it's 5:00 a.m. on cnbc global headquarters. here are your top five at five investors await quarterly results. shares of gamestop continuing their rapid climb as elon musk throws more fuel on the frenzy surge. microsoft also on the rise this morning on strong earnings. thanks to pandemic driven demand, it's a bit of a different story for starbucks, the stock which saw its bounce back in the u.s. curtailed by covid once again, and for the first time in more than 60

years, the baseball hall of fame announcing no new inductees will be welcomed in it is wednesday, january 27th, 2021, and you're watching "worldwide exchange" here on cnbc ♪ ♪ woo hoo ♪ >> and good morning to you, i'm frank holland in for brian sullivan here's how your money and the global markets they're setting up their day at least so far stock futures are a bit mixed right now. we're taking a look at them. s&p down, the dow jones down as well the nasdaq the only one in the green clearly getting a boost from those strong microsoft earnings this after stocks ended slightly lower yesterday. the busiest week of earnings, it just rolls on with big tech once again in focus apple, facebook and tesla all report results after the bell. we also get earnings from at&t and boeing today investors will be keeping a close eye on comments from fed chairman jay powell who will speak this afternoon after the

fed's latest policy meeting. let's go worldwide julianna tatelbaum is in our london newsroom with a look at the early trade there in london. juliana, european trade down slightly after the fed policy announcement. >> that's right. investors are eyeing what jerome powell will say in his remarks later on we have had a bit of a choppy session. trading in positive territory, now below the flat line, ten basis points lower clearly caution among the investment community here in europe, worth noting this comes after a decent session yesterday. the german market had some particularly strong moves rebounding about 1.7%, breaking a three-day losing streak. a little bit of a pull back after the strong session yesterday. turning to sectors, i want to give you a look at the break down here, fairly split picture. we are seeing more demand for the defensive parts of the market telecom up 2%. media, real estate, food and bev, health care, on the downside, basic resources, oil

and gas under performing a couple more cyclical parts of the market one stock in focus, the banking sector uni credit shares are trading higher this morning. the bank is poised to appoint andrea purcell as the new ceo. the italian lenders board could sign off on the appointment as soon as this morning as a reminder, left ubs in 2018 to take over at santan dare for the spanish lender to withdraw the offer over a payment dispute. >> now turning to the morning's other top stories in the u.s shares of microsoft are on the rise this morning after the tech giant reported better than expected second quarter results and revenue guidance the company reporting earnings of 203 a share on revenue over $43 billion. microsoft has showed a lot of strength across the board, getting a boost in particular from the accelerating adoption of cloud computing and its new xbox gaming system it's a different story for

shares of starbucks which are lower following its first quarter figures. earnings topping expectations while revenue fell short u.s. same store sales falling as rising covid-19 cases. those led to harsher dining restrictions meanwhile starbucks chief operating officer, ros bruewer i leaving the company to become the ceo of walgreens, the only black woman leading a fortune 500 company. >> and shares of gamestop, as tesla's elon musk enters the battle between wall street and reddit users, tweeting out a link to the reddit board that's hip hyped the stock by closing bell yesterday. chamath writing yesterday morning, lots of gamestop stock, we bought february, 115 calls on gamestop, let's go, taking after tom brady, headed to the super bowl cameron winklevoss tweeting,

thinking about gamestop, and the reddit board writing simply game stop, apparently a reference to a meme, one of our producers explained it to me, if you don't get. you can go to my twitter for an explanation. now to washington, where president biden is expected to tackle climate change amid his continuing wave of executive orders, after announcing his plan to boost covid-19 tracie potts with the latest good morning, tracie. >> frank, good morning good morning, everyone vice president harris getting her second dose of the coronavirus vaccine with millions of americans still unable to get their first. >> i'm going to try and get up at 3:00 in the morning, and see if i can get a reservation for my first shot. >> president biden announced the government's buying another 200 million doses but they won't arrive until summer. for now, he's shipping 16% more to states and giving them three

