percent. s&p higher as well close to record territory as does nasdaq and russell also at gains. >> we have to look at gamestop and amc. both shares are up volatile session today up right now by 9% and 13% we have the former sec chair on tonight and will ask about what the sec might be looking into. thanks for watching "power lunch. "closing bell" starts right now. >> thank you, melissa and tyler. welcome everyone to "closing bell." i'm sara eisen here with wilfred frost. stocks in the green again. this has been a winning week let's look at what is driving the action energy, technology, faang all helping the market the nasdaq set for a record close alphabet is up 9% right now. the meme driven retail frenzy stocks are running hot again gme up 17%, up #9% now cut its gains. some solid, economic numbers helping out the mood as well adp, private sector jobs came in

better ism services also strong 59 minutes left of trade, wilfred. we are set for a record close on the nasdaq >> we are. close to the session highs just off by 10 or 15 points on the dow as we stand. coming up on today's show galaxy digital's outspoken ceo weighs in on the rise of the retail trader and furious rally and subsequent pullback in gamestop. plus the company box is taking on docu-sign in the electronic signature space. we'll speak with the ceo about the new strategy, his thoughts on the shakeup at amazon, and very much more and we've got another big afternoon of tech earnings on the way. qualcomm, ebay, paypal among the names set to report after the close. 58 minutes and 40 second until then and until the close of course the s&p up 0.4%. let's focus in on the big stories we're watching today mike santoli is watching the action joining us to talk about amazon and the big bezos news

but let's start with you and the markets. >> pretty steady performance really market making the case that last week's little shake out was just a scare, a little bit of a fouling up of the risk models hedge funds raising some cash putting much back into the market in the same big tech stocks those platforms showing they are huge earnings machines especially with alphabet out performing today we have almost a round trip from last tuesday, basically 3849 is where the market kind of slipped off that cliff tuesday into wednesday. so we've kind of just returned up there and are getting back up into this up trend i think one of the questions you have to ask is are we just going to rebuild back into that same position of having frothy activity on the fringes of the market, having, you know, equity exposures very high and sentiment very rich. we'll see if it takes higher prices to get to those conditions didn't want to look at alphabet against facebook this is since the day facebook's ipo, and it looks like, you know, almost neck and neck if you consider that this is obviously a nine year, almost a

nine year chart right here look at the spurt that alphabet is making relative to facebook in the last several months you see right here it spent most of this time since, you know, say 2016 or so, trailing on this basis, facebook. so obviously a little bit less of an overhang perception wise in terms of regulatory issues and multiple earnings streams google is able to fire on right now. want to take a look at megacap growth and the valuations having moderated somewhat since the summer still of course quite expensive on a long term basis this is a weekly reading so you're at 28 basically getting back to where we were about a year ago looked very expensive but earnings have come through so strong and the forecasts are so strong and the premium to the overall market looks like nothing particularly out of the ordinary so arguably people say a lot of crazy things seem to be happening on the small cap size, all over the place

these old quality megacap growth companies start seeming like decent vehicles to play any resumption of the up trend, guys >> one point is that it was a little healthy to have a pullback like we saw last week the other question is have we bounced too quickly? nasdaq up 4.5% in three sessions >> it's hard to say if it is too quickly. resilience is a feature of bull markets. they don't let you in. the market doesn't stay in those pullbacks for very long. sometimes i think what actually investors need is the feeling they're not patsies buying the high you get a quick 4% drop and all of a sudden taking advantage of what the market gives you as opposed to chasing it. that dynamic can play out a little bit to your point if we get a few more percent, get to new highs, we'll be in a very similar position to where we were saying hey have we already paid in the market for the good news to come in terms of the economy and earnings from here and valuations of course on absolute levels a little challenging still,

guys >> mike santoli, we'll see you soon amazon worth watching today the stock down a percent ceo jeff bezos is stepping down. he's been the driving force of that company since its founding and plans to take the role of executive chair in q3. taking the helm will be andy jassy who currently runs their cloud computing unit aws cnbc spoke to jassy back in 2019 about the long-term vision for the company. >> we're much more focused on the long term than most companies. we are trying to build a business and a set of customer relationships that outlast all of us. we think if we help our customers get more done and are successful on their own even if it means lower margin percentages over time we'll drive more absolute margin dollars and they'll be more successful and we'll ultimately be more relevant >> joining us now our cnbc contributor who has covered the company and bezos for a while. what do we need to know first and foremost about andy jassy?

what do investors need to know >> reporter: well, he's been there the whole time that is one thing you have to keep in mind much like at microsoft, an incredibly successful ceo. he had his career at amazon and came there after going to harvard business school as a very young man you have to think that way that he has been part of the -- one thing people tend to focus on whether steve jobs or bill gates is that they are the reason everything goes up into the right and obviously they have teams just like tim cook has done rather well for apple despite all of the questions of whether he could do that and the stock has never been more valuable andy has been part of the team that brought amazon where it is and especially running aws which is the most profitable part of the company. it represents 12% of the revenues and 62% of the profits so it has been a critically important business they started from ground zero with andy doing it in kind of the skunk works back in the early 2000s. >> yeah. he's been there virtually the whole time one of the other factors that's

reassuring at least analysts who are publishing on this today, is the jeff bezos as executive chairman what do you make of that role? how involved do you think he will be? >> not chairman. it means it will be actively involved he has a lot of other interests. like all rich people the richest people on the planet want to get off it so he is interested in space travel but he does -- he will still be part of the entire amazon it is like bill gates in the years after he stepped down was there very actively for a long time including on the board which i think jeff will continue to be very active and influential and he really did shape andy's career. so it is not, the jeff bezos effect will not fall away very soon and they can always call upon him to do so. he had already been doing this and putting andy and others in charge of big parts of the business and wasn't as hands on as he used to be so he returned during the pandemic to do a lot more sort of listening to orders and changes and things but this has been something that's been happening for a long, long time. >> is there anything kara the

company is not yet doing, a space they're not yet involved in that becomes suddenly more likely under jassy's leadership? >> yeah. i think health care. getting into health care the idea of amazon being -- amazon knows a lot about you from your buying patterns. they can tell a lot about a family you can see them moving into health care very easily. they're already moving into pharmacy and things like that. but it is just a jump to other areas. some people say, if i can right now order on amazon and get a ginger ale to my house in 14 minutes it feels like why -- they've been offering to do vaccination help and i have to tell you if they had been doing it more than our federal government we might all be vaccinated at this point. there's also problems he has to face unionization efforts amazon is notoriously tough and some people say dangerously tough on employees and unions. they have to deal with the gig worker economy that they are part of. they just had a settlement with the ftc around tips for people that used their drivers and delivery people. and of course antitrust.

