tv Squawk Alley CNBC February 5, 2021 11:00am-12:00pm EST
11:00 am
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ happy friday welcome to "squawk alley." i'm jon fortt with carl quintanilla and julia boorstin a big, big hour ahead. snap co-founder and ceo evan spiegel joins us in just a couple minutes later this hour another exclusive with the see receive of peloton we'll start with the veolatilit in the meme trade with gamestop. you know how percentages go. these aren't the actual numbers, if you drop 50% one day and you
11:01 am
rise 50% the next day you're not back at break even you're only halfway there. >> indeed although, john, the highs of the session today have taken out yesterday's highs so it is a truly volatile mix gme bouncing off of 5109 we're back in an environment you're looking at a stock behave the way stocks sometimes do and that is bouncing off averages. >> that's right, and i think the other question that we're going to be examining with gamestop is whether or not it was really retail traders driving that volatility jpmorgan issuing some data showing that institutional investors were actually driving a large portion of that trading activity next week and, jon, it really seems like this might be the start of a reckoning of not just about a pap opulist tradin
11:02 am
but dirging into who is actually benefiting from the movement in these stocks >> reddit might have gotten it started but it's not like this is an invitation only party. it's the market, right anybody is free to play. and when there's volatility, there are people who make a living playing off volatility whether it's up or down, so you can be sure especially given all the talk about this. it's been nuts my 10-year-old and my 12-year-old were talking about gamestop all week. everybody is aware of it >> that's right, jon it has been quite a story. but now let's turn back to snap. shares of snap fell initially despite a blow-out quarter softer q1 guidance was a catalyst there but that stock is now up over 3% here with us now exclusively to
11:03 am
talk about snap's fourth quarter results is snap co-founder and ceo evan spiegel evan, thanks so much for joining us this morning. >> julia, thanks for having me and happy friday >> happy friday to you as well you beat pretty much across the board user growth, revenue, earnings, even your guidance was stronger than expected there was a warning about the first quarter. tell us what that warning was. >> i think what people are really focused on are investments in spotlight, a new platform that launched in november it gives people an opportunity to be rewarded for their creativity we're distributing $1 million for the top performing creators on spotlight and that's something we are continuing to invest in in q1. i think it's important to put our guidance in perspective. we've doubled revenue in the
11:04 am
last two years and 47% has fallen there's great progress in the business we see a huge opportunity to invest in spotlight. >> there's been a lot of talk with companies in the fourth quarter about whether or not the growth they saw in 2020 particularly around users was a pull forward from 2021 and i'm wondering if you think the kind of revenue and user growth you saw will be sustainable into the next couple quarters >> despite our accelerating users we view the pandemic lockdown as a drag overall, people spend groups get smaller, they make fewer new friends, aren't out and as much using their camera and posting snaps to their story for us as we look at the end of the lockdowns and maybe the resumption of slightly more normal life certainly based on
11:05 am
the data we've seen from other cities that have taken maybe a less aggressive approach to locking down it's something we're excited about and looking forward to and should be a tail wind for other products like our map. we have a map that shows you a personalized view of the world, where your friends are, what they're doing, the place that is are important to you and that map should benefit from increased engagement as people get out of the house and go explore and meet up with friends. >> evan, i want to return to something that was part of the warning around the first quarter results and that was about apple's operating system change that's about to launch we don't know exactly when it will launch but it will launch soon and you said you expected to have a meaningful impact on results. you don't know how big it will be that's about limiting targeting of how you target as to consumers. s what the potential impact, the potential greatest impact of that change? >> we factored that impact into our guidance so we're projected 50% year over year revenue
11:06 am
growth in q1 our business was strong in q1 of last year. i think it's a solid comp. we're excited about the momentum we're seeing the reason we're highlighting some of the policy changes apple is making it will affect us to measure and optimize advertising outside of snapchat and maybe later they go buy a product or download an app we're able to track that and attribute it back apple is making some changes in restricting our use of information. what they provided is their own solution so we implemented that and using aggregated data to help drive optimization for advertising partners that's in addition to our conversion api we feel like we're well prepared for these changes and they are in line with our privacy
11:07 am
philosophy we've never allowed device specific targeting, for example, and we've always taken very protective stance when it comes to our users we view this as a good thing even if it's disruptive for advertisers in the near term >> evan, good morning. it's jon fortt that's a great place for me to ask this question, i think, take us over this ride of the past four years essentially because if you look at the stock chart, and we spent a lot of time looking at charts. i want the strategy and the management you spent a couple years going down and in 2019 there's this turnaround when things are going down everybody is down on snap. in technology companies sometimes leaders stick to a certain kind of principle despite the crowd going against it and now it seems like the