weeks' notice of what's to come. >> we're at the mercy of whatever is sent. >> the truth is it's going to take months before we get the majority of americans vaccinated, months. >> democrats are planning a vote on covid relief as early as next week. >> the work must move forward, preferably with our republican colleagues but without them, if we must. >> republicans objecting to the $1.9 trillion price tag. >> all of us want to help people who have lost their jobs, small businesses that's not what this is. this is liberal pay back. >> only five republicans voted with democrats on whether impeachment is constitutional, far short of the 17 needed to convict former president trump >> and as you noted earlier, frank, the president wants to focus today on climate change, planning to issue several executive orders, focused on using science as the bedrock for all of their decisions national security is an issue when it comes to climate land and water conservation, he

wants to set up a new commission on green jobs and hold a world climate day on earth day in april. >> tracie, back to the vaccine story. does the u.s. actually have another enough vaccine to give everyone two shots amid this new push by the biden administration >> well, not yet, but we will, remember, johnson & johnson, the third vaccine, the one that only takes one shot that may be coming on in a week, expected to be applying for emergency authorization then that's another 100 million, and with the 200 million being delivered this summer, the president saying that will be enough for shots, two shots for every one in the united states who wants one. it's just a matter of timing it's going to take them a while to produce the original shots won't all be ready until june, and then this new batch that they're ordering perhaps sometime later in the summer. >> tracie, timing and that phrase you mentioned, who wants one. tracie potts, live from d.c.,

thank you very much. back to the markets now. what could really be another busy day ahead as we mentioned, several megacap companies announcing earnings, david versus goe liath trade. let's talk to can didice bangsu. european markets are ahead the fed policy market. why are we seeing this ahead of the policy market where we don't expect much news to be made? >> i think that reflation ary trade is seeing a bit of a pause. investors trying to gauge the tug of war between the near term virus, and economic impacts and

the lag of widespread vaccinations and a return to economic normality i think this is creating a little bit more vulnerability in the market >> you were kind enough to send research over. you're calling for a rapid recovery, you're seeing as the most likely scenario, u.s. equities with the return of the 6% and emerging markets with the return of 17%. can you kind of explain your thesis there, and also the time line >> absolutely. our viewers at the outlook have brightened considerably in 2021, obviously given the vaccine breakthroughs and the progress towards, you know, vaccine rollout. of course early this year, the increased prospect of more fiscal spending out of the u.s. has created some notable upside potential for the u.s. economy as well. all of this making way for a stronger than expected recovery in 2021. and this in our view, you know, this reflationary environment that i talked about should make

way for the laggards of 2020 to assume performance leadership in 2021 notably, the value oriented economically sensitive sectors and regions of the world that should benefit, you know, given the reopening trade and are tied to the fortunes of the global economy, so in that instance, emerging markets, for example, from a sector perspective, the cyclicals, resources, commodities, financials. again, sectors that lagged last year, we expect to take performance leadership this year. >> so another part of your forecast is a weaker dollar throughout 2021. can you kind of explain why you see a weaker dollar and how does that impact that cyclical trade that you're talking about? >> yeah, absolutely. we expect, you know, the soft dollar conditions we saw through the back half of 2020 to extend to 2021, and that's largely, again, hinging on that stronger global growth outlook, and a

revitalization in risk appetite that will inherently weigh on the u.s. dollar, due to its counter cyclical nature. in contrast, a weaker dollar bodes well for higher commodity prices and that has emboldened our preference for energy, materials in general commodity sucks. >> i want to make sure i understand you're a bit bearish on the dollar but bullish on the recovery we just showed the dollar chart. as the dollar has fallen, it's been megatech stocks and consumer discretionary stocks led by amazon that have seen that surge what changes in 2021 that gives cyclicals like industrials and materials the edge. >> absolutely. 2020 was the year of the pandemic, the work from home trade, the technology stocks obviously led the performance charge and underscored the defensive nature of the rally through 2020 obviously lots of risks given that the virus continues to circulate globally