you know, that is going to be a big thing. already the ftc and others have investigations going on. so like all of the big tech companies they'll be scrutinized about the data and their marketplace. so a big, challenging job andy is taking on here. >> i was going to ask about antitrust and dealing in general with politicians and regulators and wondered whether you thought taking bezos out of the cross hairs slightly improves amazon's chances of not inviting as much ire perhaps as they otherwise would. >> well, the ire was about president trump who had this weird fixation on jeff bezos that was odd i think to most people probably because he was a more successful business person one of the things that is really important is that jeff doesn't want to deal with it did he want to go up to congress and have to listen to them talk at him probably not he is probably tired it have and doesn't want to do it. andy is probably better suited, more patient i've interviewed him many times and known him for a long time. he gives it back and he is tough

and also a very reasonable person to talk to and very good at it. so let him take it on. i think that congressional hearing didn't go particularly well for bezos or any of them when he was asked about the data exchange between their market place and the stuff they sell and so he is probably like life is far too short i'm one of the richest people on the planet do i really need to keep doing this he has other interests we'll see how it will manifest i think a lot around space travel and he has a lot of other interests. we'll see where that goes. >> and he is stepping down, kara, at a time that is very healthy for the business of amazon incredible record double digit growth for the retailer. obviously during the pandemic. the cloud business continues to be a profit machine. what do you see as the biggest, longer term risk for amazon? is it this antitrust threat or a competitor, or something else? >> no. they're beautiful. they execute beautifully this company is very innovative. if i had to pick one company i really think does work on all

cylinders it is this company that said, these issues around employees and unions are problematic. there are issues around, you know, the kind of influence they have on the market place, the retail and where commerce is going is a question. i think antitrust is something all of these companies are going to be reined in in some way. amazon has to deal with their market place control and things like that. there are lots of issues and also tons of opportunities very few companies can do that especially health care you can see them getting into driving. they're dabbling in entertainment. just were nominated for a bunch of golden gloves today which is interesting. but i think their core businesses, they're heading for the big stuff like health care and some other areas where they can -- and they've also done a lot of government stuff, too that is another area that amazon has been trying to push into. >> with the cloud contract very valuable to have your insight. thank you for joining us

kara swisher, we appreciate it we have just under 50 minutes left of trading. dow is up about 76 points right now. after the break for better or worse, robin hood has garnered a ton of attention over the past two weeks but it is looking to grab even more eye balls this weekend. we'll explain why and how, next. you're watching "closing bell" on cnbc. dana-farber cancer institute discovered the pd-l1 pathway. pd-l1. they changed how the world fights cancer. blocking the pd-l1 protein, lets the immune system attack, attack, attack cancer. pd-l1 transformed, revolutionized, immunotherapy. pd-l1 saved my life. saved my life. saved my life. what we do here at dana-faber, changes lives everywhere. everywhere. everywhere. everywhere. everywhere.

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45 minutes left of trading robin hood entering the main stream lexicon over the past couple weeks but looking to grab even more attention on super bowl sunday. talk about timing, kate. >> reporter: this is robin hood's biggest ad campaign yet with a super bowl spot and of course it comes amid the chaos of trading restrictions, pushback from lawmakers and a couple class action lawsuits the ad's message you don't need to become an investor. you were born one. that is a nod to robin hood's democratizing finance as they

put it and bringing in a wave of new investors. the ad spending is meant to bring new customers but some have argued that keeping up with this rapid growth and demand for some of the volatile stocks has been part of the issue for robin hood i spoke to a few robin hood vc backers this week who said growth is really a good thing. they say new users last week outweighed any attrition that robin hood saw they saw it really as a silver lining here and pretty much the big reason why they decided to double down and invest in robin hood, robin hood did bring in more than $3 billion in vc money in less than a week. back to you. >> so is what you're saying this whole fiasco clurg the fact they had to raise billions of dollars and face liquidity problems has it ultimately been good for robin hood >> that is how the vc investors are framing it they are saying that is the reason they decided this company

was so valuable and they wanted to get even more exposure ahead of an ipo. you might see it as chaos. they say it was a test of robin hood and they were able to keep trading online and the user growth they compared to social media which you never really hear in finance. they say it has the same engagement as a social media and the fact it was number one in the app store for multiple days and is still up there, blew some of these guys away they say that the round was over subscribed because of that yeah $3 billion massive amount >> they're not the only online brokerage that's got a super bowl ad this year. e-trade owned by morgan stanley also have one which is going to be interesting to see kind of highlighting that robin hood is not the only company that's benefited from this y trend of w account openings and seeing that there is an opportunity to take it further i think the other couple points i just note from this is that e-trade have done this before for a run during the 2000s but initially in 1999, which i guess highlights another factor which

is this dmemocratization of trading is not totally new whichever way you slice and dice it and finally a question, kate, whether new account openings all of these companies have enjoyed, maybe it is a bit of a peak. if we're seeing two new super bowl ads from these sorts of companies, you know, it might be one of those buy the room sell the factory kind of moments. we'll have to wait and see >> have we seen the peak a lot of analysts say they expect this to go down they don't think back to prepandemic levels but after people go back to work, things sort of normalize here and people aren't staying at home to day trade they expect some numbers to slow down a little bit. >> it is such a sign of the times, wilfred if you look at who is in and who's out on super bowl ads it has been a pandemic winner door dash has an ad this year. chipotle has an ad which has done well with its delivery service. who's out? coca-cola which is usually

always in the super bowl ad are not because they've been suffering with half of their business out of the home locations. like concerts and sporting events it is very much a story of the pandemic and the retail aspect, e-trade and robin hood just adds to that group. >> who's in and who's out and who has a decent year. the other point quickly, how long the sort of directing and producing goes into making one of these ads, which is obviously likely to be weeks and months not days as it relates to both robin hood and the story has changed in the last couple weeks and you wonder whether the whole gamestop phenomena is glossed over and ignored or whether they adapt it or -- i think these things have been made quite sometime ago i know we're out of time i am looking forward to watching the super bowl for these commercials more than anything else thanks so much for that. still ahead we'll talk much more

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bank of america announcing today it plans to triple its affordable home ownership kmiltment to $15 billion first launch is a $5 billion

initiative in 2019 the bank hopes to help more than 60,000 individuals and families buy homes through the increased commitment joining us now, bank of america's president of retail. very good afternoon to you, steve. thanks for joining us. >> good to see you, wilf >> talk us through this initiative you're tripling the size of it and how exactly will it help 60,000 people buy homes? it's more relaxed terms on lending is it or what exactly? >> so, wilf, when we announced this back in 2019, we had a low down payment mortgage. that is our proprietary program. we also had something we called america's home grant which was a closing cost grant assistance but then announced downpayment assistance as well so the combination of those two closing costs, grants that can go up to 7500, down payment systems up to 10,000, enabled us to help clients with up to 17,500 dollars on a loan to get over that hurdle of downpayment. we're going to keep doing more of the same because we thought it would take five years and in

fact this last month we passed through $5 billion and actually 21,000 homeowners and we see the need we got great response from our clients. so we thought it was appropriate to go ahead to try to triple that and get it done to 60,000 homeowners by 2025 >> what is your outlook, steve, on the housing market as things stand? i mean, clearly it has been pretty hot a lot of reasons cited in particular short supply can that pace continue >> it could moderate some but it is a very -- even if rates will go up from now rates will be historically low what we're seeing is the demand. we have a home buyer insight report where we checked in with clients about the demand particularly given the past year we've all been through with the global health and humanitarian crisis and what we heard from first time home buyers they're still as committed as ever to home ownership >> how do you square that with the rest of the consumer picture

right now, steve, and what's going on with high levels of unemployment and also even in the housing market the haves and have notes, those facing eviction >> so this is one of the reasons why this is so important, sara if you think about it, right, we know that there are still a lot of consumers out there struggling we're also seeing signs of life in debit spend, in credit spend. and we're seeing it in savings and so what we see is clients who may be ready today we've got the right programs to help them. for the clients who aren't ready today we are able to help them continue on the journey to getting ready and so last fall we launched life plan. it helps clients take their priorities and lay out a plan for life goals including home ownership. just since the fall of 2020 we've seen clients create over 2 million life plans we have clients taking advantage of educational materials, a home buyer series on our website

where you can get educated about home ownership and what you need to do to prepare yourself. clients are still interested in consuming that information and preparing themselves for home ownership and, yes, some clients still need to recover from the crisis that we have through the pandemic and we'll help those clients through that period and be there for them as they get back on track. >> steve, you guys always talk and brian does when he comes on about the amazing pace of digital adoption from products like zelle to others particularly sped up by the last 12 months. we've also just seen chase recently announce they're going to the uk without any branches has this changed your thinking about how many branches you need across america in your part of bank of america? >> what we've really seen is an acceleration of the adoption of the tools we've been investing in for years and so whether it is check deposits 85% of our deposits are happening through automated means. sales of products.