11:08 am
tide is turning to that principle about things like privacy you were really talking about all along. talk to me about morale within the company, about how the strategy started to perhaps show up differently and maybe some changes you made to help that happen >> yes, it's certainly been validating as you mentioned around brand safety. we were so frustrated for so many years because it didn't seem like advertisers cared like user privacy or brand safety and they were focused on driving results. that's why we invested so much in our advertising platform to drive that performance we were just hoping over time advertisers would understand and value not only the close content platform where we moderate the content our community sees but also our values around privacy and building a product that leaves a positive impact on people's lives it's been validating and
11:09 am
motivating there's a lot more work to do and we have augmented reality. we believe the power of overlaying computing on the world is going to be absolutely transformational we want to make sure those practices and the way we think of our platform as we go from these little mobile screens to wearable technology and computing relates to the world >> taking that further can you talk about the soft benefit you are seeing whether that's in recruiting and morale or in product development because you can't based your strategy on data that's at risk of going away for you >> yeah, definitely. there are many benefits. the first one that everyone at snap can sleep well at night because they feel like they're making a positive impact in society. that's even more clear given just how critical it is to be thoughtful about the type of content folks are distributing
11:10 am
and the way they structure their platforms and gather user data i think one of the things that has been really helpful is now that more advertisers, more businesses are paying attention to this and caring about this, it's a lot easier to have those conversations and so we're being invited at very, very large brands that maybe a couple years ago would have been hard to get a meeting just to hear our perspective and how snap is different. i think getting our foot in the door is a lot easier these days because some of those long-term bets the past nine years ago are starting to pay off. >> yeah. and it's something, evan, we've talked about since ipo day, the degree to which you have zigged while others have zaged it's not surprising to hear you agree at large with the apple point of view. tim cook did say last week we can no longer turn a blind eye to the theory of technology that says all engagement is good engagement would you fully endorse that
11:11 am
view, and how do you see the war playing out between apple and players who obviously have a much different stance? >> i certainly think folks have different perspectives in the space but what tim has said has aligned with how we built our business from the beginning and particularly when he's referencing content that alliance with how he built our content platform and so rather than providing a platform where anyone can say anything and reach millions and millions of people whether that information is inciting violence or is fraudulent, we said we're going to be thoughtful about the content that reaches millions of people like you are at cnbc. and so we're going to moderate that content and make sure the content is aligned with our content guidelines and overall that will create a much more positive experience for our community and also educate them more meaningfully about what's happening in the world so, yeah, we've definitely taken a different path from the beginning. that path alliance with what apple is talking about
11:12 am
there are different perfect suspe perspectives in the industry. >> do you think they need to reset expectations for what true engagement growth is supposed to look like giving some of these new frictions? >> i don't think so because i don't think it's either/or what we've been able to do over time is innovate and continue to drive engagement growth and user growth while simultaneously protecting user privacy. i don't think you have to promote conspiracy theories to grow your technology business, and we certainly have demonstrated there's another way. so i don't think investors need to make those sorts of tradeoffs and i think if you look at the growth of snap the last couple of years it validates this different strategy of focusing on premium content partners, on moderating content and being thoughtful about what you're distributing to your community >> evan, speaking of moderating content, yes, snap has zigged what others have zagged as carl
11:13 am
put it what's interesting is spotlight has grown very quickly, just launched in november now 100 million users. you do have to worry about moderating that. how is that going for you because you've never had to worry about moderating content before before it was all either premium content created by companies such as nbc universal or people just communicating directly with friends. how big of a challenge is that now? >> we moderated influencer content in the past and have that muscle build at snap. it's about scaling that and we've only launched spotlight into a couple select markets it's gotten great traction with 100 million people using it in january. we've been able to slowly roll that out to manage the growth in moderation practices we're using a combination in learning and making sure there's review of any content that's getting wide distribution. so far, knock on wood, that strategy is working and will
11:14 am
