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tv   Squawk on the Street  CNBC  February 11, 2021 9:00am-11:00am EST

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has indicated up about 65, and the s&p indicated up, a little bit over 11, and as you can see, bitcoin, back above 47,000, it was at 48,000 at one point that's it for us see ya gentleman and lady >> bye-bye >> welcome back. >> welcome back. >> see you tomorrow. good thursday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla, with jim cramer and david faber futures pretty steady as the market chews on more profile earnings, uber and expedia, bitcoin, cannabis, the bubble ipo, part of the conversations and jobless claims still elevated and the road map starts with pot stock volatility. tilray, aurora, canopy giving back some of yesterday's reddit
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trade. and uber shares under pressure the company did report a nearly $7 billion loss last year but remains on track to be profitable this year working on an indpo, bumble wil make its nasdaq debut and more than a $7 billion valuation. it will be up sharply and it sparks a major moment for female led company, female ceo, the female board, the ladies are in charge, certainly in this one. >> yes, we look forward to talking about that and joe, i don't know if you want to start with cannabis, bitcoin, all time high, couple that with bank of new york mellon and what dara said a moment ago, interesting day for the cryptocurrency. >> when you see master card putting out a press release what they're doing and you can't tell exactly where it starts or stop, you talk about bitcoin and you get bitcoin, due take bitcoin
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and bank of new york, and it is really interesting, i think this is driven by elon musk, saying, you know what, regular currency is no good anymore because everybody is printing it and this is the more valid storehold. musk is driving so much of this market, it's fascinating david, i'm not the doge, you know, the dogecoin, that's not necessarily what i expect that pepsico will take in return for frighto, but there is a -- frittos, but there is a sense if you don't put out a release, paypal today, about this, you're being left in the dust do you find it quizzical that these companies are playing such a, let's say, a laggard game >> i guess, but i'm trying to understand whether this is a seminal moment in the history of this currency or crypto and anecdotally i'm getting questions from areas i would not have anticipated in terms of well, should i own bitcoin and not from people who are speculators but sort of, as a hedge, or is it something that
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should become a part of my portfolio in some way? you know, i'm sure you're hearing plenty of it. >> how do you integrate it that's what people are talking about. master card, moffett nathanson, doing incredible work trying to differentiate what visa is saying from paypal from master card but you don't really understand, when they say they'll accept bitcoin, david, does that mean that you get a transfer into dollars immediately? visa's strategy? or master card strategy? i give you bitcoin and they send you bitcoin? no one's really clear. and i think no one's really clear because it's happening too quickly. >> so where's the clarity going to come from >> i think we will get the clarity tonight from dan schulman, paypal, he is the first guy to say this is a legitimate deal of the major companies. and paypal's market cap is extraordinary. >> yes, it is. it is right around 300 bill. that is usually where paypal is. 331 billion. sorry.
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331 billion. >> it's definitely a different environment,jim. it's one thing to have paypal and jack dorsey talk about it, but i mean bank of new york mellon is the largest custodial bank in the world, our oldest bank and to hear them say that eventually they will treat it like any other asset sounds different. >> it sure does. there's a couple of streams of thought there going on about assets that are going to be treated differently. we will be talking about the pot stocks what's the big differentiator in pot. it's a cash business it needs to be in credit you can't buy on credit. all of the different repository, brinks trucks. that will change and go into credit we're suddenly seeing this as a form of credit, and people want to use bitcoin as a form of credit but how do you buy a lamborghini with bitcoin and how do you buy a bag of doritos with bitcoin? >> right i don't know it's got to be immediately translated, or does it just, or is it its own thing?
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>> who wants that level of risk? >> is musk going to price tesla's in natural bitcoin you know i'm selling this for one bitcoin. 47 grand there you go you can sell the model he's right around there in some of his models. >> but on our set, yesterday, for "mad money," i was asking is it really a revolution that we're seeing are these just all revolutions and we have to recognize the revolutions? or just kind of very exciting things that are interrupted, in the world of the pepsico, i don't know i find so much, i find myself playing, there's a piece in the "the wall street journal" about gamestop versus bitcoin, and they are, they do have these characteristic, carl, that make it so they're just prurient and i think a lot of people want to have car crashes and i'm not seeing anything but i see spikes in stocks that will lose people so much money, why did i ever buy it is what they're going to
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say. >> you mentioned gamestop, jim there's the journal piece. there's the reuters piece. which does cite four people familiar with their deliberations that says, look, they realize that there was an opportunity to sell some shares, but that they thought the regulatory restrictions made that impossible. >> yes. >> when that squeeze was happening. >> yes >> it seems fair, right? >> listen, it's funny, i didn't share this but i had similar reporting. the level of disclosure, the significant risk factors, just prevented them, you know, it's kind of funny, they're having that as an exclusive, i have it written down from my notes in a couple of days ago talking with a couple of lawyers and i didn't even do that, but that's the reason i think. >> you said it on air. >> it was a disclosure issue and i haven't read the story, but it seemed to really debuted as a, they viewed it as a gating issue. you brought it up so many times. obvious question, why wouldn't gamestop sell stock at 100, 200, 300. and even here potentially. >> let's deal with realtime. >> disclosures apparently and
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the significant risk factors, they just couldn't get there. >> why can't they do it now? it is the highest it traded since 2013 before digital why are they playing this game of, why do they, why do they insist on not doing what would be best for shareholders which is to raise money. >> i just told you their lawyers -- >> no i'm saying, issue a release saying here is everything that we know. >> right. >> at this moment. everything we know and now we will sell stock that's what they can do. that's called disclosure. >> and they could have conceivably done that at higher levels and they chose not to, because i guess the risk factors are so enormous. >> and hertz i guess sold a little bit of stock when it was bankrupt and this is a risk factor, you want to buy it, it's worthless and they went ahead and did it. >> and there are a dozen stocks being run by reddit and i get the list here, there is a reddit list, that are cannabis stocks, and every one of those company, they may say they don't need capital but if they're going to tackle canopy which has an
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amazing war chest, they should just be issuing stock right now. it's not a sin to issue stock. what is going to happen is people who are part of the revolution are going to recognize that like central banks can print, these companies can print and they're not good at it yet because it is happening to fast. should aurora be issuing stock right now? up against procter & gamble, they need some money. >> a lot of these names, went through parabolic growth in their share price a while ago. we all remember that, but at the time, back then, the notion of federal decriminalization was not on the table and depending who you talk to, now it is. >> it's very real. but how are you going to capitalize, the edible market is not nearly as big as we thought. the natural cannabis drug is not that big as we thought the thing, the market that is the holy grail is the equivalent of the beer market, and that's why i continue to say that canopy is great. every one of the companies has a story and some more profitable
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as others and it is not as big of a business as before. it's not >> i get you i want to come back to this raising capital for a second here, jim. did you see this carnival. the debt offering this morning 3.5 billion unsecured. it's not like the ships are securing it. just to your point, about being able to raise money, in this market >> 3.5 billion. >> 3.5 billion senior unsecured note, 2027 >> 5.75. there you go i was going to try and quiz you. what do you think they're paying >> it's like - >> 5.75% for a company that hasn't had a ship on the water in i don't even know how long. and remember - >> $8, when you covered that, when the stock went down, and that was boeing buying - >> 3.5 billion what does that say in terms of the, as a reflection of the need for some sort of yield out there, and the willingness of investors to just line up. >> you and i are going to go on the uss drone pal.
