what they have to say about gaming it was a big holiday season for them there and as we head toward the final hour of trade a look at the major indices, they are all just about flat the dow up about 45 points the s&p up just 2.5. thank for watching "power lunch. "closing bell" starts right now. >>well to "closing bell," i'm sara eisen along with wilfred frost. stocks, another choppy session, major indecemberese back this the green. what's driving the action, one hour left of trade strong earnings from 3m, j&j supporting egts today. overall positive headlines on vaccines and stimulus negotiation continue to provide tail winds for the market. we are awaiting more detail on the stimulus side. another wild swing in game stop as it continues to be the battleground for retail traders,

short sellers and shtraders. 59 minutes left, the dow is up about 30 points. wilfred, we could do the whole two hours game stop. >> the rest of the market, s&p, up two basis points, underwell ing. the managing direct of the imf will join us plus, home prices surging in america as new data shows build out numbers for november we will discuss with the ceo of real estate broker red fin and a lineup of quarterly reports coming your way after the bell including microsoft, starbucks, amd and texas instruments as the busiest week of earnings season rolls on tougher setuper fosse some of the big tech names than just a week ago for netflix

mike santoli is tracking the market action. steve liesman is covering the fed. and we have reports if pepsi and beyond meat. mike, to you first all three indices fractionally high holding steady, right at their highs. there had been a loss of momentum under the surface little bit of macro enthusiasm seems to have ebbed. treasuries down, cyclical sectors backing off. really hasn't done anything to alter what again has been a tight orderly trend. i have a two year chart up here because i also like to point out the first quarter after the fourth quarter rally we are at a period in the first quarter where sometimes you have a wobble based on seasonal factors. not talking about what we saw mid to late february much more talking about this chop right here. obviously nothing with covid is going to blindside the market the way it did last week

after the close, several companies reporting. not a surprise the s&p is holding steady lock at the risk appetite. the leadership areas not called game stop. not -- in terms of those abandoned stocks hare now being run. nasdaq 100 that's the steady mega cap growth. that's been the net beneficiary over the last week or so the arc was the biggest play thing of the bulls semiconductors just at 178%. texas instrument asks amd reporting after the close. not saying that's a change of trend, but micro strategy is a bitcoin play as we all know they kind of diversified into bitcoin i am pointing out here that some of the leading edge of the enthusiastic sectors have come off the boil looking at a snapshot. this run off the low in march of last year comparing it to two of the strongest bull runs in history we have had in the parkt. you have to aseem we are going to deviate from this trend one

way or another it almost looks like it fits too well based on the time and the magnitude of gains if it were to be like any of these prior two it shouldn't surprise anybody if it is flat and choppy for a little while. but it seems this is the baseline preppis not seeing many cracks in the trend. >> clearly there are signs of frothiness that we talk about all day long like game stop. at the same time, people are talking about that frothiness and raising the question whether we are in bubble territory does that kind of offset the strength of the art in the first place? >> there is no way to precisely say that these things are in balance or in fact that the wall of worry is getting taller because people are looking at alarming activity happening in certain parts of the market. i think the takeaway is there is nothing new about this the mechanisms are new, in terms of pedity and smart phone apps

trading all action but in terms of picking out of stocks, short squeezes, this is what has been going on for 150 years on wall street i think they can coexist in a bull market but you really want the see whether it does spread into hedge funds getting trapped and having to liquidate other stuff they own or a bigger volatility picture right now not yet. >> not on reddit 150 years ago, but more on that to come mike santoli thanks. turning now to the fed, kicking off its first policy meeting of the year today. steve liesman with a look at what wall street is expecting from the fed steve? >> sara, thank yeah, the fed meets for the first time this year with markets pretty well convinced that its wide open monetary policy will continue for most of 2021 and well into next year even while growth and inflation are expected to pick back up the cnbc fed survey finding tapering of the purchase of assets of $120 billion not

expected to be on it sense september reductions starting in november economy could be dwul full rely stored by the second quarter next year. that's unchanged rate hike, not happening until the end of next year, 2022 the believe in tapering, not that overwhelming. 59% think there will be a reduction this year. but 31% of our 32 respondents don't think it will happen in 2021 at all. 9% expect an increase in purchases. while inpolice station is expected to rise 2% in 2021. 2.25 by 2022 this market, this dovish policy outlook from the market is a good accomplishment for the powell fed arc success of the forward guidance policy. the only potential bump is the impact if the economy surges

forward. this is as good an outlook as you could imagine in it is i wonder if jayhow jay powell wd take a question about the frothiness excessive risk taking, irrational exuberance. that whole thing 678 how does the fed answer questions like that as this intensifies, days like today >> we have asked that question i guess as the fed press core at almost every press conference. pretty much always parried in the sense of we don't see the frgt or if there is froth it is not something to be dealt with through monetary policy but through the supervisory channel s that when you take the froth away that it doesn't create systemic risk. that's the fed's outlook

196, chairman greenspan said there was a remarkal exyour rans i think the market paus paused for a nanosecond and then headed straight up for the next fouriers. >> steve liesman, thank you. speaking of, beyond meat, another one surging today, announcing a new partnership with pepsico the stock was up 30% still up 17% here's what we know. this is a joint venture. it is called planet partnership and the new company will create and sell snacks and drinks with plant-based substitutes. products i can tell you are set to launch in q 4, ends of this year in the u.s. but they are eyeing international expansion quickly in markets like the uk and china. i have learned that the partnership works like this. pepsico brings the distribution, marketing and commercialization, beyond meat brings the it and the cutting edge food technology this is a whole new category, plant based snacks and drinks. it is not burgers and sausages

it is a new category for beyond to enter convenient stores for the first time pour a pepsi it is a chance to enter or grow this the plant protein craze. beyond meat made deals with mcdonald's or yum brands or dunkin donuts. this is a. siel model that worked with them they have done it with starbucks saufy, sabbra hum us i am not sure what the products will be branded or called. they both have strong brands lay's, door eat owes maybe a combo? beyond fritos. i would include this in the overall market wide short squeeze we are seeing. beyond meat has 30% of its shares sold short. it has rocketed. up nearly 60%.

>> beyond treat owes >> i just came up with this. >> it sounded good i don't know whether it would achieve with a they an interestingly, the surge of the share price of beyond meat but it pulled back and chopped around unlike the game stops of this world which are breaking up every day into new territory. >> no. i think part of that is there is a fundamental driver for this. with game stop i guess that the spark is the board member was added one of the creators of chewy. here, this is a really big platform, pepsico, who operates in hundreds of countries around the world and they are bringing in beyond, which is also in a growth phase and it is an esg play for sustainable food in the future for pepsi and beyond there is a fund play >> both stocks are higher today. the rest of the broader mashttle are about ten basis points as we speak. after the break, the imf out

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bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store. welcome back dow is up 37 points. the international monetary fund releasing its forecast for global growth today projecting the world will see 5.5% growth in 2021. for the u.s., imf projecting the economy will grow 5.1% that's two percentage points higher than its october forecast joining us now is the eerks mf managing director. madam managing director, thank you for joining us, it is good to have you. >> great to be with you sara so the headline looks pretty solid, that the world economy is going to bounce back strongly thanks to vaccines and stimulus. but this is not going to be a globally coordinated growth

story. how uneven is the world economy going to look this year? >> what we are seeing in 2021 is indeed part of the world economy doing extremely well they are lifting their growth projections on the basis of vaccines, on the basis of stimulus but also because now we know how to function with the pandemic still around us. but for 150 countries this year, the picture remains relatively bleak. they are not going to reach their prepandemic level. and even worse, in 2022, we are still projecting 110 countries to be falling behind their prepandemic levels so what is to watch in '21 first, the race between a mutating virus and vaccines.

