the analysts are actually behind this one, scott, so i think that it is going higher, and keurig, and dr. pepper is my final trade and unusual option activity and i bought that one in the show. >> and a lot of green on the trade board and we will keep our eye on the markets and the gamestop as we have been and apple after the bell, and "the exchange" is now. hello, everybody, and welcome to what is a wild wednesday and what a day for you have to be with us certainly from stocks to bitcoin and other commodity, because there is a lot of selling on wall street today, and oh b i the way, the fed rate statement is coming up in an hour. markets gone wild. how options short sellers and internet message boards are creating some of the most incredible stock moves that we have ever seen. ipads and model 3s, apple and tesla on deck to star with a huge night of earnings of below

deck preview of both and how play it. all right. everybody, a lot to do, and no better place than what is moving in this market. dom chu no doubt with a lot more to say on this, and dom, what are you looking at in the data bank >> so many moving parts and so many different stories playing out in the market as we speak. first of all from the macro level, we are in the sell-off for the overall market, and the dow is down 300 points, and roughly 1%. at the lows of the day, we were down roughly 584 point, and putting a littleperspective on that with the highs of the day down below at the opening bell, and now just trickling off one-third of 1% off of the nasdaq composite, and so looking at gold stars trading up today off of the heels of the expected earnings, and cloud computing driving the optimism there.

and boeing is down 3% and a big drag for dow there and coming out with a bigger loss than expected on the quarterly basis, and 3m is getting the analyst upgrade to power it up 6%. of course, you mentioned the stratospheric parabolic type movements in some of the highly shorted stocks and gamestop up another 130% today off of the highs of the session, and amc up 210% today, and bed, bath and beyond up another 27%. and for context, gamestop stock is up now roughly over 7300% in that time span and remember, this is a $20 stock just about two short weeks ago, and certainly a lot of attention paid to by not just traders, but regulators, too,b bri, so i sen it over to you. >> and we have a couple of really good guests coming up on game stop, but as a former fund guy, there was excellent

conversation with scott and chamath, floating 100% of the float to the company, and explain to the audience what they are talking about, because i have been tweeting out and saying for a long time that market structure, and some of this -- i don't want to kcall i naked shorting, but the way it is structured, it is no doubt contributing to some of the names today. >> the broad sense of the layman's way to look at this is that you can borrow stock from somebody else to then sell to repay it back later on, and here's the issue though. you can borrow the stock, right, and then somebody else can borrow that stock, and somebody else can borrow that stock, too, so that it can be lent out multiple times in the current market structure that we v and it is one of the things that many traders and investors and regulators will look at withho you can get this market activity, but a lot of folks are asking me, how can you short 130% of a company's outstanding

shares it is because every share ou there, can be borrowed, but then borrowed again in some way, shape or form, and something to pay attention to i am sure, and something that the regulators are going to be watching closely given the gamestop look, and blackberry and bed, bath and beyond and amc. brian. >> well, a perfect segue, dom, because that is what we are going to be talking about with a regulator, and let's bring in william galvin who is the fed chairman of the commonwealth of massachusetts. and so why do you think that we maybe need to put a hold on gamestop and some others >> well, first of all, it is a great risk to the unsophisticated investors there whatever the basis s. vi talked to some of the people, and i think that we have all recognized that the current pandemic has created a situation where many people have gotten into the day trading and have no idea what they are doing, andi

is something that they are trying to figure their way and gamestop has created a difficult situation for people, and they feel like they are missing out if they don't make a bet on them, and they don't understand what they are doing, and the small-time investors like that, and the unsophisticated investors will be hurt by this. and overall, it is a risk to the broader market, and the point that was made about the structural issue and the systemic issue of the shorting, and the excess of the stock going on with the issue, and it has to be addressed immediately, and that represents a risk to the overall market >> why >> because it is creating uncertainty in the market, and the dot-com bubble comes about -- >> and i interviewed mr. secretary. >> i don't know if it is good or not. >> and the point -- go ahead. >> it is a risk to the marketplace. >> and the marketplace should be