now, our expectation for that rotation in 2021 is largely endorsed by the expectation that global growth will improve and become more durable, and this will allow for that rotation to become increasingly durable given that reopening and recovery trade that we expect to take hold in 2021. >> candice, we have almost run out of time. futures are mixed again, only the tech heavy nasdaq up right now. what do you expect for the rest of the day until we get that fed policy announcement? do you see that markets continue to be mixed throughout the day >> yeah, consistent with what i mentioned earlier, just, you know, trading on the headlines a little bit of mixed market moves here in the next several hours so we're expecting a fairly accommodative message from the federal reserve here today, and i think this should ultimately help the support risk assets we expect the chair to reaffirm the policy will remain accommodative, and push back on

some of the notion that will be in the asset program this year this should in general be supportive of global stock markets broadly. >> candice bangsund, thank you for your time and insight. potentially getting back on track as chinese officials set more terms one of president biden's cabinet picks is setting a tough tone on china. and las vegas sands handing over the control of the company, following sheldon addelson's death. when "worldwide exchange" returns.

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a live look at hong kong the foggy sky over there, the day wrapping up as our day is just really beginning. new this morning, as the company resolves ongoing issues with matters such as user privacy that's according to the governor of china's central bank who made yesterday. pulled by regulators days before it was due to begin trading in hong kong, amid a lot of scrutiny by chinese regulators the financial times is reporting that ant group is expecting to spell zel its firm i verify, the move comes amid growing tensions over china's technology companies and tightening scrutiny over u.s. data. sticking with china, president biden's pick for

commerce secretary is promising aggressive action when it comes to protecting american interests. those remarks, the latest by biden administration officials suggesting a continuation of former president trump's tough china policies eunice yoon joins us from beijing with much more what's the reaction been to those brand new comments. >> well, the chinese foreign ministry said that the u.s. should not make what it says are the same mistakes as president trump. the foreign ministry said that the biden administration should learn lessons from the failure of what it called and derided as president trump's america only approach this of course comes after biden's nominee for commerce secretary had said that the biden administration would make every effort to try to protect the telecom networks from huawei, as well as zte, what the foreign ministry said was a suppression of chinese companies and after she repeated that the

biden administration would take an interdepartmental approach to be much more aggressive on china. so chinese state media had picked up on how the biden administration is going to have a multilateral strategy, a secretary of state and to the blinken confirmed overnight had made some of his first calls to traditional u.s. allies, japan and south korea, and the global times argued that the chinese have just as much as what jen psaki, the white house spokesperson said strategic patience as the united states, in order to win a battle with the united states, saying it has a very strong economy and also competitive companies. so still a lot of attention, frank, in the relationship as china waits to see exactly what the approach is going to be from the biden administration. >> tension might be a euphemism, there's some heat here we have heard a lot about china buying commodities from us and

us selling port to them because of african swine fever is there anything else on the horizon that has any potential to help u.s./china relations move forward after four tense years under the trump administration >> well, there's been some discussion in the state media about this what's interesting is that it tends to center around trying to improve the engagement, so improve communication by basically reversing what they have described as reckless policies such as the closure of consulates, visa restrictions, when it comes to journalists, to students, for example, and also some business visas as well. finally, there was an interesting report today on tariffs, saying that tariffs need to also be reversed in order to try to improve the relationship and that it wouldn't only be the chinese that would cheer but also many american businesses and consumers. >> yeah, tariffs, still an ongoing issue. we don't talk about it as much

anymore. certainly still a factor in u.s./china relations euni eunice yoon from beijing, thank you very much. beefing up automated features to get you your purchases. stay with us. today's big number, $4.1 trillion. that's the total collective wealth of american billionaires according to a report by the institute for studies, that's a 30% increase in net worth since the pandemic began in march.