and we need to see this race won by the vaccines everywhere so the world economy can be on a sound footing. second, the resolve. will policy makers continue to provide support for households and for businesses for as long as it is necessary to get out of the health crisis? and what will be the callqualitf this support and third, are we going to reinvigorate global cooperation for vaccines to make them available everywhere to tackle climate change, boost the chance for green growth, and also to make sure that we are not in a situation in which divergence between rich countries and poor countries expand to a point when it is a threat to global growth and

security and it is quite staggering, sara we have half of the developing world falling further behind in income levels after decades of catching up. so a lot to do for everybody, including for us at the imf. >> yeah a lot of that progress erased the outlook for the u.s., though, as i mentioned, does look good. and you guys are also out saying that if president biden gets his $1.9 trillion in extra stimulus, that will provide a pretty significant jolt, five percentage points of gdp over the next few years which raises the question madam managing director of whether we need it do we need more stimulus at this point when it piles on so much debt >> well, we are still seeing in the united states, as everywhere, chunks of the economy hurting, lots of people hurting.

we know that low-skilled workers, minorities, women, many young people are quite severely impacted so while the top of the economy, the digital part, the one that is manufacturing automation, this is going up and up. we do see in the united states quite a lot of vulnerability and pain so making sure that this is del with by a country that has the fiscal space to do it in our view goes in the right direction. and when you look at what is being prepared, what are the objectives, the objectives are to make sure that vaccines, testing, contact tracing are lifted up, that the poor working poor are supported that makes a lot of sense in a world where inequality is going

up that unemployed are provided support, even those that are in the gig economy. and that regional and local authorities have the ability to provide the much-needed services and one thing that i like in particular is attention to education. we don't yet know the cost we would pay from the loss of educational attainment during this year of crisis. but we know it is there. so zeroing in on productivity for the future, that also makes sense. and let me remind you, the u.s. is not just important for the american people. of course very important what is down here for the american people and businesses. but it plays a very important role for the regional and world economy. so when u.s. props up the economy, that has a stillover

impact and that returns to the u.s. so on the whole, of course, there are many details to be worked out we do hope to see as much targeting in the measures towards what is most needed as possible but let's see. let's see how it would evolve. >> i was wondering what your outlook for the euro zone is over the next couple of years, and how big a risk it might be if fiscal stimulus doesn't arrive to the same scale as other developed nations in a way that after the last crisis was also the case and it meant the euro zone lagged for four or five years after the crisis, not just four or five months >> the euro zone is in a less fortunate place, let's put it this way, than the u.s and there are reasons for that the european economy had to go

through tighter lockdowns and even now is in a tighter lockdown place europe is more congested so measures have a heavier toll than united states and also the policy support across different countries was somewhat uneven. and that translates into somewhat lower growth projections for the euro zone. and for europe as a whole. but let's be clear, it is still above 4% what we are projecting for growth in 2021 and we are still to see how the new generation eu is going to help to energize the european economy. i am optimistic that if -- if we are determined to deal with the health crisis and european

authorities do not withdraw support prematurely, 2021 can be the year when we finally see more sunshine. but again, i mean, we do -- i want to be the first to state it -- we do have heavy clouds of uncertainty still on the horizon. and we just cannot afford to let go from the -- we have used. the central bank ecb, that is job, the propping up via fiscal support. by the way it is amazing what has been done this time as opposed to the global financial crisis by now, $14 trillion of fiscal measures when we were talking in october it was 11, $11 trillion. so they are every way, including

in europe, they are doing the right thing making sure we can get on the other side this crisis. >> which brings us all back to the market and the disconnect that you and i have talked about, and we've watched -- you still talk about the major clouds on the horizon, whether it is for europe or the global economy what the economy is showing and what the market is showing, we have been talking about pockets of excess today in certain stocks there is spacs, there is money chasing. all sorts of stuff do you look at it and think we are in any kind of bubble? >> we are certainly looking into it very carefully because indeed, we have when accommodative monetary policy for a long time and we have very substantial fiscal measures put in place, what it creates is excessive risk taking. we are in a better place after the global financial crisis, the reforms that have

been undertaken to make the banking system stronger are clearly paying off we do have more worries on two fronts one is the non-banking financial institutions and the second one is this issue of careful withdrawal of policy support why? 2020, we actually had a lower bankruptcy rate than in 2019, than in aon average in previous years. why? because businesses are being helped to stay afloat. we are expecting in 2021, once we start pulling back some of this support, then inevitably, there will be bankruptcies and actually some of those are healthy because what they will do is to take out unviable firms that have been kept a little bit on life support over this period of time. >> sure. >> now, that has to be done with great, great care.

and with the same -- i was listening to you, the discussion around accommodative policy of the fed. with the same great care with which we are watching over the risks to financial stability my message is this -- we are in a good place we have sound financial system but don't take financial stability ever for granted and what are the measures? be careful with the move from more to less support and gradually towards medium term fiscal consolidation, do that very carefully and look at your insolvency tramworks look at the way in which if you have weak spots in the banking system they can attended before they turn into a problem. be watchful. >> yeah. important challenges for another

day. ms. georgieva thank you for joining us thank you for talking with us today. >> thank you >> managing director of the imf into after the break, when reddit traders take on wall street we will look at how social media posts helped fuel game stop's frenzy as pricing action up 90% today back in a couple of minutes. dana-farber cancer institute discovered the pd-l1 pathway. pd-l1. they changed how the world fights cancer. blocking the pd-l1 protein,

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game stop's frenzy's -- kate rooney has a closer look for us at that part of the retail trading movement >> younger traders have been picking a favorite stock, blackberry, hertz, in this case, game stop. regardless of the fundamentals rallying around those names on social media the trend coincides with record new participants in the market which start-up brek raj firms say is great they are lowering the barrier to entry but reddit often paints a less positive picture. they are hundreds of comments about buy asking holding no matter what, harassment of short sellers and a get rich quick mentality with screen shots of gapes that aren't always verified the sec decline to comment but it is often tough to prove when thousands are posting anonymously. securities laws on this were

written in 1934. most haven't been updated to address the social media era guys back to you. >> thanks for that mike, interesting point on that regulation point, something to look out for for of course about section 230 as well in due course but in the short-term, the level to which we have seen the likes of game stop rally, to what extent does it become a self fulfilling prophecy that anyone that shorted the stock can't get out of the whale. >> no the short-term it can be self reinforcing for a while there is a lot of things not all the new brokerage accounts, not just the reddit boards feeding the enthusiasm, but this overgain calling for options that call for an upside. it creates this hedging dynamic. now they are going after other publicized hedging conditions. it can go for a while. there is a massive amount of

friction they are overpaying for this exposure on a net basis it is kind of a zero sum gain. presumably it doesn't last that long but they will roll from name to name until they run out of good candidates etsy did not hold its gains on the pop higher after the elon musk tweet >> not as much of a a short squeeze. we will talk more about this obviously. still to come, shares of novartis are lower how the pandemic is impacting the pipeline and an update on treatment efforts. the dow up about 40 points yields are mixed today the ten-year eelding 1.04% a little bit lower so some buying but not a wleho lot. 30-year yield is higher. we will be back in a second.

