and how is it that we can help our customers really think about prevention, think about covid has taught us that the, the importance of prevention, and what the human genome gives you is this information about what your risks are, and now what we're going to be able to do is give you more and more of those ways, to help keep our customers healthier. we found over 75% of our customers were already taking actions trying to be healthier, and so the next era for us is about using your genetic information to benefit from the human genome and actually have a healthier longer life. >> ann wojcicki, we appreciate you being here, sir richard branson, thank you so much back to you, andy. >> thanks, meg and appreciate you bringing us that interview be sure to join us tomorrow. "squawk on the street" begins right now. good thursday morning, welcome to "squawk on the

street." i'm carl quintanilla, with jim cramer and david faber coming off three straight gain force the dow and the s&p, and futures are steady amid of wave of earnings with tech, and jobless claim, lowest since november, yields on the long bond, the highest since march. our road map begins with apple's ev play, nearing a deal with hyundai, kia, for the long-awaited apple car plus pharma transition merck ceo ken frazier announcing his retirement from the role later this year. and treasury secretary yellen set to meet with regulators this morning to discuss the recent retail frenzy in the markets carl jim, you just tweeted you're excited about this show. i wonder if it's about apple >> how you can not be? when we talk about companies doing things in gigantic markets, scale markets, which of course is what phil labeau's expertise is, the biggest one,

car, and apple probably the biggest consumer transaction brand name in the world fand that's the case, if you're not excited about, this then you're really fixated on a brick and mortar place to be able to buy play stations. i prefer to think about a much bigger market which is cars and the best brand name in the world which is apple so i can't wait to see what phil has to say. >> we will talk to phil in a minute >> david, a couple of bition po point, big points to be made on phil's scoop yesterday and who increases, after they get into a market like this >> a total adjustable market we hear a lot about that, every spac seems to be, to have a greatly-expanding totally addressable market but you're right, carl, if they're moving to this in a real way, one would expect that it will attract interest from many different consumers, for any number of different reason,

including of course all of those people who are so passionate about so many of their different apple products and we know we're in the midst of a revolution as it. is and we don't talk autonomous anymore. although perhaps we should come back to it given carl, we had thought perhaps we would be at a point where we would start seeing autonomous vehicles all over our roads but we do talk a lot about electric vehicles which are going to be a very important part of our future, if not our present. >> yes, let's get to phil la beau who brought us this yesterday, to talk more about what may be in play. good morning, phil. >> good morning, carl. let's run down what we broke yesterday afternoon, after hearing this and confirming this with multiple sources. so this is a story that we've been working on for some time. here's where things stand between apple and hyundai/kia, they are in talks, have been in talks for some time about reaching an agreement, finalizing an agreement, where there would be production of an apple car, at the kia plant in west point, georgia. that's about 90 miles southwest of atlanta

it's a plant that's been around for a number of years. there are kia models that are built there right now. and they have available capacity it would be an autonomous electric vehicle i heard david mention autonomous, that's the key part of this. and i'll explain why in a little bit. it is scheduled for production in 2024. though the people i talked with have said look, this might get pushed back a bit, it might not happen until 2025. the apple hardware and software will be in the vehicle in other words, this will not be apple software in a kia model. this will be an apple car, with apple playing the dominant role in both the design of the hardware of the vehicle, physical hardware of the vehicle, as well as the software we reached out to representatives from apple, for a comment on our reporting yesterday afternoon, and the company declined to comment, and as you take a look at shares of hyundai, we also reached out to representatives from hyundai, they also declined to comment. overnight, our colleagues in europe were interviews the ceo of volvo, hawking samuelson and

they asked him about the report and here is what he had to say about apple becoming an automaker. >> >> they will be putting pressure on all of the traditional automakers and the best way to react is of course to adapt. >> and he went on to say that you've got to adapt by becoming a premium automaker who can offer electric and autonomous and everything that apple is going to be getting into in this market, real quick guy, we're showing you ford because we will be hearing from ford after the bell on q4 results curious during the conversation call, jim, how many questions the ceo jim farley may get about apple and its move towards finalizing a deal with hyundai/kia. jim? >> phil, i think they have, to phil, because i think one of the most curious things for people watching the show right now is we know that apple has the finest consumer reputation in the world, we know that ford is,

under mr. farley, doing better and better, but phil, you are a huge believer in watching consumer reports and what people think of brands. is this a brand that is equal to apple, when it comes to consumer satisfaction >> are you talking about ford, if ford is equal to apple in terms of consumer satisfaction >> hyundai. >> hyundai within the auto industry >> yes. >> this gets into why would apple want to partner with hyundai, and it comes down to this one of the driving factors here is the chairman of hyundai, his name is e.s. chung, and he became the chairman of the company in october but you know, the family had long been guiding hyundai, not only in the auto business but they're in a number of different industries in korea, and he has said goal number one, mobility mobility as a service is goal number one in the future not to be just an automaker. but to have mobility at the core of everything that hyundai does.

and there are some people, jim, who will sit there in the auto industry and say you're letting the fox into the henhouse, if you let apple into your plant, you think that apple is going to help you, hyundai does believe that apple will help hyundai as it develops its own portfolio of electric as well as autonomous vehicles and if you were apple, why would you partner with somebody like hyundai? or carl, they've got a great reputation when it comes to reliability, and manufacturing expertise. there's no doubting that at all. ask people in the auto industry, to name the two or three automakers that they look up to in terms of saying who has it and who does it right, toyota, hyundai, they're at the top of the list, and so if you're apple, it makes sense to potentially strike this deal with hyundai to build this apple car in georgia >> phil, while we have you, much shorter term, i wonder what you made of the gm statement yesterday about chip short annuals and other third party

roch looking at production being impacted in the first half how acute is that going to be? >> it will impact the entire industry i think the first quarter global auto production is going to be about 3, 4, 5%, somewhere in that range this is worldwide, carl. and for a while, general motors was able to get in front of this, by working with their suppliers, and adjusting their schedules, but eventually, the chip shortage is for everybody it's not just a gm problem, or a ford problem, they're trying to adjust production, carl, and focus on still building the full-sized pick-up trucks, the suvs, the corvettes, the high profit vehicles. guys, back to you. >> phil, great work. talk to you soon obviously so much going on, on your beat, jim, and you've been pretty prescient on looking at that chip shortage and how it would impact the car business. >> look, last night, what was the theme?