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a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. a live look at chicago where the sun hasn't come up just yet. old stomping grounds there a beautiful look at downtown, definitely chilly there as it is on lots of parts of the east coast. >> let's get a check on this morning's other headlines. phillip mena is in new york with the latest good morning, what's going on. >> good to see you, good morning, the poet who stole the show at president biden's inauguration is burning up the charts despite her books not being released until september, amanda gorman's poetry is already at the top of amazon. the nation's youngest inaugural poet has two upcoming books marked as best sellers on the web site. the washington football team promoted coaching intern jennifer king to assistant running back's coach

with that hire, king becomes the first black woman in nfl history to be named an assistant coach of a position group. finally, the baseball hall of fame has no plans to expand as the baseball writers association of america elected no new players to the hall this year it's the first time since 2013 that no player received the 75% of votes needed to be elected. some did get closer than others to enshrinement, curt shilling led all vote getters, 16 votes shy of the 75% he said he doesn't even want on the ballot next year, the final year >> i didn't hear him say that. i'm from philadelphia. he's a former philly i'm a fan of his from what he did in philadelphia, and everybody knows about the bloody sock i'm not 100% sure he's a hall of famer. one of my producers told us the same thing. >> i was a diamondbacks fan, and he really came through for them. him and randy johnson.

>> just because you're clutch, doesn't mean you're hall of fame. >> we can go on and on and on. still on deck, investors gearing up for what could be a strong showing for big tech. we lay out what wall street could be looking for in those numbers. coming up on "squawk box," the co-coe of robin rhood, seeig a boost from investor. we'll be right back.

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good morning, futures are mixed with big tech stocks driving the nasdaq higher this morning. and a change at the top at walgreens, walgreens naming starbucks coo ros brewer as its next ceo, she becomes the only black woman running a fortune 500 company. the short squeeze, why a number of hedge funds are finding themselves on the wrong side of the trade and how social media is playing a big part in this story it's wednesday, january 27th, 2021, and you are watching "worldwide exchange" right here on cnbc. ♪ >> we wear short shorts. >> i think we all get the song there, they're a great pick by one of our producers here. i'm frank holland in for brian sullivan, aka, big papa. here's how your money and investments look right now as we're halfway through the 5:00 a.m. hour stock futures they're mixed,

they have been mixed all morning. the nasdaq is the only one in the positive has gained a little bit more from just a half hour ago when we started the show the s&p and the dow, both down the dow increasing its decline as we continue the show. now, this all after stocks ended slightly lower yesterday the busiest week of earnings, it just continues to roll on. with big tech once again in focus. you see it right here. apple, facebook and tesla all report their results after the bell today still coming up, we have visa and honey well, a big week for tech also airline earnings and comcast there. investors will also be keeping a close eye on comments from fed chairman, jay powell who will speak this afternoon after the end of the fed's latest policy meeting. a lot going on today clearly. to this morning's other top stories, the biden administration is ordering an additional 200 million doses of covid-19 vaccine half from pfizer, half from moderna. this could allow every american to be vaccinated by the end of

summer and robert goldstein, the perm ceo after the death of sell don a -- sheldon adelson. they remain in control of the company with a 57% stake don't miss ceo rob goldstein on cnbc live at 2:00 p.m. eastern skp walmart is making a bigger bet on the online grocery service, expanding the use of automated systems to pick and pack shoppers orders and will convert dozens of stores into local fulfillment center. investors seem to be pretty pleased with microsoft's second quarter results. very pleased revenues rising 17%, beating forecasts, and the company reporting a jump in its intelligent cloud use, a business that analysts think is critical investors may be hoping microsoft and solid numbers are a sign of similar success. coming up at least for apple, facebook and tesla which report their earnings after the close today. let's talk a whole lot more about this now, with cyrus, head