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>> that's going to be, they're going to need a bigger boat. >> just to hold all the booze. and i'm pretty sure it is the fifth bond sale in the covid era. >> well, that's -- >> i many they're doing what jim says >> they're doing it right. >> wherever they could >> and norwegian, the bookings are very solid a lot of work behind the scenes on this. the bookings are very solid for 2022 so everyone is trying to book knows that it's tough to get a reservation, but they're solid but they're not, they may not go. >> no, but this is based on obviously future cash flows because there are no current ones and i'll take 575 for a six-year money or whatever it is, 2027 unsecured. >> carl, i mean, whether that be carnival orbit coin, or tilray, there is something that is happening amazing every single day. this is the most exciting market >> i was going to say, i mean as far as the reopening goes, we
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got upgrades today of simon property, under armour and bed bath covid cases are down 23% in a week 58% from the peak. a new gallup poll, jim says 71% of americans say they will get the vaccine. that's a cycle high. fauci today on the "today" show says april will be open season, where we can eventually walk in and get one at will. and you've got yourself in one, which means according now to the cdc, you don't have to quarantine, if you come in contact with a person who's got it >> it's fabulous 12 days from now, the full immunity only 5% chance of getting it i had the moderna, thank you to the moderna people there he is. unbelievable eagles hat and 24-hour tent in staten island they just do it 24 hours it's open. you go and get it. i'm sure there are stretches, i applied for it, two-hour delay, but they had to, there was a storm so they backed people up they sang me happy birthday. it was very hard not to cry, and they said do you like j&j, good,
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how about bristol? fine but there's tours. a fantastic advocate and leader. and i want everybody to do i know we have an app, it says, this is something that is so easy to do, and my life changed, i cannot tell you how different i felt after that needle. >> tell me when i can go i'm ready. tell me when i can get it. >> citi field, you can go there, you'll have a great time >> by the way, guys -- >> what, carl? >> i was going to say, jim, you're right, i want to mention our team at nbc universal is launching a new tool, which can be found at "plan your vaccine.com," right there on your screen, there is so much confusion when it is your turn this site is meant to help alleviate that it's a personal tool where you can go state by state, find your eligibility, the closest location and of course all of the vaccine data, plus a checklist of things that you
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will need to keep your appointment, jim, which you know all too well. >> this is something that i think is staggeringly easy and they made it terrific in terms of the atmosphere, at least mine was great, i know it's still, it's life or death, and you get the shot and you're more likely to live than before. and that's a joyous thing. i'm glad we did that site. because it is confusing. i'm lucky enough, the first time i have been lucky enough to be 65 lucky enough. >> you're lucky in a lot of ways but yes. is that the right age? >> no, no, i turned 66 yesterday. no one said i was cutting in line that's what bothers me >> thanks. i'm so happy to have somebody i work with who is older than me because there are far and few between these days, carl >> yes, as somebody said yesterday, you know you're old when the house impeachment managers are younger than you. much less your doctor or your dentist. we'll take a quick break here, a lot to get to, including the upgrades we mentioned and some of the earnings that are
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and ask how to add comcast business securityedge. call today. bumble makes its debut today after pricing its ipo at 43, above the already raised range of 37 to 39. the dating service raising more than 2 billion, overall value of more than 7 billion. we will talk to founder and ceo whitney wolfe herd later this
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morning on squawk alley. the $7 billion number doesn't account for the option for the the overallotment. >> it will be an incredibly hot ipo, i would want to keep an eye on the open, it could be a significant percentage grain the oversubscribe numbers are enormous, everybody fighting for their allocation but the business model is what is interesting to people. and here are a few things. shared by frankly people of course who are lining up to own this thing this morning. so they're bullish lower churn. they cite, than match. because people, there's not as much meanness frankly on the site there's more empathy and kindness, which is what whitney wolfe herd was going for the ladies are in charge it's by the way female run fully female run organization. board, all those things. and then her letter when you read it is interesting, she wanted a way for women to make a first move without judgment or fear and in a technology platform that would encourage good behavior, treat all genders
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equal and create better relationships and that's what led her to start the company a lot of people doing virtual dates these days by the way. again, which leads to lower churn. it takes a lot longer to sort of move along in the relationship you order uber eats for your virtual date, apparently i don't know i'm learning this. >> can you have drizzly with that >> i guess so. but that slow dating sort of helps. well, they move into virtual goods, will they move from creating this community they have, to other services, that at least is a question, and certainly something that those who are positive on the stock, jim, seem to believe as a possibility. and it's global. so you got all of that this morning, lining up for what seems to be a very successful ipo. >> and kinder gentler makes me think about the kind and gentle web site which is pinterest, where pinterest, by declaring itself basically wholesome seems to have attracted interest from another company that is wholesome. >> that's an ft story. microsoft had taken a look i have no idea if that's true.
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what were your thoughts about the possibility, as again, bumble will be, and there's the competitors, there are plenty of them >> yes. >> but people love the idea that they have a lot lower churn, and whitney wolfe herd is well thought of at least those i have been talking about. >> competition, yes. >> i do think it's a loved company and you're absolutely right, it will be a hot deal, and we'll be talking about it all day and i think it is a very successful business model but i like this whole idea, twitter got kinder and gentler and twitter stock went up. there's a reaction to what i radar as verbal violence that's coming down. and i think that people are really trying to figure out whether they should be - >> i haven't seen any note of that in my twitter feed yet. have you seen it in yours? >> i took a break from it yesterday. i posted my stuff about moderna. at a certain point, there's people who trash you for having your birthday. wow. it's cramer's birthday
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>> we haven't mentioned spacs yet. so the hate tweeting hasn't begun. >> and micro vision. it met its april forecast. april milestones and mbis we'll get to that. it's a mems-based lasers >> lasers. i love it. >> flying. >> space lacers? >> it says pigs can fly -- >> flying cars flying car lasers. >> it's doubled. >> that's what we're doing, carl, flying car lasers, up next. >> isn't clover -- >> that's competition. >> we almost made it to 9:20 before a spac mentioned. we'll get to it and the opening bell in ten minutes. don't go away. this is how you become the best! [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito]
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let's get to a mad dash. seven minutes before an opening bell >> a lot of joyous calls, the call started yesterday with the mention a little skit on "saturday night live" this weekend about the people using -- the home-business, moving quickly, forfanantastic r them and the velocity ty of homes being sold in this country right now, we have it back to 2006 but this time you have to pay for them. >> you do? >> you have to pay for them. back in 2006, you didn't. >> that changes everything. >> it does it makes it more difficult to buy a home because you have
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paperwork. >> yes. >> but i think the quarter was remarkable. >> it is all about amazon. one click. one touch. buy a house. and rich barton did a fantastic job on the conference call very well orchestrated call. so i think zillow goes much higher >> it will hit what appears to be new highs and that's not worrisome to you >> it's not worrisome because they changed the business model to be able to make it so you can give your house to them, they'll fix it up and look, housing goes down, when housing goes down, you can get hurt, and obviously, you're trading almost like bitcoin, houses are trading like bitcoin. >> man the moves in some of these stocks, jim. extraordinary. >> everybody's making a lot of money, david and you want to take it away from them. i've read that you want to keep people from their chains. >> i look at my stocks and you look at the performance, you would think it is a year when you look at the names, gm 31%, ford >> and one of the stocks that isn't working, i said, and that
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stock is up 50% in six weeks and he said, the one i was talking to, it's not working >> okay. let's get the opening bell we're back after this.