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26 minutes left of trading time for a cnbc news update with sue herera hi, sue. >> hello, everybody. here's what's happening at this hour

more than 100 million cases of coronavirus have been reported worldwide. the last 10 million were confirmed in the last 15 days. the actual number of global infection, however, is believed to be much higher. a federal judge has blocked president biden's freeze on deportations following a legal challenge by texas the decision comes from a district judge who was appointed by former president trump. for the first time since taking power, president joe biden has spoken with his russian kaernt part, vladimir putin. the white house says biden raised concerns about jailed kremlin critic alexi navalny and spoke about extending a nuclear arms treaty between the two countries set to expire soon. in alabama the home of a man arrested in the capitol hill riot has been searched 70-year-old lonnie kaufman is being held without bond after molotov cocktails, guns, ammo, and concerning notes were found in his truck near the capitol. you are up to date

i will send it back to you, wilf. >> sue, thanks so much see you again later. >> home prices climbing more than 9% in the month of wn tk er, up next we will brea dohe state of the housing market when we talk to red fin's ceo. "closing bell," back in a couple first up is this exquisite bowl of french onion dip. i'm going to start the bidding at $5. thank you, sir. looking for $6. $6 over there! do i hear 7? $7 in the front! $7 going once. going twice. sold to the onion lover in the front row! next up is lot number 17, a spinach and artichoke dip, beautifully set in a hollowed-out loaf of sourdough bread. don't get mad get e*trade and get more than just trading investing. banking. guidance. municipal bonds don't usually get the media coverage the stock market does. in fact, most people don't find them all that exciting. but, if you're looking for the potential for consistent income that's federally tax-free, now is an excellent time

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2021 looking to be another strong year for the housing market with home builders outperforming the s&p 500 so far year to date in the latest data, home prices surged 9.5% in november, among the biggest gains on record. let's bring in red fin's ceo glen, good to see you. thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> there is a lot of positivity out there clearly across your broader sector i thought i would start by asking you where there are pockets of weakness. are there areas we should be worried about? >> not really. people are leaving the major metro areas. half the people who put their property on the market are leaving the area we have still seen enough demand that prices haven't fallen even in the big cities. but there is more demand in rural spaces and small towns

across middle america. >> to what extent is the rising house price data that we just referenced only reliant on the lack of supply versus other macro factors that could keep it supported regardless of other blips. >> interest rates are rock bottom the stock market is roaring. tough professional class able to move anywhere in the united states with nothing to spend their money on except for housing. so you also have really strong demand if we had more inventory, we would have more sales. i have never seen such low inventory n. austin, there are people bringing lawn chairs to open houses because the wait is so long to get in. in salt lake city, the wait list is 90 deep you have got people buying houses sight unseen across the country. it is especially prevalent in phoenix will lots of snowbirds are moving it has been the frothiest market i have ever seen >> so frothy means that

eventually it could come to an end, glen, or that -- if it is a bubble, it could pop or -- how does this end? does it enwhen vaccines come and people go back to some form of normalcy >> i think it is a longer term trend than that because 60% of people earning over $100,000 a year are able to work anywhere they want in the united states that is not going to enwhen there is a vaccine or when people are able doing back to restaurants and schools and the office many people are going to work three or four hours away from the office some are going to work an entire time zone away i think there is long term trend f. you look at 1950s u.s.a., about 7% of americans moved across the country that declined to 4% in 2010 after the great financial crisis in 2020, it was 8% so we have got this great, beautiful land, and people are moving all across the country. and that is going to be something that extends beyond

just the summer or 2021. but at some point, we will have a return to normalsy at some point all the sales that we are taking in now will be sales we don't get later >> then what about the potential structural shifts still possible in the industrier companies like yours, like zillow, and others what percentage of transactions are still taking place with traditional brokers versus companies like your own? >> red fin and zillow are different. they are most ho selling adds to traditional real estate agents, red fin is a brokerage the difference here is people are looking on line to see how they can tour house in montana or utah or wyoming and they aren't calling a real estating a they already know. the fact we can offer tours on demand at the click of a button through your iphone has been a boone and we have been able to take share our challenge is just getting

enough real estate agents on board. we have been hiring like crazy we are trying get 3,000 people overthe next three months. >> glen, thank you for joining us with a snapshot of the red hot market we always appreciate it. straight ahead on the show, ge pops on earnings and the metric you should be watching in microsoft's earnings report. we will take you inside the "market zone" when we come back.

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hey, dad! hey, son! no dad, it's a video call. you got to move the phone in front of you like..like it's a mirror, dad. you know? alright, okay. how's that? is that how you hold a mirror? [ding] power e*trade gives you an award-winning mobile app with powerful, easy-to-use tools and interactive charts to give you an edge, 24/7 support when you need it the most and $0 commissions for online u.s. listed stocks. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today. >> announcer: the "market zone" is sponsored by etrade trade commission free today with no account minimums. just over 13 minutes left in the trading day. we are now in the "closing bell" "market zone." commercial-free coverage of all the action going into the close. cnbc markets commentator mike santoli here to break down these crucial moments of the trading day.

and today we have got bespoke's paul hickey with us as well. let's kick things off with the broader markets. major averages up just higher as we approach the close. well off the lows of the session. the dow is up five basis points or so. the s&p is also slightly higher, as is the nasdaq the russel down about half of 1% mike, ten-year yield also making quite big moves of late. the yield down to 1.03, 1.04, what one to read from that particularly as relates to the sort of sector rotation that we might expect >> it is part this trade where you had a settling back of some of the cyclical excitement, the idea we were going to have an economic acceleration. i think those plans are still in place but you see financials industrials, as well as the treasury yields easing back from extended positions i would say that as being the main piece of the trend right there. it is too early to say that yields topped, but it was two weeks ago when we saw the highs near 1.15.

>> paul, what stan out to you about the recent market action beyond the individual stock stories which we will talk about in the retail frenzy right now as far as sector performance, and what catalysts are driving this market continue allmarkett. >> sector rotation throughout the rally off the march lows we have seen steady rotation among the sectors we have broken this bull market into five separate acts. if you look at the sector leadership, the top three performing sectors during each act, so he to speak, the only spector that hasn't been a leader at one point in that top 30 is real estate. every other sector has shown up at one point in that rotation. er with seeing really healthy rotation in the mark here where some sectors rally, they cole date is a little it, and other pick up the slack. so it is a very healthy environment, in, from a broader market perspective. >> paul, anything --

