board, dow futures up by about 136 points s&p futures up by 19 the nasdaq up by 65. and then you would be looking at some pretty high numbers nasdaq closed at a high yesterday. that does it for us today. we're going to hand it over to "squawk on the street. but before we do, our last little bit, happy birthday to you. jim cramer, happy birthday to you. i that does it for us. it's his birthday today. happy birthday bye. >> happy birthday, jim happy birthday jim as right, good wednesday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber we're looking for record highs across the board as earnings are solid, the covid trends are looking quite good, and core inflation runs cool, for the second month in a row, despite some commodities of multi-year highs, our road map begins with twitter on a tear, on track for the eighth straight daily gain, rallying nearly 20% in the past week

plus, remember when president trump was asking tiktok to sell to oracle and walmart, now it's on hold, the biden administration shelving the deal as it reviews security shares of cisco under pressure this morning this as revenue declined for the fifth straight quarter ceo chuck robbins will join us exclusively just a few minutes from now carl >> jim, it's our pleasure to wish you a happy birk and it looks like the markets will be a bit of a gift as well, as we mentioned twitter, we said you're high this week, underarmor will open near an 18 month high. >> under armour is terrific. twitter showed i thought that there is, the line in that piece, great interview, 25 million followers. 50 50 you may not miss one and you have others and particularly one, his absence, and the real donald trump has made, i think, it has put twitter in the list of companies that you want to advertise with along with

pinterest, and along with staff, because it has become less rancorous and there is very good evidence in that conference call that the less rancor the more advertisers and that's a big reason why i think twitter is doing very well. >> jack dorsey on the call last night, guy, talked about the fact that the audience for twitter, 80% ex-u.s. and much larger than just one account here's what he said. >> we're platform that is obviously much larger than any one topic or any one account 80% of our audience is outside of the united states and we have more than 50 accounts with over 25 million followers. conversations on twitter every day are based on what's happening in the world and we have proven in the past three years that that if we do the work to serve the conversation, our audience grows >> david, he said modest impact from that new apple privacy initiative and revenues up 28 that's the highest since q3 of

'18. >> yeah, their total revenue number, the highest ever in a quarter, right and as you point out, total ad revenue, 43% sequentially and carl, as we've noted, the stock, it's not like it is sitting there quietly, it is moving up dramatically into this earnings report, so adding perhaps as much as another 10% to the market value of the company, even after what has been, jim, a very significant run into the print as we like to say, when we talk about our earnings report and you know, then it focuses you in part on sort of the changing nature of where corporations are spending their ad dollars >> yes and this is about super bowl ads, almost all of them, there's also a corollary, in twitter, it's about direct, they're going to be doing a lot more direct response, not just brand and i reiterated, i think this is the tipping point quarter, go back to the pinterest quarter where it broke out from 75s and 70s

and go back to the quarter when the advertisers recognized it's safe there is no dangerous place here that our stuff is going to go up against, so david, i think that this is not the end of this move, this is the beginning, pinterest, beginning snap, and now twitter as a must buy, as people try to figure out how to get in touch with younger international consumers. >> right but it's funny, because facebook has not done much of anything this year. >> no. >> even though it would seem to be a beneficiary of all of these trends and reported what many people would say is quite a strong quarter, and what, 33% revenue growth, if i remember. >> it was great. and the market didn't like it. >> the market did not like it. >> and yet you talk about these trends alphabet shares are up you know, jim, it takes me back to faang for a moment. because it has not performed. >> no. >> not really well this year and you've seen, i don't know what you're calling them these days, not the reddit-er, not the merry men. >> the enlightened >> the enlightened they've sort of moved away from

the faang trading. >> the enlightened are far more interested in the most exciting ev that's what, david, ev has captured people, carl, if you say lidar, they say ev, they say 15 minutes faster, everybody has an angle on these, but you know what, in the end, carl, they're not as important as faang to the market, but it's what the enlightened have discovered is important and exciting >> well, speaking of lidar and autonomy and evs, jim, gm with numbers out. 193 beats 156. that chip shortage is going to impact ebit which they highlighted a while ago, 1.5 to 2 billion. interesting, toyota this morning said the chip shortage is not going to impact at least their production schedule, as they raise their full-year guidance >> well, the united states has gotten too much just in time, and the japanese and the chinese are just in case, and they are better orders, there are a lot

of double order chip, and i'm going to call tonight on "mad money" for the secretary, well, the secretary of commerce, to get a a-year bond, to be able -- 50-year bond, to be able to make enough, and have enough foundry space. and intel has gotten back in but we need foundries. the companies need them. these companies are putting up, for gm, autos are not necessarily the highest tech semis but we will be short for almost everything and the u.s. has to step up and i know it is something that people don't want to hear but it is better infrastructure spending than interstate 95, much more bang for the buck and i think the secretary will lead. it i'm counting on it. >> you're never going to stop on that 50-year bond. >> no. >> although she's commerce you don't want to get on yellen's case. >> she is a former venture capitalist a great business

person and i promise you -- >> you are never getting 509-year bond. >> it's not going to happen. >> it's my birthday. >> it's your birthday. >> maybe we will -- tell that to everybody else. >> we won't do a bond as old as you are. [ laughter ] >> oh, my. >> and it's also my moderna day. i get the present in the world i get number two moderna today >> you do. >> what a day. >> you benefit at least one benefit. >> and chipotle. and with some -- >> you know, jim, i would like to get your take quickly on the overall market we obviously have a lot of earnings to get through this morning as well. we will talk to chuck robins in a minute but i'm hearing two different narratives in this mark and they're not necessarily mutually exclusive one is we're in a bubble take a look at ev. take a look at spacs every spac goes up when they price, when they just price their spac, it is a deal. >> jpmorgan has said, that unbelievable day of how bad they

could be. >> it is very possible >> and look at bitcoin i mean we can go through any number of things, in terms of some of the multiples. look at the door dashes of the world, some of the huge ips that have taken place ipo ps that have taken place and there is concern about that. and no doubt we're in a double some say and others say the vaccine is getting wider rollout and by april and may, people are going to charge out on the streets and start spending money like you've never seen and by the way they wilt have 1.9, or at least some of the $1.9 trillion that may come raining down and i just wonder, do they both exist? or is one going to outweigh the other? >> i think you can have a parallel track of good and bad that goes up at a certain point and then bad surfaces and jpmorgan, i know andrew referenced it, it does show that this is a long-term bad trend, and it's a win for the people who do them, and lose for people who come in late, and that's going to be a little while

>> you're talking spacs. >> the spacs are half of it. the ipos they're half the other half, i don't know we can debate. look at lyft remember that, at 87, that was ridiculous, right? i know, i thought it would get there, it then went down, and the money losers are winning, david. >> right. >> and almost all of the spacs are money losers and we know you can't have a market, carl, if you have a market that is just made up of money losers that goes up, that ends but there are a lot of companies that are leading this market that sell 10, 11, 12 times earnings >> like cisco. >> and unbelievable home numbers. incredible numbers no multiple. and another one, eight times earnings and yields 5% i'm not cherry picking >> i'm starting to hear it more from people who wouldn't normally discuss it, topeeness, bubble icious, and taking down their overall exposure and at the same time, the competing

narrative, they're just getting started and rates are where they are. >> did you get the report. >> yes >> just in terms of what they own? >> yes >> carl, an amazing thing. tesla, she puts out, i think, i think this is actual words, not an easy thing to do, she puts out what she buys and sells and every day she seems to bye find something. pay pal yesterday. and dumping spunk, like, you know, the things you see, there are things that are being churned. >> she's very transparent. >> very transparent. >> and i'm using her for zeitgeist and she is someone who gets so much money in, she's not, she doesn't have a choice and that's what we're having, the money over the tran some, as we used to talk about it in the 1990s. it is, there it is being thrown over the transom start selling your sphinx. >> yeah, just looking at a chart here, it's pretty impressive. >> yeah. >> you mentioned cisco