of investment research at global data cyrus, thanks for being here. >> thanks, frank, for inviting me let's get into this, tech, media and telecom, that's your area of coverage one of the giants in the tech world, microsoft, they reported their earnings obviously in the early trade they're still seeing a boost is that a good sign for big tech and mega tech stocks in 2021, even considering some of that regulatory pressure and the perception by a lot of people, maybe even you, that the valuations are sky high and maybe too high. >> i think there's a general view that the value rations are high in my view, there are two sets within big tech, one is the ones likely to be regulated and the other is the ones not likely to be regulated i think microsoft and apple fall into ones that are less likely to be regulated, and microsoft in particular, i think despite its valuation still has a good growth future ahead, and there's two reasons for that one is digital transformation. after covid, every ceo and every company knows they need to tech

enable their business, and microsoft is less of a threat in terms of cloud than say amazon and the second is next generation technology. microsoft is invested in the big next generation mega themes like cloud, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, which could be the next megacycle in a decade. >> what about regulatory pressure, are you concerned about that and the possible impact it could have on stock performance? >> yeah, i see three types of regulatory pressure, one is in data privacy one is in antitrust, and the other is in misinformation the companies most likely to be hit are google and facebook. facebook likely to be hit the most, and the real game changer for me was that, you know, in terms of misinformation, you know, platforms like facebook are news platforms but they're not regulated like traditional news platforms like yourself, for example. and the argument that facebook lawyers always made was that we're not a publisher. we are a content neutral

platform but of course when they -- the catastrophic mistake that i think facebook's management made under pressure from the u.s. population and also their own employees was that they took president trump off facebook and that showed an exercise of editorial control and that makes the argument that they're no longer publishers much harder to stand. i expect regulation in these three areas to hit facebook and to hit it hard in 2021 >> so facebook you're seeing that company as the one at the most risk of regulatory pressure as far as just their content what about the regulatory pressure for companies like facebook to spin off, a wws, what's your take, could that be good for the market or good for consumers. >> let's take one at a time, in terms of facebook, the monopoly arises because they have control of day tta

splitting facebook up won't solve that problem what regulators need to do to solve the problem is separate control of the data which typically belongs to the consumer from the social media platform services that facebook provides and there's already technology to do that where consumers can switch on and switch off the data that facebook can credit at the switch of a button right now, facebook has control of the three critical things that make it a monopoly. they have control of all customer data, and they don't share that with competitors. they have control of the cloud platform in which that data sits and they don't share that with competitor, and they have advanced ai platforms, which can interpret that data. what regulators need to do is separate the data from the software in terms of amazon, i think a split up makes more sense on antitrust grounds, but let's see what president biden and the antitrust authorities decide >> so cyrus, we're almost out of time i have to ask you about this one

thing. you talked about macro economic themes one of the themes is generation hash tag what is it, and how is it going to impact the markets in 2021? >> yeah, we see generation hash tag as the new generation of young people, you know, going between 1990 and 2005. that essentially are doing new things they are more sustainable. companies like exxon, for example, that don't take, you know, sustainability seriously, are going to be hit by that. some of these cohorts are starting to move into the asset management space and so on so i think they're taking sustainability seriously they're taking things like electric vehicles seriously. tesla, which looks overvalued by any metric today could be helped by this cohort, and also there's a next generation of technologies that, you know, that will help microsoft and other big tech, you know, stay in the lead. >> one last question about that generation hash tag, where are they buying stocks, what stocks

are they buying? are they buying big name stocks, robin hood, how can we see the influence on the market. >> generation hash tag, they don't have much disposable income yet, however, they are spenders and they are the next generation of spenders. so, you know, they're into things like pepsi just announced a deal with beyond meat, and they're into veganism and things like that. all the things the next generation of cohorts look at. there's loads of areas, but sustainability, new forms of eating, and things like that, new forms of driving this generation doesn't want to own a car, so that's going to impact the entire car industry at a time when car valuation multiple are beyond i think there's a number of industries that they are going to impact in addition to car energy and food. >> do you know what a stonk is