clients haven't been able to go into financial centers we see almost half of our sales of products happening online through the digital platforms. and then lending over 70% approaching 80% on mortgages coming through our digital platform 80% of our director consumer auto loans coming through digital as well. so we're seeing that expand our reach, depth, and breadth and are constantly looking at our financial center network just yesterday we announced expansions of financial centers in ohio and we're looking at other markets where we want to enhance our positioning and, clearly, there are also some markets where we look and say, gosh if we are able to continue to serve clients with the same or less footprint we constantly adjust >> steve, thanks for joining us to talk about the initiative and the broader economy. we appreciate it >> thanks. great to be here >> bank of america. up next on the show with about 30 minutes left of trade big swings for vaccine stocks as we get fresh updates in the battle against the coronavirus

we'll bring you up to speed on those movers we are awaiting earnings from paypal, ebay, qualcomm after the bell as we head to the break here is a quick check on bonds for you yields are a bit higher today. the ten year yielding around 1.1% the dow is up 94 heading back up near session highs we'll be right back.

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time now for our daily coronavirus tracker. new developments on the vaccine front to tell you about. glaxosmithkline announcing today will partner to develop a vaccine aimed at targeting new variants of covid-19 vaxart stock is plunging today that company which is developing an experimental coronavirus vaccine in the form of a tablet released disappointing data from the phase one clinical trial showing one dose of the vaccine failed to produce neutralizing antibodies the company says it is now assessing whether there is an antibody response from a second dose promising news on another vaccine. a new study from the university of oxford finding astrazeneca's

vaccine not only protects people from illness but substantially slows the transmission of the coronavirus. which is very good news, wilf. >> and suggesting as well that they should be able to develop later styles of the vaccine for new variants by later this year as well which was encouraging to hear time for a cnbc news update. sue herera has it. >> hello everyone. here is what is happening at this hour. in virginia injuries, destroyed cars, and damaged home after a gas line caught fire and exploded a fire department spokesman says three utility workers have been hospitalized but they are expected to survive. the city of san francisco has sued its public school system in an effort to get students back into classrooms. city attorney dennis herera says the school district gets an "f" for is lack of reopening plans >> more than 54,000 san francisco school children are suffering.

they are being turned into zoom-bies by online schooling. enough is enough >> more progress with training dogs to sniff out people with the coronavirusment german authorities say these dogs have a 94% success rate they can even detect people who may be asymptomatic. that is filu, a belgian shepherd just so you know sara, back to you. >> sounds useful i can see it at airports thank you, sue herera. up next we will break down the stocks rbc is calling hedge fund hot dogs and how the retail revolution is impacting the broader market as we head to break check out the top search tickers on cnbc.com today no surprise. gamestop is number one though it is only up 3.5%. amazon, amc apple, tesla among the top searched we'll be right back.

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the gamestop rollercoaster continues the stock up double digits today before briefly going negative now holding on to smaller gains, 5% or so higher this comes of course after its massive jump and fall during the month of january joining us to discuss the wild swings and the broader impact of the retail trading boom, the head of u.s. equity strategy at rbc. great to see you again you've been doing surveys and talking to your clients to see what the impact of all of this has been on their portfolios i guess some people have made a fortune and lost a fortune on gamestop for those that haven't specifically, what are their concerns about what it means for overall market levels? >> so in terms of the big picture, when we've talked to investors about this some have been adversely impacted by not owning some of these names that have run and others it hasn't affected that much what they all have in common is they are wondering whether or not this is telling us there is too much risk in the market. this is another sign or symptom

of excessive exuberance. and we certainly don't completely disagree but one thing we said in the note this morning is canary is often seen early. when you look back at the tech bubble in particular when i came into the business, people were very upset about all the money washing into technology funds. you really couldn't have gotten upset about all the money flowing into tech funds and growth funds throughout the late '90s and it wasn't until 2000 things turned around yes this is something to be concerned about but it is no the necessarily a reason to say we're not going to have a good year or declare an end to the bull market. we just don't see that >> in terms of your other findings from the survey most hedge funds it seems from the list of stocks with the greatest exposure are really still heavily weighted in the biggest cap tech stocks as you might have expected based on the last couple years' performance. >> exactly we have this one list called the heng fund hot dogs which is

basically the most popular stocks in hedge fund portfolios in terms of the dollar value owned. we have seen fantastic performance in those stocks since 2010 but we haven't seen great performance recently we've actually seen those names struggle a little bit relative to benchmark very mixed performance today on the day. it goes back to last summer but the relative performance of those stocks peaked. i think people are paying attention to this issue recently one of the things we tried to highlight in our note was this under performance has actually been going on for a few months now. this isn't something that is just because of the retail trading frenzy we have out there. >> we've all read and heard about gabe plotkin but what is your assessment of how much pain overall was inflicted on the hedge fund community >> i don't have a great sense on the hedge fund community any particular dollar value. we know we did see degrossing and we did see shorts pulled off. we know there was just i

wouldn't say panic but a lot of frustration and activity around this the past few weeks. i spent a lot of time last week talking to long only managers trying to figure out what the impacts were on that side of of the business what we found was that the growth funds were caught up in this degrossing so we only saw 27% of large cap growth managers out perform their benchmarks last week and that was because a lot of the popular stocks they owned the hedge funds also owned and were selling down. what we saw among small cap managers was different small cap value managers were telling me some of the retail names had become very big weights in their benchmark they didn't own them and suddenly found they were under performing only 9% of small cap managers beat the benchmarks last week and that was because of factors beyond their control. >> looking at your sort of top sector picks for the rest of the year, financials, materials, energy, it is very cyclical and extension of sort of the q4 performance we saw >> we think the reflation trades, there is still room to

run from evaluation perspective. that is something i've been talking to investors a lot about over the past week people are still trying to do work on the fundamentals despite what is happening with the retail trading when we look at things like small caperell tiff to large cap, financials versus the broad market, materials versus the broad market, we still see a very, very good relative valuation case we don't think that reflation thesis is fully baked yet. >> which is why i guess you have a 4100 price target on the s&p, which is a few percentage points higher from where we are lori, are we in the early innings of a new economic cycle and bull market? or the middle? or the end where are we >> i think that's a fantastic question, sara i've been pushing that to my clients because to be honest with you i am worried about a short term pullback. i think valuations have gotten a little stretched for the market. i think sentiment is frothy. i do think that you have to ask yourself what are you going to do with a pullback how are you going to treat it?

we would be buyers on the dip. basically we've been telling our clients we think it is much more likely we are in the early innings of the economic expansion and the bull market is young. we don't think we're in the middle innings that's when you might start to see some of those kind of, quote-unquote reflation trades things like small caps start to under perform once you get to the middle of the cycle. we think it is very early days here so we are willing to ride out potholes in this path of recovery from here >> good to see you thanks for joining us. >> good to see you, too. thanks for having me. up next stocks move higher and the key metric in paypal's report you can always watch or listen live on the go on the cnbc app "closing bell" back in a couple minutes. s&p up one-third of 1% before investing consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. go to flexshares.com for a prospectus containing this information. read it carefully. incomparable design makes it beautiful.