continue to roll out to new markets as soon as we can support it >> you know, evan, just this morning news about senator warner preparing to unveil a bill that would reform section 230. there's been a lot of talk on both sides of the aisle about reforming section 230 and making platforms more liable, more responsible for the type of content that is showed on those platforms. where do you stand now that it would apply much more to snap than even three months ago >> because we moderate all of our content that we distribute widely, i actually think the section 230 reforms are maybe less impactful to snap overall but they would be impactful to the industry i think the early section of 230 is to promote freedom of expression for example, if someone leaves a restaurant review that's scathing and the restaurant owner gets really upset they can't just sue yelp to get them to take it down. it's actually, i think, promoted
11:15 am
freedom. the second part of section 230 which provides these platforms a right to moderate the content that's on their platform in a couple broad categories, harmful content and things like that i think what folks are saying instead of a right maybe that should be a responsibility and i think the way they're going to try to thread the needle i would assume is to focus on a responsibility to take down content that isn't pro-ttected the first amendment. that's a way to thread the needle legally it doesn't protect things like incitement or fraud. i think there may be reform to require companies to take down that type of content or moderate that type of content >> we heard from senator klobuchar earlier in the week who isgoing to be looking at ways in which congress might be able to, say, increase the fines from doj against big tech or even limit the way in which a
11:16 am
large player buys smaller rivals through m&a. do you see that as a material risk >> gosh, it will be interesting to see how that evolves overall in the industry. i think we're at a precarious juncture because if you look at global competition and technology many other governments around the world are going to great lengths to really support and prop up and invest in new technology which is so important to the future. if you look at any of these major advancements in modern economies, the dutch or the british empire, a lot are by technical advances that's been the case here in the united states. i think we're in a bit of a precarious position because we need these tech giants to be investing in the future, to be making big breakthroughs the future of the united states depends on it. at the same time we need to have markets that are fair where small companies or startups like snap are able to thrive and succeed. so i think overall as i look at the regulatory framework i want
11:17 am
us to all remember as americans that regulations aren't substitutes for morality and for doing the right thing. and so i think as long as these businesses can focus on doing the right thing, acting in ways that overall support and uplift american society there will be less need for regulation and overall that will make us more competitive as a nation. >> in your earnings report one of the things that made me do a double take is the growth in the rest of world outside of north america and europe, up 35 million. 55% to 99 million. what really is driving that? because you talk on the tall about augmented reality lenses, the increase in application performance. is this an engineering and product market fits story and how much does that have legs >> well, it's really a team wide effort it's not just one thing. two years ago we were struggling to grow outside of the u.s.,
11:18 am
especially in the rest of the world because our android application wasn't working very well and our back end systems were pretty slow and so the experience wasn't very good for folks outside of the u.s. and europe so we invested in the fundamental technology that is maybe android application and easier to use. on top of that we continue to innovate around augmented reality but we've also made partnerships with telcos, for example, to make snapchat and we've customized our augmented reality experiences for all the different places where snap has a large audience and all of that has really contributed to this growth that we're seeing around the world. >> and so how is the model around monetizing those users in the rest of the world different? i seem to remember at the beginning -- well, not the beginning, but right before you went public there was a lot of talk on how ios and the ios user
11:19 am
being more premium in north america and europe was more important and mormon advertisable now that you have this rest of world growth what's the business model around making that really sustainable part of the business >> i think focus on our cost structure and incremental member of the snapchat community and we've been able to keep that roughly flat over time despite the increases in engagement and user base overall. and so that will allow us, of course, to monetize our user base and to generate cash flow from all the incremental users that we have outside of the u.s. and europe i would say in the near term the united states and europe represent a massive opportunity. i think for a lot of these larger advertising platforms they recommend about 70% of overall revenue. i think if you look at the near term revenue opportunity we're investing a lot in the united states and europe and other markets where we have
11:20 am
significant penetration of smartphone users like australia, for example. and then longer term we'll focus on monetizing users outside of the united states and europe so we're starting today with resellers, for example, to scale those efforts. we'll invest more meaningfully as the audiences get to scale outside of the united states and europe we barely scratch the surface when you look at 13 to 34-year-olds, it's a massive population our product really resonates with that audience >> evan, it's impossible to talk about communications platforms right now without talking about reddit which has been a phenomenon in recent weeks in terms of driving these trades that we were talking about at the beginning of the show such as with gamestop i'm curious what you think of this phenomenon and how the conversations on them need to be perhaps the people on them need to be accountable for what