there's too much demand. they make semiconductor capital equipment. we will be following qualcomm very closely this morning. they couldn't make the numbers why? they have a chip shortage. and we know with the auto company, they have certain lines and phil lebeau has helped me on that, they can't make the product, including products in great demand i think it is going to crimp the numbers. i think it will make people say wait a second there are real issues here that can't be solved short term and that is true, carl it takes a lot of equipment, a lot of spending, to be able to build out new foundries. and everyone was caught unaware except for last night, liam griffin at sky works says we have no shortage, he saw it coming, it depended on vision, carl, not everybody had vision but one man did, liam griffin, that's why i like sky works so much. >> we'll talk more about that this morning. we do want to pivot, guys to merck. the company as you may know by now announcing ken frazier will step down as ceo at the end of june and succeeded by cfo robert

dave, move to the role of executive chairman frazier of course one of the few black corporate chiefs in this country, ceo since 2011, and the stock has more than doubled during his tenure. jim, i know you are a fan. they do guide higher this morning as well. >> well, ken frazier has done some things here at merck that has made it so i am, he is one of my personal favorite, i lost my mom to cancer at a very young age and i would go back and forth to ken, ken did not make any claims that said his drug, which is the most important drug right now fighting cancer, was going to perform miracles and that's ken's nature, he didn't want to give people false hope, at the same time, he drove profit ability, he is leaving the company, stepping up, in very good hand, for the cfo, but carl, it takes a great deal out of the ceo to not make claims, and when you're talking about people's health, and those of us who have lost loved ones to cancer, all we ever want to hear is truth we want to hear trust. ken frazier, he represents

trust. >> the second day in a row, jim, after bezos, we're seeing a ceo leave, but remain executive chair. and there's some discussion this morning about what that means for the incoming ceos, how much they have someone looking over their shoulder, at least in the early days, is that a healthy trend? >> i think it is i mean you have some ceos who just say see you later, i mean one of the things i loved about dave cody when he retired at honeywell, i went to a retirement dinner and there was darius adamcheck, and see you later and look at the job that darius has done at honeywell but some people like to be consulted with, i also in this era, when we're so worried about ceos who leave, when you hear that executive chairman, what it says that listen, there's absolutely nothing going on other than the fact of an excellent transition. and that matters greatly because we're not saying, we're not sitting here discussing

whether anything happened with ken frazier. what we're saying is he's moving on jeff bezos is moving on and we know that because they took the executive chairman role and i always feel very confident, i love ken, and many of us love ken, because we know that ken is a person who stands for conscience, and i will say he will be missed, i won't say he will be missed because you is an executive chairman, and i hope he comes on the show because he is a dlit and inspiration, and his talk to the philadelphia eagles, is still talked about as the greatest inspirational talk they've had in a decade. >> take a listen, i think we have a bit of sound here, of frazier. is this from this morning, on the call let's hear what he said. >> it has been a distinct honor and privilege to serve this great company as its ceo over the past decade. i thank all of my colleagues for their extraordinary support throughout this period we are making this leadership

change secure in the knowledge that merck has the elements in place for a strong future of scientific innovation, and profitable growth. rob davis is well prepared, and well suited to help merck capitalize on the many exciting opportunities before it. as well as to take on the challenges that lie ahead. >> by the way, david, i mean you're doing this great new digital series about how ceos over time are speaking out on topics beyond just the immediate business, and certainly frazier has been one of the most powerful and effective voices when it comes to addressing race and opportunity gaps in this country. >> no doubt. and his voice has been a very important one. and in fact, other ceos have seen him choose to engage, and that is involving them to do the same very interesting and i appreciate you mentioning it because we will continue to do these series of ceo

interview, carl, exploring this new willingness of corporate america to wade into areas that we discussed many times that had simply been very reluctant to do so in the past guys, i did want to quickly put an end on a story that we have been following for some time, we haven't mentioned it corelogic, getting sold, $80 a share is the purchase price interestingly the stock had actually moved up because there was a report of an all stock bid from one of the other potential buyers for the company but the buyer is private equity. and it's going to be announced momentarily. stone point capital, and inside partners and again $80 a share, all cash, they've got the financing obviously in place you might wonder why would the company choose 80 bucks over what was a higher bid, all stock? well, certainty is certainly a key one there. so they went with what they felt was the certain, all cash, 80 bucks and i don't know that the release is quite out yet but it

will be in a moment is my understanding, prior to the open but we did want to sort of put an end to that, because remember of course, the company did come out, we reported it and said they had interest at or above 80 bucks a share, they did finally make good on that. had an option. a number of firms sort of peeled away but they had enough to get to that $80 a share offer remember, we had bill foley on, of course they started all of that, with what was a 66 or $67 a share bid at one point i should say knan and senator, senator the hedge fund involved. and the mortgage market, as you might imagine, give the ebullient housing market, 80 bucks a share, private equity, carl, with that, i'll send it back to you. >> all right jim, any thoughts on that? >> well, look, i think i've used their data it's rather extraordinary. some of these fin tech companies, are so, are really

amazing. we are talking now about paypal, but corelogic has been someone who is reliable, i think that it is one of those situations, i'm sure david will be covering it, not that long from now, where it become public at $100 and we will say what an opportunity the fact that there are so many companies that have really, really have a higher price to them reminds me once again, so many say the market is expensive. it turned out there were multiple people, very smart, wanting to buy core logic, so david, again, of course, unbelievable work, but it's worth every penny. it's a darn good company. >> you're right, jim it will come public in three years with betsy cohen's 25th fin tech spac. that's what will bring it public [ laughter ] >> bingo >> that's sort of where we are in the story we'll take a break here. a lot of earnings to get to. we mentioned a couple of them in retail and technology, qualcomm, paypal, roughly lauren, clorox, canada goose, yum, we'll talk about what the treasury

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warrant further action >> that's the treasury secretary this morning, taking her message, jim, to a broad audience on "good morning america," talking about regulation, not specific to gamestop, but also talking about the stimulus package again, repeating better to go big than not big enough and says that the economy does face what she called some tough months ahead >> she's a remarkable person she's got the eye on the prize which is putting as many people to work as possible. and getting so that people can put food on the dinner table but i'm also gratified that she is addressing directly the idea that perhaps people will be disenfranchised by what happened last week, and that not everyone may be, look, you know, regulation needs disinfectant first, we got to find out what happened and i hope that secretary yellen analyzing and you know how important it is, did the individual investor at robinhood get the best price was there an opportunity to be

able to get so that you really did get everything you needed for commission trading being free, and then david, you know, what is the element of trust here, when you have different stocks that you can't trade, especially when you're so enthusiastic and you want to be able to get the price of a stock that you're not allowed to trade. what does that say >> yeah, maybe you want more transparency, i don't know, jim, also, i assume they will take a look on the short side, and some of these charges, you know, of 140% of the float being short, which by the way i do not believe was the case, i think there was a lot of double counting there it's my understanding, jim, and you may know better than i, that, you know, you can't make a short, you can't do it, at least you'll get called pretty quickly from the regulators if you try to do it so i would like to see the evidence of those numbers that were out there, that were shared by the likes of chamath on our air for example, i never believed they were true.

>> wow okay that's very important, because at the heart of the thesis from some web sites, obviously, was that we can break this company, because there's more shares that are shorted than are in existence, but you know hat, david, you're totally right, just in terms of the disclosure, it has been so crummy, i mean it's been, it's been monumentally bad, and if secretary yellen actually did, well, you had a good point, that if you do have better segment, same day settlement, maybe some of this wouldn't happen and if you didn't use a lot of margin, maybe you wouldn't have been hurt we got to stay on this story secretary yellen very hands-on, david. i really like that really good, carl. >> yup, looking at a big microphone, that's for sure. guys, we will talk about how that trade in general has settled down over the past few days in fact, the vix, the biggest drop over three days on record futures are up we're back in a mome nt hi, i'm a new customer

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take a look at the s&p gainers pre-market, ebay's number two, but got to hit an all-time high at the open, on the heels of the earnings beating strong guide, 13% hike, and the $4 billion addition to the buyback program, and paypal's not far behind. more "squawk on the street" continues in a moment as we talk to the ceo in e xtouthne hr.