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14 minutes left in the trading day now in the closing bell market zone commercial free coverage of all the action into the close. mike santoli here to break down the crucial moments of the trading day and today we have wealth management's ceo josh brown with us as well. good afternoon let's kick things off with the markets. the nasdaq currently on track for a record close about 0.3% or so on the s&p, 3.3% so far this week. my first question, did the pullback last week therefore flush out all of the sort of overboard aspects, bullish positioning, or are we right back up there very quickly >> i don't think it was a comprehensive flush. i think people did pull in risk

exposures, raised a little cash, and also i think just waited to see if anything else broke it is always part of this to see if they have any victims bobbing to the surface, melvin capital losing 50% in a month, and those usually marked a time when people say okay if nothing else breaks from here, if credit markets have been very, very firm no real flinching there at all i think all of the things felt like it was nothing much changed fundamentally and you got the easing of the volatility eruptions coming from some of those smaller stocks like game stop and it was fine we can go back to our old assumptions. it wasn't as if we really did get people turned bearish and a lot of people raising a ton of cash but the market seems like it is on more solid footing than a few days ago >> what are you paying closest attention to right now, josh still gamestop only up 4% almost like a normal day for that

stock? is it earnings taking center stage? what matters >> yeah. i am following gamestop literally 24 hours a day i can't take my eyes off it. come on. you know me better, sara i'm looking at the leadership stocks and internals and making memes about gamestop i'm compartmentalizing so let's look big picture. what the energy stocks are doing today is exactly what the financial stocks did last week which is exploding out of a three-week pullback. energy stocks have been down about 13% or 14% in the correction now it's like it never happened. we've seen that happen for group after group. we had the situation where we were probably very over bought at the start of the year there was a moment a week and a half ago where 85% of s&p 500 component stocks were above their 50 day that's like a lot of enthusiasm for pretty much every stock.

and that was corrected very quickly. we got down to 42% back at the worst of the correction lows last week. we're back at 58% on that measure. nowhere near being over bought a lot of damage has been repaired good stocks continue to be good. people don't realize google how large and how important it is but also the dichotomy between google and facebook. investors are not just arbitrarily buying everything. index funds are not pushing everything up. google is up 40% while facebook is up 5% since last year so there is definitely i think active investing happening and people making economic decisions on what stocks they want to own. as long as that is the condition we're in, rotation, stocks out of correction, great stocks working better than just okay stocks i think that is where you

want to see things as an investor >> let's hit spotify those shares are moving lower despite beating user growth expectations julia boorstin with the details. julia? >> spotify shares are down about 8% on the larger than expected loss in the quarter and cautious outlook looking ahead. the ceo daniel ek warned about ongoing covid head winds and the possibility the pandemic pulled forward subscriber additions noting there is uncertainty in 2021 that concern outweighing faster than expected. 24% growth in subscribers to 155 million with a total user base that includes the ad supported listeners of 345 million daniel ek was also bullish on potential to increase prices and for podcasts to help drive new subscribers and tried to reassure on the call this morning that the forecast is conservative guys >> it is maybe too conservative. the market doesn't like it

julia, thank you very much mike, when i think of podcasts i would have thought they wouldn't have been that popular with people not commuting that is what they said drove that 24% user growth >> people certainly getting no the habits of just having them rolling in the background it would seem while you're staring at a screen somewhere whether in a car or a train or not i think, you know, obviously a little bit of moderation, enthusiasm, but the stock doubled since may of last year this has been just a roaring name in the market people feel like it is potentially going to be following something similar to the netflix path where we wring our hands about costsand whether they can get paid back in the long term i am not saying it is exactly the same originals you don't kind of own them the way you do in video it is a similar story and everyone decided they had to own it as the next thing in media. very expensive stock but i think just a pullback after a huge

run. >> josh, where do you stand on this one >> i'm not a fan i think it is a great company. i'm a subscriber i love the service but i think there are real questions about what kind of checks they are writing for talent and whether or not there's really going to be an roi or just a lot of write-offs that is not a dis, because i think instinctively they are doing the right thing focusing on podcasts. it just might not be the right way to go about it they are giving people like the kardashians and michelle obama checks or contracts but they're not necessarily having product delivered. and just because somebody is famous and has a big following that doesn't necessarily translate into a good product, into a good podcast that is going to keep users sticky on this platform versus apple so one of the hottest podcasts on the planet right now is the joe button show, and joe very i think astutely pointed out that creators have too many options for this spotify depth star to really take over the whole

podcast game so if that's the big bet they're making and why you're investing you have the stock run up but you're not getting the fundamental news to accompany that to make you feel good about them writing a billion dollars worth of checks to rogan and bill singer and all the rest i'm not in this one. maybe if it pulled back i might take a second look but i'm not convinced this whole podcast strategy is going to move this stock substantially higher from a $60 billion current market cap. >> 8% of pullback today not enough for josh to get interested yet a big pharma deal. a deal valued at $7.2 billion. gw pharma is known for its cannabis based medicines while all eyes are on cryptocurrencies in heavily shorted stocks like gamestop recently, pot stocks have been ripping since joe biden was elected president.

all more than doubled in value so far this year the group also picking up this week after the senate majority leader chuck schumer said democrats would make cannabis reform a priority. the interesting thing about the particularly sharp runnup is they've already had their big first sort of day in the spotlight a couple years back and have pulled back from then it gives it more credence, more fundamentals behind it albeit the runs have been unbelievably fierce >> no doubt about it there is at least a policy you can be monitoring right now not maybe just some day in the future and, yes. they are also a little bit of a hive of stocks, people who are just very interested in the overall movement mj, e.t.f. up 9% today it almost falls along the lines of the solar and the ev stocks where people really believe it is a huge piece of the future is in this industry

and of course the pharmaceutical acquisition is in somewhat a different category from legalization because it is genuinely medical but came at a huge premium and i think at least it sort of underscores some enthusiasm for the possibilities in this area. >> it also comes on the heels of the free tiup so there is deal activity in the space, josh. but couple that with the potential regulatory head winds with the democrat controlled congress and administration are these stocks justified where they are are they still a buy or just running too hot? >> i'm not an expert in them individually but i would just say generally speaking what should happen here is consolidation. deal making is what should happen because in the end, this is going to come down to brand and distribution no different than alcohol. no different than cigarettes a few generations ago. there will be a handful of massive winners. it is not going to be a mom and pop industry i think if you're in the smaller

names you probably want to be in the smaller names because you think someone is going to snap them up and it may not be another cannabis company that does the buying. so don't be shocked if you see more situations with companies like ambev and constellation brands, etcetera i think you could make money here but i really would do my due diligence on these companies specifically i wouldn't just say i want to own the pot stocks broadly speaking because they won't all get acquired some will get stomped into the dirt >> paypal set to report its earnings after the bell. this stock has been on an absolute tear. more than doubling in the last year up 40% in the last three months alone. analysts are looking for a dollar in eps on revenue just north of $6 billion. it's been a huge beneficiary, josh obviously of the surge online, e-commerce growth but it was already a moon shot basically since it spun out of ebay back in 2015 >> yes.