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shares of cisco as you've seen under pressure after the company reported softness in the infrastructure, and due to the continuation of many people working remotely , joining us now is the chairman and ceo chuck robbins. chuck, always good to have you in reviewing your conference call and listening to it and

reviewing it two separate things. you talk about a challenging environment currently, or at least for the last quarter at the same time, you said, looking ahead, you're cautiously optimistic because recent surveys of i.t. spending indicate year over year i.t. budget growth for this calendar year so put the two in perspective for me, as we try to figure out what the year ahead looks like for your company. >> david, first of all, thanks for having me. you know, i'm actually really proud of what our team has accomplished if you look at what we discussed yesterday, and what we announced, we had demand growth returning to positive, we were, the last three quarters, we went from negative 10 to negative 5, plus 1, with every customer segment improving, enterprise, commercial, service provider, public sector, public sector, 10% and service provider 5%, and commercial came back to plus one, that was from a depth of negative 20 plus a few quarters back you know, our cloud and web skill business has begun to really accelerate for us

we gave data points over the last five quarters and now represents 25% of our service provider segment, grew triple digits in the quarter, and we had the best gross margins we've had in 15 years, and we also announced, you know, that we had generated $3.6 billion of software revenue in the quarter, and 76% of which was coming as subscriptions. so overall, it is a great quarter. the teams have done a great job, and i think we're in the midst of the recovery, and we feel good about where we are. >> and in the midst of the recovery, meaning what, specifically, for infrastructure, because that of course has been a continued weakness, as i say, it's come well off the bottom and nowhere near where i think you would think it would be or where a normalized version of the world would be. >> yeah, we saw pockets of strength we saw data center networking k actually positive. we saw our wi-fi demand was up 20% year over year we saw the catalyst 9000 product continue with double digit revenue growth

the web skill performance. the cloud performance that we talked about a lot of that was infrastructure platform so the revenue view was sort of a backwards-looking number because the demand that we saw in the quarter, if you think about sort of the extended lead times we're all facing from the semico semiconductor, the challenge, te demand signals are what we're looking at, when we're looking at the priority quarter, we're looking backwards and looking at the demand in the quarter, we're pretty optimistic where we're going in the next four quarters. >> i don't know, chuck, there's a debate going on here, and it's one you're squared in with, with mark, you actually have a moment, in the conference call, where you basically saying people don't like to be home anymore, they're not happy, you broke form, you said people, they're not enjoying it. our employees don't know how to mind the, don't mind the option of working from home, i don't

like to be forced to work from home if you force people to work from home, which is what people are doing, that's bad for you. if you force them to go to work, that's worse for you and benihoff says we're going to be at home for the foreseeable future will you solve this for me. >> first of all, jim, happy birthday and the second shot. i hope we can all experience that so look, i think the issue is that, it's going to be a hybrid world, right that's just the bottom line. we could have announced five yearsation, that we were going to allow employees to work from home because we always allowed employees to work from home. and so i think the issue is, you have, workers are going to go back several days a week, workers are going to work from home a couple days a week and vice-versa and most will be in that boat and the real question is, what does that do to your real estate footprint? i don't think we know the answer to that yet, because if you're an employee, going back to the office, are you going to be comfortable going into a shared space where someone else was

sitting the day before are you going to trust it is sanitized? are you going to worry or are you going to be okay with that we don't know the answer yet so i think that, look, i know, i've been back in the office some, and we've been preparing for earnings, and candidly, it's therapeutic, and i think that our people, i think people need both, and that was the comment that our employee made, i'm sure an employee is appreciating their fame these couple of day, retweeting, or tweeting yesterday, and i think we just have to wait and see, but i don't think it's going to be a dramatic shift from where we are today. >> i think it is good, the first guy who talked about for palo alto, and with cisco, and mark is thinking about that chair and thinking about going back in and doing that arrangement and there is some stuff that you do, and i want to drill down, and we want to get the company to where it is 50% software. acasha does it get us there or does it slow us >> well, acacia is going to help

us in our web skill strategy particularly and also in our overall infrastructure platform, when you think about these new higher speed networks are built, a lot of the margin and a lot of the capabilities are in those optic, and so being able to have that inhouse will certainly help us from an economic perspective, and then in our component strategy, as we talk about what we're doing with the cloud and web skill players, being able to sell them, you know, silicon, sell them optics if that's how they like to buy their technology, and then it just gives us another aspect that's important to them, and you know, in the software front, again, we have 3.6 billion in the quarter, and it's a big, a big move from a few years back, relative to where we are on the software front. >> i don't think you're getting enough credit for that, but let's go into something, you gave some more tidbits, and i need to know more about it, web ex, noise cancellation and which is good because i can't stand it when the dog is barking, and that happened last week to me and realtime language

translation and you like these netflix hits, will we be watching people, and can you dub people, i'm not kidding, if you dub people, and dub it with c, with docu-sign, and i need you to have that technology with realtime language. can you give it to us? >> absolutely. 15 languages so you and i talked about this i think in one of our interviews over the last few months, and it's there it's robust. and you know, we did that, we built, we've launched like 50-plus features on a platform, the pace of innovation on the web ex platform, the security and the privacy that we continue to say is super-important. we're hearing that even more from customers today i know it has been sort of, it hasn't been brought up in about a year, but we're hearing customers again come back to the fact that security and privacy are so important and with the feature velocity that the teams have been building, the capabilities, the ai, machine learning enabled noise cancellation where you don't have to say, could you please go

on mute, could you please go on mute, these are the things that i think will be with us for a very long time. >> chuck, it's david again i wonder, when you think about the maturation of this service, what's it going to look like five years out and i mean we talked about the flexibility of a work force, the desire, or at least the ability for people to work from home and five years from now when i'm doing a web ex, what am i going to actually be doing >> well, i think there's a couple of things leading up to, that david first of all, the technology is going to evolve andour teams are working hard on technology that actually creates an equal experience, think about this whole notion of inclusion, and in the future world, we're going to have people sitting in conference rooms and people at home, and you know what it is like historically to be a remote attendee of a meeting. it has been terrible so we're working hard on technology, that gives the same experience to both which is the first thing and then over time, i think you will see real 3d

experience, virtually in the room and there is a lot of work that our teams are doing to build that next generation technology and i think that's what you'll experience in a few years and i think it will become less and less important, whether you're in the room or whether you're at home, we want to make you a productive member of the meeting, regardless of where you are. >> will you promise to help, chuck, to get a $50 billion infrastructure bond with soon to be secretary reymondo from congress, to build fabs in this country that to make sure that we do not run out of capacity? >> i think we're currently experiencing, jim, the by-products of that challenge, with the semiconductor shortage that we see around the world and i have actually spoken to secretary, and i talked to a lot of my peer, and i do think it's important for us, for several companies in the u.s., we've designed our own asips and a big part of our success with our web