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if you look at the results and delivery, the growth continues unabated we've got bookings growth, 120% year on year, our revenue growth was over 200% in our delivery segment and losses are coming down we're investing, but actually in 15 countries now, we're profitable, generating $100 million of ebitda, 2.5 billion of bookings, so the question is, everyone agree, delivery can be big, but can it be profitable? the answer there is yes. on the mobility side, as businesses open up and business comes back and we have profitability for some period of time. >> dara khosrowshahi of uber on
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"squawk" earlier this morning. >> and uber, a little mixed, and morgan stanley reiterates a top pick target of 70. >> it's hard to resist because you've got that dynamic where the market, the economy stays closed and debate and delivery, and economy stays open, keep delivery, and then they will do delivery, and an excellent conference call and they talk about owning the next hour, and maybe the next hour is pharmacy and obviously they like the drizzly acquisition very much, and the one thing that is missing here, they're not making a lot of money. >> no, they're not in fact, they're losing a lot. they are >> i fear you would bring that up >> i know. >> but we keep talking about the ride businesses, though, it's an after-thought, and bookings were down 47% year over year versus 50% in the third quarter so i guess sequentially it's improved a bit. we all know why. and it is, is this a reopening trade or not >> well, yeah, i think it is, but this is, it's very glaring
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to me that delivery is the emphasis, but you don't have autonomous driving, if due get that down, i think you have a business that is a good business, but it's a taxi business and a delivery business that's not amazon. [ bell ringing ]. >> we will see how it trades here at the open here guy, as we see the opening bell at the nyc and there is the nasdaq with bumble celebrating its ipo we'll talk with the founder and ceo whitney wolfe herd later this morning on squawk alley and signify health at the board celebrating its own ipo. and as you mentioned jim, there aren't many female ceos at public companies and fewer that are female and founder. >> and female founder, female management team. female board as i said earlier, kiddingly in a way, but the ladies are in charge, both at the company and on the site. and that seems to be something that has been quite favorable
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for it, in terms of the willingness jim, of people to spend time on this site. as they look for relationships lack of meanness more empathy more kindness. hey, we can all get behind that. and again, of course, it is, as she said, in her letter, women have the confidence and control and they're the ones that make the first move, so to speak. >> it's about time that, there's all of these vertical, david, that women handle most of the money, in people's homes, but citi has a woman as the ceo. >> yes >> i think there's, when you look at the board, look at clorox, so most of the purchases are made by women and bringing in a terrific person linda, and why wasn't that company run by women years ago? procter & gamble, i think taylor does a great job and puts amy
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chung on the board, a young stanford graduate from computer science and look,here is what we buy in our house, and kind of insight, these companies, tilray, well, tilray, got to put up tilray. >> it's not gamestop. >> where's amc. >> but it's about time, these consumer product companies, they should all be run by women. >> women are the customers >> it's a very good point. >> well, certainly, well known at pepsi which brings to mind their quarter. beat by a penny. some are arguing maybe a little shy of the, or better than, but organic, fritto lay, 5 prior quarter 6, and no more buybacks >> he's growing the company. the company is growing much
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faster than used to. it is really a 5 to 6% grower. not 4% very consistent. a bunch of billion dollar brands gatorade a billion dollar brand out of nowhere. and doritos doing well and by the way excellent super bowl from them, from the melon ad and from the matthew mcconaughey flat ad that people got a kick out of. >> oh, yea where he got stuck in the actual machine when he came to life >> i liked it. >> you liked it? >>. >> he's got it he likes lincolns. remember that ad >> yes. >> and we talked about pepsico, pepsico is boring and boring is really good. i'm in praise of boring. it's not dogecoin. it's not tilray. it's just boring but that's good. because when the smoke clears, boring will still be there. >> the smoke clears, i like that by the way. >> you like that
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>> talking about the cannabis stocks going down today after they went up yesterday >> you killed it by talking about tilray yesterday. >> i had nothing to do with anything having to do with these stocks >> i tell people when he tried to take money away, i talk about jack ma. >> he was out playing golf, jack ma. >> and the tiktok deal, it still could be on. >> yes. >> but if it's not, you know there will be an ipo >> apparently the government has, they're not concerned about tiktok divesting u.s. operation, they're focused on software and data security and whether that's a larger issue >> that's been the issue all along. >> you've been saying that's going to be the issue. >> it's been the issue from the beginning. >> can we talk about tilray so they will get rid of it or is it going to be with us? what do you think, jim >> to be determined, i'm told by our executive producer we should point out, jim, it is important to remember, tilray is in that deal, that reverse merger, and they're issuing the
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shares, but aphria, will own 62% of the combined company, and the spread is enormous i got to go back and look at what the ratio is. but the spread is gigantic >> simon, making a comeback. >> irwin simon, that's right >> a well-run company. >> that's right. $6.6 billion company it will be a survivor. >> but they were caught up in this now and of course yesterday the stocks were up sharply and now they are down sharply. where are they going next is the question >> i try to, you know, i thought it was going to be lidar. >> what are they going to bust next in terms of - >> yeah. >> look at me, i thought they would be all over bed bath and beyond 67% of bed bath. >> they were for a while there >> that was a short position. >> right. >> i think everybody wakes up and try to figure out what will they go after today, and there's not enough targets they went after silver call and there wasn't a short position in silver, so it failed
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it just didn't work. >> from the, on the reddit lens, jim, i see what you're saying, there is a, you know, a groundswell of attention this morning on payments, hard not to notice the leaders, master card, as we said earlier, bank of new york, paycom, paypal, western yoon, jim, all of the top 15 s&p gainers, i assume that this is sort of a bitcoin halo effect. >> and making some calls and i wish mastercard would put out a release saying that they will take bitcoin because i think the stock will go up ten bucks they put out a release and the stock is up ten bucks. kind of like you didn't do it, david? >> do it >> put out a release. >> and bitcoin goes up, too. >> it's a virtual, it's a virtual circle of beauty and kindness >> so all of these different things, are these not signs of toppiness in the market, jim do they not concern you in some broader way?