>> is it still a buy >> the stock has been compounding at over 40% since the spin out from ebay and what is interesting about this is that the technology people all said it was a mistake. karl ikan the activist said this would work and he doesn't know much about peer-to-peer energy technology i would bet so he deserves a feather in the cap. i've been praying ever since for it to pull back to 200 hasn't happened yet. i think the stock is going much higher i'm not a seller even if it pops on earnings and if it sells off enough i might add to it i don't think this is anything to do with stay at home. i think this is the new way we move money in this economy a ridiculously sticky platform i think they'll have 400 million users worldwide before the end of this year and it is going to be a must own financial stock even though it is wrongly classified a technology stock in the index. own it as a financial, as the

next century's financial >> going to be really interesting to hear about the monetization part of this. also in crypto we all know how good a run it's had but now worth nearly $300 billion. it is pushing to be one of the biggest financial companies in the country. of course a lot of that -- >> 20 billion in revenue. >> but 6, 67 times pe so way more expensive than the banks. >> throw the p out nobody is looking >> i know. we have just under 2:00 left >> b of a by the way not just a lot of the other banks the internals are sturdy but not really overwhelmingly positive if you look at the advancers versus decliners, positive i think is probably going to make a new high on a cumulative basis today. 1800 up. 1400 down. definitely a little bit of a push/pull underneath the surface. take a look at kind of the stay-at-home versus reopening

flavor today there had been a bit of a push in terms of out performance by those going out leisure and entertainment stocks up, work from home not doing much today volatility index has come in hard we had the little scare, that little eruption of volatility, last week. it is coming back down below 25. it is confirming this calming down, we've seen in the broader averages but not really falling down again into what used to be the normal zone under 20 just yet, sara. >> under 1 minute till the close. we are up for a third day in a row. it has been a strong week so far for stocks the dow is up 58 points sort of in the middle of the range today. of the s&p up 0.2 of 1% but still up 3.25% this week the nasdaq the big winner up more than 4% so far this week and higher again as far as the stand out sector though, it is energy today that sector up 4.25% thanks to

oil prices which surged today and closed at a one-year high on some stockpiles and opec keeping its production cut there goes the bell. forgot to mention the small caps they're the big winners today russell 4000 closing up. it was the only one of the big averages that closed higher for the month of january >> welcome to the closing bell everyone i'm wilfred frost with sara eisen and mike san tolla cnbc senior markets commentator. xxxx we closed with the nasdaq composite down by two basis points or so the s&p up by ten basis points dow up by ten basis points itself so a little gut check in the final hour of trade as you can see nicely from that chart on the s&p 500. the dow higher the session was over a hundred points closing up by 35 but of course it's been an incredibly strong week so far the s&p is up 3% for the week. the dow is up two and a half and the nasdaq up 4% energy was the best performing sector at 4% the worst is consumer

discretionary. investors awaiting a trio of big earnings reports all due any minute we'll break down those numbers for you as soon as they are released tweeting, all squeezes end with greed and gravity. don't over stay your welcome he'll join us to discuss the retail trading frenzy and much more coming up shortly josh brown from wealth management is still with us and our guest joins the conversation as well. mike santoli, i'll come to you first. you mentioned it there in the internals. how bullish is it to see the vix pull down so aggressively over the last couple sessions and does it suggest we've got through the shake out and there is kind of an open field in front of us? >> it is certainly a positive and down a lot in a short period of time. it did pop well above 30 that is always a supportive aspect of when you see the markets recovering you do want to see the implied volume tilts bleed down but again they were almost too high

last week relative to how much the market was down so i still think we're dealing with a market that hasn't fully calmed down the way you would potentially expect it to given where the indexes are relative to the old highs also seventh day in a row where we've actually had a bit of a weak close sell-off into the close. i don't know if it is rebalancing flows naturally moving away from equities or just, you know, the market is at a high and we have to sort out these levels and spend some time here for a little while. overall as i said before, credit looks very good. treasury yield curve steepening. you got the 30 year pushing 2% on the yield it seems like things are lining up behind the bullish case but the market's got to prove it here all we did today was go back and almost get back to where we were last tuesday >> how do you feel about the overall market given the strong week we've had and the weakness before that stemming from some of the retail trading activity and the mania? >> so, sara, what we're seeing

right now is that we're in this choppy market and, you know, at about 3800 we're seeing that we could pull back to 3500 but at the end of the year probably 4,000 plus so this is going to be a choppy market some consolidation and we're just telling our clients that if your forecast is out for six months and you need your capital, you probably want to put some protection on. if you're a long term investor and most of our clients are we're saying that on dips you can actually buy into this market and buy some good names going forward. >> before we get to today's earnings movers we wanted to get to yesterday's in particular alphabet jumping 7%. it seems like you wanted to report your sort of cloud based tech earnings this week not the weeks prior. apple, microsoft for example didn't perform that well after prior earnings but google certainly is >> it tells you how rational

investors are. not only is the earnings report mattering but you are exactly right the context in which you report that number matters, too. today is a more favorable day. alphabet is knocking the cover off the ball third party advertising returned youtube has never been stronger. google told us that they now have more 18 to 49-year-old regular viewers than every single television network combined so as a result, they're eating all the advertising revenue as well and then the wild card, with alphabet, the other bets category not much on waymo this time, something i'm excited about. but either way you got very strong results, more financial disclosure than historically and now they're talking about the new figure backlog for the cloud business and we haven't really heard them talk about backlog before. but that number is also enormous

and google's cloud which is definitely not up there with microsoft or amazon's yet seems to be gaining. i think you are seeing that reflected in the share price >> big mover today google, microsoft higher interesting split. amazon, tesla, apple were lower. qualcomm earnings just out stock looks like it's under pressure josh has the numbers. >> qualcomm reporting q1 earnings per share of $2.17, the street was $2.10 revenue $2.3 billion for q2 they're looking for between $1.55 and 1.75 that's above forecast for revenue. 7.2 to 8 billion unclear if that is comparable to the analysts' forecast digging into the segment's qtc so the chips business 6.53 billion in the quarter. qtl 1.66 billion heading into this print the stock rallied 30% over the past three months more than 80% over

the past 12 months and sharply lower in the after 4:45 eastern. back to you all. >> josh, thank you very much down almost 7% after hoursalludt here >> it was certainly at a high. came out of the low 150s just last week certainly was up on a perch. also the senate conductors, obviously this great leadership group, also down today just seems as if some of the areas are getting a breather and software has taken a little bit of the lead in the last few days so could be one reason for the reaction when you have raised guidance and then get a negative result it shows you which way people were probably leaning. >> what is your view on some of the chip names >> what we see and one of the reasons why we think qualcomm may have been pulling back now is that it is a very competitive market obviously you have nvidia, also

taiwan's media tech. and so it is very competitive. the debt to capital ratio for qualcomm is really high relative to the rest of the industry about 0.85 to 0.35 for the rest of the industry. we see that could be some weakness in qualcomm however, we see strength in the semiconductors long term nvidia for instance, kla corp, texas instruments, all of these are very solid companies and because we have to remember that this is the internet of things and these companies are fueling that we think this is still a good space. you just have to be very careful as you select your semiconductor companies as you go forth. we're looking at qualcomm being weak at niece points but other companies in the semiconductor space that are very strong and continuing to be strong even in this pullback. >> let's get to ebay jumping what, 10% in after hours

why? >> well, very briefly it has beat across the board. ebay earnings, eps coming in at 86 cents a share a 3 cent beat revenue also coming in higher than expected 2.9 billion versus 2. # 2.7 billion expected gross merchandise volume an important metric up. and this is key. ebay increasing its dividend by 13% and expanding its buyback program by $4 billion so that may also be why you're seeing this huge jump in shares it is up 16% year to date so the gains continue however, on the last -- over the last 12 months keep in mind it is under performing some of the other e-commerce names like etsy and way fair we'll continue to dig into this and bring you anything i find including guidance back to you. >> thanks so much.