skills and the silicon and obviously the acacia technology and i think it is important that we come together in a public/private partnership we won't solve it quickly. i think we all know that but we need to start, we need to come together and we need to create fab capacity in the united states for our future and i think that's super important and i'm hopeful that we as an industry can work with the administration to get that started. >> how serious is this and you said it is a semiconductor challenge. how much is it figuring into your ability to deliver to your customers? how much is it figuring into your own plans >> yeah, i think that was one of the confusing points last night on the call, for some of the analysts, i think is as you looked at our guide, we guided above on the revenue front and the eps front, but the thing we have to remember is that even though our supply chain situation is built into our guidance, the elongated lead times sort of reduces the amount of orders in the quarter that we can convert to revenue in the

quarter. because literally, we're out three, four, five, six months on certain technology, because of the semiconductor issue, we baked it into the guidance, and we're confident at what we put forward, but it certainly is having an impact and we're working on, you know, i've seen emails flying on expedite requests from customers every day so it is a challenge. >> so we will keep on that as well chuck, always appreciate you joining us thank you. >> great to see you guys >> and you chuck robins from cisco. we'll be right back. comfortable ho emerson's energy star™ certified sensi™ we'll be right back. smart thermostat uses geofencing to simplify how homeowners manage comfort and costs. emerson. consider it solved.

as we said at the top of the hour, record highs likely in our future when the opening bell rings in about four minutes. still the market has a little edge today we got some downgrades in the cannabis space and of course powell talks at 2:00 in the teoo wreacinafrnn,e' bk a

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get right to the opening bell on this wednesday morning record highs expected as the opening bell rings going to be driven largely of course by earnings today, jim, and we'll see how coke impacts the dow. it was up pre-market as they beat by a nickel and talk about not just unit case volume down quarter on quarter, but the case of the tax dispute with the irs. >> i listened to the case. it is kind of like they were told they could go 30 miles down, that was the speed limit of the road and they did it and they did it and they did it and then the irs said, listen, you should be going 20 miles an hour, not 30 and we're going to tax you for all that you used, i mean literally it is kind of taking, i was a corporate tax, i actually was really good at corporate tax at harvard wall, and the only thing that i was good at that there, and i think they have a case, and the 12 billion won't happen but i do like the sales will come back

and i think that the hard seltzer, i will try to get david to have, maybe he will go with me, but it is delicious and i think these guys are doing a lot of things right, but again, this is an opening trade stock, david, you got to get the fountains open you're not going to make it up with people buying enough. >> and when does that really begin? >> well, soon, right >> international company, so it's not like, it's 7 billion people, with coca-cola, not 337 million. >> good point. not just here. >> and coke zero is doing well they didn't take share they took costs out. is it an exciting stock? look, to me, it's a bond until they can get the fountains open. >> right >> you're still sticking with may 1st. >> may 5th >> may 5th >> cinco de mayo. >> cinco de mayo. >> six bucks, i can charge seven bucks -- >> jim - >> sorry. >> go ahead, carl.

>> sorry, jim. i was going to say on the reopening front, b of a has a note talking about herd immunity and their expectation is by q4, 55% of the country gets vaccinated, but that you build in the immunity we've already built in the past year, and you can get to the 40s, they say in the coming months, and their argument is you don't have to wait for 55, much less 75, you can start these realizations basically in the time period that you've been talking about. >> yeah, look, it's the vaccine glut, the second quarter vaccine glut and i don't know, the fda is sitting around talking, and what are they doing, hey, we've been working with j&j for the last eight months, it's really good, let's spend another couple of days looking at it, no, let's spend two weeks looking at it. what are they doing? are they watching us >> really, ifwe have j&j in there, we would have the vaccine glut that we would want and we wouldn't be limited to the different levels and everybody frustrated, we would be going to cvs, like we were supposed to be going two months ago and going, yes, they've done some good things and i'm picking them as,

what's going on, david, is you and i both know, as we get more and more vaccines, we're eventually, you alluded to this yesterday, going to be looking f fors arms to vaccinate by them >> >> one would hope that is the case j&j will be added to the mix fairly soon we would expect. and we should get to that point where it's going to be available to everybody and listen, we're at a million and a half a day now, average. so at least we're moving up. there i think most regions of the country are really starting to ramp up although people, you know, some of these stadiums that they're opening, in places, and then people aren't showing up, they don't have enough vaccines. >> you need more people in tampa bay. >> it's working. >> it is >> not the way we want. >> no. >> but i think carl, look, there's reason, david traced out that roaring '20s situation post spanish flu, it is an allusion i'm making for you. >> thank you. >> you do hear it a lot of the roaring '20s, a lot of people talk about it but it is mostly services i heard this point, too.

how many haircuts are you going to get you're not going to get seven haircuts you're going to have breakfast, lunch, dinner, a and dessert out at five separate restaurants i don't know >> tu listen to simon properties and what david simon said? he is bringing back jcpenney someone wrote the other day jcpenney closed. they're open simon properties had a great conference call. and you're not mad at him. >> no i'm not. >> it came up. >> did it? why does everybody say that? i guess i give off that vibe i'm not mad at anybody i come in peace. >> yes >> just because you're a little negative on spacs sometime ors question some things, something thinks you're, you know. >> you're loved. >> i've become deaf to the destroyer of worlds. no, no >> you're not a destroyer. >> no. >> a good man. >> he's a fine man

you know, just a good man. a fine man >> let's make money for people >> to david's point, jim, about overheating, let's see, copper, eight-year high. platinum i think back to 2015. soybean, the crb has set a 52-week high for the past six days and is up 81% from the april low. i mean dudley's got a piece in bloomberg this morning, four more reasons to worry about inflation. he said the fed will have to pull, or may have to pull stimulus sooner and with more force than we expect so what does powell say about that at 2:00 >> i think powell still has to look at the unemployment numbers but you will get an inflection point. the weakness of the market i think will come in the spring when we have a vaccine glut and powell's narrative has to change i wouldn't sell anything out before that, but i think it does have to change look, all of this stuff is about employment and the vaccine if you get a big graek in the

vaccine, employment is going to go up, and if we get back to near normal employment, then these rates can't stay you can't keep these rates low if things are good >> when is the fed going to stop buying they're still balancing -- >> powell's good he isn't going to wreck the economy. he doesn't want to pull a 1937 on us. >> are they still buying bonds i have to check with liesman on that stuff but you got, what, your average high yield, your average junk bond yield is below 4% these guys are still buying? >> there's millions of people unemployed in this country 25 million service people are unemployed and we're acting like everything is great >> no, it's not. >> let's have the market go up and maybe make some money. >> and they're the ones benefitting from the market going up, right? >> they're not we can play that game. >> collateral damage, people are getting richer who are rich. >> that is absolutely the case. >> that is a result of the pandemic. >> that is the collateral

damage and the bol vshevik revolution. >> the mayor. >> i don't know what makes me think of that. >> i like russo. >> and speaking of the gang, and their hopes and dream, and spacs, let's get to a couple this morning now, i wanted to start of start something, spac of the day but there are too many to highlight so i will highlight two this morning and they will both be up sharply or both already are. >> body build? >> not the kevin mayor spac. i'm doing cmf. cm life sciences which is merging with semafor, there it is up 32% this is keith meister and ian kazton, and i think, doing the deal, and this is an interesting transaction, where is my darn notes. there they are je gnomic testing, information data that helps with preventive medicine helps other companies that are