11:21 am
they're talking about. >> i think the thing that gives me a little bit of comfort if you take us to the fact this speculation really represents a very small percentage of the overall market i think looking at the big picture overall markets are actually quite stable, which is something that is reassuring despite some of the news stories. separately one of the things our generation really paid a lot of attention to in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis a lot of young people obviously were out of work and they didn't have an opportunity to build wealth the way many older people did by investing at the bottom of 2008 and really riding that obviously really up until the pandemic and so i think a lot of young people learned a lot from that experience and have been looking for opportunities to invest. and when you combine that with this revolution that's happened with these online financial platforms i think something like 10 million retail accounts were opened in 2020 i think there's a compelling
11:22 am
opportunity for young people to build wealth we invested in m1 finance several years ago that takes a long-term view rather than some of these day trading applications to see the way the democraticization builds wealth. it's easy to look to the short term which is isolated to a small part of the market >> and, evan, when you talk about this sort of revolution, the truth is that a lot of these people who are on reddit are snapchat users or certainly of the same demographic what is the opportunity there for you and for snap beyond that investment you made a couple years ago? >> we're focused on the opportunities inside snapchat. we do believe there will be opportunities to provide additional opportunities for the snapchat communities one of the ways we're doing that is through minis, these little utilities inside of snapchat,
11:23 am
all sorts of different brands and companies can use to reach the snapchat audience, part of the trend to on platform conversion and ransactions i think you're going to see folks embrace especially as the businesses become more privacy centric. i think you can imagine a world in the future where snapchaters are able to access financial services through one of these minis on snapchat and that's an exciting opportunity for us. >> fascinating we will be keeping an eye on minis, on spotlight, and also what happens with that apple operating system change. thank you for joining us evan spiegel, we hope you come back soon. >> thanks so much for having me and take care. >> that was fantastic. our thanks, julia. watch peloton today, big sales numbers. the supply chain issues, the margin concerns are dragging the stock down almost 9% it's about a ten-day low or so we're going to talk to john foley, ceo, in a few moments on those results.
11:24 am
hi, i'm a new customer and i want your best new smartphone deal. well i'm an existing customer and i'd like your best new smartphone deal. oh do ya? actually it's for both new and existing customers. i feel silly. but i do want the fastest 5g network. oh i want the fastest 5g network. are we actually doing this again? it's not complicated. only at&t gives everyone the same great deal. like the samsung galaxy s21 5g for free when you trade in. some say this is my greatest challenge ever. but i've seen centuries of this. with a companion that powers a digital world, traded with a touch. the gold standard, so to speak ;) ready to shine from the inside out? try nature's bounty hair, skin and nails gummies. the number one brand to support beautiful hair, glowing skin, and healthy nails. and try advanced, now with two times more biotin.
11:25 am
when you switch to xfinity mobile, you're choosing to get connected and try advanced, to the most reliable network nationwide, now with 5g included. discover how to save up to $300 a year with shared data starting at $15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. you can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store.
11:26 am
11:27 am
it doesn't block hundreds of twitter accounts that have been tweeting in support of these farmer protests. the request made under a law that allows the government to ask social media companies to block accounts to protect, quote, the integrity of the country. twitter first complied with india's request to suspend access to more than 200 accounts that belong to activists, political commentators, celebrities criticizing prime minister modi's policies twitter unblocked those accounts these unfolding events reaching hollywood and washington, d.c., after pop star rihanna, greta thunberg and the niece of vice president kamala harris voiced support for the farmers. what jack dorsey does now could affect big tech in india google said it is inbesting $10 billion, amazon $1 billion, facebook at $6 billion also putting their money in indian startups, flip cart which
11:28 am
is backed by walmart set to go public here in the u.s. some time in 2021 and jio and zomato. julia, a lot of money at stake here and social media already under scrutiny arneound censorship this showdown between india and twitter. >> seema, that's right not just a lot of money at stake but this speaks to the power these platforms hold thanks so much speaking of social platforms keim an eye on pinterest a beat on the top and bottom lines powering that stock higher pinterest reporting it added more than 100 million monthly active users last year and you can see shares are up more than 6% today there's a mott more "squawk alley" still ahead so stay with us sarah, did you know geico could save you hundreds on car insurance and a whole lot more? hmm. so what are you waiting for? captain ahab to help you find a parking spot? thar she blows!