the top and bottom line beats not that big relative to the 10% jump >> no. but it is the value name in e-commerce it actually has a very sub market pe of like 17 on a forward basis so it is essentially priced for not really having very much growth relative to the overall industry so this would imply, you know, that was genuine financial upside and then of course it always has been a capital over turn story so the buyback and dividend enough of a pleasant surprise to kind of revisit its 52-week high at this point in the low 60s. >> is it enticing josh as diedra mentioned after having lagged some of the other online names like etsy? >> yeah. it's been a winner and i haven't been in it so i guess i've been wrong to ignore it but this is not in my wheel house. i really don't understand the allure of sitting around buying other people's junk all day long so i think it will remain a value stock. they had an opportunity

according to one recent downgrade from a wall street analyst i agree with they had an opportunity to reposition and have a shift in strategy given like how popular online shopping became this year it became the national pastime i think as we get out of our homes and are doing less of that lying on the couch buying garbage i don't think these stocks will lap those quarters and have great comps if you missed it like i wouldn't be like oh, my god i have to own this thing it is just, it doesn't excite me i'm happy for them, glad things are going well i don't see this one surviving in the next phase of growth for the real economy i don't think people are spending all their time on ebay like they were >> that is josh's guidance for the year ahead for ebay. what is the company's own guidance >> more conservative than the company's own guidance this may be another reason the stock is surging q1 revenue guidance above the estimated range.

q1 eps guidance also well above the range you guys back to you. >> stocks up what, 8%? >> talk to me this summer when we're having new year's eve every night of the week. >> but josh. >> and we're at concerts and baseball games talk to me then. >> you've also missed etsy which has ban huge winner in the market >> i agree can't own them all, sara >> six months' time. two quarters time. we'll check back in with these numbers. but today it is moving up and surprised to the upside. i wanted to pivot back to one of your calls more broadly which is energy up 4% today are you saying you like energy names and are buying them or just an observation of how strong that kind of -- >> no. we're broadly diversified but we don't have an overweight to energy and we're not tactically trying to catch bottoms in crude oil. i have no idea how to do that. that is not the game that i am

playing. we have as much energy as exposure as the broader markets have so days like today, when energy out performs everything, if your a he not over weight you're like oh, i should have more energy but there weren't a lot of days like today we have an overweight to emerging markets and have for a while. emerging markets are far out pacing s&p year to date. i know it is only february 3rd or 4th or whatever it is but i think you get some energy exposure being in those names. msc china by the way up 15%. emerging markets up #8%. s&p up 2%. you have to have a push and pull in your portfolio and can't be overweight everything. there are days where things you're not overweight really shine and you have to say okay that is the nature of the game >> josh brown, thank you both for joining us we appreciate it another busy earnings session. up next we're still waiting for numbers from paypal which we'll

share as soon as we get it plus mike novogratz on whether the game is up for gamestop and other companies. plus box ceo aaron levie will be with us. back in 90 seconds on "closing bell." your daily dashboard from fidelity -- a visual snapshot of your investments, key portfolio events, all in one place. because when it's decision time, you need decision tech. only from fidelity.

another volatile day for the reddit retail trading stocks gamestop closing off its earlier highs finishing a little bit higher than 2% despite today's drop, the stock is still down nearly 72% for the week joining us for more the chairman and ceo of galaxy digital. mike, it is good to have you how did you get involved in all of this? i think of you and bitcoin is this related? when did you start tweeting and getting into the reddit retail trading craze? >> my son who is 18 warned me a few days before the whole squeeze, dad, you got to see what's going on. i watched first with amusement as a bunch of young kids were relatively savvy and fipgd out how to really squeeze some of the best hedge fund managers in the world. what fascinated me was as the squeeze went on it became a social movement, right, and it became david vs. goliath the little guy vs. the big guy

the generational millennials and gen z versus baby boomers. then it got really nilistic. i don't care if we'll lose money we are going to burn down wall street when robin hood had its issues with not enough regulatory capital because it was growing so fast it got ugly. there were death threats there was just an anger i don't see often in markets it was reminiscent to the anger at the capitol three weeks earlier where they were tearing down our sacred institution. i found the whole thing fascinating and frustrating as well there were senior people, guys who should know better that were egging on this horde it wasn't the social side. but getting stuff trading 20 to 30 billion a day, guys that got in early great you were bringing all kinds of new participants at levels that were guaranteed losers so now we've had to go from 500 back to a hundred on its way back to 46 there are a lot of people who lost a lot of money that didn't

have to. and, you know, that is the markets. you can say we're all big boys, but it felt like we worked the little guy into a frenzy you know, the retail investor, and they sucked in tons of new people at bad levels >> right so did you have a position at any point in all of this because i was wondering because you did put out that tweet in the middle of it comparing it to black lives matter and comparing it to the capitol insurrection just for full transparency, were uff jut an observer? >> when it got very high and stupid levels i was lucky enough not to be short. i don't spend that much time in the stock market i did a lot of selling of the xrt, which has the retail etf with a lot of gamestop and other names in it. and, you know, i was on, your sister show in the morning i was very clear people are going to lose all their money if they're buying it here that wasn't to say people that

shorted it weren't smart they were great but guys getting in two or three days later those shorts never work. stocks without a purpose right meme stocks don't work because the people in them decide to sell them to take profits so they can go buy a car or a new suit depending how much they had. the guys that bought them as soon as they start going down oh, what did i just do greed and gravity take over and it was a classic pump and dump we see it in the crypto markets often. a crypto literally set up as a joke and got up to an 8 billion market cap. >> do you think there are similar themes at play, mike, in terms of broadly speaking the type of people and the movement that drove gamestop higher all of a sudden and what happened to bitcoin particularly the latest leg of bitcoin that got it above 40 k >> i think the underlying spirit is the same.

of people being sick of the center being sick of the guys in the middle getting all the perks the top 1% getting to buy ipos and getting easy access to private equity and venture funds. feeling like the game is rigged. that was the sentiment that comes out. i would differentiate between some of the big cryptos. bitcoin was built with the purpose of being a store value bitcoin has a purpose. ethereum has a purpose where gamestop at 25 billion had no purpose it was just a meme i felt bad for the people buying it because i knew they'd lose their money. the money going into crypto is really that same revolutionary spirit but they're buying it because they kind of believe in this whole newark te architectu being built. >> despite that you did put out a tweet earlier, don't over stay your welcome do you apply any of that sentiment to bitcoin, don't over stay your welcome point? >> i don't yet

there was a squeeze in a ek toen called xrp went from 25 to 70. i was like oh, it's going right back down and it went right back down even with encrypto there are things that got squeezed that don't really have the community building on it don't really have the purpose. are a lot of people in bitcoin yes. are a lot more people getting into bitcoin shockingly so. mic michael saylor who runs micro strategy and has famously gotten into bitcoin with his corporate has a two two day, online seminar for cfos and ceos and literally so many people trying to get on it today you know, the internet broke a few times. he's had over 1500 ceos and cfos, you know, dialed in all day learning about how he bought bitcoin, why, you know, i'm speaking on his thing tomorrow at 4:00. so he's got service providers and there is an unbelievable