designing clinical tests, and they obviously have a great deal of data, jim it's not just the godenomic testing and they will take in roughly 500 million buck on the balance sheet to do this and being valued for purposes of the deal at seven times revenues competitors, which you might know, garden exact sciences, so some of these names are where sort of where this company is going to be competing and originally comes out of mount sinai hospital here in the new york area, and the work that they did, in terms of genomics >> everybody loves that, david every single buzz word you can possibly have. >> yes >> did you miss anything there >> not really. >> genomics? >> the next one is even better but i am looking at the presentation here, obviously, i didn't do a great job perhaps in terms of explaining what they see as the real opportunity, but a lot of it has to do with the incredible amounts of data that they're building, not just as well the genomic testing that they're doing. and then flying cars

we got it. it's happening i mean they call it urban mobility take a look. i'll show you what they look like you can decide what you want. >> who is buying this one? >> this is a molis spac. >> he is legitimate. >> atlas crest investment is the name of the spac there it is. that is up and the company in question is archer and let me quickly get to this presentation. $2.7 billion valuation, i don't know why, they're valuing it, what they say 1.2 times 2026 revenue. 2026 revenue come on, guys. >> look, it is peace talks and. >> and what they say - >> and ebitda, 4.2 times so obviously, they have a lot of years before they are going to be able to fully roll out what they're calling these electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for use in urban air mobility. >> what's the acronym in that? >> ev-toll but i will tell you that i can

see you taking one, maybe, from brooklyn, to here, you know, 15 minutes. >> hey >> should weshort the blade. >> autonomous. >> maybe you want to short - >> i don't know. i don't know. >> can i just tell you, carl, this conversation we're having right now, here's what the conversation is. someone is going to lose so much money, and these two guys on the set are joking around. i'm not joking around. someone is going to lose a lot of money and it's not going to be the sponsors it's not >> no. >> jim, but we've been through enough cycles to know that whatever we say is going to be sliced and diced and then viewed differently. >> and it has never happened to me first time >> listen. >> but look, i mean this archer, not just, mark laurie, you like that guy >> a fantastic job >> he's involved >> black t-shirt wearing a black t-shirt coming on my show what are you marlin brando put a shirt on. >> no emissions. he comes and it lands in the

street and you get in it and you take off >> remember steve job, the car that ran on water, never got that done. >> no. >> clean hydrogen though. >> this stuff is crazy, carl how do we describe how crazy it is so people don't get hurt? what do we do? >> these are companies that need growth capital, they're fairly early in their stages of development and there's a willingness to fund them and some of them are going to work and a lot of them won't work >> as long as we leave it like that it's like the pot stocks every day. >> carl, sorry >> yeah, well i'm glad you mentioned canopy, because can accord does cut it to sell and says federal legislation is unlikely in the u.s. any time soon, but jim, you know, we shouldn't be framing this entirely through spacs, you got revolutionary changes in technology, the story about a potential rivian ipo later in the year, that's a legitimate story. >> we will hear from mary barra, very serious, building a fort unand we had a great breakdown

on ev, and yes, i mean, i believe rivian is real >> rivian, i know a number of well thought of investors who are early there. and obviously -- >> ford. >> right, ford, and a lot of those that i know, they've been to the plant, they talk about this ceo as though he is the next bezos >> yes >> lucid i thought we had a great interview last week. >> and they have talking $50 billion. >> too expensive it is like the company, that you know, when you did the battery company and took to 46 billion >> took it to 46 billion. >> i did not have anything to do with taking it or going anywhere. >> yolo. >> it did that the market took it there >> for a while, it was more than gm's market value. but not anymore. although gm is down on those numbers. 3.4% >> i don't like it carl, what am goying to do i don't like it. i was getting up this morning and i was happy because it was

my birthday but then i read the piece about how spacs are going bad, and how they're one side and andrew's space and i want to know people to know i started with a chip shortage solution and sent spacs up. >> yeah, but remember, symbolist is the one who told us that a. g. barr would impound the election results before the election results so how much credence are you putting in his notes these days >> good point. >> he was, he was ahead on that one. >> ahead >> he was wrong. >> he was wrong. but we're talking about the process of the election. and you're right, carl, to praise him entirely, and not mention that he did, some of the scenarios he set out, did not occur, but i keep thinking about that night in michigan, and i keep thinking about the georgia phone calls, and i know that's not that michael traced out but he made a lot of money for a lot of people. a great guy, a personal friend

and i think his stuff on spacs is very compelling there. he's the best fisherman of everyone i have ever met >> okay. guy, as we said, a record high, and that includes the russell. let's get to bob pisani. hey, bob. >> hello, guys i love that flying car story, david was talking about. remember that old complaint 20 years ago, where is my jet pack? where's the cool technology that we were all expecting when we were kids? here it is i think it's very, very exciting exciting in the markets today. new highs again. all 11 sectors on the upside three to one advancing to declining stocks not a lot of new highs where there's the new stock highs. twitter's at a new high. berkshireis at a new high. a few of the banks at new highs but there's not a big expansion of individual stock new highs and i'm waiting for that to happen, and meantime, we keep getting china new highs, every day, there is the big market for the year, china, mchi is on fire, the china etf and the eem, the emerging markets, some china this there as well, and historic

highs, and semi is a big starter and doing well today, for the quarter, and for the day, and energy, another big star, doing well, and banks doing great but not outperforming today. as for the market, it is kind of a status quo situation everyone agree, everyone i call, we're pretty stretched bob, but i don't think we're going down right now. there is no reason to sell because the main macro narrative, the big three, stimulus, go big stimulus, particularly, the vaccine rollout, and earnings, keep growing, and keep talking about q1 and q2, earnings estimates are rising fast. that's a great sign for the market so yes, short-term, the major indices are stretched. the individual internals, relative strength index as we looked at are stretched but look at these moves huge moves in the small caps again this month we have a six-day run in the s&p 500, and we were up 5% last week these are enormous moves and doesn't seem to be a lot of worries out there and you look at the vix again, and we had a

big spike up in the vix a few weeks ago on concerns about the short squeeze, and potentially, i think, some internal worries about the market, but that's kind of gone away, we actually dropped below 20 briefly this morning on the vix, we haven't been 20 since december in the vix so there is an indication of not a lot of concern out there immediately for the market >> finally, if you want to see how desperate the states are becoming to get revenues and to come up with additional tax ideas, did you see stacey cunningham's editorial in "the wall street journal" she's threatening to leave new york state, nysc, leave new york state, if the state proposes this financial trading tax, a trading tax is what it is and it is not clear who would pay the taxes and the trading desks are scattered all over and it is a jurisdictional nightmare, i don't know how they would enforce, it but the transactional tax is tried in other countries and doesn't work, and it doesn't raise money people thought and it causes people to move around and it is a sign of how desperate people

are. there is no state aid coming in to stimulus package here and we're going to see other crazy attempts to raise taxes in other states with other kinds of tax squeams that don't make a lot of -- tax schemes that zoo make a lot of sense. competition for people's dollars out there. so the question is, will the nyse ever move i find it rather hard to believe that something like that would actually happen. i know that the new york stock exchange has had discussions with other states but you know, carl, somehow, the texas stock exchange, it just doesn't have the same ring to it, the new jersey stock exchange? miami's been taken already there is a miami stock exchange. the palm beach stock exchange? i don't know, carl but this is a sign of how desperate people are getting >> that was quite a piece by stacey, bob, something we got to keep our eye on. bob pisani, thank you. we'll go to a break here and take a look at how treasuries are fairing this morning, yields were on the rise and cpi for january, came in at a goose egg. we were looking at 0.2 take a look at the dollar index as well, reacting to this

morning's inflation data guy, keep your eye on cannabis more indications that the reddit community has discovered that sector, tilray this morning, up 43%. we're back in a moment good morning! the four way is a destination place. right here, between these walls, is a lot of history. i am black. beautiful. i must be respected. black lawyers, doctors, educators, martin luther king, b.b. king, queen of soul aretha franklin. you're sitting in the place where giants ate. the four way, as a restaurant, meant so much to this neighborhood and we wanted to continue that.