>> i don't know, what is it. >> that means you're not in generation hash tag. elon musk tweeted out game stonk, it's on my twitter site i don't get it myself. don't worry about it, but you're not in generation hash tag we just figured that out have a good day. thanks for joining us. a requirement for a negative covid test before boarding an international flight to the u.s. as we head to break, some of today's other headlines. walgreens naming starbucks chief operating officer, roslyn brewer as its next ceo. she will become the only black woman leading a fortune 500 company. apple taking over amazon to become the most valuable brand tesla takes the title of the fastest growing brand. this all according to the brand finance. buying the company's life insurance unit for 2.8 billion stay tuned, "worldwide exchange" back in a moment

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." as of yesterday, the u.s. is officially requiring international travelers to provide proof of a negative covid-19 test on entry travelers including u.s. citizens, they have to be tested within three days of arrival from any other country except from u.s. territories. but the onus for making sure those protocols are followed, that's following on u.s.

airlines joining is brian kelly, founder and ceo of the points guy. thanks for joining us. so let's get started, you are actually in favor of this testing protocol, but you have some concerns about a possible quarantine if it's more than just those three days. >> yeah, you know, most other countries in the world have had testingrequirements for international travelers, so it's a little bit late to the game in my opinion, but better late than never. we need to get covid under control, and most of the travel airlines agree we should have a testing policy i have traveled extensively over the last year, and it's amazing, you used to be able to come into the u.s., they wouldn't ask you if you were sick no temperature, no test, a free for all. that's not sustainable. >> let me ask you this question about the potential for a covid test mandate for travel in the u.s. are you in support of that >> i think covid is the biggest issue domestically, i don't know why we would discourage international travel to countries that would handle the virus better than we have and

not encourage in the u.s i think it would be a nightmare because we don't have the infrastructure before we mandate testing domestically, we should make sure we have it available and affordable, but we need to do something to get covid under control. the vaccine not going to be a cure all we hoped it would be. >> you have a colleague who traveled to the bahamas, beautiful place to go. i've never been, but i've seen the picture. some of us wish we were there right now. he described the process as less arduous than he expected could you give us color, and do you think this could be a model of what we see in other countries or at least in the u.s. >> the biggest stress he had was getting the test done. he stayed at the baja mar resort which now provides testing as an amenity, and also rapid antigen tests are allowed. hyatt hotels announced that they're going to be offering this testing, covid testing at all of their latin america

resorts. i expect the hotel industry to step up because there's a lot of stress that consumers have once you get the test, you print it out, show it at check in at the airport and it's pretty simple. >> you have access today that about -- access to data, are people itching to take international trips to mexico and the caribbean. >> the demand for caribbean and mexico travel is still strong, but we see this rule just with so many unknowns, a lot of people go to mexico, want to stay in an airbnb, they don't have the testing of the hotel. people are stressed out. we foresee people cancelling the mexico, caribbean trips and going domestic, arizona, florida, and also puerto rico, u.s. virgin islands, our territories do not have the same testing requirement, at least not yet. >> virgin islands is a beautiful place. i used to live there it's a u.s. territory. >> you need a test to get into them

even hawaii has stricter rules than the rest of the state so you know, do your research these days. >> so brian, i have heard of trip insurance, which i've never taken out myself, but now there's covid-19 insurance can you explain that and what could that mean to airline stocks and cruise line stocks? >> yeah, so most insurance policies won't cover covid, especially travel insurance, but in order to go to the bahamas, you need to get a travel visa. to get insurance coverage up to $50,000. if you test positive, you're on the hook for medical bills, 14-day plus hotel stays, et, those can add up quickly i high will recommend finding a travel insurance package, you know, 50 bucks, does start to add up with the testing and insurance, you know, air fares and hotels are much cheaper. it balances out. >> personal question i have a couple of days to take off coming up. where would you go, if you could go somewhere for a week, where would you go where does it make sense when

you talk about covid-19, value, flight and everything else. >> flight deals are amazing. yesterday, united had a $29 domestic sale. since testing there's a lot of kinks to be worked out not every international destination has access to testing. this country is beautiful, hawaii, for you on the east coast, going to hawaii for a couple of days isn't easy. hawaii has strict covid restrictions but for the safety of everyone. i would say domestic >> brian kelly with the travel advice we appreciate it i'm going to be checking my points to see if i can go. thanks a lot have a good day. on deck, the short squeeze, why a number of hedge funds are finding themselves on the wrong side of the trade. how social media is playing a big part in the story. if you haven't, subscribe to our podcast, "worldwide exchange" every day in audio form, and if you miss us or big papa brian sullivan, check us out on apple, spotify or other podcast apps, and we will be right back. sofi made it so easy to pay off my student loan debt.

