into

leon black this is the situation where they looked into the relationship between black and jeffrey epstein. they retained a law firm, deckert, in order to observe and better understand their relationship and how it impacted apollo so they released the findings of that report as well where they say that the key findings include this apollo never retained epstein for any services that was reiterated from statements made earlier by apollo they also found there was no evidence that black was involved in any way in mr. epstein's criminal activities at any time. they have several other findings here in this statement but black speaking this this statement saying that given the extraordinary strength and depth of apollo's management team and with best practices he advised the apollo board he will retire as ceo on or before his 70

birthday that birthday is july 31st shares of apollo up 2.6% on all of this news there has been an overhang of the stock as this investigation moved forward as there were different questions surrounding whether lps would redeem or seek to distance them sechs from apollo given the epstein scandal and black's relationship with him. leon black stepping back effective end of july. he will remain chairman and be replaced by mark rowen his fellow cofounder. up next on the show, basketball him a kareem dujaar on his efforts to convince people to take the coronavirus vaccine. we'll be right back.

as the nation grapples with the covid-19 pandemic, the crisis has affected many of the ways we live our lives, including education. and it's only further widened the gap for children who do not have access to the internet. nba legend kareem abdul-jabbar's sky hook launched a program in october bringing internet in the l.a. district. today he is receiving the social responsibility award and today kareem joins us. good afternoon congratulations on receiving this award. >> nice to be with you thank you. >> tell us exactly why you

started with this action, and how far it has been rolled out, and how many people it reached so far. >> you know, i -- over the years i noticed that kids in underserved communities really weren't able to understand how to get the best results out of their educational opportunities. and the fact that science, technology, engineering and math were emphasized in a way that convinced the kids that that was the best place to find employment in the 21st century, i thought that we could make a difference by getting people to help us change that dynamic, to get the idea that science technology, engineering and math lead to good jobs and getthe kids interested in it. so getting corporate partners to help me get that message across and convey it in the right way was the key.

and i think we have succeeded in doing it panasonic is getting an award for its partnership with us for doing exactly that and you know, i hope more companies will get on board. >> how fearful have you been, kareem clearly this action you helped take is one step to addressing it but hour fearful have you been that the coronavirus pandemic has widened inequalities that exist across america. >> you know, if it hasn't widened the inequalities, it has certainly emphasized them. and shown a clairing light on what the issues are. and i think -- a glaring light on what the issues are now that we are in this position and understand what the issues are we have got to do something so we can come back healthier and safer and emphasizing stem education will definitely be a way to see to that end

>> part of that, kareem, has to be about getting people vaccinated and there are some concerns -- >> yes. >> -- about minority communities, and the black community in particular. early data show fewer blacks are getting vaccines than whites why do you think that is i know you publicly did it to set an example what can be done >> well you know, i have been an advocate that the nba teams that are getting vaccinated can set an example for all of america, including the black community. the black community has had some bad history on this issue. there is the infamous tuskegee experiment where black people who were infected with syphilis were left to -- were not treated. and they were just observed so

that the people could try to figure out how to treat the disease. and that -- that took a terrible toll on the issue of trust with the black community. you know, we have to overcome that and we have to get past that moment in order to do that, you know, the more people who can get on board with promoting vaccinations will definitely help change that and put that in a positive light >> would you take it a step further and say to state governors that minority communities, blacks and hispanics in particular, should be prioritized when more supply comes in for vaccinating people because they are more likely to be hospitalized and die from this disease >> well, you know, we have to find out the most efficient ways to use the tools that we have to fight the virus. from what i have seen, the

vaccination is much less worse than the virus so we have got to get as many people vaccinated as possible. and you know, i hope every effort toward that end is fruitful >> kareem, nba ratings have been strong i wanted to pivot quickly to a less important butig -- still significant area and being able to watch sports during lockdown it brings joy to many people's lives. do you think sports stars do deserve some fom of special treatment in order to continue that because of course what they do reaches so many people? >> well, i don't think you can you know move people out of the line, so to speak, to let sports stars get to the front of the line but i think anyone that has a following in our country can do

a great job of getting people to understand that they need to be vaccinated asap. and you know, i don't think there is any problem with that >> kareem, thank you for joining us congrats on the work and getting the award. much appreciated for joining us. >> thank you very much it was nice talking with you. up next, mike santoli will have a look at the recent selloff in so-called safe stocks ke consumer staples and what it means for the broader markets. we are back in a couple minutes.