a place where the risk is taken but not reckless risk and not a place that undermines the entire system, and that is what is looking at here, and irrational, and noted that the moves in the stocks up and down are gamestop, i am speaking of it specifically, because it is irrational, and no basis in reality, and that not what you want in the capital market. >> and the reason that we have mentioned 1999, and i'm not saying this is 1999, because we both remember that there were companies that were trading at 20 billion market caps that had no value and inventing all of the metrics and the new non-gap earnings and pmeasured by e eyeballs and to chamath's point and scott's interview before us, they talked about the fundamental valuation, and the gamestop's valuations are not 1,700% better today than a couple of days ago. and you have name, and i don't want to say them, the because they might move if i utter them, but a formerly bankrupt video

stores and why do they have options on some of the stocks? >> well, they shouldn't. that is why at this point we have a new administration coming in, and hopefully the national regulator will take action, and i believe they will, but in the short run, i think it is certainly within the power of the marketplace itself in this case to suspend it. they shouldn't be providing a forum for this type of the activity, because it is dangerous not only to investors, but to the marketplace. >> well, to be fair, these, and by the way, to be clear, not everybody on reddit is a retail investor, and i can guarantee you heavy hedge fund managering trolling around there, and bloomberg terminal screen shots and $27,000 a year, and there are sophisticated wealthy investors are on some of the message boards, and what is interesting is that if that is the case, and you know, if the

retail investor wants to risk it and make it, good. hedge fund manager bets and loses it, okay. but if there is a hedge fund manager obeying the rules here, okay, but employees who are not obeying the rules over there, and under pseudonyms on the message boards, what then should the regulators do? >> we will do the best we can, and understand that there is inherent risk in the market, and nobody is trying to make it go away, and we want thatsh and that is what is going to make it grow. on the other hand, when it is becomes reckless and fraud as opposed to froth, anded that is when things have to be dealt with, and i think that in this case, there is a real risk to the marketplace and economy and recognize it is a volatile time, and we have been talking about it all year as we have been going through the pandemic, and this is an example of it. and it has to be dealt with as best ke with without damage to the marketplace. moreover, there is not just a

risk to the investors, but there's, as you point out, a lot of it is fueled by social media, and we didn't have that in 1999, but in many ways it is analogous to what we have gone through in the political context where you had rumors and misstatements and deception going through the social media that had to be dealt with. in the regulated marketplace, there is an opportunity to deal with it in nashgmarketplace, ana is what has to happen, and there has to be national regulation and there will be. >> secretary galvin, we have to go, and i am sorry to jump in, but one question, there is a lot of talk about section 230 of the internet policies being changed by the biden administration or adjusted. i know it is off topic except do you believe that there might be regulation around that type of speech that would affect financial conversation as well like what we are talking about

>> well, it could, but it is going to come from the financial side. i think that the administration is going to have a more aggressive stance to the marketplace and come at itt from that direction. >> william galvin, secretary of the commonwealth of massachusetts, pleasure to have you back on. thank you very much, sir. >> my pleasure. thank you. all right. so, folks, if you are confused about what exactly we are talking about with the options and what may be going on with game stocks, do not worry, because it is a professionals market, and it can be a difficult market to understand, so let's chat now with one of the few people in finance who actually does this exact thing for a living. joining us now is chris murphy cohead of derivatives strategy at susquehanna, and so i think that is your first on cnbc, and

so in layman's term and not using gamma squeeze, tell us what is exactly happening with gamestop and others vis-a-vis their options. >> and so it has been widely reported on the message boards being a catalyst, and in my opinion, i think that the call volume has come after it. we have been watching the retail what we call the message board call volume and it is chasing the momentum as opposed to being the catalyst for it, and the reason that i can be confident in saying that is because the people will be surprised to hear that open interest in gme calls from the beginning othis year to now pretty much has not changed. so we are talking about the open positions in the calls since the beginning of the year when gme was 13 to now. so that is telling us that the call volume seems to be chasing the momentum instead of causing it. you will see the opening and the