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a live look at times square. 47 past the hour 5:47 in new york city. sun hasn't come up the lights are always flashing at least part of "squawk box" will be broadcast. all right. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." the market story of the week, outside of earnings, the battle taking place between day traders, and game stop finding itself at the center of the fight resulting in big market moves. leslie picker joins us with much more on this story good morning, leslie. >> good morning, frank, it's wall street versus wall street bets, the sub reddit credited for the massive moves with game stop serving as the poster child of the phenomenon. it's been painful for those on the other side of the trades, largely the hedge fund community. some firms were texting about how this was akin to the apocalypse for certain books the moves were responsible for a

hedge fund's near death experience this week the ploy to wipe out served month ago when revealed in a quarterly s.e.c. filing a variety of puts in game stop, and bed, bath and beyond these stocks and others have surged in recent weeks, causing those who were barrish a huge blow melvin suffered losses upwards of 30% in the year through just last friday, that doesn't even encompass this week. ultimately citadel injected $2.75 billion to keep melvin afloat much to the chagrin of the retail crowd on reddit who were out for blood. frank, some even piled on for death threats against plot kin, his family, and other short sellers. melvin capital declined to comment on that specifically still, none of this thwarted game stop with a 93% surge yesterday. it's up again this morning

now, the whole scenario created an us versus them mentality. on one side, you've got the day traders who are reveling in their power of their collective shot on the other, the fundamental hedge fund manager, frankly, they're having a hard time doing it and in the middle are some who are just along for the ride. frank. >> three things i don't understand here. number one, what sheldon fried means new york city clue never heard this number two, did that say gamestop up 1,700% >> i didn't see the exact chart as it passed by but just to go back to your first question, it's happiness at the misfortune of others, it's a german word. >> interesting misery loves company. >> i learned it from the musical avenue q, still stuck in my mind >> last question, are there any other potential legal ramifications from all of this because there's a lot going on

here. >> that i think is the big question now, and people are trying to understand how is what's going on with reddit, where you have all of these different conversations pumping up the same stock clearly impacting the price of what's going on in the markets, how is that legal, how is that something that, you know, shows fairness in the markets and so forth, and you know, people i talk to say there may be some nefarious action going on right now. it's unclear exactly what. another key concern is are people considered acting in groups in which case you have to have certain types of disclosure but at the same time, other people say, you know, how is this any different than a hedge fund manager coming on television and saying, you know, buy this stock i'm in it, i think it's a great stock. buy this stock or short this stock. we have people come on all the time and say i'm short this stock as well. and so, you know, it's unclear exactly, you know, whether there

are any legal ramifications but on the surface, it doesn't appear that there's anything actually illegal going on. >> leslie one more question, i've got a lot of questions for you this morning do you know what game stonk meant when elon musk tweeted it out. >> stonk is like the kind of, i don't know, social media for stocks it's like the slang for stocks, i guess, so game stonk is like a game stock it's just a -- >> i'm trying to figure it out too too. it's a little odd. >> it's a lot. i went deep down into the reddit rabbit holes the last few days so. >> i'm hoping you resurface. leslie pickering green, thank you as always. we appreciate it. plenty for investors to chew on between earnings, joining me now is chief investment strategist brian nick with a lot more insight thank frs or being here. >> thanks for having me.