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all right, we're going to squeeze in a mad dash before we get to an opening bell paypal reported earnings did you like them? >> dan schulman delivered one of the finest years of the year maybe, and average revenue peruser from $70 as i quote my friend lisa ellis at moffett

nathanson, who knows, a question mark this is one of those amazing stories that you're talking about 73 million new users that they added, a lot of people felt that paypal was never going to be able to do that well after the splitoff with ebay and that's completely wrong. this has become maybe the worldwide bank for a lot of people and they had good information about crypto i don't know, david, they even made what i think is a challenge to a firm, they are offering a buy now pay later. dan schulman has taken this situation, let's call it from institutional, or business to business, to consumer, again, great signs of trust here, and i don't think the stocks a done going up i see multiple price target boosts i think the target will head to $300 is it too big? david, if you are the bank to the world that's not based on plastic, and not based on cash, well, then you're dan schulman and you're pay pal $295 billion, going much higher. going much higher. >> amazing i remember sitting there, when,

with john donoho initially the ceo of ebay saying we're not going to split them and came back and did split them. you think about that carl icahn, you were right on that one 300 billion for one. and ebay shares as you pointed out having a good morning but a 40 $40 some odd billion market value there. and paypal became the giant far and away >> yes, speaking of which, guys, pay pal profit, 3 x, year on year, record payment volume, i think as jim was mentioning, and jim, you know, the trend, the guidance, the ratio of companies guiding higher as we look at the opening bell is the highest since the mid 2000s, keeping a list over the last few day, pfizer, ea, merck, clorox, texan, amd, whether or not that's because analysts had more of a cloudy view of the pandemic, i guess, remains to be seen, but that trend's good. >> i think you're dead right, carl what happened is that a lot of

people felt in a pandemic no one can do as well so numbers came down across the board and it turned out there are haves and have-nots and we will be talking to clorox tonight on "mad money" and clorox is the kind of stock you buy if you're staying at home, it is a nesting stock, and one of the things that i find that is so curious about this moment and people don't know if we're nesting or going out, but you tweeted this morning, headlines from a british paper, about pass the beef and when we see that, do we want to get on a plane or do we want to nest with clorox i think that's really the issue. >> as we take a look at shares there it is. gamestop got to look at gamestop, guys. while we talk. but you know, when you said clorox, jim, i always think of back when we were at the new york stock exchange, and you talk about clorox having a higher multiple than apple, don't think that's the case anymore although i assume clorox has moved up apple has moved up pretty substantially, hasn't it?

one of the things that apple has gotten credit for is the revenue stream and clorox is 22 times earnings and that's terrific and apple has become this 36 times earnings story, and why? it's because they're no longer just hand sanitizers i remember when the company said we're not going to give you just hand set numbers and, and the analysts were aghast and it must be bad but saying we're more than a hand set company, they sure are and as of phil lebeau's breaking story, if they do with hyundai if they get that car going, we will not be thinking of the company as a cell phone company, it will be a consumer product company over many brands and that has a higher price multiple than something that is levered to something that's in your hand. >> absolutely. yup. >> gamestop, david gamestop >> it's down. >> say it. gamestop. >> stop game stop game. gamestop yeah, look, by the way, i mean

it is also other stocks we've talked about, viacom is down a little bit, swept up a little bit in that short squeeze, the squeeze to shorts frenzy, up 35%s, i do notice it is down, discovery, a little less but swecht up in that. every morning, i wake up and all i think about is spacs and why i didn't launch one with jim when i was asked to we would be on number six, now, by now, jim, easily. >> i'm running out of names. instead of churchill, who bhoo shoo we have done? lincoln? probably taken general marshall marshall >> a good reputation. >> general marshall, yes you could have gone with that. >> a bunch omar bradley, pretty good. a bunch of, eisenhower, we would go through all of the good generals >> eisenhower still resonates. >> ike ike resonate, david. >> yes >> you could really -- >> we could move down there, maybe, you know, to some of the scientists, who knows, i don't know, we could have figured it out. we could have figured it out

>> i know. >> but some people have figured it out well, and today, it's clover david, clover is really in the news. >> that was a company that politile was on. and then nikola, the long report, and dramatically cut the value of that company's stock, still well above ten bucks is nicola, but nowhere near the highs it once was when hindenburg came out. and the main thing we always remember is going down the hill, without having any, you know, being propelled by anything, but on this one, jim, listen, i don't, you know, they question, clover's business model, they say that, according to them again, we haven't confirmed any of these things, that there is the d.o.j. is looking at some of their business practices, but we talk a lot about spacs, jim, in

general, and the good and the bad and the ugly and continue every day we will continue to have people on of course so many new companies come together market. i mean for a long time, we were starved for new companies because so many stayed private so long because they could get the funding they needed in the private markets. that has changed dramatically with the advent of spacs but you made the point many time, the spac files, and when they do the deal, for example 23 and me today, they say it is worth 23 1/2 billion but the projections they don't have to stand them quite the same way when they put them in an s-1, do they >> no, i think tom farley had some great comments this morning on "squawk box," frankly the ability to be able to project kind of whatever you want, and that is a little bit of loose in can tation of what tom said but when i read the hindenburg headline, maybe you can tell me whether this is sub optimal or not, clover health, how the king of spacs, lured retail investors into a broken business facing an active undisclosed department of

justice investigation. david, you know, when i see a lot of buy, sell, hold, and i hear you say good, bad, ugly, this kind of reminds me of lee van cleave in the movie "good, bad, ugly" or eli walloff, this is not a story about clint, it is not clint, and by the way lee van khalif was so underrated it's a traffic city. the there -- travesty. there is not a monument in vegas to that guy. >> and you were talking about clover. >> heavens >> bed, bath beyond? >> i don't know if we did. >> i don't know that we did. but again, we've got two stories there. one, that one is down dramatically and obviously, you heard from mr. branson earlier with his latest venture, 23 and me, will be going public in a 3.5 billion, valuing the company at $3.5 billion you know, listen, again, i accuse jim of being too negative, by so many people, many of whom are my friends who are sponsors of spacs and as i

said everybody's got a spac and a dream and these days everybody seems to have a pipe that goes along with it and you get some really well-healed investors who participate there, and we'll have to wait and see a lot of capital coming in to the ev space, that will be viewed perhaps positively. winners and losers like do you in everything. but you have to question the due diligence. and you have to continue to wonder whether given this prepondance of capital that has moved so dramatically in the hands of spac managers, what is it like when they chase all of these private companies, and how quickly is the race to the bottom or if there is enough private company os ut there to fill the demand without lessening the quality i guess is the question, jim. >> i'm so glad you bring that up, because i have friends, obviously, as you do, who are doing spacs, and they're, saying, look, anything to buy, anything to buy, and the one that i watched that i think is a very standard one, is utz. because it's potato chips. it's easy to understand and it's done quite well.