11:29 am
whoops! loading zone. darn it. pull hard to starboard! too small! seriously? because it...ugh. oh! follow him! steady... steady... oh! thunderation! to the northern lot where there be parking spaces as big as whales! geico. see all the ways you could save. it's hard to hope, hard to cope with crisis. so we get to work. we mend, fighting for every person
11:30 am
in every neighborhood; we, the coming of the common good. so dare to care, to be hope-sided. we're never divided, when we live to give, we always live united. some say this is my greatest challenge ever. when we live to give, but i've seen centuries of this. with a companion that powers a digital world, traded with a touch. the gold standard, so to speak ;)
11:32 am
here's your cnbc news update this hour. last year's u.s. trade deficit was the highest since 2008 it jumped 18% in a year to $679 billion driven by a sharp decline in exports agricultural exports to china totaled less than $29 billion, more than 20% below the target set by former president trump's trade deal with china. russia is expelling some diplomats from germany, sweden and poland accusing them of joining illegal protests against the jailing of kremlin critic alexei navalny saying the expelled workers did not take part in a demonstration. german and french leaders have condemned the expulsions and parkland school shooting survivor is starting a pillow company. a trump supporters has promoted false claims of election fraud he says his products will be made in the u.s. and the company
11:34 am
11:35 am
11:36 am
>> john, thank you for joining us and congratulations on your first billion dollar quarter >> thank you good to see you. >> now you had sales up 128% we are now almost a year into this pandemic. how long do you expect these exceptional numbers to continue given how much demand you pulled forward? >> yes, as you know we've grown over 100% so triple digits every year since we launched the company. yes, this quarter we were close to 130% year on year growth. i can't say it will continue for years and years. we are a growth company. we invest in growth, we're investing in manufacturing,new content, new markets and we can commit to it for years and years. >> growth is fantastic but we
11:37 am
have to talk supply chain. you have continued delays at u.s. ports due to covid. you announced you're investing $100 million, you're increasing customer support staff you sent a note out to subscribers yesterday to say how committed you were to that support. it's good news for the customer but not the gross margins. what are share holders to take away from that >> i think shareholders should take away what members take away, that we are 100% committed to our members and giving them a fantastic experience with the congestion in the ports we've had to reschedule some new members' bike and treadmill deliveries and that's frustrating to them and us this commitment is so we can deliver the first time on time for our deliveries for our new products and get off on the right foot with our new members. if there's one member that gets a reschedule that's one too many for our taste. >> your stock was downgraded by
11:38 am
raymond james who said while demand remains strong we believe trends could soften with social distancing likely to ease with the vaccine rollout. what's your reaction to that >> yeah, i just think it's flat wrong. what we're seeing is a shift where people want to work out in the home they've always wanted to work out in the home. if you look back there's been close to 5 million sold in the u.s. alone every year. those are people saying i want to spend real money to work out at home. unfortunately, they haven't used the treadmills because they've been boring and become the cliche clothes hangar and coat rack and collect dust. now with the engaging content we bring that you know well where you're immersed in these classes with motivating community, supportive community, great instructors and the gamefication it's super fun to work out at home now the peloton tread that
11:39 am
allows to you take these boot camp classes from home it is the future of fitness covid or not we see it clear as day and i think the analysts will eventually see it as well. >> you do have a lot more competition in the space now due to everyone staying at home. you've seen it come from all sorts of different companies whether it's tonal or the mirror or new offerings from other fitness companies. you had a niche space. you were the streaming top fitness player now it's deluded the space how do you keep that niche market for yourself? we invest and are investing in manufacturing like we talked about, in new content modalities, new products like the lower priced tread we innovate and stay out in front.
11:40 am
you are right you are seeing the traditional fitness players come into at home fitness because they see the people in the space see that at home is the future and they're all interested in where peloton is going >> you acquired precorp in two states have you started manufacturing there yet and if not when? >> yeah, we -- that's a good question we're excited about u.s. manufacturing for lots of reasons, u.s. jobs obviously a big one but a hedge against our asian manufacturing when there is congestion if we have options of where we're making different pro products by later this calendar year we expect to produce peloton products in the north carolina facility the deal has not closed yet but we expect it to early this calendar year. >> i want to talk real estate.