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>> the froth meter i haven't used it in 16 years on "mad money." the frogts meter is back >> no kidding. >> and what goes into the froth meeter >> celebrity spacs you know, a-rod. >> anything ev at this point unless it gets the battery charge faster. >> evs are right everybody's got the most efficient battery. >> right heavily shorted stocks are part of the froth-o-meter >> there's a look at the c nbc spacs. >> we have two of them we have two. >> i think that's post-deal. i got to remember which is which. and then this is post-deal and then the other one was pre-deal but pre-deal is even more interesting, because of course, none of them have announced a transaction yet and yet they're all -- >> they're all - >> they're printing money. the spacs. all of these funds, they are just going in and buy the offering of the spac, and then of course, you might get in on
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the pike, for the deal, and then right now. >> you're absolutely right i talked about michael semblans, a friend of mine outside of work, he did have some conspiracy works that might not come into play about the election but his work says, these assets might not necessarily be terrific when you get them at the end and i'm sticking by that people don't want to hear that because it's too exciting but carl, this is not like, this is not nascar we're not nascar we're not. it's not wwe here. david, it's not. we're not wwe. we're not nascar we're not great grand theft oughto and not call of duty. we're like business. stocks companies, money and not losing people money. that's what we're doing. >> understood. but right now a lot of people are making money. >> that's the froth-o-meter. >> an enormous amount of capital
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coming into businesses which might not otherwise get it and which may result in positive things and there will probably be a break through in the ev and battery technology that will be beneficial for everybody and there will probably be an urban mobility, i don't know, a flying car or not, that will be great, that will be you a ton n, autonomous one day and maybe they would have found it, but it would have been more expensive capital, so it will be interesting, but there are going to be a lot of losers too. never a doubt about that. >> and remember talking about hormel and the nut deal, it's not interesting. >> it's not. >> but it is interesting it is a great company, hamoreme, and -- hormel, a great business. and they have a dividend. >> and the cheese balls. >> you know, carl, remember, things are happening in the real world and very positive and no one really cares and then there's this world that we're showing right now, and dow hit a
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record high. >> here's hormel not responding to their $3.35 billion deal. >> there is no shorting. no one is shorting hormel. >> interesting. >> we didn't quite get to the all time high of pinterest, 86.49, and as you say, not quite getting there, and jim, you know, we've had some of these reopening upgrades this morning, simon property, i think, is one to talk about, we mentioned under armour i think over at piper, which kind of resisted disney tonight, and the question of whether or not you continue to buy it on the streaming momentum, or the idea that parks really are around the corner >> i think you have to because that's one look at the uber you have one business that is not doing badly, and another business is doing badly. i think delivery is not doing badly. i'm not going to rave about deliveries i don't think it is a great business, having been a client and disney is different. when you get these theme parks open, they did restructure this
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company during this period i think the profitability of disney is going to be remarkable happy birthday birthday to bob iger yesterday and i think they will make so much more money per person, you will be staggered at what the company will be able to do, and they have taken advantage of a very difficult time for them and really in reinvented the company and i think it will be remarkable and i remember you talk about espn subs and they can get rid of espn. >> it is not part of the conversation any longer. i don't think they will get rid of espn at least in the near term and they may have the abc network or, i don't know, but jim, you're right, it is all about direct to consumer, it is all about the focus of the company. and theme parks, when they reopen and people start going to movie theaters again, that won't be a bad thing for disney. >> it is going to be huge. >> now, $345 billion market value, it is the real opening, it is already taking account of in that stock price? >> well, not if you have a roaring '20s view that it will
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be years of books. it is not a quarter. and people will be booking for 2023 and if you told anybody at the end of the horrible pandemic, that disney stock would be up 100% or whatever it is from the low and then their theme parks have been operating at far less than capacity, even if they're allowed to be open, right, california, it is closed, and it is amazing and nobody would be going to movies. >> and in your world is, it brilliant how disney plus has en ended up >> it is netflix and disney. and netflix was larger than disney for some period of time and now disney is $100 billion larger than netflix. but they are the two dominant providers. when it comes to direct to consumer and then everybody is sorts of trying to play to some extent, with their offerings by the way, you see shares of viacom i mean paramount plus, which we all got to know as a result of watching the super bowl, that's
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coming, they're unveiling it at least i think march 4th. that stock sup 54% this year, jim. 54%. is that really on fundamentals all on fundamentals? >> it should have never been where it was it was not going out of business remember, people were talking about death. >> you're right. >> trading at multiples it should never have been in in retrospect and many people were very concerned about it but there are still a lot of questions about the overall trajectory of the company or at some point you got to have more consolidation in this industry, amongst these players that are out there, to be able to try to compete with the likes of netflix and disney >> it hasn't happened yet. >> no. but it's got to happen and it will. at some point. i just zoo know-- i just zoo knw when and what form. >> and you have what >> cannabis break-in >> what? >> time to take some profits is what i said last night. >> you want to be a gentleman, a cannabis farmer, you have to go to pro generation, you want to, you make it yourself. >> the plants? >> right
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>> set the whole thing up. >> one stop shop. >> got it. >> i recommended 15. it was - >> is that for your house, outside? >> it's not the business i've chosen >> you're growing olives you might want to add something on the property there. >> i got my olives in. it's the best that it has ever been i have great olive oil. >> carl, have you ever gotten a christmas gift of olive oil from jim? >> it's the pandemic >> no, i've given christmas gifts to jim, but never received >> carl, i'm sorry >> nice olive oil. >> beyond meat is down each though pepsico makes very, very aggressive plans to be able to move into plant-based snacks. in the kellogg release, you'll see that vehicle en is the fastest-growing segment in the snack business other than the salty snacks in terms of velocity.
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vegan is here. and chipotle cauliflower that i had for dinner, fantastic. >> it is interesting food stories today. restaurant brands today, jim, down more than 4% on some of the tim horton comps i think down 11 or so. a challenging quarter for qsr. we'll take a break here. treasuries this morning, yields are lower. that weekly jobless claims number was elevated at 793 k still above what was expected. take a look at the 10 and the 30 and the 5 as well and the 2 as well dollar index, we will wrap this up here. back after a break
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- [announcer] grubhub perks give you the kind of panera deals that make you want to move. ♪ get a free delivery perk on your first order from panera, only on.. - [group] grubhub! - [announcer] grub what you love. we got some china headlines to get to this morning one was a readout between the first phone call between the president and president xi of china, axios this morning, jim, says the administration definitely sees merit in the idea that china is a fierce, maybe the most important competitor to the united states. on the other hand, jim, reuter has a piece about goldman, blackrock, fidelity, hiring
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hundreds in china as some of the restrictions on financial services start to open up over there. >> it is no doubt, and those firms are the leaders, there is no doubt this was a move by the previous president, these guys felt gun shy to be doing in china and obviously the issues are there it will be taiwan, and taiwan is right at the end of the trump administration, there was a lot of cyber rattling about taiwan, taiwan has to be careful because their largest companies are the chinese and us and i think the dialogue is starting and that's one of the reasons i'm continually beating the drum on boeing because this is the way that the chinese shows that they mean a different kind of business and i know there are people who want to bring back the days before, before china opened, a cold war, this is not a cold war stance that the president is taking, david, it is not a cold war stance. >> but there's going to be a point sometime in the not too distant future i would imagine when we're talking a lot about our relationship with china and in a significant way in terms of its impacting the market. >> it's not a good relationship. >> oh, no, it's bad. it's competitive
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and we're not winning in a lot of places. >> right. >> and that's, and it's not secure >> no. >> but i'm just saying - >> those are all bad things. >> but this is not, i think it's going to be done, the diplomacy, from my understanding that is happening right now, it is very quiet. >> it's not going to happen on twitter. that he that, we know. >> it's not going to happen on twitter. >> jack dorsey took care of al president is not interested in using that as his communication platform. >> but, carl, it's so fluid what's happening in china now, that the president's literally trying to figure out is it about suppression, is it about freedom of speech? >> human rights comes into the conversation in a way that it might not have been and that can make things more difficult in some ways. on trade, if there is any idea that this administration is somewhat aligned with the last is probably on china policy. >> very hard line. but also involved in climate control. if it's done below the surface, it makes it so much more business gets done that's what i'm saying i find, carl, it's an insecure relationship, but it's not
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insecure in your face every day. it won't be. that's not the way this president is operating. >> peterson institute did some work looking at the level of exports to china relative to the initial gragreement of phase on remember that a year ago and they missed the target by 40% according to peterson. but whatever happens, jim, is going to be done through a multi national lens. a scoop by the cnn today that the secretary of state is planning his first trips in mid-to-late march and it's going to be with meetings with nato counterparts talking about issues in europe but also asia pac. >> when you hear that you know it will cool off 25% of what they make, the chinese buy. the previous administration would speak of those countries as client states of china when you do reporting on it this administration is not regarding those are places that way italy is a client state. germany is a client state. >> we have a record high on the
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cannabis stocks giving some back today
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tilray hit a high of 67 yesterday, is currently below yesterday's int kra day low. even with the laws as tilray, for example, is still up 4 x since the beginning. yore more "squawkn e re" ntuein a moment. go aflac!!! what the heck, troy - that's not your kid! the aflac duck is just covering for sophie. same way he got me money to help cover her hospital bill when my health insurance didn't pay for all of it. but this isn't fair! that's exactly what i said! but then i learned health insurance isn't even supposed to cover everything. wait...for real? for real real. luckily i had aflac. aflac!!! get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. go aflac! !mm-hm! get to know us at aflac.com.