>> but. >> sorry, sara anything out right cheap at the moment when you lock at the different sectors or has everything played catchup that was cheap, if it previously had been. >> i think cheap is relative at this point but you have some areas of the financials that are big banks, they had a big run in the fourth quarter. they pulled back on earnings so there may be some opportunities there for investors to, you know, buy something on maybe a relative weakness here. so that's one area to look at. they are buying back stock they have attractive yields. so you know, that's one area we have been looking at recently? by the way, s&p 500 is just about flat anything higher would be a record close for the s&p and the nasdaq ge shares getting a nice pop after reporting earnings seema mody with the details. >> sara, ceo larry culp's currentaround strategy seems to be paying o. industrial free

cash flow of $4.4 billion in the fourth quarter smashing expectations thanks to aggressive cost cutting, a jump in power and renewable orders. aviation improving but still has a long way to go culp telling me that 2021 is a year to play offense ge continues to aspire to lead energy transition with its pivot into renewable energy win turbines, power grid and gas ge now targeting industry free cash throw in the range of 2.5 to $4.5 billion this year. a rather optimistic outlook for this year. that is certainly reflected in the stock. not just up today, but up 60% over the past six monday. >> seema mody. thank you. mike i am looking at a longer term chart almost -- not quite at the february highs of last year. what exactly is priced in here what does the ge valuation look

on this turn around play >> what is getting priced is is absolute improvement on the balance sheet and if fact this they have got cash flow margins in a better place and rationalized some of the businesses gotten rid of some of the ancillary stuff. is it a perfect leveraged play on global growth probably not aviation is going to be a piece of it. 2.5 to $4.5 billion in projected cash flow. a wide range tells you about the inability to forecast recicely. >> jp morgan spoke on a davos panel earlier today and weighed in on whether some of the speculative activity we have seen in bitcoin and heavily shorted names like game stop could have a large impact on broader markets. >> you have natural froth in the system and there is sew only so much you can do about it. now, that causes all sorts of bubbles. asset bubbles come and go. there is lots of conversation about thing like bitcoin and

stocks and game stop and other companies what what's happening. those are asset bubbles much like the crisis of 2000. they can enbadly but they don't affect the actual economy, the actual banking system. >> paul, where do you stand on this and in particular the analysis that a lot of people have been citing in recent days about how the sort of basket of most shorted stocks has been performing. >> what's going on in the most shorted stocks is crazy. i think the most constructive thing about today is that etsy sold off after the open. because it had gained $2 billion in market cap just on a positive tweet, that's something to be worried about. but i think to that comment, the fact that you have these areas, bubbles that didn't impact the entire system. you look back at the.com crash, we saw a recession after that. it was the mildest recession in the post world war ii period i think what the fed is looking at here is they are stuck treen

two tough choices. do you keep things loose and have some areas of the market definitely experience froth? or do you cut things back, pull things back a little bit and derail the economy where there is people really hurting from the weakness here in the overall economy? it is a very tough situation to be in. but i think if they are looking a the fact that, well, you have already seeing areas of froth but they may not impact the economy when things do, you know, reset, i think that would be -- you know, that's the course of the risk reward they are taking here. >> she called it mini bubbles, mike. >> yeah. i wonder how all of this ends, the war on short sellers of game stop continues the surge here. i wonder if you look at tesla at all as sort of an early indicator of this. it was heavily shorted name that just got bought all way through

and defied all the shorts and burned them. >> that's true although that happened over a longer period of time and it was not so much this stampede where they were specifically targeting it. by the way, i think there is a important disstanks between the tesla phenomenon and game stops and other stocks that are heavily shorted, which is tesla had this huge big picture world changing story behind it you could latch on to the narrative and say the current numbers don't matter because they are taking over the world and essentially saving this planet true or not that's what the energy behind the stock was. game stop, it was a reclamation project, maybe they have a second life. pitny boast is another one that was running today. postage meters and other old business tactically one of the issues is if you are a long short and all of the shorts are getting attacks you have to probably sell some of your longs too. if you look at the semis,

peloton, roku some of the heavily owned names in hedge funds i think maybe you are having to see people lighten up on that site that's where you might have it filter into the rest of the margaret. >> of the go it. let's talk earnings. microsoft headlining a big day for after-hours moffat josh lipton with a preview. >> microsoft is up strongly atmosphere the past 12 months though a relatively more muted move over the last three months. but ever corps says that means the risk reword now looks more attractive at these levels he says microsoft could benefit from the course ahet from easing come payers accelerating it, as the economy recovers small business customers spending more on microsoft products. one big number to watch, azure's q 2 growth rate, looking for 41, and positive onside given continued cloud adoption >> josh lipton, thank you. howl powell, how is the

setuplocking for microsoft >> microsoft, the skok has been consolidating for the better part of several months now, and you know, it's starting to get to the higher end of that range here today, breaking out of that range. what is interesting about microsoft is -- you know, it is considered a tech stock, one of the big names, high flyers almost nowadays. in reaction to earnings, the stock is very -- it average as gain or a loss of about 3% on earnings versus all the other he mega cap type stocks which move over 5% on earnings reports. so it wouldn't be a necessarily -- i couldn't expect any large outsized move in reaction to its report and i think people are going to be looking to so what big ticket clients are booking in the quarter and what their sentiment is we saw some concerns about that in ibm's quarter but you know, ibm could be just a one-off story. wohl see a confirmation of that or a non-confirming aof that in the report today the mike, the short-term setup perhaps wnever

easy but it has gotten harder after last week's earnings unlike netflix coming into earnings, things are tougher. >>ert thouically, yes. i think very much short-term that could be the case however microsoft just today really has nosed above where it was trading in early september so you know, to paul's point, these huge battleships of the nasdaq have mostly been kind of biding their time for a few monday arguably it is kind of catching up to some of the other moves in the broader market yes, you woulds have to say people are probable getting their sights high in terms what have microsoft can deliver today. i don't know if that necessarily tells us how the stock is going to react in this case because the valuation is no different than it was five or six months ago. the sell side loves the stock, always does. but the objectives, the consensus trice price starting only up a few percent from here.

i think people's sights are modest what it can do from here. >> mike, over two minutes left in the session what are the internalsing the you today? >> unusually mixed in terms of internal action in terms of advancing versus declining volumes. a little more advancing volume than on the declining side, 2.8 billion shares to 2.6 billion. similar when it comes to the stock by stock moves what used to be financials, elf against the real estate stocks you are seeing the laggard names performing a little bit better right now, on a week to date basis. on two days of trade center trading the financials down 1.5 and real estate up 2%. obviously its yields are coming in as well the volatility index very, very sticky in this area. i keep saying it we have had this amazingly orderly rally since september. you reason is had more than a 2 or 3% pullback you expect the vix to back down

more than it has really, frenzied activity in the options market plus probably people not sure if we have surprises on the vaccine front it is bolstering the willingness of people to pay up for downside protection right now in just over a minute left of trading. lets look at where we stand. dow has gone back into negativ territory. it has been a tight range in this final hour. we did start higher. down about 3 point there on dow. on the s&p 500 what is working today? real estate. the best performing sector consumer staples you have got a little bit of a fun proxy play, a defensive play to this market but communication services, consumer discretionary and technology are all positive. energy down 2% materials also down 1.3. some of the cyclical groups that have been doing better under pressure today look at the tech-heavy nasdaq with technology going green and ahead of that microsoft report after the bill, we are seeing it

lower, but just barely, remember, any higher close if we would have gotten it would have been a record one for the nasdaq and for the s&p 500. we are also breaking a little bit of a streak here the nasdaq had been on a five-day win streak. looks like that is broken as we are going to close negative, but just bear lesion here on stocks. kind of hovering around the flat line for all the major afternoons with no major catalyst at all and some strength in the defensive groups wilfred. >> welcome to the "closing bell," everyone. i'm wilfred frost along with sara eisen, and mike santoli, cnbc senior markets commentator. sara just mentioned slight loss force each of the major amples the last 20 minutes of trade taking us into the red .2% down on the s&p. the russel down a hib more, .6%. in, erls the, and utilities at the bottom tech, communication services and