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welcome back time for a cnbc news update with sue herera hi, sue. >> hello, everybody. here's what's happening. senator patrick leahy has been chose tony preside over former president trump's impeachment trial. this due to leahy's role as president pro tem of the senate. the article of impeachment is expected to be delivered to the senate this evening. the white house press secretary says efforts will resume to put harriet tubman on the front of the $20 the famed abolitionist would replace president andrew jackson. president trump slowed work on the move that had begun during the obama administration. in texas, the city of kell

ar has agreed to pay $200,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was pepper sprayed and arrested after videotaping a police officer who pulled over his son. the city says the police chief will also announce policy changes. only one of the officers involved was reprimanded you are up to date that's the news update sara, back to you. >> sue, thank you. up next on the show, mike santoli is back to look at whether the present pullback of traditionally safe sectors is signaling an increasing peteapti for risky assets like -- we'll be right back.

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let's send it over the mike who is looking at traditionally safe sectors. >> they have been pretty weak this last several months we know it has been a risk-seeking

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up next. while florida is working to distribute the vaccine and battle the pandemic it's dealing with a slew of new problems including the rush to make sure underserved communities are getting vaccinated the details ahead, and don't miss a new episode of "american greed, nightmare at nxivm" premiengonhtri tig at 10:00 p.m. don't miss that. "closing bell" will be coming up in a couple of minutes

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from a working overtime to vaccinate its residents and trying to close the vaccine gap between underserved communities and the wealthy. brian sullivan joins us live from florida with more hi there, brian. >> reporter: well, thank you this is an important part of the story. we've talked about the vaccine rollout and how it's going listen, underserved communities are being underserved when it comes to the vaccines. you can look at percentage, vaccination rates and some of the poor areas and counties of florida and they trail some of the wealthier counties

a lot has to do with maybe the age distribution, too, but at the same time there's a lot of confusion and it's very difficult often for underserved communities, particularly communities where there's perhaps no internet access or language gap to figure out how to make the appointment howe to get to the appointment and end up getting vaccinated. we came to the little haiti district district 108 and spoke with state representative dottie joseph, her district and constituents and when you talk about families that maybe don't have internet access at home or a smartphone or language gap we asked her what can we do, what can the state do to try to bridge that gap to make sure that everybody has an equal opportunity to get vaccinated. >> if we can get like more regular pre-set dates for the vaccine i can plug that in with the community partners to make sure that the people who otherwise would not get it will get it >> so that's part of the

problem, guys, getting the appointment and some people have said is one of the hardest things, and it's really hard new don't have internet access or bad internet access as well, so maybe a good idea for the state would be to put some firm dates, walk around, knock on doors and make phone calls, even postcards that would make sure some of these lower vaccinated rate areas not only get the vaccine itself, have a place to do it, guys, but also know where to go and when to go and that will continue to ramp up not only the speed of the distribution and vaccination, guys, but equity of that distribution. >> yeah. big problem with some interesting solutions. brian, thank you brian sullivan in miami. as we look towards tomorrow, mike and see whether the stock gains can continue s&p turned positive in the final minutes of trade and closed out the nasdaq we'll get more earnings, j&j tomorrow and also others janet yellen is scheduled to be

confirm as treasury secretary this evening that vote is 5:30 p.m. eastern time so that could be key as well though the market has already welcomed her with open arms. >> very much so. >> looked like another day where there might be a little chance for selling pressure to emerge even though there's will be a little bit of loss and momentum. >> apple up 3% and up 12% in one week putting pressure on themselves before the earnings later in the week. that does it for "closing bell." thanks for watching. "fast money" starts right now. >> i'm melissa lee, and this is "fast money. tonight on "fast" the reddit rebellion. game stop, blackberry, irobot and amc blasting off as a army of retail traders take it to reddit and pile into names we'll break down what's behind the trend and getting ready for a huge slate of earnings which got us in the mood for a good old-fashioned trade it or gave it call it the burrito bowl, a big news o