11:41 am
you have a brand-new corporate headquarters in manhattan set to open some ceos are saying, though, their staff can go virtual forever or do hybrid setup you told me before you want your employees back in the office why is that so important to you? >> it's a good question, diana like every leadership team we're obsessed about it because this covid world has changed the way you can work we've been productive working from home. i've been so impressed with our team in the remote world we did recommit to our entire team that we are going to be an office first culture i was at hq yesterday and it is a very, very special -- it's going to be close to 500,000 square feet on 34th and 9th and it is such a beautiful space i care deeply about culture and human interaction and the fun and the team and the energy you get from being in an office with other people
11:42 am
i had a fantastic day yesterday because i socially distanced but i saw some other of my colleagues and it was great to see them you get the energy of that and that's one of the reasons my wife and i live in new york city, one of the reasons peloton will continue to invest in real estate and make sure we have an office first >> you talked about attracting top tech talent, part of why you're investing so much in office space given this new work from anywhere culture and new york still being very expensive, are you now at a disadvantage in new york >> i don't think so. i saw a bloomberg article that new york city is the place to go over any other market for technology specifically and you're right as we invest in the headquarters i think when a young engineer walks in and sees the energy and sees the other people architecture and energy and hq will be one of the 100
11:43 am
things those hotshot engineers care about, their comp, equity, culture, the right kind bars in the kitchen. all kinds of things to recruit and retain the world's top talent not just software engineers but across the spectrum of great professionals and we're committed to it. i think new york city is the greatest city on earth peloton is proud to be here. >> john foley, thanks so much for being with us, the ceo of peloton, carl, back to you >> great stuff diana olick with john foley of peloton. watch cisco this morning awfully close to a 52-week high. talking about improved demand for security, tech transitions like 5g, price target 54 we're back in a moment
11:44 am
t-mobile is now america's largest and fastest 5g network. and to celebrate, we want everyone to unleash 5g speeds in more places. right now, every current and new customers can get a free samsung galaxy s21 5g. just bring in a qualifying device to trade. switch to t-mobile and save up to 20% every month vs. the other guys. the leader in 5g coverage. the fastest 5g speeds. the best value in wireless. and a free galaxy s21 for everyone. only at t-mobile.
11:46 am
one beneficiary of the robinhood raid is square that's according to the migration over to square's alternative is what's driving this week's surge in the stock you can see shares are flat today, but they are up this week don't go anywhere. we're back in two minutes. ♪♪ hey you, yeah you. i opened a sofi money account and it was the first time that i realized
11:47 am
i could be earning interest back on my money. i just discovered sofi, and i'm an investor with a diversified portfolio. who am i?! i refinanced my student loans with sofi because of their low interest rates. thanks sofi for helping us get our money right. ♪♪ ♪♪ for skin as alive as you are... don't settle for silver 7 moisturizers 3 vitamins 24 hours hydration gold bond champion your skin
11:49 am
welcome back let's go back to the gamestop trade. you can see it up there almost 19% as robinhood removes its trading limits on the stock and other beneficiaries of that reddit-sparked rally this morning. this comes just a day after secretary janet yellen, the treasury secretary, expressed confidence in the underlying system joining us now on the wall street bets phenomenon and beyond, formerly part of the bottom white house economic transition team as well as the
11:50 am
s.e.c. and small business administration javier, great to have you. david sachs told us earlier this week this gamestop phenomenon was a warning on censorship. what do you think the lesson of this is so far >> it's a very layered layered n for sure what one can glean out of what has happened can probably be looked at as a sociology lens which is where david is going with that comment which is on one hand you have a pent-up situation in the country with the quad of crisises we're going through and the wealth gap is widening and the seeming dislocation between main street and wall street and they finally found a way to participate in the economy and all of a sudden
11:51 am
you have a situation where due to things that were part of the structural market and i think this is where david is going is the fact that they had to suspend trading. >> right >> i think that was a real tough situation. >> yeah, i get that, and i'm all for retail investors being able to do all the things that any trader is able to do, but my question next is what sort of behavior should regulators -- should the environment be encouraging? and by that i mean, we have structures around rules. you know, stocks being halted in certain cases. you know, trading on margin and things like that these new apps are making it seamless, frictionless free to take on levels of risk that i'm not sure are historically