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let's get to jim and "stop trading." >> a fabulous booking on "squawk alley" this morning. they had a magnificent quarter morgan stanley called it a grammy-worthy quarter. this is the make your home into a better home, reshuffle trade it's really an example of a company that has done remarkably well because of covid, is doing well before. patrick is really good, it's just an all-around fantastic quarter on every single metric a great booking. >> yeah. definitely benefiting from at-home, as you say, jim it's made up for and offset some of the manufacturing issues in asia and raising the guide lends some confidence to what happens when we move, hopefully, out of covid later this year. >> i agree they had same chip problems everybody else has, they have been ato override it i love the product
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i didn't know it was as popular as it is this is a remarkable time considering retail is closed i can't wait to hear how he was able to do so well in a chaotic moment and i think it's here to stay. it's real. >> how about tonight, jim? >> hormel. they got nutty planners. and paypal and i have the cfo and the ceo i think paypal is integral to the revolution that we have been talking about. i don't like the word revolution i like the enlightenment no one bought that it's not sexy enough i'm working on it. >> a last question from me, jim. a lot of people who have had the second dose of either pfizer or moderna say that's the one that you do feel a little sluggish for a couple of days afterwards. are you getting any of that? >> to me it's the same thing no >> that's encouraging, good
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news. i took two tylenol i came to work you know no it's the same old, same old. i get my stitches out today for my back surgery. so there is a lot of information. >> yeah. >> the rip out catheter at gamestop is the best ever sell for me. >> that was good that's play and hurt, jim. see you tonight. "mad money" 6:00 p.m. with jim cramer good thursday morning, everybody, welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm david faber a carl quintanilla and breaking news entrepreneur bitcoin and cannabis disney tonight. >> yeah, first let's get to our meg tirrell with findings from oxford university's covid recovery trial >> well, this is the same trial that told us that decks meth zone is a life-saving treatment.
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they are out with results on another anti-inflammatory drug, a rheumatoid arthritis drug. and they found that it on top of corticosteroids like dexamethasone reduced mortality for patients with severe covid-19 in the hospital in a trial that included more than 4,000 patients they found that overall there were about 29% of people who were on usual care plus tocilizumab who died that's a reduction of four percentage points. it shortened the time that people spent in the hospital, reduced the need for a ventilator and for people with significant inflammation on oxygen and got the combination of corticosteroids and this drug it reduced mortality by a third and for those on ventilator reduced mortality by half. this is the second drug out of this trial to show a result like
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this and it's showing mixed results in other trials before so getting the real clear results from this oxford university and u.k. trial will be welcome news to a lot of people really figuring out how to use the best drugs in the best way will improve outcomes for covid patients in the hospital. >> we spend time talking about vaccines and rollouts, but the treatment piece is, obviously, so key, is integral as well. i guess how does this speak to that puzzle that we are seeing in terms of those treatments and what it means for people who contract covid even as we await more shots in more arms? >> yeah, one thing that we have been hearing from a lot of folks as we get vaccines out there is drugs are still a really important piece of this puzzle we have thousands of people in the hospital, thousands of people dying every day in the united states from covid we still need better ways of treating it. if you can figure out how, whether people are being affected by the virus or whether
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it's that inflammation that's taking over, that's what doctors tell me so so important for now how best to save lives and reduce the severe effects from this disease of course, we still need drugs earlier in the course of the disease and we are waiting for results from merck on its drug for early covid, hopefully, soon. >> thank you. we also want to mention today nbc-universal is launching a new tool at planyourvaccine.com. there has been some confusion about how and when it's your turn the site seeks to alleviate that it's an interactive personal tool where users can find state by state eligibility, the closest vaccine location and data on the vaccine in that area, plus a checklist of items you need for your appointments david. our next guest said his firm saw the highest level of m&a activity despite covid lockdowns the last year and quarter. ken mullis, the founder,
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chairman and ceo of mullis and company. always good to have you. i would love to start off on the quarter itself, your company stock is up a bit this morning, near the all-time highs. i think you said that it's the highest level of client activity you have ever seen is that the case, and if so, why? >> yeah, hi, david good morning yes, i think we continue to see just what you are talking about on the show today. the disruptive nature of the economy, low interest rates, and every company in the world i think who started out with their business january 1st of 2020 i have got to believe by january 1st of 2021 they have had thoughts as to whether they are in the right businesses with the right capital skblagss, rit digital strategies. >> you said this on the call and i wanted to ask you to sort of expand on it you said, i have never seen the business community in a shorter period of time rethink everything about what they are doing. what does that actually mean
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>> that's correct. i fi this you were in business a year ago today, you know, you didn't have a great view of covid. maybe some people did. what it would do to the world, do to digital transformation i think we have ac rated lots of chings in the economy by five to ten years. we might talk with one i was involved with yesterday. >> we'll get there. >> i figured that might happen but this is happening almost in every business in america and it's exciting for some and it's also defensive for some. some people have to take defensive moves. >> right it's funny because you have a restructuring business that, obviously, benefitted certainly in the early part of covid where it looked like there were going to be a lot of restruck rings. has that followed through? are you surprised 11 months in, given what we saw in the march/april period >> yes it would be hard for me to predict this i think it's a testament to free market capitalism, innovation.
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it's extraordinary what the community has done in the face of a world that was turned upside down to reimagine their business and come out where it is it really is an amazing year. >> yeah, but, you know, we have been talking for a long time you are not a huge fan of what the fed is doing i can't imagine you are. and don't you believe in some way it's planting the seeds for some, well, the seeds of our own demise, not to put it too sharply? >> david, i really put this year in a different box most years i might have that view this was -- there was sort of what i look at as an eminent domain, a taking of certain people's livelihoods and businesses were shut by order of the government for the benefit deemed to be for the benefit of all. by the way, we will determine whether that was the correct answer one day but it happened. and if the government forces you out of your business, i do think the government has to take extraordinary steps to
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recompense you for that. so this is very different than most of my philosophies this year. >> all right you are not wore owed about a level of speculation in the market let's go carnival today, $3.5 billion, six-year notes, 575, i think, is what they are getting. unsecured, ken that doesn't concern you >> there is sophisticated people on both sides. carnival has a great franchise there will be people cruising any day now. or you could put your money into, i think, good german bunds for ten-year and get back negative money i think people are taking their choice and making their investments, david i think that's probably a valid investment in a great franchise. >> how are you preparing for the fact that maybe, if it is sort of a speculativeford we are in, it could come to an end somewhat similar, let's say, to what we saw in 2000? are you positioned for that even if you don't expect it >> yes i think you always expect the unexpected it's the one thing take your risks in certain
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places we maintain an unlevered very liquid down sheet and take risks operationally in things we're experts at and then maintain a buffer against the unknown i think it's a good way to go. it's worked well for us. >> let's talk about flying cars. you talk about speculation they are not really cars i saw the pictures they are urban mobility vehicles i mean, you know, atlas went up yesterday. you did this deal with archer, fairly large valuation you are basing it off 2026 numbers. i mean, talk about speculation, ken. i don't know how can i believe in something like this? >> david, because there is really no speculation involved if you think about it, you act like vertical takeoff and landing, that used to be called a helicopter there is 15,000 of them right now. and they vertically take off and land we are adding the word electric to it. not only that. so think about it. we are going to have a cleaner
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cheaper and, by the way, way safer, there are 12 rotors on these planes one of the reasons i am uncomfortable on a helicopter is there are multiple points of single failure and if you look at a helicopter, you know, it's not really made to glide to a stop so easily lastly, so the replacement cycle, just on substituting electronic takeoff and landing vehicles for these helicopters is a massive market. and the technology exists. there is nothing to invent you just put 12 rotors on and all of a sudden you have 100 times quieter in flight, these vehicles will be r100 times quieter, they will be significantly safer. they will be significantly cleaner, significantly cheaper, and usually that drives a market so there is only 15,000 helicopters now. can you envision a world if you could accomplish that? >> is the faa -- i mean, where are they -- where are we going to be?