and i keep telling people who talk to me about smacks, and it's like they spauk about spacs, the way they talk about the big game this sunday, who's out there, and david, that isn't the way business is done you don't just say who's ute out there. you say i have a mission i believe in something i think i can make a difference. i'm not getting that from a lot of these people. maybe they have it but in the end what i see a lot of people is saying i want to make more money than i currently do. i don't know is, it 2007 on this no, not yet. do i like it well, you know, david, i'm starting to question whether it's become more fantasy football, than it is reality business >> yeah. but carl, it's going to be with us for the foreseeable future. and i keep trying to understand as well who is getting disinter, disintermittented here and maybe it is the venture capital, that

is getting dis-int mediated, and the investment company, they're not collecting the 7% with all of these companies going public, but given the voim, they're doing great even if it is not as much and they get the accounts on the merger side, and they take the spac public and get credit for the merger as well and get the financing with it. but right now, everybody is at the trough back to earnings looking at qualcomm shares steve mogencof stepping down and the quarter not referred well by investors right now, the stock down about 7% at qualcomm. >> yup, and to your earlier point, david, about financials, leading once again, which jim, sort of leads me to what b of a mentioned this morning about rates, they say the longstanding mantra saying there is no alternative, tina, but 1.75 by year end is the forecast and at 1.75 the percentage of names

that yield more than the ten year dropping from 64% to 44%, jim, and i don't know if you're looking at 1.75 for year end but we have the 30 year approaching 2 now. >> yes, we do. and i think people deserve better than that rate. i've been looking at high yield bonds because i think some of them represent some good value and i'll speak to one that i think david was pretty much at the forefront about. bowing did a very big deal it was kind of at the moment, the darkest moment of this particular time when it comes to the pandemic and everyone made out very, very well so i think i'm looking at ford paper, ford reports, we might not like what happens with the chip shortage and we might find out that ford has warranty issues but that's another piece of paper that i'm looking at and can you believe that so much make money with boeing paper at a moment it is a pandemic and nobody was flying and with the issues. >> i know, and we will look back at a seminal moment and it is

psychologist, it was an important company so vulnerable and they go out and they sell $26 billion worth of debt. but remember, correctly, i i don't remember the date but i bet if we look back we would see a significant turn occurring in the broader markets after that deal, jim. you're so right. and they've gone about refinancing some of it, aren't they >> yes, and greg smith is the cfo there, and he keeps a great ship, and you saw that refinancing, $9 billion the other day, and a lot of people were saying with the equity, he was a stallwart saying we have the cash flow, i regard this as being one of the premiere stocks if you think that the world is going to reopen, it's a jab stock, to be saying, and when i look at the boeing different pieces of paper and where they're selling at, that was the buy, not the ten year, that's the buy, david, that's where you should be looking. >> another beneficiary of course, not that boeing was, but a fen beneficiary of what is going on is ebay and i want to mention again

because we will hear from the company's ceo in the next hour, jamie anony, and let's take a look at shares of ebay, moving dramatically higher, even higher than the one-time companion pay pal shares which jim already went into. they had a very good quarter a lot of people at home. using ebay and new people on there as well. active buyers up 7%. gross merchandise volume up 21% for the fourth quarter on a reported basis. and revenue up 28% we'll talk to him though about the future, and in particular the question of course is when you start to lap these comparisons, over the period of time when everybody was at home, things, jim, may not quite look as good. >> i think you have to talk about that the deepening seller base, buyer growth, superior execution, we know that management has come in and done a good job. e-commerce of course is something that is very important for everybody and we talk about ralph lauren, e-commerce, we haven't talked about the idea that e-commerce and what's going to happen with the big game this

weekend but i will point out david, they call out sneakers and watches. sneakers are something people trade the way i think we traded trading cards but it is a very profitable business and i think you will have to ask him about mccategories and europe has always loved ebay and i remember you saying, sell paypal because it would leave the ebay business and buy ebay, well, clearly that was wrong, but i think ebay under this management, has a very good call on what the consumer wants to do at home, and maybe they're bored and when they're not bored, people will do something else, but right now, people just flat out, good quarter, david, just flat out good quarter >> carl? >> all right, guys, we do have the nasdaq and the russell, nasdaq, russell above their record closes. no intra-day highs yet this morning. let's get to bob pisani. hey, bob >> hey, guys happy thursday and we're very close, carl on a new high for the s&p so where

are we here, 3840, or so 3855 was the old closing high on the s&p 500, that was just back january 25th so a lot of these concerns about gamestop, systemic risks, starting to fade a bit let's take a look at the sectors here banks having another good time, they have been up several days in a row tech is up, although of course semiconductors are under a little bit of pressure on qualcomm energy, oil, one-year high right now, some positive comments from some of the big oil producers there from opec. industrials are up and consumer staples down 5% so far this year they've done nothing, very flat. the shorts, gamestop was flattish pre-open but it's essentially down again, here right at the open. a lot of selling pressure, right here at the open, amc, also down, and the other ones, express down a little bit as you can see here in terms of earnings, i like looking at what i call pandemic influenced earnings. allstate, did you see this net

income up 52%? a sharp reduction in car wrecks. there's a lot fewer miles driven, the auto insurers have been giving some premium refunds, maybe she should be giving more at this point. paypal, i thought was interesting, boy, online buying is just surging, 2021 guidance says total payment volume will be up 25%, and they're expanding the crypto offering and that got a lot of attention grubhub, fee cabs instituted in cities to help independent restaurants in cities, hurting properties and made 52 cents and it would be $1.50 if it weren't for fee caps and grub hub there, that's hurting, always love looking at that. and with the meeting with janet yellen, good to get in front of that but a lot of concern on wall street and trader talk has a story about, this two big issue, one, s.e.c. potentially looking at market manipulation and a lot of people i've talked to said this does not suggest the traditional pump and dump operation. this will be very difficult to

prove any kind of market manipulation here. but i think finra, which is the organization that regulates the brokers and the broker/dealers, they had put out a statement earlier this week, and much more interesting, they're looking this year as to focus on game fication of trading, a very broad topic and includes things like suitability, a loaded term, a legal term and basically says you have to put your investors, investments that are suitable for them and so you have, finra has specifically come out and said we're going to be looking at apps this year that have int akkive elements and looking at apps that provide recommendations, we will be looking at apps that might influence customers to engage in certain sector trading this is all under the suitability rubric are you putting your clients into situations where they're engaging in trading that may not be suitable for them you see this as a real rabbit hole, to potentially go down, and the question is how aggressive do you want to be on the whole suitability question my point is, this is a much more

fertile area, if you want aggressive regulation, than trying to figure out if there is market manipulation. finally, a very famous fund is going public today the magellan fund. now, those of us who are of a certain age, remember this fund, very, very well, the mutual fund still exists, and for many years and continue to exist but it is now trading as an exchange traded fund. this fund was the most famous fund in the world many years ago when i startsed in 1990, led by ledge tear investor peter lynch from 1972071990 and at one point the largest fund notice world with $100 billion in assets and now the mutual fund is down to about 22 billion this is a large cap growth fund, still, it was then, and peter was famous for his stock-picking abilities, and david, and carl, i'm sure you both remember peter lynch and this is a real sign, again, about movement from mutual funds, to etfs, more tax efficient, easier, to trade it in the middle of the day, and

that etf revolution, just keeps on keeping on. guy, back to you >> wow, that's amazing, bob. yeah, that's a bit of a history lesson, too, bob pisani, thanks. as we move to break, jobless claims below 800 k best since november. productivity did slide more than expected in q4 europe, the ten-year getting the highest level since september. the italian yield pulling back a bit after the mandate to form a new government we will finish with a look at the dollar, and by the way, vix getting awfully close to 22. back in a moment hey, dad! hey, son! no dad, it's a video call. you got to move the phone in front of you like..like it's a mirror, dad. you know? alright, okay. how's that? is that how you hold a mirror? [ding]

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have this conversation with you because of one fundame reason. when i was growing up in the inner city of philadelphia the social engineers in philadelphia at the time when dr. king was leading the protests in the 1960s for reasons i don't yet understand decided it to take a few inner city black kids, put them on a bus, make them ride 90 minutes to different schools to

get a rigorous education my class had 1,400 kids in it. there were nine african american kids i know for sure that what put my life on a different trajectory was that someone intervened to give me an opportunity to close that opportunity gap, and that opportunity gap is still there >> that's ken frazier of merck stepping down as ceo in june that was a sound bite, jim, from last june when black lives matter was at the forefront of the conversation but remarkable to hear him talk about his growing up in inner philadelphia, inner city philadelphia as he said, 1,400 kids in his class and nine african american kids, changed his life >> just incredible a little piece called the history makers, a nice bio december 1954, philadelphia, pennsylvania, two janitor and former share croppers, share

cropper, look at this monumental situation what this man has accomplished a role model for everyone and all i can say is that i am so glad he will be staying on as executive chairman because he is, he epitomizes the new america, and he got to do more he is a reminder, we all must do more those who don't think we need to do more, listen to dylan you see the times, they are changing >> indeed. jim, although ken stepping down, roz brewer is moving up at walgreens. we will keep an eye on diversity in the c-suite a short break here back in a moment

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quick check on gamestop, down here. taking out yesterday's intraday low but has not quite dipped to tuesday's low, up 74.22. ll mtsith regulators this morning we are back in a moment.