11:52 am
beneficial for all investors, right? so is there anything that needs to happen or should happen around how these apps, not just let people do thing, but actually encourage people to do things >> yeah. and i think that tug-of-war between maintaining efficient capital markets and protecting investors is what the premise and the construct of that meeting that was held yesterday by secretary yellen and the regulators and that balance is a very difficult one to hold the fact is that the genie is out of the bottle and we're not talking about thintech, and one of the promises of thintech is it reduces that friction if you don't have guardrails to protect people they get burned so i'm probably giving you a non-answer answer, but that
11:53 am
tug-of-war is really what's at the heart of what we saw last week. >> javier, there are so many contingencies here you want to give everyday investors access to some of these instruments and options that may be limited to institutions in the past and you are protecting them and democratizing access and you have the question of the start-ups in wanting to allow innovation how do you balance sort of protecting the opportunity for companies to innovate at a time while also considering protecting investors >> i mean, look, there's about 600 unicorns in the world that are valued at th$2 trillion. they have collectively raised -- last year they raised $428 million a day. that innovation is actually at the center of our country's
11:54 am
engine so again, i think there's sort of this tug-of-war between the fact that technology enables all these changes, enables all of the inclusive and the incollusiveness and the ability for everyone to participate in our economy, but there are perils to the speed at which technology travels so i think that -- in the case of thintech specifically because that's generally what we're talking about here and to the situation we're in is that you have a construct in which there is a convergence between what's happening in the innovation space and what's happening with regulated entitieslike banks so how that convergence plays out is really going to dictate
11:55 am
how regulators act here. >> all right great perspective. javier sade, thank you >> thank you so much thank you for having me. we've covered a few of the upgrades today footlocker over at citi. starbucks and goldman's another one upgrading zillo today. going to buy price target 200 and they do cite continued acceleration in the real estate macro and the sustainable shift in onlineactivity. we're back in a moment
11:57 am
some say this is my greatest challenge ever. but i've seen centuries of this. with a companion that powers a digital world, traded with a touch. the gold standard, so to speak ;) wanna build a gaming business that breaks the internet? that means working night and day... ...and delegating to an experienced live bookkeeper for peace of mind. your books are all set. so you can finally give john some attention. trusted experts. guaranteed accurate books. intuit quickbooks live.
11:58 am
>> in case you missed it, mark zuckerberg made a surprise appearance on the buzziest start-up clubhouse on the new show to talk about the lab division and their plans for virtual reality. the appearance caused several service outages for users of the app. so now we had elon on monday, john zuck on thursday, dropbox's drew hauston and quite a roster for the new app. >> quite a roster, indeed, and i have to say this app clubhouse is having its breakout moment. back in january this app
11:59 am
reported that it had about 2 million users and was valued at $1 billion, but since then we've seen the numbers skyrocket and john, we've seen so many of these big names come on. i just -- it's amazing how fast it's grown and in certain countries, in japan, turkey and italy, it is the number one free app in the apple store right now. crazy stuff, john, right >> what's brilliant about this, potentially is it could be the evolution of podcasts. part of the problem about podcasts is it's hard to know who your audience is and it's hard to figure out different monetization models. what clubhouse is doing is turning audio and conversation and convened moments into something that's a lot more structured i don't know their plans for this having talked deep strategy with this, and the potential is enormous and there are others working on similar things that twitter is, for example, carl.
12:00 pm
yeah we'll hear from the president with covid relief in the next few minutes. next week jam-packed 76 s&p companies will have earnings including names like cisco, twitter and disney and some others. so enjoy the weekend let's get to the halfback at hq. >> all right carl, thanks so much welcome to "the halftime report." i'm scott wapner this hour the record amount of money in the tech sector as that space hits another new all-time high of the investment committee debating whether the independent counsel's big run this week can continue and of course, how best to play that joining me for the hour today, joe terra noef a jim lebenthal and vny's director of market strategy i'll take you to the markets to the wall as we always do stocks are going in the best week since november.
85 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
CNBCUploaded by TV Archive on