closing in the same day and at the end of the day, you won't see the open interest in the most active call strikes which is different than what we are seeing on the put side right now. >> so how much of this is really deep out of the money call buying, chris, and again for the audience there, and i'm not going to pretend that i'm a pro either b few the stock is $100, you buy a call option at $200, and placing huge long term bets on fast and aggressive price appreciation, and if it is going to hit those targets, you can mint a lot of money, and by the way, many people have, and how many of the options bets are on names like a gamestop are spectacular out of the money bets that have been by the way paying off. a huge proportion of them are, and they cost less and you can buy more of them, and what is interesting is that you will see the huge amount of volume in the $50 out of the money strike that

expires in a week. in theory, it is somewhat unrealistic and then looking at gamestop maybe not. but in the end of the day, looking at the open possessiosi carried into the next day is telling you that the call buyers or traders are holding on to the positions for less than a day and opening and closing over the course of the day and sometimes multiple times. and what you will see is that for example yesterday you had more call volume trading in one day in gme than the total number of existing positions heading into that day. so because of all of the -- >> what? >> sorry, go ahead. >> chris, i don't dig into the options trades for a living no doubt, but i am not sure i have ever heard of the call buying and selling volume exceeding the volume of the calls that are available. so what you are saying is that there are people who are clearly buying and selling options

multiple times on gamestop during the same day. >> yeah. just to break it down, we are talking about the volume number, the number of calls that change hands over the course of one day versus the total interest of the next day, and we are seeing the huge numbers which is not matching the total interest the next day which is saying that so much is open and closed in the same day which is not what we are seeing on the put side, and the put interest is increasing dramatically and up 3x since the beginning of the year, and the call interest has not changed much. so the put interest appears to be -- >> so what does that -- what does that tell you, chris?

>> so the genesis is call volume and call trading is the footprint of what we have been talking about for a year now that retail has and then you will see the put side having open interest increasing along with the story of the institutions being short the stock and having to buy back to close and maybe convictions in the bet so instead they move over to long, potentially long puts in where you have a limited -- and they are expensive, but it is a match loss. >> i have 100 more questions, but i have one more quick one i have to throw in there and looking at the volumes of the trades on the calls versus puts, does it look like it is retail, excuse me on the call side and, you know, hedge fund ts on the t side or maybe hedge funds on the call side? >> well, it is really impossible

to tell. we typically look at the smaller lot trades and think more of it is retail, and if you are going to get a big block of options, it is more likely to be institutional, but it is a mixed bag, but i would say a key takeaway is that the calls seem to be opens and closed the same day, and the puts appear to be held longer term. >> chris murphy, ses question hannah q susquehanna group, andn you for coming on. >> thank you. and so now, looking at big wall street firms who are not only getting into the game, but they are talking about the game as well to get some of the names at cnbc.com/pro for those as well. all right. coming up, the fed rate statement coming up. at the top of the hour is qe anywhere near on the way up or

nearly the free money fueling much of the market keep on coming and apple, the biggest stock in the market is set to release the numbers after the bell. a lot is riding on them. can tim cook and company deliver? the exchange" is back after this. i made a business out of my passion. i mean, who doesn't love obsessing over network security? all our techs are pros. they know exactly which parking lots have the strongest signal. i just don't have the bandwidth for more business. seriously, i don't have the bandwidth. glitchy video calls with regional offices? yeah, that's my thing. with at&t business, you do the things you love. our people and network will help do the things you don't. let's take care of business. at&t. your daily dashboard from fidelity -- a visual snapshot of your investments, key portfolio events, all in one place.

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all right. welcome back to "the exchange. overall the stocks are sliding with stocks like gamestop are raising concerns about speculation in the market and some are believing that the fed's ultra low rate and free money strategy may be contributing to the wild volatility and imagine that. talk about everything that is going on and the fed rate call and the decision coming up in under an hour is joining us is brian bellsky and julia coronado the founder of macro policy perspective, and also, joppa, and we will talk about the gamestop and reddit, but, i will ask you, brian, if you are a fund manager here in this market, do you sit back and get some popcorn and kind of watch what is going on and not participate, because it is a little wild out there? >> it is, and thank you for having us, and it is great to