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and i can't wait to get back to the office when i get my stitches out and just come roaring in >> i'll be here. yes, we can't wait, see you tonight, 6:00 on "mad money" with jim cramer 6:00 p.m. eastern time good morning, everybody, another hour of "squawk on the street. i'm carl quintanilla with david faber and morgan brennan watching stocks today, nasdaq and russell above record closes. a lot of earnings to watch on the retail and tech front. we have our eyes on yields as well as the eco data continues to impress ahead of jobs friday, tom. our roadmap against with apple's i car, nearing a deal with hyundai kia to manufacture an autonomous vehicle. >> plus, janet yellen meeting with regulators today to discuss the gamestop volatility. we are following the latest from the new treasury secretary. >> and we will have an exclusive with the ceo of ebay the shares are up sharply after

it did beat expectations on earnings. we are starting with gamestop and the recent volatility treasury secretary wsteven mnuchin was on "good morning america" today >> we really need to make sure that our financial markets are functioning properly, efficiently, and that investors are protected, and we are going to discuss these recent events and discuss whether or not the recent events warrant further action >> president and chief investment officer joe amato and lee baker join us now. gentlemen, good morning. joe, starting with you markets functioning properly i mean, poised for the fourth straight day of gains here seems like from the gamestop mania, that the systemic risk or worries about it may be quelled.

>> certainly seems like things have calmed down a bit from where we were a short time ago and which i think is a good thing and, hopefully, a reforechecking on the fundamentals, whether it's the virus trends, the vaccine distribution, of course, the economic reopening are things that are more relevant, in our view, as you think about intermediate to longer-term investment priorities and less about some of the bit of craziness, frankly, going on in markets a short time ago and i think it also seems like a bulk of the de-leveraging that you worry about when you go through periods of volatility like that has curbed i think that's why markets are coming down a bit. >> lee, same question to you a lot of debate, especially the detachment with some of those names shooting higher in the last couple of weeks, debate about how much fundamentals matter to the market right now especially given the fact that you continue to have liquidity sloshing around from the fed and some of those central bank policies how do you see it?

>> absolutely i think that fundamentals matter. candidly, they always matter in the long term. we can have these brief periods with just absolute craziness and the fact that a week ago we were seeing those names shoot higher and higher, but, you know, it hadn't been that long that we had gone from 380 bucks a share, 400 a share down to 80 or $90 a share. in the long term, yeah, fundamentals matter. >> yeah. so, joe, does the narrative shift for the market now i mean, we have had some strong economic data. obviously, looking ahead to jobs friday, tomorrow the vaccine rollout continues to gain momentum here we are seeing some of those case numbers where the virus is concerned, some of those key metrics come down, continue to come down as well. plus, the ongoing stimulus talks. are those the dominant themes moving forward, or is there something else to keep an eye on, and how does it drive the investment thesis for to you >> certainly those are the relevant issues that you touched

on those are the things that the appropriate level of focus in terms of the near-term market dynamic and earnings that are coming if for the fourth quarter are better than expected we may be flattish overall for the s&p 500 in the fourth quarter, which is a good sign. some of the economic data we have seen recently has shown some encouraged. so i think that's the better level of focus and as one thinks about the longer term, we are at the early stages of a long economic expansion, i think that's why equity markets have been as resilient as they have been over the course of the last number of months >> lee, what's your take how do you view things you mentioned value eventually coming to the fore when is that coming to happen? is value going to overtake investors? >> i think value can overtake growth at different points in time stuff that got really beat up last year is coming around and

you are seeing companies that are, you know, picking up pace now, that might not last very long but as we continue to come out of this pandemic and get back to normal, i think we are going to see more and more of those value oriented names i am incredibly excited about the news about apple that might be something i'm biased from sitting here in atlanta, but that's incredibly exciting news looking forward. >> watching these yields tick up and trying to see where the market's tolerance is for yields in terms of where it truly becomes competitive with equities, where do you think that level is and do you think we will get there this year? >> carl, if that question is for me, i will take a crack at it. i think you touched on probably one of the most important longer-term issues that the market is wrestling with, and that is where inflation is and where, of course, rates will be

if inflation picks up. i think that's one the big question, is are we at an inflection point of inflation. we think there will be an inflection point in inflation and it will pick up because monetary policy has driven, a very aggressive monitor policy has driven asset management inflation, but we didn't get real-world inflation now it's the policy stepping in, veryaggressive fiscal policy i think that leads to more real-world inflation and we do see that ticking up in the spring and beyond that, and i think that gives legs to, frankly, value, which should be well if you have a steepening curve. i think if you get another, if you get a ten-year that's in the 1.5, 1.75 level, i don't think that will squelch a lot of activity in the equity markets if you get well beyond 2%, then i think we have to reassess the implications for multiples in particular. >> lee, you mentioned apple.

we saw blowout earnings for that company last week. we have seen blowout earnings for all the big tech companies, those high-flying growth names, if you will. just to marry that to your outlook for rates and how you expect that to play out, what is your expectation this year i guess what is injury expectation this year, given the fact that we are seeing earnings come in stronger than expected >> earnings rn coming in strong. i think there is a lot of factors in the market. clearly we have seen that the idea is to keep interest rates low. we will see some inflation, but i think it will be muted for quite a while. so i don't see anything that leads me to believe that we are going to vom runaway inflation people talki about money sloshin around that is a factor, but nothing that will cause inflation to skyrocket. i just see that in the offing. >> all right well, joe and lee, thank you for joining us today

>> thank you for having me. >> carl. >> thanks, morgan. meantime, we are talking about long-time merck joceo joe frazi announcing plans to retire. >> well, the end of an era ken frazier took the helm at merck in november. he will be succeeded as merck's chief financial officer rob davis. during frazier's tenure merck's stock has more than doubled. one of his significant moves was bringing back dr. perlmutter he would tell me to ask the science questions to roger, of course, frazier was as sharp as anyone in discussing the hypothesis or new ways to target cancer, for example. perlmutter also stepped down together they transformed merck's business to one driven by the new promise of immunotherapy for cancer

their biggest drug now iskey truth a, which drew more than $14 billion in sales in 2020 leaving some on wall street to worry the business is too dependent on that one drug frazier is an industry leader i other ways, the first ceo to step down from president trump's manufacturing council afternoon the events in charlottesville in 2017, and a leading voice on racial inequality this year, particularly after the death of george floyd >> when there is unrest people put out statements they put out platitudes. they say this is terrible, we decry racism, we believe we ought to build a just society. i think business has to go beyond what is required here before the pandemic there was something like 12 million unfilled jobs in this country, and there are 5 million inner city and other african american kids who want access to the economy. they want to be participants they want to be citizens they want to be consumers.

what they lack is the education, they lack the training, and their opportunities for programs like -- >> i was emailing about ken frazier. he called him the most approachable of any of the pharma ceos and says he hopes he will run for office. i don't know if that's in ken frazier's future, but it's a sentiment i think a lot of people have. >> he was so willing to get out there and speak. in a way that we have seen a lot of ceos follow and it's something we are following closely, the willingness of ceos to address social issues, things they would have not considered weighing in on in the past of course, mr. frazier sort of led that back to the business itself, i thought that was interesting to see the differential in key drugs from where he took over to where they are now keytruda the key what else is coming do we expect or is that going to continue to have dominance in terms of a first-line treatment for a number of cancers?