real estate at the top dollar a little bit weaker oil a little bit weaker. gold as well investors awaiting earnings fromst in, starbucks, texas instruments, amd robert nobles joins our conversation mike santoli first to you. this performance, s&p flat essentially. of course we did just recently have record closes underneath, what are things standing to out to you, whether it is the vix or the breadth the breadth has softened we have basically gone sideways about a week in the s&p 500, which is probably not the worst thing in the world considering again a lot of the parts of the margaret that had really led the way in november, december, the cyclicals have been cooling off. so there has been a little bit of a helpful kind of rotation, market managing to stay supportive i think you could view the same thing as a subtle loss of momentum, a ib will of energy

being trained away from the big cap index. obviously we are seeing a lot of the wild stuff going on in the trading stocks out there that seems to be where a lot of the attention is i guess the question remains is this going to destabilize portfolios in any way. right now i don't think it has in a significant way but you have to be the lookout for that robert, if you were waiting to get into some of the cyclical and value stocks, which have lagged over a long period but preenl have done quite well -- if you were waiting to put money there to work, is it too late? have we soon that? or more to come? >> thank you, sara, for having me on. no, we would not characterize the value stocks or the stocks that are cyclical as being too late maybe a little bit early we still have some period of time to go i mean right now investors are focusing on the slowly anticipated rollout -- the slower than anticipated rollout of the pfizer and moderna

vaccines but we see a positive trend because the vaccines have start asked we are starting to pick up the pace you though, with the cyclical stocks, they will be the place to be a little bit later but not until we get additional stimulus passed through congress. so there has been a lot of concern about when the recovery is going to start and the strength of the recovery but we think those worries are misplaced by investors it is just a matter of time before the trend work in their favor. but we are looking more so on the growth side. consumer spending will be strong this year and we will have a long lasting trend on consumer spending that will focus on travel, leisure and attending of live events such as sporting events and concerts. we are not giving up on the growth side to replace them all with the cycle can go stocks lastly, i would tell you we have already seen positive impact from stimulus payments recently approved pie congress in december it has been impacted on the

data, restaurants, meals i would tell you that as we get more stimulus, about $1 trillion from congress. >> robert, excuse me i want to jump had in and hit microsoft numbers. it is a significant beat from microsoft. revenue coming in $43.1 billion. that's an increase of 17%. the forecast was for $40.2 billion. also seeing a beat on the bottom line, eps at 2.03 per share, the forecast was for 1.64. individual line items, we are seeing intelligent cloud revenue, $14.6 billion the forecast was 13.8. productivity and business processes $13.3 billion. the forecast was 12.9. and personal computing, $15.5 billion, the forecast was 14.5 slight beats on each of the individual lines the biggest part of that beat really coming on personal computing. people will be pointing to individual line item beats including on the all important

intelligent cloud number either way a comfortable beat on both the top and bottom lines. i will keep digging into this and hand i back to you mike. a jump in the share price in after-hours trade. >> when you are talking about a $1.8 trillion company normal low they are a little more easy to predict. this i think is the reason for this little pop right here is pretty much that that revenue line and cloud better than expected by $800 million in the quarter. shows you things are going well. coming into earnings season the question was whether we were going to get a reminder that dominant mega cap tech has a lot going in its favor the stock as it closed today was barely above the september levels. >> they say they are going the provide guidance on the earnings call, which comes later. the stock is up 4.5%

after-hours, paul. what stands ott to you how much would you say microsoft is getting a boost in business from the work from home pandemic trend? how much is just a structural strength that we see in these tech names >> i think it is a combination of the two microsoft had the wind at its back coming into the pandemic. i think it has only accelerated all the trends in its favor. i mean whether you are talking about cloud, whether you are talking about x box, which you are -- whether you are talking about a office it is a very -- i mean they really exceeded each of their segments what expectations were. it is hard to opponent out one aspect of the report and find a flaw with it that's why you are seeing a strong gain in the stock yaefr hours. what i was saying, usually subdued reaction to earnings, you don't see microsoft move 5% in reaction to earnings. >> unusual there texas instruments is also trading higher right now off the

back of earnings, 1.5% frank collins has the results. >> absolutely right. texas instruments up 1.5% after a beat on skprechb a beat on eps, the eps, 1.80 per share white now we are not sure if it is comparable to the estimates of 1.34 per share. the company's core business, analogue chips for cars and personal computers, increased 25% year every year. raising guidance for q 1 one of the reasons for it being 1.5% in after-hours trading. again, extexas instruments up after-hours after a beat not sure it is comparable. back to you. >> mike, on ti, as we wait for amd, which has been hotter lately. >> hydroxychloroquine like it is in the realm of what was likely expected the stock is actually a little bit higher than the afterhours print u.s.b a week ago

everybody was on board with the idea that all the end markets were extremely strong. and you had shorting in some areas and pricing. maybe more with the stock. >> i want to mention a few more lines from microsoft's statement come in saying what we witnessed over the past year the dawn of a second wave of digit al capabilities driving every organization's resilience and growth that coming through in these numbers from microsoft, particularly in cloud. azure itself was up 50%. a very strong performance there. interesting also just to see the pc performance i guess more cyclical than structural but very strong numbers there also wonder how long that part of it can last, fantastic results across the board, up 5%. into yes. >> on a city council like microsoft, the started of big cap tech that has grown into its

valuation in recent years and is not one of the most expensive parts of the market albeit of course not outright cheap, do you like stocks like microsoft >> i would say yes our firm says yes. we like companies in that space. subscription services, strong balance sheets, we may be facing a tough year ahead, a tough four quarters of earnings comparisons, their command continues to grow stronger besides that, they have secular growth and once we get past the recovery they will still be a part of the highest earnings growth sectors around. so we like technology a lot as a part of a diversified portfolio and we continue to own stocks in this segment. >> i am not sure microsoft falls -- actually lets go to kate rogers on starbucks, just ow that stock under pressure. >>ert that looking like a mixed q 1 here

for stack bucks. we will take you through the numbers. eps, a beat, revenue as miss here, $6.75 billion for the quarter. the street was looking for of $6.92 billion. global comps down 5% compared to items down 3.6%. america's comps down 6% compared to estimates of a fall of 4.2%. in the u.s. same store sales were down 5% in china a bright shot, same store sales increase bag 5%. across the board here, too, transaction declines were offset by higher average tickets. we are seeing that at many companies no just starbucks. 21.8 million active rewards members. they are leaning into new consumer preferences like mobile

pay, order ahead and pick up in the drivethrough >> how much of the weakness, the misses and declines that we see in traffic and comp store sales do you think are tied to the rolling lockdowns that we have seen in places like europe and shutdowns, and therefore temporary versus other sort of troubling changes of behavior and just weakness overall? i would say they are definitely temporary. if you remember at starbucks investor day in december they rised their outlook. they seemed confident. kevin johnson continues to be really confident about the future and consumers wanting to meet starbucks in all different places, the drivethrough or mobileard and way. but as you mentioned the rolling lockdowns have an exact on people's ability to go into the stores that's why you are seeing some of those declines. when people do visit places a lot of times they are ordering in groups, tenning to spend more

money, perhaps treating themselves to something they can't have at home like a fancy latte. we expect more color on that on the conference call. >> amd having a revenue beat as well, moving higher. that one yet to come mike, with the microsoft move a vote of confidence at the moment if these things hold subject to the earnings calls which should give everything a boost tomorrow morning. >> everything in this tech growth complex the mark has been edging in that direction several days now amazon was also up a bit after-hours basically off that cloud number from microsoft. it seems as if it is not being taken as really a market share game it is the whole area having strength so i do think that that's a little bit of a further tail wind for the nasdaq 100-type stocks not clear it is going to be the entire market celebrating. we have seen in general mixed reactions to earnings so far