share the fed day with savadra and julie. so i'm from minnesota and chicago is close, so i will take the chicago with the caramel and the cheese corn, and watch this happen, because it is quite frankly nothing to do with the fundamentals, and we as market pundits should not be talking about the gamestop or tesla or bitcoin being signs of a bubble, you cannot extrapolate that into being an entire market bubble. and i think that the market from the earnings perspective, and we will transition into the earnings market in the second half of the year, and the true fundamental investors know that, so this is a side show. and we think it is going to prove an opportunity that investors should have a wealth management specialist, and should have a process and should have a discipline in terms the of how they manage their money, brian. >> yeah, but it is different, and listen, these people, and lot of them are winning and making a lot of money, and

paying off the student loans, and god bless them. they are gambling and a lot them are winning, and good for them. julia, outside of that, how much is -- is there a way to quantify though perhaps how much zero percentage rates and qe might be contributing to market excess in either direction >> it is hard to quantify that and when the fed caught the falling knife in march that is a big underpinning of the market look past the pandemic and focus on the brighter days on the other side of that short circuited crisis to not become a financial crisis and beyond that, i would say that what we have now is a fed committed to supporting the recovery until it is fully done. we have fiscal policy that is working in the right direction instead of pulling back too early which is what we had last

time. and so, and so a lot of good positive sip tifk developments, and so there is a real fundamental optimism, and when there is fundamental optimism, and real grounds for optimism, you get a good amount of speculation on top of it. and you could characterize the late '90s at that, with a late technology profitability boom. it was a wonderful time for the u.s. economy and it had a layer of speculation on top of that. and from the fed's perspective, a systemic risk is the question, and we are not anywhere close to that. >> and you are well said. we have created a new economy with the internet and some stuff on top, and the froth and the bubbles or whatever you want to call it, and now building out a new cloud-based, and now vaccines over 1 million a day and accelerating rapidly as well, and reason to be optimistic, but now, i don't want to take anything away are

the fine program after this, but do we expect the fed to make any changes? >> no. i think that the fed is already laying the roadmap for this year. we know that they are going to keep the asset purchases at the current pace perhaps until the end of the year, and we also know that they are very focused on the inflation. they want the inflation to remain above 2% on the sustainable basis. and they want to sort of stick to this flexible average inflation target. so we know what they are going to do, and we are not expecting a lot in the meeting in about 30 minutes. >> and brian, with gamestop, those are bets to be place and awesome to watch and some of the hedge funds are getting theirs for lack of a better term, but if you are a boring old investor out there, and buying the s&p 500 or the nasdaq 500 qqq etf,

are you higher at the end of the year than you are today, and i don't mean higher in the cannabis way. >> you got me on that one. you are, and we still think that 4200 on the s&p and there is good value, but there are a lot of great ideas out there, and we will get more cyclical, and that does not mean selling the techs, and there is too much lost on the momentum trade it is fun and everything, but this is about investing and we have the best companies in the world, so go buy some. >> yeah, and by the way, amc is up 234%, and we can rent call of duty on the way to the movie theater with the blackberry. and so, brian, and julie and subadra, thank you all so much. all right. coming up, the ceo of the single

biggest solar ipo ever is here, and what exactly that may signal. the global economy and the new administration, and the extreme volatility, and we will speak with that man, ceo bob diamond and all of that and his new acsp and more coming up. stick around.

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exchange." and a couple more stocks going on even though gamestop is getting all of the attention. the one point the dow was down 600 and 584 and now down under 300 and down 299 points, but less than 1% right now. and energy by the way is the only macro sector that is higher. oil by the way nearing the $55 year-end prediction. go figure there. and health care is the biggest laggard, but we are seeing the dow well off of the lows. all right. now, let's get a cnbc update and for that, who else, but sue herera. >> thank you, brian. good to see you. and here is what is happening this hour. the department of homeland security has issued a national terrorism advisory warning of heightened domestic terrorism with people frustrated with the outcome of the presidential election, and there is no specific threats. and apple is urging people

to update for fixes that might have been software exploited by hackers. and robots will fetch groceries and have them ready for shoppers in an hour or less. this is showing a previous robot test from 2017. the most active volcano in indonesia has erupted and sending a river of lava sending gas and dust thousands of feet in the air, and that eruption could be heard 18 miles away. you are up to date. i will send it back to you, brian, on a busy day. >> yes, and we will be dodging robots in the walmart shopping aisles >> yes. you got it. >> okay. take me around. all right. coming up, it is one of the most owned stocks in the market if not the most, apple. set to release the earnings with

the stock set at all-time highs and what does tim cook have to deliver to make wall street happy? and bowing is weighing on the dow after a miss on the fourth quarter earnings, and they will take the delay of the 777x, and david calhoun seemed optimistic about the future of travel demand when he joined cnbc earlier today. >> but i do think that in the second half when we get to midsummer and really do think that the penetration of the vaccine is going to b and it is go, and i have said it, there is going to be robust demand, and both in personal and business travel. and change came to every part of our universe. seismic or small, it continues. change is all around us.