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2026 these things are going to be all over the place and i will walk out of my apartment and one is going to land on my street and take may to work >> maybe not that much look up in the sky, you will probably see five helicopters an hour that enough is 15,000 replace. helicopters. if we double that to ten an hour, that would be 30,000 the market is enormous as the batteries, which definitely will evolve, you will go from a 60 mile distance to 100 miles. it will make it easier for you to get to your hamptons home, come back for lunch, come back for an afternoon shot. nobody will know you are gone. >> these days nobody knows i am gone because i work from home. by the way, i don't live in the hamptons is this here to stay we talk a lot about it it's certainly been an area for providing growth capital for companies like the one we were just talking about am i going to be talking about
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spacs a year from now? >> yes david, in the last 20 years the number has decreased of common stocks by 50%. and the reason that is, is in large part, large pools of capital, private capital and late stage venture, there is a tril and a half dollars of private equity on the sidelines and there is 300 bill now of spacs. you seem to be worried about that they are getting access to companies at earlier stages of development, getting the p projections early. the entrepreneurs going public through the companies are getting certainty. they do not have to go through a 10 or 12-month ipo process as you can see, how fast and how certain we have gotten archer to have a fully funded business plan at an early stage of development with some of the greatest investors in the world who got to sit with management, look at their five-year model, meet the people, really understand it in a way you can't
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do if you are on the public market ipo because of the regulatory laws. it's really a spectacular way of bringing big institutional money into a new market. >> yeah. finally, ken, speaking of flying, are you going to get bankers back op airplanes? >> yeah, i can't wait. i personally can't wait. i know most of the bankers can't wait i am very optimistic i have been spending time around the vaccine. i think this is all going to come back faster than you think. people like being with each other, david it's so much more fun to be in business when you actually are in person. >> yeah, i look forward to that, as well. maybe even seeing you, ken. >> one of these days. >> thank you ken moelis appreciate it. still to come, a closer look at the cannabis sector a day after the reddit crowd turned to pot stocks plus a date with wall street bumble set to make its public debut at the nasdaq this morning after ringing the opening bell we will hear from the company's
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ceo on "squawk alley" next hour. meantime, "squawk on the street" is back after this
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welcome back pot stocks coming off their highs following yesterday's reddit-fueled rally. frank holland has more for us. >> good morning. the cannabis stocks that are of high interest on the wallstreetbets reddit page so far today seeing deep declines at the open. tilray down 32%. all of them in the red as you can see.
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the exception sundial up 10% and more than doubling this week now, despite the declines so far today, that reddit page is filled with a lot of cannabis stock chatter and, of course, the memes. here is one. a meme within a meme with rick rolling. we have to google that to explain it it speaks to the randomness of some investors buying into these cannabis stocks. other posts much more sophisticated. we saw one posted overnight calling tilray a short squeeze and instructing people how to play the short squoez and cash out. and then you have extensive diamond hands talk, slang on the reddit boards for an investor that plans to hold on to the stock for the long haul. in this case, a lot of that stock, stock talk is focused on tilray, afree a and sundial. so if this is a short squeeze play, it's different than gamestop where the short interest was over 100% tilray has the shiest interest of this group.
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shorting is on the decline in recent weeks what is on the rise is the trading volume on these names. yesterday eye-popping numbers at the close for tilray, for organic gram, the high trading volume taking sundial from basically a penny stock to one with a $4.5 billion market cap cannabis stocks were already trading higher on legalization optimism and increased adoption and the forecast for legal sales rise 40% this year when you look at the cannabis etfs and stocks this week, hard to believe that the reddit boards aren't having a major impact on this sector. >> frank, a good place to start with the next guest who says that the recent reddit trade has shown that the power of the individual investor is real. boris jordan joins us, executive chair of the cannabis company curaleaf boris, welcome back. good to see you again. >> good to see you, carl >> i am curious to know what you think of the reddit movement i am also curious to know
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whether or not there is anything in the fundamentals of the business that reflect or explain the run-up we have seen in the last, say, week or two. >> i think you need to separate the situation with stocks that are trading on the big boards in the united states and those largely canadian companies because they are federally legal in canada and, therefore, allowed to trade on the u.s. exchanges, whereas the u.s. companies that have their exposure to the u.s. market, which is the biggest cannabis market in the world, trade actually in canada if you take a look at what's going on through the reddit trade in the u.s., yes, you have a lot of shorts for good reason. a lot of those companies have not performed well i mean, yes, this week we saw canopy grow announce almost a $1 billion loss and their stock was up 20% on the back of that that is largely to do with short, chase in shorts and that's what reddit has been
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doing similar to the gamestop situation. if you, however, look at the u.s. companies, which have benefitted from, obviously, the short trade as well, those companies have very few shorts in them and, therefore, they trade on a more stable basis and represent the bigger part of the market the irony is that u.s. companies that operating in the biggest cannabis market in the world cannot trade in the u.s., whereas canadian companies, which represent a very small piece of the cannabis industry, can trade in the u.s >> yep is it -- do the ceos of these companies seeing the squeeze and benefiting from a share price angle, is it their fiduciary duty to take advantage of it and issue more shares while they can, while the prices, i guess you would argue -- >> sorry, carl. >> go ahead. >> i am very surprised they haven't, although they have
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something -- they have atm programs at the market pramgs. so they may be using those and issuing shares through those types of programs. we don't see them very often in the united states, but they have them in canadian companies they could be selling shares right now and we don't even know but i haven't -- i'm surprised we haven't seen any large capital raises being issued by these companies. the one thing i would like to point out on tilray, tilray announced a merger or an acquisition and merger a month ago, and a lot of the short interest that's in tilray is act act actually arbitrage so these shorts will not cover because once that transaction closes, the arb will disappear and people will get paid for it. so those are true shorts they are arbs between the two prices and two companies that are merging. that may be one of the reasons
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they are chasing them and noticing that the short interest is not closing and they think it will close it won't because it's largely arb trades. >> these are key and crucial points you are making in this conversation i am curious though stepping back and looking at what helped fuel some of the recent activity we have seen the fact that there is in expectation in the u.s. we will see federal decriminalization but actuallization and that we have seen some of the other cannabis company ceos make comments along those lines, how you see it and what that would mean in terms of potential increased competition from perhaps some of those canadian companies. >>, obviously, the election particularly in georgia and the senate election changed the landscape for cannabis because of the fact that we now have both the senate and the house democratically controlled. aim i am not a believer that we are going to get full legalization because we still have both
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conservative members in the senate on the democratic side and on the republican side but i think we will have a step approach i think we will get safe banking this year, which also may get rid of the 280 tax impairment that is in place today i do think we will get that probably this year and i know that people are working on it. and we actually could get decriminalization and a lot of social justice legislation put into that law probably but full legalization, i think, is something that will probably take several years to do i don't believe, even though senator schumer said this is what he would like to do, it's our view, and we are very active in washington, it will be difficult to get full legalization of cannabis this year, but we do think it may happen over the next two to three years, and certainly we will get state banking, which will allow, hopefully, u.s. companies operating in the u.s. markets to list in the united states >> yeah.