>> let's get to amd. those results also just out. it is up 3.5% after-hours. deirdre bosa, what do you see. >> the stock was up as much as 5% coming down. it was a beat on the bottom and top lines. eps at 52 cents per share versus an employment 47 cent. revenue coming in at $3.24 billion. that's also above the $3 billion that was expected. gross margins of 45%, in line with estimates we are digging through guidance at the moment. q 1 revenue guidance was toward the lower end. that may have been why the stock has come off its initial gapes we will continue the look into it but guys as you know, it has been an outperformer in the chip space. on the call we are looking for a progress update on the zi links acquisition and we will bring you more as we get it. >> paul hickey, what did you make of some of the numbers

crossing at the moment >> i think the semis are an interesting area to watch here mike was talking about how they have underperformed over the past few days after a really impressive start to the year with your seeing weakness heading into the earnings reports. if these stocks don't rally on these reports tomorrow i think it is again more of this sector rotation we are doing to be seeing where they call out of favor for a little bit, digest the games and you see big cap tech take a leadership role. i think that's a key to watch here in the after-hours and in the morning femme as far as the whole interplay on earnings is concerned and whether or not they can rally on these reports. >> youia, starbucks also now down by 1.3% near the lows after hours. we will talk about all of these names with analysts coming up. paul hickey, robert nobles, thank you for joining us >> thanks for having me. >> thanks.

up next on the show we will have much more reaction to today's after the bell earnings including a breakdown of results from chip makers texas instruments and amd. both moving up after-hours, boast off the highs of the session. plus the ceo of novartis and the time line for its experimental new covid treatment. back in just 90 seconds on "closing bell.

shares of amd moving higher while texas instrument is now lower after reporting earnings

just moments ago joining us to break down the numbers for the semiconductor industry stacey wrasse conand christopher roland thank you for joining us stacey on amd first, is it good enough quarter to justify some of the gains we have seen in the stock and the valuation. >> at first glance it look pretty good. it was a pretty solid beat i think that was expected. the guidance as well looks -- and annual guidance is solid they are guide being $1 billion for 2021, 37% year over year off the higher than expected 2020 base gross margins look okay. guiding 47 force 2021. a lift in the back half versus where they are guiding in q 1. first glance, the numbers look pretty good. >> part of the story christopher has been competition with intel. amc intel battle for market share and how over the past year

amc crushed its competent tig. where does it go in 2021 what's the narrative for aamd after it already happened now. >> that's the question we are trying to figure out there is back and forth in terms of the new ceo and his direction. we are still trying to figure that out it is really hard to anticipate share chips and where they may go in the next five or ten years. until we have the final answer to that puzzle we are waiting ander with digging into that topic. that's where my focus will be the next six monday. >> want to bring in dear great bosa again who has been looking into the numbers more, particularly the guidance. what can you tell us >> we do have guidance, strong first quarter revenue guidance coming in. the company is anticipating $3.2 billion versus $2.7 billion estimate there is no eps guidance but

they expect gross margins to increase to 47% for the fullier 2021 full year revenue guidance they are expecting growth of 37%. that is substantially above estimates of 28.5% again we will listen for commentary in the call of where that growth is coming from potentially the xilinx acquisition. >> chris your reaction to that guidance and how it informs your rating on amd? >> yeah, so, sell side numbers, as stacey alluded to are low going into this. the whiser the number was higher we would have put the guidance whisper number at 3 or $3.1 billion, so that 3.2 is nisly ahead. the gross margin guidance for the full year was also nicely ahead. had you asked us for a whisper number on the full year we would

at 30% and even low 30s would have been a stretch for the whisper number so this high 30s number is indeed a very impressive number. >> give us your top line read, stacey, on texas instruments >> yeah. >> i think this is one that you gushed about in your note, as far as management and the strategy is it living up to your expectations >> oh, look, ti looks just fine. one of the things we wanted to get a handle on from ti is more the industry commentary, what are they seeing? we are seeing lots of signs about shortages especially in areas like auto and that sort of thing, ti is a special case, ti has been building inventory throughout the covid pandemic as opposed to many of their peer who is were tiling back because orders had been cut. that's looking very smart right now. it is likely ti is not constrained unlick some of the piers and the guidance shows it right now. the quarter was very strong, the outlook was very strong. the only issue is people are expecting this, expecting a

strong demand for ti as well as their peers, i don't know how much -- but in general it looks very good. and we will be listening on the call commercial commentary not just for themselves but what they are seeing prodder in the markets and what their peers will be reporting in the next weeks. >> stacey, chris, thrones is this you bet. >> thank you. >> more news coming out on starbucks. one of its high-profile executives is leaving. kate what can you tell us. wilfred, that's right. in addition to earnings starbucks announcing its chief operating officer rods brewer is going to be leaving the company at the end of february she accepted a role as ceo at another publicly traded company. it hasn't been announced but will be announced publicly in the near future.

her -- she has been focus on new store formats on the consumer experience there remember also the former ceo of sam's clubs. it will be interesting to watch the move for her once again, roz brewer leaving starbucks at the end of february and accepting another ceo role at a publicly traded company >> down 2% afterhours for star buck it has been a huge day for earnings after the bell, next we will dig deeper into microsoft's earnings beat with an analyst who has a buy rating on the stock. that one up 5 horizon after-hours. and amd and ti slipping into negative territory after-hours joining star buck.

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f 5 earnings of out. josh lipton has the numbers. >> q 1 eps of 259, versus expectations of 268, wretch in line at $625 million f 5 reported preannouncements earlier this month gui guidance, between 232 and 244. below. i had a chance to check in with

the ceo. let me bring you his comments on the quarter. i asked him, one, some analysts wondered whether f 5 was benefitting from a end of year budget flush he said no, he believes it is sustainable saying they are spending more on application infrastructure i also did ask him about the future for this company. when you talk to analysts about it some think this is an attractive acquisition target. i asked francois about that. he said they are pursuing an independent strategy growing the company organically, we are, he says, not up for sale. stock is down in the after-hours. remember the run-up it had heading into this. up 65% in just the past three months josh, thanks for that. microsoft shares trading hier by 4 or 5% after beating analyst expectations on both earnings and revenue mike i want to drive back into

this quickly, particularly the all important cloud computing revenue numbers because i think it elevates the buyer also for the likes of google and amazon to come. >> it does already you see in the after-hours the amazon share price popping a little bit i think it also tells you this is one of the higher margin parts of the business, and the part investors are willing to pay the higher multiple for. it is where you will like to see the wrout performance the most i was saying earlier that the value igs microsoft has been essentially going sideways since the summer earnings estimates are up, share price is barely up you have this free cash flow story that's doing to unpin the shares for a while periodically it is overloved people believe it becomes in every type of portfolio in a huge way and it rest for a bit, but it is unsustainable the