>> well, it certainly is the bulk of merck's business now and we are still hearing about them expanding into new areas. every couple of days i get a new press release from merck saying keytruda worked in something else it hasn't worked in every single thing. that has been the definition of a pipeline and a product for merck. they are working on other areas. they are in infectious diseases and they, of course, have two drugs they are working on for covid, one of which you have covered in deputy and we are eagerly awaiting results on an anti-viral. >> you know how to pronounce that >> i know, it took me a long time to have that one roll off the tongue sorry, didn't mean to interrupt. go ahead. >> no, no, that is an important thing to watch as well merck has been a company that has been dedicated to infectious diseases when many have gotten out of the space

not always to great business success. they have focused op antibiotics, which is not a particularly growth business but one that society needs companies like merks and others to focus on they focused on alzheimer's where there has been tremendous failure and disappointment they have been working in that space as well. so, you know, we will have to see how the new pipeline shapes up as roger perlmutter has retired as head of research. there is a new team at the top and investors are eager to see what that means for the focus at merck. >> yeah, definitely some big shoes to fill at that company. i want to shift gears a little bit, meg, to the other health care-related news of the day, the fact that sir richard branson's virgin group spac is going public you spoke to sir richard and 23andme's ceo this morning i want to get your take on that and just how it speaks to the timing in general of investor interest in health projects and sort of new tech around health

>> yeah, it was such an interesting interview. i was missing you this morning because i know you interviewed sir richard a number of times and thinking about you and your perspective on his involvement here as well he said that health care is a space that he thinks is one of the best investments because not only do you get a return, hopefully, but you are doing something really good. talking with the ceo of 23andme, they are feel like they are ready to explode and trying to not only work on the ancestry side of things, which sir richard said is how he got interested in 23andme, but the major health care work that they are doing with genetics and partnering with drug companies to try to discover a new mecisms. i am excited to see what comes from that collaboration over the coming rears. >> thank you for covering so much for us this morning. >> thank you >> after the break we will have an exclusive with the ceo of ebay that stock is up, as you see,

over 5%. the company reported earnings after the bell yesterday we will go over all of it. not just the past, of course, but we will talk about a lot about what the future holds for ebay

shares of ebay are up as you see 5.5% this morning after the online retailer reported better than expected earnings yesterday thanks in part to boost in holiday seas and many shoppers who continue to stay at home joining us in a cnbc exclusive is the company's ceo jamie

iannone. jamie, good to have you with us. 2020 a very strong year for your company reflected in the performance of the stock as well but just to fast forward as we like to do here, talk to me about your expectations for this year, particularly given the records you had last year because so many people, of course, both shoppers and sellers were at home >> yeah, well, look, a record year we did over 14 billion gmd year over year, more than the last seven years. we added 11 million more buyers. you will see a continuation of the stralt we have been on, foc focusing on non-huge in season it's working w he launched new verticals in the fall in sneakers and watches and certified refurbished and what we're seeing is that we're really changing the game for buyers and sellers and that's making a huge difference the underlying business is stronger and we are seeing that

it's really resonating with people. >> yeah. well, tell me about a bit about -- i mean the experience you have had, for example, in sneakers, i know it's early, or luxury watches, what are the expectations there are there other categories that you could move into that meet similar specifications >> sneakers, we are a authenticating every sneaker over $100. this has been the business that had been in decline for a couple of years, and in q4 had business grew triple digits it's really resonating with the gen-z customers and younger customers coming to ebay one of the great advantages is a cross shopping they end up spending about $2,500 on ebay but only 500 is within sneakers and the other 2,000 is other categories on ebay so we are not only bringing them in for sneakers, but doing it across the board same thing in waffles. we grew kids q3 to q4. we are auth enticating every watch over $2,000. so it's making a big difference.

so these investments in these early categories are giving us the confidence to go and look at the end to end experiences in other categories and really start to accelerate the gmv. >> i would like you to respond to a report that came out late january from deutsche bank and specifically their contention where they put a hold on your stock. they say despite the platform benefiting from the surging online shift in consumer demand we have yet to see any strategic shift that could suggest the company is leveraging its inge mem greowth into a sustainable fundamental advantage. will you congress that criticism, please? >> we are in a massive strategic shift right now. we are really focused on non, new, and season where ebay has a unique right with win. $500 billion, it's growing double digits, and in most categories we only have high single-digit low double-digit penetration. so there is a lot of opportunity for us

another key differentiator is the c to c seller, consumer seller coming on to the platform in this quarter or c to c gmv outgrew the c to c by sellers getting activated. when a buyer is a seller they are twice as valuable as well. these unique advantages of ebay are working for us the other one we are investing in is around trust and really building long-term trusted relationships with our buyers and that's working as well when we look at the react race for buyers, lapsed buyers, 11 million new buyers last year, we are excited in terms of their retention. >> i know it's your contention that a lot of people have as much as $4,000 worth of stuff sitting around their how that they could put on the platform for sale what percentage of that do you actually think would ever actually get on ebay >> less than 20% of is online today. so there is a huge potential to bring that inventory on to the platform and it's great inventory that

comes on it really attracts buyers to the platform because you get really unique inventory from that standpoint so we think there is a lot of potential there. what we are focused on is how to make the selling experience so easy that people want to bring that onto the platform and a huge benefit there is payments so we are launching this management payments product, 38% of our gmv on the platform what that does for brand-new sellers it makes it really easy. they put their bank account on there, they get paid, it shows up thin there we did an integration with u.p.s. in the united states this year and so now we have u.p.s., federal ex and usps on the platform super easy for a consumer seller to get started selling on the platform. >> given the gangneung busters growth last year, obviously, covid has had -- has been a beneficiary if you want to call it that, the silver lining in terms of your business from a couple of different angles how much is that going to continue as we continue to see

vaccines roll out and people start to leave their houses in larger more meaningful ways and shop in brick and mortar again >> clearly mobility has impacted our business in geographies all around the world the underlying strength of the business is healthier. the things that we are doing are really working while the categories that we rolled out are a single percentage of gmv over the coming quarters and years we will roll out more categories of experiences, eventually reaching over half of our gmv this these category-specific experiences. with the 11 million new buyers on the platform they are activating at the same rate as historical buyers did. they didn't just come to buy ppv equipment and leaving. they are staying on the platform which is what the ultimate goal is. >> i am trying to think ahead to a quarter or two from now when you report earnings and we are talking about them and the pair sons are much more difficult given theincredible growth.