appetite right now for corporates, institutions, big banks to learn about this system i literally spent all my day on phone or on zooms educating new investor groups. i think we are really early still in this shift in crypto. >> on a related note but back to the reddit drama the sec is going to look into this. we know that whether anybody had ties to the company or there were big institutions egging these retail traders on or posting on social media. are you looking at that as a bitcoin investor for a precursor on what could come do you expect a more tough regulatory regime from the biden administration on bitcoin? >> i don't gary gentzler is the new head of the sec. he taught a glass on block chain on mit gary is very fair and progressive. i think if anything he'll look at the banks as these big rent takers and say why are we charging so much on atm fees

you know, he understands crypto. i think he'll regulate crypto in a fair way i think there will be a good set of rules and all systems need a set of rules the more clarity we get, what was frustrating with jay clayton is he never said anything so the crypto group was trying to figure out what was okay and what wasn't. the moment there's a clear set of rules, you're going to see a ton more acceleration. >> going back sort of similar to my last question but not quite the same, do you fear the sentiment might shift even though people might have bought the two assets for completely different reasons, long term versus short term, etcetera, do you fear a shift in the retail investor's mindset if they've experienced losses for the first time in a big way over the last month that maybe they didn't over the prior year or two and that that could affect whether it's bitcoins of this world or teslas or the broader markets in total? >> listen, you know, we are in an asset led bubble collectively

fueled by chairman powell. and so the one risk equities have, bitcoin has, that the whole system has is we're going to see spectacular growth coming out of covid right? you see the graph of covid it is starting to plunge and so between people who have got it and vaccinations i don't know if it is april or may, some period in late spring early summer there is going to be an explosion of pent up demand. we're already seeing tightness in industrial numbers. even during covid we stopped producing a lot of services. people stopped going to low tells and what not but the good stuff never slowed down and the supply chain did. and manufacturing. so there's inventory shortages one of my favorite statistics is 25% of all homes built haven't been -- i'm sorry 25% of all homes bought haven't been built

yet. and so there is this backlog in housing. so we'll see a complete explosion of the economy it's going to be hot if chairman powell keeps his foot to the pedal, stocks are going to fly if he flinches and says, oh, man. i know i said three years without raising rates, but this feels kind of dangerous, and decides to, you know, take the punch away from the party early, tapers early or decides to raise rates early you could certainly see a giant reversal in sentiment, right everybody is betting on the fact that powell is going to keep rates low forever. >> that's what i don't get though, mike is it a macro story or not for bitcoin? you just said it is because there is so much adoption and all these institutions are looking at it and all these companies are looking at it. if you really feel that way, then it shouldn't trade like a macro asset like the dollar based on what the federal reserve is doing >> sara, there are two stories at the same time right? there's an amazing macro backdrop to bitcoin as a hard

asset and an amazing amount of adoption it's why bitcoin is digital gold i think it could rally even with gold going down. if gold goes down a ton, it is going to certainly dampen how enthusiastic people are for bitcoin. they're buying it because they are worried about the debasement of currency. they are buying it because they see, you know, canadian debt printing more debt in one year than they did in the entire history of their country same thing going on in the u.s., right? we're running $4 trillion deficits that is the story that is getting people to buy and they are saying this is a better value than the ones we used to have millennials and gen zs kind of money of the social network. it is a more trans fordable and storable digital goal than gold. this transition is happening at an accelerated rate because we have this beautiful tail wind

and so the only giant risk is if the whole world is wrong and that tail wind turns into a head wind because growth is so strong, that slams on the brakes, yeah, then i don't think the bitcoin will go higher. >> mike, always great to catch up thanks for joining us. >> thank you guys. paypal earnings just crossing kate rooney has them for us. hi, kate. >> hi, wilf. paypal with better than expected earnings and new records in terms of revenue and payments volume nongap eps was about 8 cents above what wall street was expecting. that grew about 30% or 29% year over year. revenue topped 6 billion for the first time ever for paypal that came in at 6.1 billion. again better than expected account growth paypal added 16 million net new active users in the quarter. they now have 377 million accounts total paypal is giving full year guidance that was better than expected. 25.5 billion there

and q1 guidance also looks better than expected the company is expected to grow revenue at 28% total payments volume up 36% year over year and crypto engagement. we don't have any metrics on cryptocurrency remember they launched that option to trade things like bitcoin in the fourth quarter. they say those who are crypto are twice as engaged as the average customer back to you. >> paypal up 1.4% in after hours trade. faang focus up next. mike santoli will have a look at the market's slightly less extreme concentration in the bank stocks and what it could mean for investors looking for more opportunities like gamestop or amc cnbc pro did a screen of small cap stocks with significant short interest but also have upside compared to the sell side price targets. so hated by hedge funds liked by analysts essentially names like american eagle, winnebago, jack in the box

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ebay jumping on strong earnings and guidance trading up nearly 10%. now numbers also crossing and kate rogers has them for us. >> the company coming in with a worse than expected quarter here loss per share 41 cents compared to analysts' estimates of a gain of 5 cents per share revenue $504 million lower than the $06 million estimated. up nearly 40% year over year but the company saying that commission caps instituted in a lot of cities to try and help independent restaurants that we all know are really struggling during this time wound up hurting its profit here. cities have capped commissions on deliveries to around 10% to 15% so grub hub and other delivery companies are having to pass those costs on to consumers or eat them up themselves. that is now weighing on the earnings that the company just reported so the stock taking a hit in after hours. back over to you guys.

>> rate rogers, thank you. back to mike santoli looking at market concentration of big tech giants >> of course it was the big story last summer in that huge nasdaq rally we got to a vast, historic extreme. this is the top five s&p stocks the percentage of the overall index well above the year 2000 peaked by this measure we did come off that the market did broaden out the percentage, allocation to the big five stocks has eased back a little bit though perked up right here recently as you did see the moves in alphabet and some of the other big megacap stocks on earnings they also provide a tremendous percentage of the earnings if you look at this long term you'd say maybe i'd rather own the equal weighted s&p index which you can. here is a long term performance of the equal weighted s&p against the market cap weighted. this seems like it is massive under performance but on a long term basis equal weight has done really well. it burst higher after the

2,000s, and as the bull market matures it moderates and the market narrows who knows where we are right here if this is going to follow that path. that is why some people are thinking we're ripe for out performance by the kind of more egalitarian equal weighted version of the s&p, guys >> thank you taking aim at docu sign and adobe up next box ceo aaron levie on the big deal to enter the e-signature market we'll be right back on "closing bell."

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shares of box higher today after announcing it is acquiring sign request for $55 million box ceo aaron levie joins us now on a first on cnbc interview good to see you again. >> thanks. good to see you. >> talk us through this entering the e-signature market i'm also interested following your tweets and stuff today that this seems to be something you'll offer for free to your existing clients is it already becoming kind of that commoditized this service >> our strategy at box is we want the end-to-end platform for helping customers power all of their work flows around content. that is everything from ingesting files to being able to collaborate on data to being able to secure that content and ultimately drive the mission critical work flows around the critical content in an enterprise for us e-signature capabilities are a really important pillar of

that full journey that goes through a business process as we saw in 2020, customers all around the world were calling us saying, hey. we want to be able to go and automate and streamline our digital work flows and e-signature capabilities are an important part of that that is why we decided to include this functionality in our business subscriptions and bring the value of box sign to over a hundred thousand customers globally >> do you think there will soon be lots of companies offering the same services as opposed to the way at the moment we all use docu sign or one or two others >> i think box probably plays a unique role in the market where we are already the content cloud for over a hundred thousand customers so we are the platform where companies are managing their most critical documents and mission critical data in their enterprise i think it is a fairly unique situation for us to be able to include this within our box subscription plans i don't necessarily think that will be a broader trend in the market but obviously remains to