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it's turning out to be an interesting story for the pot stocks a canopy because they don't see federal legislation any time soon that's no match for the red did tree that comes a day after the mj etf had its best day everyone >> they know the short numbers game stocks had people short if that has to do with an exchange by dupont but you have to look at what's short and then decide, i guess, if you are a part of this enlightened class. david,there is a considerable short position let's see what happens. >> remember when tilray was up

in the 140s, 150s. >> during a lunch break. >> during a four-year chart, you will see that spike. the borrow is what was expensive that nobody would borrow it and it did collapse. it went to 214 on september of 2018 >> that doesn't show it. >> you got to go back to september. what's happened, david, once again, is you can look at, there is riddled with etfs, canopy growth and downgrade they do have the money and the drinks the drinks are good. >> i said good-bye since constellation came in and the thing is, the drinks are real. >> right >> david, it tastes great no filter >> it enlightens the premier >> it's funny, jim, we had brendan kennedy on this other day. we were asking him, you know

what it's like to be in a situation where your stock goes bananas. he was thinking back to that time this morning, they are right back in it don't go away. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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record highs for the major indis cease. take a look at the heat map. most sectors in the green, except for consumer discretionary. exu have to volatility ind back down again below 22 "squawk on the street" continues in a moment.

jim, we didn't quite get to this, some of these reports on tiktok oracle and walmart. do you think you got some open that right >> yes i think this is very much in play i think the story is not right i think if this deal can still be right i know there was a note on secretary yellen's desk to do it it's with the bureaucrats right now. i'm not buying the story saying this thing is not happening. i am saying it is in play and it's still on. >> yeah. the dow jones headline is the sale had been shelved indefinitely from the white house waiting for reviews. >> it's very much on i want to say it's in play and the story that you are currently reading is not accurate >> all right jim, how about tonight >> okay. i got matel on, another great

quarter. american girl is doing it. then just like with chuck, i'm really focused on fiber. i am focused on anything at high speed. a really good quarter. remember reading juniper, david? >> kevin john >> kj. that's why starbucks is having so much fun with technology. good show. i'm going to get my moderna shot i am not cutting the line. i am unfortunately old enough to get legally. >> happy birthday and many more. >> i love this team. >> enjoy >> i hope you get to celebrate we wish we could celebrate with you. jim cramer's birthday today. good morning, i'm carl cantonea. big ceos, coca-cola and martin marietta on the move as they report results amid the record highs with some of the moves in pot stocks, we were talking about it with jim a

moment ago it appears the red did community latched on to some of these names, in some cases have a short flow of 30% or so despite the downgrade. they point out that names like canopy are up 300% since october. >> yeah. i mean, it's not as though they haven't been moving already, to your point, carl yet, here they are again today it's significantly moving in i mean, we are looking at tilray, in particular, which i just want to make sure i remember the terms of the deal, of course, that they were acquiring aphria and so typically you would short shares of the acquiring company when you set up the spread there. i got to go back and look at the deal terms but that's another part of this potentially is that you are actually sending a stock up in the face of event investors, morgan, who would typically short it that said, it has been hard to

borrow, i am told, from the very start, from those who would set up the arbitrage there in that deal but they're coming for them, i guess, morgan. >> yes i think to your point, in terms of the red did forums, aphria are the names discussed. some of these names, let me pull it up. looking at 600% gains since the start of the year for tilray those are tesla-like moves in terms of how quickly that has jumped but also, you did have some comments from a number of candidate ceos in the last 24 hours, basically suggesting that not only federal decriminalization but federal legalization of the cannabis industry could be happening in the next 12-to-18 months this is what tilray ceo kennedy had similar comments as well from canopy coe david klein on the tuesday earnings call, that

he would expect that to happen, enter the u.s. market 2021 if that happens so i think we have been talking about that for quite a number of weeks as well and that seems to be adding some juice to these for the canopy, for the cannabis names, i am really missing some millionaires perhaps, here, ca carl >> yeah, they said, we don't foresee it that's like spinning in the wind right now. let's bring in goldman sachs strategist david k kostin. >> good morning, carl, great to see you. >> are we above your year-end target still >> no, year-end target 4,300 for the s&p 500. roughly 10% up from here largely that will be driven by earnings i think the way to think about it is, we're at a level of sales

and profits in 2019 before the pandemic where you like it to be for earnings and sales this year it was interesting, we're pretty much through fourth quarter results and actually sales and earnings are basically back to where they were in the fourth quarter of 2019. carl, it's basically, it's completed the v back to the current level, where we were at the beginning of the end of last year or end of 2019 and looking forward to earnings could be a lot higher semi conductors. if you look at the hardware companies, pharmaceuticals it's not just a big five or six or seven large market cap companies. it's a lot of other companies that actually have a much larger level of profits than they did two years ago. carl, what kind of profits do companies generate what are they likely to generate this year? a lot of companies will be much higher than they were two years

ago. i think that's the right way to think about it and that takes the market higher and remember the interest rate environment much more favorable given the starting point rates right now 115 or so on the ten year. >> i was going to ask you about potential boogeyman and whether or not interest rate risks appears anywhere i mane, on the one hand, people can't take their eyes off commodities and cpi comes in with a big zero. >> what are the risc you have the risks of covid to start the obvious, but it's the pandemic that has caused all the problems in so many ways and so many people died but, basically, the idea an hour assumption is you get a vaccination that's very much rolling out by the middle of the year, a good portion of america will have been vaccinated. so we think that's a positive note that's a risk, if that doesn't materialize or you have a second variant or third variant that comes along.

that's one big issue rates, as you mentioned, definitely an issue. our forecast, my colleagues in economics have 150 on the 10-area treasury yield at the end of this year so you have some modest increase but i emphasize, that is modest over time, it's not going to leave behind on a swift basis. we think that will move higher again, profits are always growing. that would be an issue the profits potentially of higher tax rates in 2022 that would begin to be an issue or a risk later in the year. don't forget, it's a near-term risk, it's something we keep our eye on it's sort of a couple key issues that we would identify as some risks. >> yeah, david, i want to take a slightly contrarian i guess take here i know there is this expectation that we will see this strong economic rebounds this year and what that could mean in terms of the earnings picture as 2021 unfolds. but if i had to sum up, i think the current earnings season we are wrapping up right now is two

words, is cost cutting we've had so many companies that have said and seen the cost earnings because of the cost cutting. how does that fit in longer term >> you are correct, morgan, in that the increase in recovery has largely been significantly aided by a margin recovery companies have been cautious because, really, until december, it wasn't really that clear, the rollout of vaccine how that would work so i will push back and give the argument that the idea of the vaccination, a million-and-a-half miami are being vaccinated now every day in america i think that's the evidence would suggest on that pace, we have a path, a roadway or a way that the economy can sort of reven rate and pre set acceleration, aksel rakes growth really into the second quarter is it cost driven? we are looking at the ref nau