what will you be focusing investors on when the numbers don't look quite as strong >> look, clearly there is some massive lapping from last year in terms of what we saw in terms of especially in q2 the covid buying there is a lot of tailwinds that we have in our business. i'd speak to two one is our payments business is going to continue to ramp over the course of this year which is really going to add a lot of revenue to the business. by 2022, it will add 2 billion in revenue, $5 million in operating income and significantly change the game in terms of the friction on the platform because you won't have to set up two accounts you will be able to buy and sell pretty seamlessly within ebay. the other big one is advertising. this year our advertising business hit $1 billion really on the strength of our promoted listings business and next year we will roll out new tools and new technology our advertising business is only 1% of gmv right now. so when you look at the opportunity in advertising, it's going to continue to outpace our

gmv growth and another big opportunity for us. >> yeah. >> lastly, the strategy working. we are excited to see the strategy come to fruition and the underlying health of the business is healthy. >> let me end on advertising can you give us a sense of the tools in terms of what you are talking about when you say new technology that will enable a higher rate of advertising >> how to get more sellers and make it easier for more sellers to come in and increase penetration. the other thing is how to increase the conversion for those that are selling the reason our advertising business is growing is that sellers who use to see a double-digit sales increase when they start using our promoted listings products. that's really beneficial and what's great is it's not degrading the buyer experience at all it's slightly enhancing the buyer experience we think there is a lot of potential in our advertising business. >> we will leave it there. appreciate your willingness to join us. >> thank. >> jamie iannone, ceo of ebay. >> still to come this morning, we will check in with

bernstein's tony sag naqi on apple's car plans and this product deal with county a hyundai. we'll be right back. sales are down from last quarter but we are hoping things will pick up by q3. yeah...uh... doug? sorry about that. umm... what...its...um... you alright? [sigh] [ding] never settle with power e*trade. it has powerful, easy-to-use tools to help you find opportunities, 24/7 support when you need answers plus some of the lowest options and futures contract prices around. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today.

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as we head back to break, shares of canada goose taking off this morning after the company beat estimates thanks to a search in online sales and higher chinese demand. the stock is up 28% right now. it's on pace for the second best day ever we'll be right back. stayitus wh

good morning here is your cnbc covid update at this hour the daily count of u.s. covid deaths is coming down from its january peaks, but it's still high more than 3,900 deaths were recorded on wednesday bringing the nation's total to more than 450,000 people new cases, though, remain near pre-thanksgiving levels. for the first time researchers are looking at using two different covid vaccines for the first and second dose. in a study backed by the british government, oxford university is recruiting 800 volunteers who

will receive one of eight combinations of the astrazeneca and pfizer shots for now though the country's vac vaccination program continues. after visiting wuhan's virus laboratory yesterday, today a team of world health organization investigators are in a community where early covid cases were found and a government ethics panel in germany has decided it would be unfair to ease covid restrictions for people who have been vaccinated. it noted getting the vaccination does not eliminates the possibilities of infecting others carl, back to you. >> sue, thank you very much. quick check on gamestop. we mentioned earlier in the morning it hadn't taken out tuesday's low of 74.22 it just got there a couple of moments ago and bounced a bit, but currently down about 16% obviously, down 80 plus percent over the past few days

meantime, apple close to finalizingthis deal with hyundai a kia to manufacture an apple branded autonomic vehicle. here to talk about it is bernstein's toni sacconaghi, one of the top rated analysts on the stock who has been watching this notion, toney, for years >> good morning. >> i was looking at a note here. we have it, from apple of 2016 you wrote five reasons why we believe apple may indeed be looking to build a car and you said it would probably, if it were to happen, would happen in five to serve years, which is right about now. >> yeah, press reports came out as early as late 2014 that apple was assembling a team under the name of project titan to examine looking at a car th i think at the time we believed that that might be a suitable

and large market opportunities for apple. and the fortunes at project titan have ebbed and flowed the last five or six years, but it looks like apple is getting more serious and more confident about an ability to potentially deliver a car. i would caution that many things can change this is probably still three or four years away, and apple has been very close to launching products and services in the past and then has veered off course so certainly i think a probability is increasing, signing a deal with hyundai kia would be a significant potential step, but it's never over until the product is announced. >> and that's typically only when it's about to be available. >> right that news is maybe even harder to break without apple's confirmation the reasons you gave back then in 2015 are large addressable market they are usually not afraid of

entering markets as a second player or, rather, a second strike player. expanding capacity in china. of the reasons you gave back then, which are still valid? >> i think for the most part we view it very similarly so this is a very large market, the traditional automotive market is a $1 trillion market apple's 340 billion in revenue this year. perhaps by 2025 it will be over $400 billion in revenue. that's a big challenge for apple, how do you find really large markets that can help you continue to grow at a desirable rate, and the car market being a $1 trillion market is an attractive market. now, i think one of the initial concerns from investors was, you know, the car market is not a very attractive market it's capital intensive, doesn't have very good margins if you think about the markets that apple has gone into historically, they fit many of

those criteria ultimately, the pc business is a notoriously low margin business, and apple has done well with macs the handset business is a weak business so our contention then and remains is that there is much precedent for apple to get into competitive markets late and use its design and brand advantages to create something that resonates with consumers and certainly that possibility exists with the car. >> i'm curious what the infrastructure could look like as the cars begin to hit the road at some point we are talking about autonomous and self-driving vehicles. incredible amount of data that is generated, it requires a lot in terms of storage and it requires a lot in terms of cloud utilization as well. you are seeing some satellite constellations be built out with self-driving car capabilities. what does that like for apple? >> well, look, i think that's one of the biggest questions,

is, you know, our observation of apple is it has been, you know, it has a characteristic that we called future absolute, where they are pretty non-compromising in their design efforts. they wanted to build a phone that had no buttons on it. they succeeded in doing that now they don't even want a touch print on their products. and so one of the big questions is, will apple be able to deliver a car that is both all electric and perhaps more challengingly fully autonomous one that potentially there is no steering wheel and that would be very apple-like, consistent in their belief in future absolutism. the challenge for autonomy especially for edge cases is still very significant we know apple has been doing trials but at least from the public trial data, they don't have

nearly as much road experience so the first challenge before we think about infrastructure is can apple ultimately get to a level where it can possibly have an autonomous car in three, four, five years that's very much the first challenge. assuming you can, you know, the significant data opportunities that follow that, but that's the first question in my mind. >> yeah, i wonder, again, going down this road, and we are years away, toni, but when i imagine autonomous, apple would benefit from the fact that people would want to own something with the apple name on it and they are willing to pay for more it when i imagine autonomous i imagine fleets of vehicles that you wouldn't necessarily own because, why would you >> right that could be the case i mean, there is, obviously, speculation about is apple going to play as a consumer company, how do we think of apple in the context of autonomy.