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so if it's going to be a isstat issue boris, polling out of north carolina, you are looking at disapproval ratings of less than 20% in terms of on medical, and i know for you guys new york alone adult use would be a pretty big deal, right >> yeah. listen, curaleaf is the largest operator in the world on a revenue basis. new jersey obviously was a big dominie effect, now new york and connecticut moving in that direction, pennsylvania. all these states that were medical are now moving to adult use. there are two reasons. one is it's very popular today with the population. as you said, you know, if you looked at the ballot in michigan in november, not only did these things pass 50%, but they were actually, they passed with a huge majority. this is a very bipartisan issue, maybe one of the few bipartisan issues in the country where both republicans and democrats are united on this and so we do think that this is
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going to create a domino effect on the east coast. once the east coast, particularly new york, connecticut and pennsylvania go adult use, you will have over 85% of the u.s. population have access to adult use cannabis and we, therefore, think that washington at that point in time will have no reason to say that they can't address the issue of legalization we think these initiatives will take, you know, maybe the next three to four to six months to get passed in the legislatures, and by 2022 we expect most of the east coast to be adoesn't use. at that point in time i don't know how washington can ignore it. >> yeah, some people say that about the minimum wage, which, you know, is sometimes it takes the feds a little bit longer to put it all together. lit by from the capital raise angle to the legislation angle, great guidance for our viewers thanks so much good to see you. >> thanks. we are keeping our eyes on bumble, making its debut on the
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nasdaq this morning. don't miss ceo whitney unfortunately herd in the xt ur on "squawk on the street" alley. we'll be right back. the next ho street" alley. we'll be right back. in the nextn the street" alley. we'll be right back. herd in thek on the street" alley we'll be right back.
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that's from "saturday night live" over the weekend when we come back we will check in with zillow's ceo rich bartin on that sketch the company's strong results, 16% share appreciation tayod, that's an all-time high. don't go away. good for anything else. take fuzzywuzzy28. blamin' losses on a laggy network. only one or two. verizon 5g ultra wideband is here, the fastest 5g in the world, with ultra... low... lag! stop blaming the network and start becoming the best gamers in the ga-- that escalated quickly. (sam) 5g ultra wideband, now in parts of many cities. this is 5g built right. only from verizon. (upbeat music)
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no here is your cnbc covid update at this hour. for a second straight day the u.s. recorded more than 3,000 covid deaths new daily cases came in below 100,000 for a fourth consecutive day. california's pandemic death toll has just passed new york state to lead the nation with almost 45,500 fatalities, but new
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york's population adjusted death rate is greater than california. the second highest in the nation after new jersey. more than 10 million americans have received both doses of a covid vaccine almost 45 million dose also been administered putting the nation on prak to reach president biden's goal of 100 million doses in his first 100 days in office. and an updated guidance. the cdc says if at least two weeks have passed since your second shot, you don't have to quarantine following exposure to someone with covid but if it's more than three months after the last dose or you have symptoms, then you do still need to quarantine and the cdc adds vaccinated people still need to wear masks and maintain physical distance from others. morgan, back to you. >> thank you. shares of zillow surging on better than expected quarterly results. the stock up more than 45% so far this year. the company also announcing it
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is acquiring home viewing scheduling platform showing time dot-com for 500 million in cash. joining us in a cnbc exclusive, zillow's ceo rich barton thanks for being with us. >> thank you. if we look at the year that was 2020, i mean, certainly we saw so much i think the digitization of everything for years and years we have been talking about how ripe residential real estate has been for technological disruption why would you say we are in terms of that process? i mean, is this finally a tipping point where -- and i realize you have a strategy in place for this at zillow is this a tipping point where it becomes a much more mainstream process to buy and sell a home online >> yes like we're seeing in all industries, morgan, we saw a kind of covid catalyzed acceleration of pre-existing movement from offline to online. and that clearly is happening in real estate as well.
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so we, as the technology leader for consumer real estate, saw a dramatic acceleration in the adoption of our technology tools, which ended up speeding home sales and, of course, the pandemic has inspired so many people to think about moving because they might be untethered from their commutes now that we saw kind of a really interesting confluence of factors that drove some incredible results for the company in 2020. >> yeah, and i want to dig into that a little more first, i want to hone in on the home segment, including your i-buyer business you hit the pause in the first half of last year but then it resumed revenue for that business, came in above the guidance range, but still down 50% in q4 from the year earlier. what are you seeing? we talk so much about inventory shortages, for example is that something that's affecting the business how are you able to, i guess,
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leverage that die nam a i can? >> the results are kind of historical looking what you are seeing in the homes results is the air gap from pausing the plant during for a few months during covid. but on forward looking metrics, the homes business is as big as ever we had our biggest quarter in q4, bought more homes in q4 than the previous q4. that business is working, it's back and it's ramping really quite quickly. in terms of inventory levels for the housing market, i think that you can get kind of schizophrenic and worked up looking at select headlines about what's going on in the housing market one of the shocking ones is historic low inventory well, that is actually true. inventory is historical low, but the real headline is that homes are selling on average in december in 17 days. that's 25 days fewer than they did the december before.
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so this, you know, homes are flying off the shelves it's a really high velocity market, and that is what is resulting in the highest home volume sales we have seen in 15 years. higher prices appreciating, too. of course, you know, econ 101 says as prices rise, more supply comes on the market because homeowners see their equity go up and think, okay, now might be a really good time to sell so we are seeing that in our homes business and we are seeing that in this increased activity in our business across the board from our traditional premier agent business right through our rentals business and mortgages as well. >> rich, i understand all the things you are doing to reduce friction in the overall purchase of a home, but do you ever think we'll see levels like this again in the sense of it is a unique period people are suddenly realizing i may not have to have that commute i had or at least not as
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often, so i am going to move now, or do you think this is sustainable? >> people make home decisions, they don't take it lightly they make decisions over a long period of time and this has been a period of extreme introspection has people have reshuffled their lives and rethought about things we think that particular trend for the great reshuffling, as i have been calling it, is going to play out for many years so that will be -- i think that will be a durable tailwind more interesting, however, david, is that millennials are starting to have babies and buy homes. and it is a really big cohort, millennials. right behind them is gen-z everybody thought millennials didn't want to boy homes, didn't want to start families our research always showed they were just delaying it, and what's happened, it's been delayed five years from the generation before and they are in the prime home buying stage
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of life right now, and that is going to droive things for quite some time. we at zillow, we don't -- our success doesn't really depend on the macro forces in the housing market yes, they can help, but that's kind of like a noise the big, big trend is that buying and selling a home is super difficult. it's like we're back in the 1980s still, and e-commerce needs to come to home buying and we are on the forefront of integrating this all down. ultimately, the big consumer nirvana dream is that we enable a one-click trade-in that is kind of the consumer north star that we are headed towards and we are making incredible progress towards that integrated future right now. that's going to play out for us for years. >> of course, a big part of the friction comes from the financing, and it didn't take long this week for people to look at the slight, and i mean slight, uptick in the 30-year fixed rate and mortgage applications, which came down a touch.