side, so, even the bottom line, really, the more significant issue is the top line is coming in better than expected. really, the expectations game is sort of one aspect of this positive or negative surprises really fundamentally, what is the growth is there the growth there, underlying tendencies? i said some of the larger number of companies will have earnings and revenues, so we don't have to deal so much in terms of the questions on the cost side but the revenues will be 30% higher than it was two years ago. you have 19 versus this year i think that's a key driver. yes, cost vigilance, there's questions about minimum wage, what may happen on that front from an input cost what happens exactly on the tariffs. what happens on some of the other inflation measures he mentioned, but, really, i would argue somewhat less concerned on the inflationary front, half of all the measured inflation is basically in either housing or in medical costs and sort of pharmaceuticals, drugs, things

like that we don't anticipate a big increase on that front from an upward pressure so there is still slack in the labor market although, that is coming down from a societal basis. we are not seeing a whole lot of pressures for a lot of companies. remember, the market in aggregate is getting more and more driven by some of the larger and basically higher margin companies in tech i think that's a key story behind this is tech. frankly, the operating leverage in corporate america is the highest it has been in ten years. that means, any incremental you know revenue growth is dropping to the bottom line that is, companies are pretty focused on the cost structures >> if david, those are positives. i'd love to get your take, though, on what some are sighting at least concerns, which is the stick lative nature of the pockets of this market. they don't have to look too far. we could have called at this time gamestop trade. it's called the cannabis trade

the move to bitcoin, average yields on jumping ets below 4% we can go on and on at least, looking at certain parts of the market and saying, hey, there is a bubble building. what do you say to those clients that at least come at you with those questions? >> it's great. we wrote about this recently it's definitely invisible. certain areas of the market, where we would identify as frothy there is certainly some of the tech companies trading at 20-plus time sales that's historically extremely high level valuation you mentioned some of the retail, popular stocks with popular retail investors so stocks have actually come up a lot. valuation wise, they're pretty high we looked, yesterday, for example, it was released, all of the short interest data. what is the latest information as of the 29th of january, so get a little bit of drag of course, you recall what was happening last week in terms of some of the popular stocks that were highly short.

the retail, the short interest rate shield is extremely low almost for history so 1.5% of the short interest outstanding. so it's not that significant the short interest rates come down for a number of major companies. the pockets of you know excess if you will or boyians or frothiness definitely exists in some sectors that's a conversation we have with a lot of clients. look, the small cap stocks are up significantly this year i think that's more concentrated in some of the smaller companies as opositioned to the larger companies. there has been a huge amount of issuance in spacs. i know you were talking with jim and carl earlier, the spacs, there has been 100 or so spacs year-to-date so relative to the last year, it's really been -- there is a lot of activity there. i think at the end of the day, rates are super low. i think that is a sort of a key issue, yes, there is frothiness,

rates are low. so what is the alternative there has been money coming out of money market mutual funds we think a lot of that is coming into the equity markets. i think that's a source of demand we anticipate >> david, i wish we had a little more time. as the packed morning. thanks for kicking off the hour. always good to see you >> after the break coca-cola ceo james quincy joins us for a cnbc interview. keeping an eye on stocks, we turn attention too the cannabis sector those big names are higher today. i can do this all day. "squawk on the street" will be right back stay with us the new lexus is. all in on the sports sedan. lease the 2021 is 300 for $359 a month for thirty nine months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.

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6. coca coloo is offsetting assets let's talk to sarah. >> good morning, david, thank you. around good morning to james quincy thanks, for joining us fresh off your earnings call >> good morning. >> so, clearly, you are still seeing sales decline and volume decline, even though they are looking better than they have in previous quarters. give us a sense of what you are seeing out there in the market as we have seen a resurgence in covid cases and with that lockdown. >> reporter: yeah, unfortunately, we've seen an increase in the cases coming

into the winter, in the northern hemisphere in december and through into january and then logically, there have been more lockdowns, which is affecting ourselves. i think the good news from the company point of view is we have been able to learn through the course of this crisis on how to adapt, how to be flexible and so while we were impacted, mid-signal digits on volume in the most recent months is much better than what was happening in the second quarter. so we've adapted our strategies on taking control of what we need to do to both win in the at-home channels that people are flocking to and as well in the warehouse-from-home channels as they adapt to the current environment and help us prosper in that context. >> it sound like you are also seeing light at the end of the tunnel, off guidance for the first time since the pandemic and a return to growth what is driving that optimism. >> yeah. clearly, as we went into the crisis, it was on peak

uncertainty. we have done a lot of work looking at the past 100-plus years at the coca-cola company and military and pandemic cut. we formed a pretty clear view of a couple scenarios on how might this play out over a number of years? and that's as we've learned and adapted, it's been tracking in line, so whilst there is uncertainty and volatility particularly in the fleer term ahead, we feel confident about the current what we are setting for the top line and bottom line guidance and we believe that we will be able emerge strong from this crisis, get back to growth and get back well ahead of our 2019 levels even before the broader economy and we feel confident in the corridors, given the experience and given the learnings we've made over the last nine/12 months. >> when you think about regional recoveries, the u.s. versus europe, south america. is it just a matter of who gets vaccinated the most the fastest

as far as what the recovery looks like >> the recovery clearly the level of vaccination is a factor in terms of the rate at which any country can recover. i think it's not just the only factor of course, the on the line macro-conditions and the policy choices will play important. also, of course, frankly, the degree, the age profile of the population also makes a difference there are a number of younger developing market commission, which won't get the vaccine as quickly as perhaps the u.s. will and yet their economy might bounce back given their age profile and given their macro-earnings so the vaccine is very important in terms of its influence in the top line but there are other factors and we balance them all as we think about how to invest on how to drive growth in the company going forward. >> another pandemic question what are the biggest changes that you've seen from consumers, in what they buy and in how they

buy, that might stick past the pandemic >> clearly, they have adapted. the ones that are likely to stick are clearly a big uptick in ecommerce and obviously ecommerce is much more important to a number of other sectors it's realit's going to be a part of the future in a much more digital way so there will be these enduring

features but other things will come back. we are social creatures. we like experiential things and we'll go out and about and enjoy the world as we get through the crisis >> yeah. it would be nice to go to a bar again for the first time in a year guys, talk about this tax case and this potential liable. $12 billion is a huge number what is all of this about and why did that number get so big as far as what this battle with the irs could cost you >> yeah. this case is going to be tax is very complicated and this case is going to go on for some time. let me give a simple analogy for how to think about the case. if you have a house and you have a road you need to drive down every day and you go out and see a speed camera there, that will take your no to you don't see a speed sign ask you the government, what is the speed limit on this road they till 30 miles an hour for 20 years, you drive 30 miles an hour, they check it

they go we would have liked it to have been 20 miles an hour. for the last eight years, we will assume and use the camera to issue you speed fines it just doesn't sense to us. of course, there are a lot of technical legal and tax arguments. that's the essence of the case now, of course, we will see who prevails we will see this through, all the way through to the end, given the importance 12 billion is a big number certainly a big number to you and me in the context of the coal company, it's 5% about market capitalization so i think what's important for inv investors to know, we will fight this all the way it will take ime i think the story will pivot back around for our ability to get stronger and emerge further and drive an ever-growing profit line as the margin. >> i think it was priced into the stock as well. it moved analysts were projecting the