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and welcome back to "the exchange." president biden is set to hold a news conference focusing on climate change. he made it a campaign priority and he is expected to sign executive orders to push forward the agenda, and the emphasis on green is giving a bump to renewable energy stocks and look at the biggest solar ticker e

t-a-n is up. and today, a new player, scholes, raising nearly $2 billion in what is the biggest solar ipo ever, and the stock began to trade a few moments ago, and you can see there, it is higher. let's bring in the shoals ceo jason whitaker, and you are new to the public markets but you, yourself, you are not new, because the company has been there 11 years, and you are making balance systems and other products as well, so tell the audience exactly what you do. >> so, brian, first of all, thank you for having us on the show, and i would like to start off by saying what a phenomenal day it has been. i am very proud of our team, and the operational excellence in our team truly placing the heart and soul right in the center of everything that we do. without this level of dedication and hard work, i would not be here talking to you today so i appreciate that. and when you are looking at the

shoals and eba, we provide emission critical solutions that are needed to make solar energy projects to work safely and efficiently and reliably, and looking at the technology, it comprises of a suite of products. and so this is a number of components that is going to carry the product from the panels to the grid, but the exciting part about ebos is that it is for energy applications and ev-charging infrastructure. >> there is a huge amount of optimism about the renewals with biden administration and congress, and money for infrastructure and tax benefits for various states on top of some of it by the way already exists. are you seeing a level of interest from your clients, jason, that would mimic what we

are hearing? does it feel like what is happening on the ground is the same as the words? >> so, yeah. we are very excited about our future, and, you know, solar has become the cheapest source of new energy available. so when you are looking at the mega trends that are driving the global electrification and decarbonization, and what is nice they transcend policy and politics, but that in mind, we have performed exceptionally well over the past few years and we only see additional tail winds added with the new administration further ak selling the growth. >> about 12% of u.s. energy production is going to come offline in the next decade whether it is a coal plant shutdown or nuclear or something that is too old to continue to run, but at the same time, demand for power is going to surge. a, through population growth, b, data centers, the smartphone, air conditioning, and everybody wants toley where it is warm now, and so we are reducing the

capacity, but demand is going to soar. how much more power, jason, are we going to need as a nation in the next 10 or 20 years? >> you know, that is a great question. and when you look, just for referencing the benchmark of 12%, right now, solar again, it is the cheapest source of energy generation available it is also the least expensive, you know, source of power to operate. so when you are looking at the construction time, it is the shortest to construct. so when you are comparing the 12% that you mentioned to the fact that 3% of the energy that we consume today comes from renewables, there is a lot of upside looking at the renewable sector. >> yeah, and there is a lot of upside on the stock, jason whitaker, maybe you and your family's life changed a lot today. i certainly hope so as well. stock is doing very well, and by the way, are you named after

muscle shoals, because that is where one of the facilities is. >> yes, absolutely we have four facilitfacilities, in tennessee and one in alabama and right in the heart of mussel shoals. >> well, we should have come in with some lynyrd skynyrd, because that is right there in the heart of it. >> absolutely. >> congrats to you and your team. >> and we are about 30 minutes out from the decision/nondecision. and nearly an hour from jay powell's news conference and listening for any change of rate change or tapering. and so when we come back, we will talk to bob diamond former barclays ceo. and whatever we want to talk about, he can handle it. and we will talk about changes in the white house, and listen to jen psaki, the white house