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i guess the broad question is how much sensitivity does the market have to the threat of rising rates at this point >> that's always a threat, carl. it's always a threat but rates are so low, and they have been so low for so long, and chairman yellen is indicating that rates are probably going to be low for some time. and you debate that on the show a lot, whether or not that's a good thing, and what's the reckoning going to be but it is what it is we believe rates will make homes affordable for quite some time >> all right rich, i mean, "snl" just did a skit on zillow i know you referenced it on your earnings call as well. it's quite funny certainly i can relate to this a little bit but 9.6 billion visits for the full year last year, up 19% year over year. i realize that is a huge monetizable opportunity of itself how many of those visits actually translate to other
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parts of your business or other potential revenue streams for zillow >> very low, morgan. but that's okay. it's because we get 9.6 billion of them and many are dreaming and fantasizing. when we started zillow, it's our 15-year anniversary right now, we knew that home shopping was the stuff of dreams. we knew that we built that right from the start. there was a headline from the "san francisco chronicle" when we launched in 2006 that was zillow real estate porn. so, i mean, people have been on this for quite some time what's wildly gratifying and exciting for me and the team is to break through a cultural barrier into this really rare air where "saturday night live" is spoofing. i think dan levy and the team there just absolutely nailed it. and so our challenge is, as you know, is to take this 9.6 billion visits that we get at the top of the funnel
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i'm envisioning a funnel here. in the bottom of the funnel is the transaction. and increasingly turn more shopping and dreaming traffic into transactions. we monetize a single-digit percentage of the people that come visit us right now. so that is kind of like potential energy that's oil in the ground oil is not a good analogy right now. that's potential energy that will fuel, that should fuel our growth for many years to come. >> all right rich barton, thanks for joining us shares of zillow up 18% right now. cnbc's out with gts new all america economic survey showing broad support for president biden and his agenda steve liesman has the numbers for us steve. >> good morning, david yeah, a special online inauguration edition of the cnbc all america economics survey finding president biden enjoying the best first term presidential honeymoon going back at least to bill clinton in 1993 biden begins his term with a 62%
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approval rating, better than presidents clinton, bush, and obama and 18 points better than former president trump as president obama found, sky high approval ratings can fall with a downturn in the economy and controversial policy a survey of 1,000 people throughout the nation showing biden strong handling. economy and uniting the country. 65% giving his handling of the pandemic a thumbs up as well ending the pandemic, creating jobs and providing relief to individuals and businesses are the top of the list for most americans and enjoy pretty good bipartisan support then you get to other biden agenda items they are supported by majorities, but not viewed as urgently 59% of the public, for example, think racing the minimum wage is important. 30% think it's a top priority. results are pretty much the same for addressing climate change. president obama's popularity suffered when he pushed health care amid a deepening recession. so this survey suggests biden needs to be careful about the
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timing of his policy agenda and vaccines distribution. that could be key. 68% say federal government's fakhrizadeh rollout so far has been fair or poor, but 60% say they expect it to get better in the next 12 months it asked about preference of brand name, no big deal. 11% prefer privacy, 11% moderna 7% say they are already vaccinated maybe the most important is that 28%, not willing to take a vaccine, and that's going to raise questions about how quickly the u.s. can get to a herd immunity. finally, 46% of the public support biden's $1.9 trillion relief bill. 18% saying too little, 36% say too much the most popular parts of the plan helping small business. the $1,400 checks and funding for vaccine distribution if jim carvell were advising joe biden it would be, it's the
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virus, stupid. >> that's a good one, steve. the potus making comments about his phone call with xi, which apparently lasted a couple of hours. steve, thanks. a great round up of sent nt right now. a check on the pot stocks. tilray below tuesday's closing lows later on an exclusive with the ceo of kellogs adds "squawk on the street" are continues obn this thursday. don't go away. and i'd like your best new smartphone deal. street" are continues on this thursday don't go away. s "squawk on the street" are continues on this thursday don't go away. 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.
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uber, reporting fourth quarter results as delivery growth continues to outpace a drop in ridesharing revenue. that stock is up about 50% over the past 12 months we'll be right back.
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kellogg's shares down a touch after the cereal and snacks company reported q4 profit and sales that missed but strong guidance for the year joining us in a cnbc exclusive is kellogg's chairman and ceo. welcome. good to see you. >> good to see you, carl thanks for having me >> i was just thinking about the year for you guys, and it does seem like it will be a great business school study one day not just managing the incredible spike of demand a year ago but how you managed the natural deceleration from here how is that going to work? >> it's a great question, carl the way we've approached the year in terms of planning 2021 is we looked at 2020 and what happened and tried to strip out what was related to covid, what
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we expected to happen, and went back to 2019 and what did actually happening, stripping out events strategic planning guidance against that to really figure out what's a winning plan look like for 2021 and that was the guidance we gave today having said that 2020 we finished the year, it was a fantastic year despite all the challenges, i'm really proud of our people and the way they showed up, kept each other safe, delivered food to the marketplace and had a year unlike any other kellogg's ever had >> yeah. when you think of the lessons from 2020, and i'm talking about not just factory safety, worker safety, but obviously very rapid changes in your supply chain, rising commodity costs, what practices do you think you're going to carry out from 2020 into the next, say, three to five years at least? >> well, so much has to do with agility and how quickly companies can pivot. that's really important, and everybody learned that in 2020
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the other thing for us that's very important is understanding consumer dynamics. it's always been the case that consumers will tell you certain things and they'll behave a certain way and really understanding the consumer behavior is paramount to success in a company like ours now you think about 2021 and what consumers are telling us remains highly uncertain because there's so much they don't know. but really getting to the heart of consumer dynamics, consumer behavior, and being able to reach those consumeers in a 1 to 1 way and get our messages across is absolutely paramount to our success going forward so the investments we've made in data and analytics and e-commerce and making those one to one connections with consumers, for us, is one of the most important things that we've had to do in terms of really accelerating our capability. >> steve, it's morgan. m&a continues in the sector. we saw that planters deal with kraft selling the business how are you assessing your portfolio? are there areas of the foods
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market that you would like to be more involved in >> yeah, good morning, morgan. i think there's obviously a crisis like this creates tremendous opportunities we love the way our portfolio shapes up right now from a brand standpoint, a category standpoint, and a geography standpoint having said that, we'll always look for opportunities, and our balance sheet right now is incredibly strong. we took real measures in the fourth quarter one of the things people talked about a potential eps miss in the fourth quarter well, we actually redeemed additional debt with the payment of $20 million, which accounted for 4 cents to our eps this year really to get our balance sheet in a strong position to give ourselves optionality. we're going to do that we increased our dividend. we're going to be back to share buybacks but that gives us flexibility to think about if the right opportunity comes along in emerging markets to
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strengthen our position there and health and wellness and healthy snacking we'll look for those opportunities. but it has to be judged against the lens of organic growth which is still very exciting for us. look at one brand like ours, morning star farms in the veggie space, grew 26% in 2020. we're well positioned with our brand portfolio as it exists today, but obviously still will always look for opportunities should they present themselves >> carl referenced this but i'd like to get a direct answer. how concerned are you about rising commodity prices particularly corn and how are you respond to ing to it this y? >> we have a terrific procurement team and process we're well hedged for the first half of the year there's clearly costs that are rising we'll always look at prod productivity to see what we can do to offset rising commodity costs, rising costs in general our first line of defense is always to look at productivity
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and opportunities and say where do we need to get more price, where do we need to get more value, and that always starts with creating value, creating value for consumers, for our retailers if they're willing to spend more for we think we're well positioned it will be a challenge as always when costs go up we feel like we're in a pretty good place >> finally, steve, just on the breakfast day part, on the one hand i guess you could argue, look, we're going to go maybe back to work a little more often and eat out breakfast a little more often i have to imagine that the lingering remote at work dynamic and maybe a lingering pantry load mentality will maybe offset some of that natural return to work >> yeah, we think so we think so, carl. one of the things that undoubtedly you will see even as people do go back to work they're not going back as the same way in 2019 there will be more at-only occasions to begin with but, also, we have a wide portfolio
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outside of breakfast, but a big cereal business. a lot of our cereal growth that we saw in 2020 happened outside the breakfast occasion so we introduced jumbo snacks to make it easier to use our cereal as snacks. and so we'll continue to be laser focused on the breakfast occasions, eggo waffles from morning star farms but will look at all the other occasions whether they be at home or as the world gets back into a more mobile environment >> steve, i appreciate it. really good color on the numbers and helping our viewers understand what's at play. good to see you again. thanks so much >> good to see you thanks for having me >> we're still awaiting bumble's first trade. don't miss the ceo in the next hour "squawk alley" will start on the other side of this break
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good morning it's 10:00 a.m. at bumble headquarters in austin, texas.
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it's 1: c11:00 a.m. on wall str and "squawk alley" is live ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ happy thursday welcome to "squawk alley." i'm jon fortt with carl quintanilla and julia boorstin and, boy, we have a lineup this hour that's enough to last a week bumble's founder and ceo whitney wolfe herd will join us later this hour with that ipo on deck. sonos pumped up the volume in the latest quarter patrick spence is with

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