stock had been downgraded. why is the irs wrong essentially the case, about the fact that they accused you of making the profits too big overseas on those intangible i.p. assets, the trademarks. i know we are getting into stuff and, therefore, costing you u.s. income taxes, why are they wrong? why do you think you have a good case here? >> well, the simple reason that wrong is they're trying to strange the rules retroactively. back to my speeding example. they're trying to go back many, many years into the past and change rules and there weren't just rules that were written down there was a very specific, what's called the closing agreement with the coca-cola agreement, where it had all been looked at. they said, you need to cast your taxes this way we have done them 20 years they have checked them now without any really other basis of changing in the fundamental law that they want a different answer so it's wrong on its facts

it's wrong legally it's wrong constitutionally. it's wrong in the sense of natural justice to try to retroactively change something that had been previously agreed and we will fight it all the way and this will take time. but we are determined to maintain our position and see this through >> all right i'm going to take a hard turn into hard seltzer right now. because you did launch the hard seltzer, a brand-new category into alcohol what are you seeing so far in terms of sales is it working? >> yeah, very early days with hard seltzer in certain companies and latin europe, good customer reaction. goods rates of sale, very early days and coming very soon to the u.s., so much more to come in future quarters, but initial signs are very encouraging >> and before we asked you about cbds, you said you haven't been ready. now we have a democratic

congress administration, there is real enthusiasm and momentum for potential utilization in this country we are seeing the top stocks on fire today and lately, any progress there in terms of your thinking of going into that consumer product beverages with cbd? >> i have to say nothing i've seen if recent times or coming up leads me to think that there is any different answer than this is not for us it certainly has not come close to meeting our threshold of being legal, being safe and being consumable on an every day basis and i don't see that as imminent or likely >> there we go thank you so much. always good to talk to you we appreciate that >> thank you, sarah. >> current ceo of coca-cola. morgan, i'll send it back to you. >> the other side of the coin there. sarah thank you. it is now time for our etf spotlight. we could get into the consumer discretionary ticker up more than 30% over the last year of trade him.

it's under pressure today. one to watch this morning, target announcing it is offering employees up to four hours of pay for those that actually get the covid-19 vaccine two hours for each dose. target also covering the cost of a lyft ride up to $15 each way to the vaccination appointment stack is up more than 50% over the last 12 months, under some pressure as well today, down 2%. stay with us we'll be right back.

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watching the pot stocks this morning. they are soaring as the reddits turn their attention to cannabis tilray currently up 31%. although it's about ten bucks off the inter-day high aphria and aurora are pushed to the highest levels since 2019. jnsr the break, the ceooi us from teva pharmaceuticals after they dipped back into the red. we are back in a moment.

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i'm courtney reagan and here's your cnbc covid update at this hour. new u.s. covid cases stayed under 3,000 for the 30 straight day. 3100 deaths were recorded tuesday bringing the u.s. total to roughly the population of miami. the fda granted emergency use for a combination monoclonal anti-therapy by eli lilly that can be used for patients with mild to moderate covid symptoms. and there is still snow on the field, so there probably won't be any baseball in queens. starting today, the home of the new york mets will be host anything around-the-clock mass vaccination site as well as taxi drivers and delivery workers back over to you, david. >> i am looking forward to when there is baseball on that field as well, although, big use for

it now thank you. let's go over to our meg terrell, ceo of teva pharmaceutical >> david, thank you so much. corey schultz joins us great to see you let's start with your earnings and the stock reaction the stock was up on your beat for the quarter. what's turned it around? what feedback are you hearing from investors >> good to see you, megan. i really don't know, i haven't heard anything from investors yet. i don't know why there was initially a positive and a negative reaction. we got to ask them right now, i have no information on what they are thinking. >> one thing i am hearing from the investor communities about cash flow. do you think that, you know, what you said on the call in terms of cash flow perhaps being under expectations might be contributing a little to the disappointment there >> i wouldn't think so because we really had a good cash flow last year of 2 billion and we

predict this year a cash flow of more than 2 billion. as you know, we are sticking to our target of having a net production so we will have a ratio ebitda below three times so i think we have a solid development on our debt. we've reduced it by $10 billion over the last three years. so we continue to rebound it >> one very bright spot, in terms of business and really just for the world, is teva's involvement in the distribution of the covid-19 vaccine in israel your israel partner for the logistics and israel administered more doses per capita than any other country. granted, it is a small country with a centralized healthcare system but tell us about what the facts that so many israelis, 80% over 65 have meant for the optimism around the economy there, how you are thinking of a major

business operating in israel >> yes so we are the partners have taken care of all the logistics with the vaccines in israel so we pick them up at the airport and take them to a logistics center and change the packs so it matches the needs in any of the 400 vaccination centers around israel. we make sure the right quantity gets to the right center at the right time so this has been an exciting time in israel now, in terms of the future, it's difficult to predict exactly when enough people have been vaccinated to really drive down the number of cases and the number of deaths but i would expect over the next two months, you will see a significant improvement in israel due to the very high levels of vaccination. there is, of course, the ethical and practical question, what happens to people who are not volunteering to be vaccinated? that's a residual risk in

society. of course, if not, everybody gets vaccinated. >> hmm how are you looking at that as the leader of a major company that makes, you know, products that are essential for people, medicines? would you mandate that your employees get their covid-19 vaccine? >> i would strongly recommend it i don't think i would mandate it i don't think force is the way to get people to understand that it's really beneficial for all of us, for all society if everybody gets vaccinated. we get, by far, the biggest effect of vaccinations if everybody gets them. you could say, not getting it is really not showing solidarity with the people at risk in the rest of the population >> it's morgan here, just to shift gears a bit with the biden administration now taking a look at drug pricing and potentially looking at it in a previous way than the belief administration, the largest maker of generic drugs in the world how do you expect this to materialize and i guess from

your standpoint, what would be the best way, the most effective what i to actually lower drug prices >> well, i think there is reason and independent review by the think tank that completed that generic pricing in the u.s. is below that price level we see in europe so, basically, generic pricing is very cheap in the u.s. and very beneficial for the whole healthcare system. and i would see that the access to generics and the access to stimulus will continue to be strengthened, hopefully, after the biden administration that's a huge statement to society in having effective crew and, of course, having strong launches of the stimulus as we have been doing. we have been tossing that throughout the last year so i think we will see a continued strong push for stimulus in the u.s. market. >> well, thinking about the new administration and potential shifts in strategy

you know, the previous administration contracted with mckesson to distribute the covid-19 vaccine here in the u.s., as a part of operation warp speed but we have been hearing more partners could potentially be brought in under the new administration of course, you have and have you had conversations with anybody getting involved >> we would love to contribute to the setup in the u.s. as making that as effective as possible it is correct, we have anda, which is a distributor to all pharmacys in the u.s. and that is sort of the secondary running short, have a need for a certain product, we can ship it within 24 hours and it's a very efficient operation. so we would like to help we have been in discussions, but we have no specific agreements as we speak. we would love too help in the

future >> well, one other issue, of course, is that you guys have been dealing with for a while have been this major set of cases around opioids and you have been involved in a potential settlement and just seems to go on and on. you've said that the pandemic has sort of delayed you to the pressure on reaching that settlement because the trials haven't started. are the trials what are the trigger for potentially reaching and finalizing that settlement or is there any other way to sort of get some movement here >> i still think that the trial is kind of the trigger and just to explain it, the framework settlement is a really good idea for society. some companies will bring cash we will bring generics which really helps, if people overdose, it will save lives we will bring it free to all states i think the basis for the frame is really good it will help people who suffer from drug abuse. but there's a lot of people

involved there are five definitive companies. there's 50 states. there's 1,500 plaintiff lawyers and in order for everybody to get together and not just agree in principle but sign on the dotted line. we sometimes need a bit of pressure i was hoping that some of the court cases, including the cases in new york, would put that pressure on everybody to really get the deal done, get agreement done and start improving things and, right now, we see, of course, a natural slowdown in the legal system due to the covid-19 pandemic and that's really affecting the framework settlement discussion in the sense that nobody is really under a time pressure and that's a shame, because it would be really nice to reach a conclusion >> kare schultz, we appreciate you being here today thank you so much. >> thank you so much nice to see you. >> morgan, back over to you. >> thank you as we head to break, check out the biggest gainers on the s&p this morning a lot of earnings movers twitter is at the top of the

list, up almost 9% a. a fresh seven-year high, which hosted a holiday quarter 52-week high some management keith meister is coming up on the halftime report we'll be right back.