be seen but certainly for box we wanted to enter this space and be able to add way more value to our customers to help them really begin to streamline more and more of their digital work flows in the cloud >> just looking at a stock chart, aaron, of your company, box, over the last year, it's really not done much and is lower over the last 12months if you look at so many other cloud stocks, technology, software to service stock, they're all higher and have boomed as a result of the work from home, stay at home, move into cloud why hasn't yours >> we have seen i think a healthy amount of growth throughout the past year we did experience some head winds in someparts of our business the small business segment that we serve certainly was dealing with some of the real challenges of covid especial i the first two quarters of last year. we also mentioned on our last earnings call our professional services revenue really our consulting business where we help customers deploy box that actually had lower revenue because we saw more of our

revenue coming in from existing customers expanding their existing usage of the product so they weren't requiring the same level of professional services i think we're certainly happy about the performance and growth we saw over the past year but we know there is way more potential in bringing box to way more customers and expand even more broadly within the customers we already have that is what products like box sign are about and ultimately building this vision of being the content cloud for our customers and providing end to end work flows for their management >> i was wondering what your take was on the leadership transition at amazon and if you see it as another big vote of confidence in cloud more broadly. we've seen cloud leaders take over at a number of these big tech companies now >> yeah. at this point, you know, we probably don't need that much more endorsement for the industry this is certainly the computing paradigm of the future no question that we're certainly not going back from cloud

computing. andy jassy is an incredible leader, so i think he was probably a fantastic choice to run amazon irrespective of running aws business but also clearly a testament to how powerful cloud has become at amazon and how important they see that in the future of their business >> are they a friend or a foe for you, aaron, and how does jeff bezos not being at the top make a difference in that? >> well, i think they are a friend we use their technology. we are i think significant partners in terms of how we work together we absolutely enjoy all the benefits that they've been able to deliver to the market in terms of lowering the cost of computing, creating more scale in internet computing. we are really big fans of the mission and what they've delivered and again i think andy has been just a huge champion of this revolution. so him at the top of the company i think is a great sign for where amazon is going. >> just quickly wanted to get

your take on the craziness we've seen in game stop share prices and the driving factors behind it do you celebrate all that's happened or is it something that concerns you that there is a bit too much risk being taken? >> yeah. i think certainly the movement and the idea that individual investors can band together and, you know, ultimately share investment tips and potentially invest in companies that maybe are mispriced by the market, i think that is a positive thing i think that what's really important, though, is that investors understand the risk of when you start to have valuations that might begin to be dislocated from the fundamental value of the organization that is always a risk in the investment community whether individual investors, hedge funds, any type of investors i think the movement is a really powerful sign of the future of investing but obviously i think individuals need to just make sure they're being very thoughtful about their individual investment decisions.

>> thanks so much for joining us much appreciated >> thank you. still ahead on closing bell we'll discuss paypal earnings beat with analysis up 2% in after hours trade 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 to consider municipal bonds from hennion & walsh. if you have at least 10,000 dollars to invest, call and talk with one of our bond specialists at 1-800-376-4376. we'll send you our exclusive bond guide, free. with details about how bonds can be an important part of your portfolio. hennion & walsh has specialized in fixed income and growth solutions for 30 years, and offers high-quality municipal bonds from across the country. they provide the potential for regular income...are federally tax-free...

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welcome back time for your cnbc news update with sue herera. hi, sue. >> hello everybody here's what's happening at this hour members of far right groups involved in the capitol hill riot may be charged under a federal law usually used against organized crime. reuters says the justice department is considering the use of the rico statutes that call for long prison sentences groundbreaking for president obama's library is set for this fall the obama presidential center will be built on the south side of chicago on a 19-acre site virginia's senate has passed a bill which would abolish the death penalty. a major change for the state that is second only to texas in its number of executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. virginia's house and governor must still approve the measure for it to become law in the uk a nationwide round

of applause. a big clap for the late 100-year-old veteran and health care fundraiser captain sir tom moore. prime minister boris johnson took part. so did health care workers and evening commuters as well. moore's family members say they are incredibly touched by the tribute. you are up to date sara, back to you. >> an international hero amazing. >> so inspirational and a good soul i was so glad he was knighted by the queen. i just was >> how about that? made it through a few news updates in the last year. up next shares of paypal are moving after reporting earnings up more than 23% revenue growth. looks like fourth quarter volume rose the stock is up 2% after hours

'ldiinhether it is still a buy after a monster run. we'll be right back. this is decision tech. find a stock based on your interests or what's trending. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity. obsession has many names. this is ours. the new lexus is. all in on the sports sedan.

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paypal shares up 2% after hours beating revenue and earnings estimates the stock building on a year of epic returns more than doubling in the last 12 months. guidance also coming in above forecasts and for the quarter payment volumes rising 39% joining us now is the managing

director at webb bush securities with an out perform rating and a price target of $275 for paypal. how much longer can they continue to put up numbers like this >> oh, we believe that given the systems of the company building in front of the company's building, revenue growth that accelerate on on of that, scale and margin spanks given the fact that they carry much premium fees, so top plank growth accelerating, better margins, 70 million new accounts that were added last year. they still have to get monetized. from our perspective, you have an earnings power of nine to $10. it's probably conservative >> where are we on the curve of monetization is that already starting to pick up or is it still a little way

off? >> sure. venmo's one of the things they're trying to do in terms of the consumer facing platform that they have there's bill pay, there's p to p. there's money transfer these are different services they're trying to sell their active consumer base venmo's very early in that process. venmo has about 60 million tiff users. that's out of 380 million that the company has as a whole there's more to go there there's more to go in term of margin spanks, specific from a scaling that you're getting from venmo. this is only one part of that business the other part of the business is merchants they catered to 28 million merchants and stole a building off ek system that are selling into that merchant base as well. >> thanks for joining us much appreciated >> sure. >> still to come, we'll dig into ebay and qualcomm moving in opposite directions.

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tomorrow we got earnings from pin stress and snapchat julia is here with what to expect >> they're both expected to benefit. that's a rebound that benefitted google and amazon in this past quarter. snap's projected to grow its revenue 53% in the quarter pin stres, 61% as both are expected to benefit from ads helping drive e-commerce during the holiday quarter. the two stocks have sored over

225% in the past 12 months with buyer overweight ratings of about two-thirds of analysts now the question is what the outlook is and whether the past year's gains can continue into 2021 >> julia, thank you very much. mike, as we look to tomorrow and figure out whether this win streak can continue. it's been three days in a row now coming off last week's weakness i was looking at the ten-year treasury 1.13%. what's the primary driver? is it the realization that earnings are coming in better than expected fundamentally driven by things in the economy like ad spending >> i think it's confirmation of the general consensus even a few weeks ago that the economy is definitely getting into gear, vaccinations are spreading, cases are coming down. so treasury is bullish as i mentioned, the 30 years up

near 32% we have had a fade in the last couple of days i think earnings are largely baked in even though they've been incredibly positive look at some of the knockon effects of paypal and door dash coming off grub hub as well as some of the take away from the miss on qualcomm as well in those sectors. >> we're out of time here on "closing bell. thanks for watching. "fast money" starts now. >> this is fast money in tonight. tonight on "fast," here come the regulators demanding answers adds a reddit rebellion fuels market swings. whack be done? the top regulator will join us straight ahead plus, tracking after hours action of qualcomm and paypal. calls are under way. we'll bring you the