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welcome back. the dow is down about 351. and battling it out, and the retail investors have been winning in a big way, and gamestop is up 122% or $180 and amc and koss corp, and express and who wants to join me with a skinny tie and go to mall and peg our jeans? all of those names are being traded in a big way. let's talk about the macro environment, and his new spac and everything in between is ceo

bob diamond of atlas capital and chairman of the new spac, concord acquisition, bob, and what a day. appreciate you coming on. and going back and forth and glad to have you on, and someone who ran a big bank and big trading operation, and when you are seeing what is going on between the davids trouncing the goliaths in some respecting with the stocks, how are you taking that in watching it in? >> well, i'm a bond guy, and i have been watching it with interest all day. and so what i have been doing is try to keep the staff off of the screen, and everyone is following it. it is, i'm trying to get everyone back to work. >> do you think, and forget it, because it is not a knock on the internet, but do you think that looking at 140% of short ratios and stocks and whatever it might be, do you think that it is a

healthy market, bob? >>, so i so, i have not followe that closely, because i am not a single stock guy, but it looks like single stocks thinly traded and we have seen the short sales or short squeezes i should say before, and so i don't think that it is that abnormal in the market. >> and let me ask you this, as bond guy, you care about interest rates, but it is the fed day, and you get a lot of people suggest, hey, if we have got these level of rates effectively zero for this long and longer, and qe and everything else, what did anyone expect to happen but this. do you think that fed and the rates plays a role in equities moving higher and bond yields well under or at least they were 1%. >> so i think it is all of those things, brian. so, the fed has been very, very focused and very, very concerned

about doing everything they can to keep liquidity in the financial markets to encourage the treasury to provide fiscal stimulus and everything really relies on a efficient successful rollout of the vaccine over the next two to three months, and i just don't think that the fed is going to let up, and we will hear more about that today. if they go a little bit too far, is our economy in the u.s. and globally better off? absolutely it is much better off if they go a little bit too far to make sure that we get through the rollout of the vaccine than if we were a little bit short before we went out. so, sure, there is some liquidity in the market -- >> with rates? >> we have seen it in houses, and bonds and equities and some of the valuations are not necessarily too high, brian, but the way i would say it is that they are high relative to the stage of the recovery. so the markets are discounting that we are going to get through

the vaccine rollout and begin a quite strong economic recovery. >> yeah, roaring '20s or whatever you want to call it, bob, but when you say go too far, you mean keeping rates at or low, or you mean the bond buying qe or both? >> generally all of the program, and listen, it has been big and it has been consistent, and i think that from the very, very beginning, the reaction to make sure that we keep liquidity in the markets, and if there is, you know, things being done to ensure that we get through the covid, the pandemic, and get through the vaccine rollout. so it is the programs al altogether that i am referring to, yeah. >> are you a believer in this idea i mean, we can all debate about the vaccines, and i have been optimistic out there, and the pace is going to accelerate, and are you a believer that there is going to be an incredible economic boom in the back half of the year and then on into

2022. >> yes. the very direct answer is yes. larry canter and i, you know, we jointly wrote a piece recently. and if you can assume an effective and efficient rollout of the vaccine over the next three to four months and you are looking at the potential of all of the stimulus that has been put in the pent up demand, and the second half, then, 100%, i agree with what you are saying. >> but is that built into the markets? and not asking you to make a stock prediction, bob, but is that built into all of the markets, lumber and whatever it might be >> exactly. i think that what i was saying, brian, is somewhat similar to what you are implying there, which is that i think that prices, whether they are equity prices, bond prices, home prices, real estate, they probably reflect that there's an

expectation that we will have an effective rollout of the vaccine over the next three to four months. i think that is probably the right thing to discount that. but i think that the prices do reflect, and they are looking forward and the markets are looking forward with the economic recovery in the second half of this year, and into 2022 so absolutely. >> you have a new spac focusing on the financial transactions, and have you found any good targets yet, bob >> so we can't say it, because we have not announced anything, but we came out of the couple of hours with the team, and we have jeff tutor who has come in as the ceo and on the board tom king who succeeded me at bar cl barclay's capital and henry leibovitz in the technology area, and pete ordman and reciprocal teaching -- rich