performance this the company is putting up. >> jay leashwell joins the conversation your top line thoughts on microsoft beat pushing it to after hours a new high it's beat in many respects each of their three segments beet us in terms of revenue and operating income we have seen it before now again for the second quarter. by quite a good margin in both asecretaries azure beat gaming upside, expected given the new releases other commercial parts of the business also strong in terms of bookings and revenue so microsoft's machine continues to execute very well. >> jay, not trying to pick holes in clearly an outstanding set of numbers. what about the personal computing segment. a big beat there on the revenue line do you think that's one off in nature or less repeatable in

nature given purchases of thing like laptops during the pandemic >> well, we would have expected based on the intel moves earlier this month and industry data that pc shipments were very strong in the fourth quarter, that it was highly likely that the -- business was going to outperform that's what happen the long term trend for pcs's not fundally changed in the long run -- there is strong demand to meet meet current well-known leads in the men time we will take the upside it is a high margin business and undoubtedly added as well to the bottom line. >> nadella in the release called it the dawn of a second wave of signatural transformation which does not sound fleeting. but if you think about some of the spots that are working not just cloud, teams, of course, the video game consoles, i mean there is lot of work from emhow,

stay-at-home boost here to the business question does that have staying hour surer, i'm -- go ahead, jay? sorry. that's true. the home market has certainly been strong in terms of the replacement cycle and expansion cycle for pcs. but the digital transformation conversation we hear so much about has to do more with commercial and industrial kinds of complications and demand in ever inning, retail, government, financial services and the like. that's where we see the big momentum in terms of the digital transformation the cloud business with azure is a very visible part of that. one of the things i have been saying for years is that a distinctive part of microsoft's strategy is in fact their focus on multiple enmarkets that are digitally transforming, manufacturing, life sciences and the like that's a big part of the story here >> we will leave it there.

with these stocks up more than 4% after-hours, mike and jay breaking news oust washington, kayla tausche has the story? we are getting news that the biden administration is planning to announce a significant ramp up in vaccine supply there are a few different pieces of this announcement, which is according to senior administration officials first the u.s. government has acquired an additional 100 million vaccine toasts a piece from moderna and pfizer. that brings the u.s. government's total accounting of its vaccine supply to 600 million doses, which the administration says is enough to vaccinate 300 million americans with two doses apiece. then the department of health and human services is planning to increase the allotment that is sent to states on a weekly basis. currently, it is about 8.6 million shots sent to states each week. that is going to increase by

more than 20% to more than 10 million shots per week it is expected to be at that elevated level at least the next three weeks and the administration hopes the give states a three week window into what volume you this lock like the describe the supply chain as fragile and said they are going the invoke the defense production act to produce more supply the vaccine and do so in a calculated asked strategic way so as not to harm the production of other drugs that use some of those same supplies and did not comment specifically on the companies with which the government is in discussions with about procuring those flies. the president will take the stage in about 15 minutes' time to i a announce that the administration is significantly ramping up the supply of the vaccine and distribution of the vaccine even as earlier today the press secretary walked back the president's comments yesterday where he seemed to

overshoot the vaccine goal to about 150 million americans, today she said 100 million americans getting the shot in the first 100 days remains the goal >> welcome news. we need that supply. up next, the ceo of novartis on why we won't see new data of its experimental treatment until the summer and whether that could be a problem for investors. that's next.

welcome back shares of game stop on the move again. they were up about 100% on the session today. now up a further 33% in extended trade. elon musk tweeted just a few moments ago, game stonks with a link to the wall street bets page on reddit which has been where so much of the discussions about shorted stocks and retail super has been taking place. whether or not it was his tweet or just a continuation of the fierce upward trend that took place during the session earlier today, unclear, but either way up is the way for game stop adding 3% to today's almost 100% move in the actual session sara. >> yeah. it's like he was cheering on all the retail buyers and they cheered it back on for him doing it crazy stuff. shares of novartis loafer today after missing earnings estimates. the drug maker also issuing a caution outlook for the year

i sat down with the ceo to talk more about the pandemic's impact on the company's pipeline and the davos agenda >> when wooi we thought our guidance we wanted to be realistic in the face of had we are seeing with the pandemic certainly we know health care systems around the world are operating at 80 to 90% capacity. in some therapeutic areas each less we are seeing exacts on our new launches as well as in certain segments such as generics, ophthalmology and dermatology. we thought it was prudent to give the guidance that we gave with the outlook that we expect health care systems to return to normal in this mid part of this year assuming the vaccine rollout goes as we all hope. and then we will see a growth acceleration in the back half. what we also tried to emphasize is our midterm story doesn't change we expect to continue to have solid growth, solid margin expansion over the coming years

a really strong opinionline. i think i feel comfortable with where we netted scout where we feel comfortable providing guidance to the market over the course of the year. >> i wanted to ask you about the covid-19 treatment you are working on with molecular partners this is different than the monoclonal antibodies we are seeing on the market what does it do? how does it work >> it is a different approach. rather than using a full monoclonal antibody they developed darpins a piece of the machino clonal antibody. it enables you to target a few different parts of the spike protein that's on the shell of the coronavirus. maybe that gives you better efficacy, helps you deal with the variants that we are seeing. second it allows you to produce in manufacturing much larger scales of the product. which hopefully can get us reach more patients at a lower cost.

third hopefully we will be able to give the medicine as an injection rather than an intravenous formulation which will again enable a broader roof for the product. it is early days we are in early study. we hope by the summer to get additional data but i think that could help enable us to address the pandemic with additional technology is this the itemline seems problematic. we need that now if you are not going to get the trial data until the summer, aren't we going to be vaccinated by then? is there going to be a need for this >> i think a couple dimensions one we know with the vaccine rollout we are empty going to get to 100% probably in many geographies. we will continue to have people at risk and hopefully this technology can help. it is also worth noting in low income countries, low middle income countries emerging markets they may have to wait much longer for the vaccine to really be able to cover their entire population. with a technology like the molecular partners tech thlg we

could reach many of those populations and address the significant burdenser with seeing in latin america, africa, and parts of asia? where does this leave us, vas, new strains, new mutations we are worried about. moderna is already working on a booster shot what's the end game? >> i see three tracks happening simultaneously i don't know exactly know how it will all play oust we will continue the see the vaccine rollout. would he know vaccines generate a heterotypic antibody response, diversity of antibodies. hopefully in many people we can deal with the variants that are.poing up but it is really important we get to high vaccination rates. natural infection as well leads to a very strong immune response strong t cell response has been generated in people with infections we have maybe 1 billion people already infected around the world we have that dynamic and we have a virus that's

changing very rapidly. it is important to note in general viruses try to change to a place where they don't cause a host response, they don't cause the severe reactions we are seeing in people most viruses want to mutate to become like a cold virus that's the other pressurer with going to have. i am hopeful that all three of these converge to get us to a more livable planet over the course of this year, hopefully the summer as we guided to hopefully. not just for you, but for our society. normally at this time, new administration, new year, i would be asking you about policies on drug prices. does this pandemic and the game changing innovations coming out of our sector take that issue off the table as far as cracking down on higher drug prices >> i don't think it takes the issue off the table. i think it does change the narrative of our industry. i think it's really a once in a generation moment where we as an industry have been able to reset