>> we see european stocks are lower, u.s. mixed, only the nasdaq in the green. why is there so much anxiety and attention, and people ringing their hands when we're not expecting much to be said. >> i think the fed probably prefers it that way. they don't want to be the main driver of stocks the fed will transition from independent variable i think that's going to be the message today. no new policy changes or even communication changes really from the fed i think jay powell in his press deference keis going to view they're not changing unless the economic data tells them it's time to do so, which makes them the dependent variable with the vaccinations, the virus, and the economic reopening that will ultimately push the fed. i don't think he's going to give the markets anything to chew on one way or the other what we're seeing with the drivers today is more on the earnings front than anything else. >> brian, that's not until this afternoon. maybe fed chairman jay powell will give us a lot to chew on.

maybe he won't until we get to the point where we get the announcement, how do you see the day shaping up and why is everything lower for the most part. >> nasdaq is set to open higher because of the microsoft earnings from last night we're kind of retrenching from a hot open to the year we saw cyclical stocks leading, the interest rates moving up aggressively, and all of those things have refrtrenched a bit we're seeing growth stocks doing better, the vaccines, the new strains. anytime there's an absence of good news, you tend to have skepticism or bad news tend to fill it. that tends to be what happens. the good news comes from the fed, the economic data we're going to have on consumer spending, gdp, although i doubt it, and ultimately what's going to make the biggest difference is evidence that the vaccinations are ramping up into that 2 million, 2 1/2 million per day range in the u.s. and ultimately hopefully in europe as well, and i think that is the

key to unlocking the economy, unless and until that happens, i'm not sure there's going to be much upward momentum from stocks, except for better than expected earnings. >> so brian, you sent us your research you say there's a case for risk on investing and, it's partly due to valuations. we hear valuations are too high. how do those jive together. >> when we say risk on investing, we say a full portfolio f you're looking at stocks, owning bonds, cash, the case is strong based on valuations, but stocks are the most attractively valued everything is expensive, cash, if you want to think of it this way is expense ive. the market has never been valued more highly, except briefly during the early 2000s, late 1990s. if you take those in a relative sense. the best risk adjusted return over the next five to ten years, which is what we're looking at risk on investing, our outlook

for the rest of the year, the economy is set to get better people have pent up demand, balance sheets look good for corporations and households. by the third quarter, fourth quarter, things are going to be a lot better economically speaking stock market is latching on to the optimism, in terms of progress we have seen cumulatively. one last question before we let you go the vaccine rollout, how do those impact the market in 2021, a lot of vaccine news from the biden administration what sectors do you see being impacted by the increased focus of getting vaccines out to people >> yeah, the more good news we get on vaccinations in terms of supply, delivery, and actual shots into arms, that tends to be better for cyclical stocks. it pulls forward the eventual economic reopening, and allows companies that have been a bit more distressed, their business models have been covid sensitive, energy stocks, bank stocks can do better if interest rates are rising in anticipation of economic growth in the future all of those things tend to do

better when there's good news on the vaccines when we see the vir lent strains, you see a retrenchment in defensive parts of the market, including technology, which is becoming in this day and age. >> brian nick, thank you so much for coming on. we appreciate the insight. that does it for us on "worldwide exchange. "squawk box" is coming up next it's moving day. and while her friends are doing the heavy lifting, jess is busy moving her xfinity internet and tv services. it only takes about a minute.

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good morning, president biden planning to order another 2 200 million doses of covid vaccine in a push to get most americans fully inoculated this summer. gamestop soaring again in the premarket, up more than 120% after yesterday's gain of 92%.

chamath palihapitiya had calls yesterday, and elon musk tweeted about the stock after the close. what world are we in. and ros brewer is leaving starbucks to run walgreens she'll be the only black woman running a fortune 500 company. it's wednesday, january 27, 2021, and "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. and if you take a look at the u.s. equity futures this morning, we see a little bit of a mixed picture. the nasdaq is indicated higher this morning it's up by about 40 points part of that because of the some of the strength we heard with some of the technology earnings reports that came out last night. microsoft much better than anticipated, amd strong report