richie on the board, and then being able to identify and agree to terms and execute and drive growth in a merger partner. so we are very optimistic, but it is early days. >> yes. it is early, but it is -- >> yes, i was going to say -- >> and bob -- go ahead. >> i was going to say that one of the things that we are finding is that as we are looking at the potential partners, and we talk to our largest investorses who want to b be a part of the pipe as we look at the transaction, the reason that the spac is so accepted in the market today is that once a target is identified in the ndas are signed is, then potential investors are allowed to talk to the team of how the business can roll out over the next couple of years and this is something that the traditional ipo process does not allow. so having a competition to traditional ipo, and they are

here to stay, and the traditional ipos as well, but having a spac process as well as bringing some good competition into the market is good, and it is good for the public markets. >> bob diamond, we appreciate your views on all thing, and what a wild day, and tell your team, and tell them to keep watching cnbc, and that is cnbc, that's fine. but they're all crowded around bob diamond, a real pleasure to you, bob, to you and your team. >> happy new year, brian thank you. still ahd,ea a look at what to expect from apple today

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and with fast nationwide 5g included at no extra cost. we've got you covered. so join the carrier rated #1 in customer satisfaction. and get a new samsung galaxy starting at $17 a month. learn more at xfinitymobile.com or visit your local xfinity store today. apple set to release their numbers out tonight. let's find out what is key the fundamental research analyst joining us now what are the one or two key numbers you and your team are going to watch for tonight >> boy, i feel like i have to say one has to be the units they come out within that, what do they think supply chain looks like for march. that one would be thing. the other could be gross margins. how does the effects lead into gross margins, which i think is

less talked about but could be an indicator. >> it used to be called apple computer i'm not sure we talked about computers in years but you say mac book numbers may matter this quarter. how come >> macs and i-pads have been surprising people. partially as a result of the pandemic i would argue you're going through a fundamental shift here with pcs or macs where we're going with one pc per household to one pc per person that will matter you can have more legs on the consumer deployment of pcs over the next couple of years to enable you for double growth. >> yeah. really hadn't thought about that you have to buy the computer because nobody wants to zoom all day on a phone what kind of guidance, if any, do you think we might see tonight? >> i suspect they will give us a qualitative guide, much as they have given us in the past. but the part that i find very

fascinating, modeling down 30% in march chances are with the demand we're seeing, this could be higher. >> i'll let you get ready. big numbers tonight from apple, amid thanks for coming on cnbc. we appreciate it. >> thank you. all right. that does it for us here on a very busy "the exchange. we're a couple minutes away from the fed statement and interest dow is down 270. 'lsestop is up a lot wel e you tomorrow ""power lunch" is next power lunt

welcome to "power lunch. i'm morgan along with dominic. and we start with breaking news. we are minutes away from a federal reserve decision on interest rates the first one we had for 2021. stocks are retreating from record highs the dow down about 400 points right now. so off the lows of the morning s&p 500 down nearly 2% the show stopping action today is in some of those heavily weighted stocks on a record

volume gamestop, express, amc entertainment are just a few that we can name here, dom. >> 283% returns on the day for koss over there. a massive move there for sure. let's get to what our panel can expect here from the fed later on david kelly is the chief global strategist senior u.s. investment strategist and jim karen, portfolio manager at morgan stanley. we have a jam packed panel here full of experts. perhaps i will start with you, mona this idea right now that the fed is in a position where they can't really do very much, is that true? can the fed pretty much have to stay its course right now? is there nothing we will expect on this afternoon's announcement >> yeah, absolutely. it is not that they can't do too much it is probably that they don't want to do too much here in fact, we just heard from jerome powell a few weeks ago.

he walked back some of the that talk about tapering of asset purchases. he said, no, we are nowhere near ready to think about tapering asset purchases or raising fed funds rates as well. we think here sitting in january -- >> mona, i'm going to cut you off right there. we will go to steve for the fed decision. >> the federal reserve is unchanged at 0 to a quarter percent, maintaining $120 billion of monthly asset purchases of asset securities and mortgage backed securities the fed saying the pace of economic recovery and employment has moderated in recent months before they were talking about the pace of the economic recovery the fed sees weaknesses in those sectors most affected by the pandemic the path of the economy, the fed said, depends on the course of the virus. and now adding the word vaccinations the fed obviously monitoring

that fed ai