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2021 consumer spending could grow at the fastest rate in five years, according to federal reserve bank of new york rew might a consumer spending spe affect the stockmarket people share on cnbc.com more "squawk in the street" coming up.

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welcome back something you have to do in this market is keep an eye on reddit forms, such as wall street bets. this morning they moved or seemed to have their attention on the cannabis sector frank, the stocks i noticed are well off the highs, but still up sharply. >> well, david, well off the highs. aphria turned the negative they were up 20% you mentioned earlier. cannabis remains the darlings on reddit one user saying weed stocks take me away and post ac rocketship emoji. a lot of rocketship emojis connected to cannabis stocks today. page is dedicated to tilray and

aphria the results earlier an amazing boost for tilray and aphria. tilray is up 15% aphria in the red. they are in the process of merging. one specifically saying the aphria is not a pump-and-dump. investors are talking a lot about actually converting their gains from gamestop and amc into shares of cannabis companies overall, they have seen a huge surge in cannabis stocks in 2021 so far on u.s. wheelization and state legalization in major metro areas. looking on the site, another person commenting. weed stunks to the moon. a slang term on reddit and twitter. other companies seeing a boost sun dial growers up double digits medmen up double digit himself a lot of roll tilt with reddit

investors interested in stocks some mentioned they are fans of using cannabis, which is why they decided to put their money in not only the stocks but also calls. others are upsetting the fundamental also and possibly shofrth cannabis stocks. lot of talks on the forms. we will keep an eye on them all day. morgan, ba back over to you. >> i do appreciate all the space metaphors. i was a space correspondent, for what it's worth. frank collins, thank you shifting gears higher shipments and improved pricing strategies, helped martin marietta beat the revenue investments. ward so great to have you on, so great to have you with us. >> morgan, great to be here. thank you. >> all right they just reported earnings, despite the pandemic, you had a pretty strong fourth quarter and really full-year record of q4 and four-year profitability, safety performance perhaps not that surprising given the resilience i guess you could say we've seen in the industrial part of the economy

in the midst of covid-19 what really got my attention is this outlook and comments there that you believe underlying demand fundamentals will reset establishing 2021 as the year during which the nation regains its economic footing what are you seeing? where are those pockets of strength and i guess morgan, wh seems businesses have found a way to manage through this type of covid environment and what we're seeing is a nice serious of moment umsums that went intoe fourth quarter state departments of transportation can manage and do it well just as we've managed our workforce very safely through covid, d.o.t. is as well keep in mind that's typically around 40% of our volume but importantly on the private side what we're seeing in particular is housing is doing much better but here is the key to it, morgan, single family housing is doing much better. so we're seeing single family housing for us is two to three times more aggregate intensive

than multifamily housing is. the other piece that's important is the drag along effect in portions of nonresidential that tends to follow a good residential story. so a nonres we've seen heavy nonres, amazon fulfillment centers and the type doing quite well, and they tend to be very aggregate intensive. as we sit here today the public is doing better. private is returning and we also feel like we have good prospects as we enter into 2021 in seeing a long-term transportation infrastructure bill out of this 117th congress as well >> yes, i was going to go there with you with the nonresidential construction given that we have seen avi and dodge predicting a slowdown you just tackled that one. so let's turn our eyes to infrastructure we have a portion of this latest stimulus deal today the house panels are expected to vote on

$57 billion, focused specifically on transportation there's an expectation that we are finally, after years of discussing it, going to get a bigger, broader infrastructure bill or deal this year what do you expect how much of that is, i guess, baked in or not to your outlook right now? >> well, none of it's baked into the outlook. our outlook is based on what we're seeing and what exists in the marketplace. based on what we're expecting here are some things i would encourage to you think about if we go back to 2019 and republican-controlled senate, the senate epw, the environment and public works committee, came out with a bill that was 28% above today's bill which is the fast act and then last year in '20 the committee of jurisdiction in the t.j. houshoushmane came out witl 42% higher than the fact act we think the punch line is this.

whether they go with the senate proposal or the house proposal we're likely to see in transportation funding the most significant increase in over 15 years and that's from the federal side it's important to keep in mind, though, morgan, half of what's being spent is coming from the various states and part of what we try to do at martin marietta is align ourselves in our business with states that have superior population inflows but also fiscal conditions. so we're looking at our top five states -- texas, colorado, north carolina, georgia and florida. they're all either better going into 2021 than in '20 or even with '21, and we feel like from a starting point that's not a bad place to be. >> we spoke to the governor of colorado earlier this week and he was talking about shovel ready infrastructure investments and how that's a big priority right now. for that state it does also, i think, speak to what we've seen as just an increased bifurcation between

the states in fiscally deseven or strong, stable positions versus the ones running large deficits right now i wonder given this conversation whether we're going to see that continue to be exacerbated from the infrastructure side. >> morgan, i think states that are not in a great spot could feel some of that. i think the other issue they're likely to see, too, will be population demographics. so we're particularly focused, as you rightly said, on states that find themselves in a good fiscal circumstance, but if you go back and look at 2050 planning and looking at a u.s. population set to grow by 140 million people between now and 2050, what to us is most striking there are 11 different mega rejgions across the united states we'll see 70% of that population land. from an infrastructure perspective and at least from a martin marietta perspective we're focused on those mega regions and having attractive

positions in those areas because we feel that's where the investment will be needed out of necessity. >> we've seen moves in commodities, oil and other industrial mcommodities. how ofmuch can you offset in pricing? >> pricing has been the single largest so it has served to offset a lot of that last year energy was tough for everyone now energy was fascinating for us because we saw both sides of it do we utilize fuel in our business, and did we see significant cost tail winds because things like diesel fuel were less expensive? absolutely at the same time we saw significantly less energy work so if we were looking at tonnage last year, we were 1.1 million tons down on those large l&g facilities we've been seeing

along the texas gulf but interestingly we were about a million tons down on wind energy in the midwestern united states and our sense is given some of the green initiatives of today the likelihood of seeing some of that come back is pretty real and we think we're in a good place, but energy really was a tale of two different stories for us last year >> all right, ward nye, thank you for joining us today shares of martin marietta up another 1% thanks coming up, we're going to dig into twitter's quarter the stock is helping to lead the s&p this morning almost gets to $70 a stone's throw from an all-time high, even as the market at large wrestles with some selling. s&p near 3900. "squawk alley" starts in a moment

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