apple first and foremost ultimately is a consumer company, and that's part of the reason it has been able to enter commodity markets is it has a fantastic consumer brand that resonates with consumers we certainly think that it would be directed at consumers, and certainly if you have a car that is autonomous, then the possibilities for ridesharing and lending that car out become, you know, very, very real, very, very quickly and, therefore, the car can be a, you know, asset that generates revenue for someone. now, again, it's all contingent on true technology, but regulators, you know, allowing for that so i think we have many steps. david, absolutely. you know, this could be a car that could not only be used by the owner, but could be placed into a network and ultimately generate revenue as some kind of robo taxi or robo delivery type

service. >> meantime, toni, what happens to the software partnerships that apple has with other automakers right now >> look, apple's always been known to have many partnerships. it doe and i think it will continue to do that. manufacturing, you know, their wide speculation is they will do something with hyundai kia they have had nearly exclusive agreement with tsmc as their processor maker, hon high has been their manufacturer. but they have broadened that they now have peg a tron and others making various products for them so, you know, the history of apple is it will do the design itself, it will work with partners for manufacturing and for key components, and it may have several of them, and they are not mutually exclusive from

one another. >> finally, toni, implications for would-be competitors back in the day you wrote that tesla was putting together their business on a shoestring budget. apple had a much better access to capital now arguably you could say tesla also has a fat pipeline of capital at its disposal. is that relationship the same? >> well, i think the dynamics of disrupters entering a f traditional industry are the same i mean, that is the big debate in the automotive space, is if you have lots of new entrants who have no legacy, gasoline or ice car businesses those disrupters going to gain lots of share. so if the car market is 90 million cars today and with autonomy maybe we will get smaller 20 years from now, and then you have all of these new players who are going to build,

you know, new companies with sizable volume, what does that mean for the current incumbents? that means a much smaller, addressable market so if apple were to come in to this marketplace and be successful, that's one more new disruptive company, potentially all-autonomous company coming in, there is just less cake to go around for the traditional incumbents and ultimately that's, you know, that's why those stocks are very pressured and that's why i think investors are trying to say, look, if there are 90 million cars today and new entrants, whether it be the nios, the teslas, apples of the world, 10, 20, 30 million units going forward, you will have the traditional car companies fight for the remaining scraps, which might be half their addressable market today who is going to win and take share and who is going to fall out of that bottom so i think that dynamic would

only get a exacerbated with apple's entry. >> fascinating turn in a long mature business, toni. thanks for the time. good to see you ten. toni sacconaghi. well, kohl's has news. >> on the move this morning, higher by almost 7% here after preannouncing some fourth quarter results. i had the opportunity to speak with ceo michelle goss they said they wanted to preannounce given the significant beat on earnings against expectations saying about 45% ahead of where the street currently has us. margins came in stronger than expected revenues a bit right comparable sales down 11%. that is the third quarter of sequential improvement digital sales up more than 20% making up more than 40 be% of tl sales. she said we are set up well

through 2021 and continue to emphasize the store base, saying, quote, we are not closing stores 90% of our stores generate over $1 million in cash we are leveraging them differently, fulfilling online orders through pickup, curbside, as well as ship from store she said i am a big, big believer in stores i think people are underestimating the power of stores as things get back to normal, i think people might be surprised getting out and shopping is much more than shopping it's culture, it's social, it's entertainment. david. >> thank you, courtney. as we head to break, take a look at shares of clover health. this is a recent deal, a spac deal it's 10% after a critical report from a research firm called hinden burg. hindenburg also came after nikola, questioning its business and it did hit that stock as

well we are waiting to hear from clover in terms of addressing some of the allegation physician had the bring. of course, we will bring that to you. i do want to say i spoke it a couple of people, actually, who looked at this business in the past when it was being considered for being taken public they decided to dive in. it is down almost 10%. we're ckft ts.ba aerhi

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on tradingnation.cnbc.com we unpack the inflation and whether it's time to make changes to your portfolio don't change the channel more "squawk on the street" coming up.

♪ ♪ we made usaa insurance for veterans like martin. when a hailstorm hit, he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa time for our "etf spotlight. frank holland looking at the remarkable week for cannabis stocks. >> you know, high hopes for cannabis are higher this week after senate majority leader

chuck schumer promised to bring a bill to the floor. the house passed a bill on cannabis reform decriminalizing it the marijuana stocks boosting all day long etf up more than 60% year to date in 2020, it lost a percent many cannabis stocks with an even bigger jump tilray tripling, chronos and canopy up more than 75%. to do potentially be a record year the u.s. market is forecast to be $24 billion in 2021 a 40% increase over last year where the pandemic fueled buying domestic producers would have an early advantage if full legalization happens that includes med men, and are the parent company that produces jay-z's cannabis line. the chairman believes stocks are at a deep discount if legalization is coming. >> once the large federal institutions and pension funds and the large institutional

banks start to invest and service this industry, that's when this thing will get repriced. >> so analysts say if you want exposure to the cannabis industry without investing in cannabis, look at curb coand grow gen that supplies supporting products. morgan, back to you. >> names i guess to consider there. thank you. sporting goods maker vista outdoor reporting results, up more than 300% over the past year of trading. the ceo joinusft t break.he stay with us

welcome back sports and recreation vista outdoor has continued demand that began during the early days of covid the stock is up a bit right now, 1.5% joining us now chris metz, the ceo. chris, it's great to have you back on. >> morgan, thank you for having me back on i'm excited to be talking about our company and all the great initiatives. >> so we know one of the impacts of the pandemic has been the

fact consumers want to get outside and do more outdoor activities you've benefited and your company has benefitted from that with a little more, i guess, early clarity into 2021, how do you expect that momentum, that growth you saw last year, to continue as we do start to see more vaccines roll out and perhaps a return to normal post pandemic >> morgan, it's a great question and what we've seen over the last 90 days is actually a strengthening in demand which is really exciting as we look at the sustainability of some of the outdoor activities and so we are participating in so many different categories in the outdoor space, and every one of them is showing increased demand and we, frankly, expect this to continue as people are enjoying the activities >> yes, gross profit rose 120% it looks like here people are buying bullets. how do you explain or describe

that phenomenon? certainly we have seen firearm sales and licenses continue to grow is that something that continues? >> morgan, the exciting thing about it people purchasing ammunition is a bipartisan purchase we welcomed 8 million new shooters and users into the sport, so hunting licenses are up 20% we have over a million new users, millennials, younger people embracing field to table. it's just really super exciting to see as we welcome the next generation of folks into our sports >> we've also had reports there are ammunition shortages, issues with supply chain, getting some of those raw materials that go into ammunition as well. is that something that's been affecting you? is it something that can clear up this year >> morgan, again, another good question because of the increased demand we see the shortage of supply and materials continuing for a period of time because as people increase their usage of our

products it creates tighter constraints on the supply chain. >> yeah. you've been inquisitive. there was the remington division you made another purchase recently as well that i believe you just closed on how are you thinking about growing that portfolio are there areas given the fact that you are in so many different parts of the outdoor activity sphere, are there areas you're not involved in right now that you are eyeing? >> so, morgan, we, as you rightly pointed out, we closed our second acquisition inside of 90 days and both were in the ammunition space, great brands and very opportunistic we are expanding our ability to support and supply the industry. as we look forward, we look at the outdoor space. outdoor cooking and biking, there's a lot of opportunities, golf, where we've grown. so some of these categories we've grown dramatically and our brands and platforms have

permission to extend into near ayay a adjacency. >> how do you view the consumer now? >> we view the consumer as healthy. we understand there are challenges and a stimulus to the extent that it comes i think will be very helpful to consumers. and as much as we all hope the vaccine will be rolled out even faster, there's constraints within both the u.s. and particularly outside the u.s. that we're going to continue to see people sheltering, people exercising, socially distanced mind sets and continues to enjoy our products although the consumer is healthy, we think they could become even more healthy if there was a stimulus in place. >> as we're talking we're watching the stock go from flat to up 3% chris metz, thanks for joining us today

>> morgan, thank you for having me keep your eye on qualcomm today. stocks down about almost 10% that's about a six-week low on their earnings and outlook citi also with some downbeat comments about the 5g upside being mostly over. "squawk alley" starts after the break.

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