the narrative, show the world why the biopharmaceutical industry is so incredibly important, remind the world that the reason we have life expectancy to 80, 90 years of age is because of this industry. i think people appreciate that nonetheless we still need to tackle the challenge of affordability at the pharmacy count. novartis, our industry is prepared to work with the new administration to come up with solutions that hopefully get seniors as well as other populations in need more affordable medicines, but also supports the ability in invest in innovation. >> do you expect anything different policiwise from the biden administration and relationship wise than the trump administration >> you know, i think it is still very early to judge. it is interesting. the policy proposals that have been thought through on drug pricing have largely been similar. reforming medicare part b and d,

the 340 system i think the policy has largely stayed the same over the years when we are hopeful for is more of a spirit of trying tokind find collaborative solutions across democrats and republicans, trying to find a middle ground that's workable. his historically that's been the challenge, the middle ground hope three we come to a better place in the coming months. >> that was dr. vas narasimhan, the ceo of novartis. >> great interview there, another one from the davos about. >> breaking news on las vegas sands. contessa brewer has more >> hi wilf the board of las vegas sands voted rob goldstein has been named chairman and chief executive officer just ahead of its quarterly earnings report tomorrow this will be the first wowed

shell don addleson leading the company. the founder of the brand died january 1th. old goldstein has been his right hand man for years the stock moving up half a percent in extended trading. three things we will look for in earning tomorrow the recovery of business in macao and singapore, the impact of coronavirus there we want to know the future for las vegas sands in las vegas and in the u.s. in general including when they will make a play for a casino license in new york and how the direction of company might change under new leadership thursday we will have the exclusive first interview with sands ceo and chairman rob goldstein on "power lunch. an important conversation for the company. certainly it is important, and of course lots of insight we are expecting for the industry as well, wilf. >> contessa thanks for that we look forward to the interview in particular. bus'still ahead, fiend out if starck same store sales slide is a warning for

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welcome back time now for a cnbc news update with sue herera. >> hello, everybody. here's what's happening at this hour

the senate has blocked ran paul's attempt to block the trump impeachment trial. a does republicans would have to flip their votes in order for a conviction to be approved. the acting attorney general says indictments tied to the capitol hill riot could be announced as early as this week. more than 135 people have been arrested and investigations are still ongoing. across much of the midwest a heavy winter storm has article ed traffic and dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of nebraska and iowa. forecasters say another big storm may hit in the coming days. in finland, take a look at that, a dazzling display of the northern lights. there were even some rare hints of pink. the photographer had to endure temperatures below minus 20 to capture those images you are up the day that's the news update this hour guys i will send it back to you. >> lovely sufficient as always. shares of arckstbus mother

after reporting moment ago we will dig into this numbers with analysts after this short break. "closing bell" back in a couple. i invested in invesco qqq a fund that invests in the innovators of the nasdaq 100 like you you don't have to be a deep learning engineer to help make the world a smarter place does this come in blue? become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq sales are down from last quarter does this come in blue? but we are hoping things will pick up by q3. yeah...uh... doug? sorry about that. umm... what...its...um... 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. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today.

new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home. tonight a new weapon against covid, the drug that could prevent and treat the virus. plus, how far some are willing to go to get a vaccine >> the facts

president biden speaking about the covid-19 pandemic. right now our kayla tausche brought us some new details a

few moments ago. the highlights hhs will increase the weekly vaccine supply to states by around 20% from 8.6 million to a minimum of 10 million tosdoses per week they will be providing allocation estimates to help with distribution planning and administration the u.s. will also be planning to buy 200 million additional vaccine doses, 100 million each from moderna and pfizer to be delivered this summer. that should be enough to cover almost the entire population, though numbers have been a little bit confusing lately. we'll keep an eye on it and tell you if we learn anything new about president biden's administration's approach to getting america vaccinated lots of after hours movers following various earnings reports including starbucks, which is the tune of 1.6% after posting -- joining us senior

analyst at wedbush sum it up for us why do you think it's trading lower? are you kis adisappointed with numbers? >> it's pretty much in line. with these valuations, a lot of good news to being priced in they had more or less talked about these numbers. the q2 number and the guidance was slightly disappointing they reiterated the annual numbers at these valuations. a lot of good news priced in down 1% not a big deal the bottom line is for the stock to move meaningfully higher we needed some really, really good news >> sounds like you didn't get that is there a better reopening play among the competitors? >> well, the casual diners and the full service names are certainly, you know, much better in my opinion in terms of reopening plays. you know, you don't have the same obviously impact at starbucks as you have with the full service names, you know, who have their dining rooms

fully closed so you know, in my opinion at least, certainly the casual diners are a much better play in terms of the reopening plays >> thank you very much for your first take on starbucks. shares down 1.5% after hours. up next, your complete earnings score card. we're going to dig through the rest of the afternoon's biggest movers after the break, including microsoft which is still up nicely after hours. 4.5% we'll be right back. some see a grilled cheese sandwich and ask, “why?” i see a new kitchen with a grill and ask, “why not?”

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it has been a busy hour for earnings microsoft reporting a big earnings beat thanks to a strong cloud revenue. starbucks shares are under pressure after revenue missed because of disappointing same store sales. texas instruments and a and d are lower, is guess what, mike, game stock is surging again. this was a stock that started the year at, what, $17 per share. the retail traders, the reddit readings and writers wanted to force it higher and now it's at $226 stock they did that, and thanks to elon musk giving a little boost

after hours with the game stop and the link to the reddit threat i mean, what is the deal >> there's no real way to have value add to the story beyond what you just mentioned, i think. essentially it's a single-digit stock last year. it's a secular decline chain store retail people think they know the story. people think there's a chance of ultimately maybe it's a 0 down, even though p financially it was not in that much distress. what you're seeing right now is just this one way stampede, not just targeting short sellers, but then you have these billionaires who seem to like the attention and they seem to hate short sellers, piling on for no apparent purpose. it goes until it quits going i mean, at some point you sort of run out of shorts because they have to just sort of cover and take the losses or you run out of people willing to put up ever higher amounts of absolute capital to keep playing a share price at this level. you would think at some point logically the management of gamestop would come out and issue some stock plug power has had a much less

dramatic move, they came out after hours and said we're going to offer a billion and a half shares and take advantage of some of these excessive runs in the share price. >> to your point about how much longer people want to provide capital to keep the shorts in play can griffin be regretting doing just that a day or so ago? >> it's unclear. they obviously backstopped melvin capital, which is one of the hedge funds that seems toef taken some of those losses they were in amounts of investment that those two firms can easily handle. it's not existential for them, and you know, who knows even what the positions are right now of melvin. i mean, i know there was a list of stocks they supposedly were betting against that got targeted beyond gamestop as well so i think this kind of -- these skirmishes are going to continue for a little while, and it's pretty wild just mostly because of the personalities that have decided to get involved for no particular purpose >> and mike, final thoughts in terms of what this all means for tomorrow

microsoft the big mover, it's going to give the nasdaq a boost. >> it really will, and the dow for that matter. it shows you how good a quarter had to be because the setup was challenging. everything working for microsoft. the market was rebalancing anyway. >> we are out of time here for "closing bell," thank you so much for watching. fast money starts right now. i'm melissa lee and this is "fast money. tonight on fast, a regime change on wall street those words from noted investors as names like gamestop continue to rift higher look at the moves in the after hours session. we'll get tom's take on the reddit rebellion. plus, sizzling hot, beyond meat soaring today the big deal that sent shares towards an all time hour stick around for a bonus hour of "fast money. if you've got any investment qus,