intuit quickbooks live. it is 5:00 a.m. at cnbc. 4:00 a.m. in houston, texas, and here is your top five at 5:00. the dangerous situation in texas and surrounding states dragging on cold weather continues, millions still without power. officials demanding answers for exactly what went wrong. oil and natural gas in focus, frozen wells can stay offline for days or even longer, helping energy push stocks higher. slack force, why the deal

between salesforce and slack hitting a snag in d.c. president biden taking his covid spending bill on the road, and vaccination and school reopening goals in a town hall event. and when exactly will we all hit the road again the ceo of travago is here it's wednesday, february 17th, and this is "worldwide exchange" right here on cnbc well, good morning, good afternoon, or good evening and welcome from wherever in the world that you may be watching i am brian sullivan. thank you for joining us on this wednesday, so much to do including the very latest on that deep freeze in texas and other parts of the midwest right now, a quick check on the markets and your money futures are flat to slightly lower. it was a mixed trade yesterday the dow higher again the s&p 500 just a bit lower oil and gas, again, one of the

big stories. the deep freeze has many wells shut down in texas simply too cold to pump oil or natural gas out of many of them, and oil is above 60 bucks a barrel right now about 3 million barrels per day of production estimated to currently be offline, and citigroup last night saying that could last for a few days or even longer and possibly have longer term implications a similar situation with natural gas. prices around 3 bucks on the open market, as you can see, but there were trades done yesterday in the hundreds of dollars, and one deal in oklahoma at 999 bucks, as desperate buyers paying anything they could or need to fulfill contracts. the move in the commodities helping stocks the xle surging 2 1/2% the etf is now up more than 26% in just the last 90 days, and also yesterday we found out that

buffet's berkshire hathaway's secret stock purchase, the one we waited to hear, and indeed it was the bill oil company chevron. a mixed day in asia, the hong kong hang seng climbing 1%. the mainland markets are closed for the lunar holiday. europe, markets are mostly lower. their vaccination rollout is almost nonexistent the major countries in europe outside the u.k. at one-third or even less than our vaccination rate here. all right. back now to that dangerous situation in texas and surrounding states at least 15 people have died, millions more still facing power outages for a third straight day. all of this as historically cold weather putting pressure on the region's energy infrastructure

the break down of the nation's energy capital has sparked growing outrage and demand for answers. texas's governor, greg abbott calling for an investigation into the electric reliability council of texas, known as ercot, and what caused the failure in the state's supplies. officials said some they were fragile and more outages were possible as of now, 2.9 million are without power and heat in the lone star stay let's bring in nbc meteorologist bill cairns. a little warmer than this time yesterday, but still very cold, very dangerous. >> especially when some people are on hour 48 of no heat and no power. temperatures in people's homes are in the 30s their kids are scared. there's saying there's no water

in portions of gavelveston islad storm number two has just begun. it won't be until saturday or sunday looking at the current weather map, this pink is all freezing rain all the way down outside of corpus christi it's one thing to have one storm, and then record cold. now we're getting a punishing storm on top of that today snow from dallas to shreveport, little rock and memphis, later on today, and alexandria and louisiana is about to get more ice. this storm is 122 million people impacted, texas to boston the snow swath goes about 1,600 miles from dallas to boston over the next couple of days, and unfortunately just like the last one, another ice storm, and especially that ice this morning in texas people have to stay off the roads. they do not have the salt, the

plows, the sand to get rid of it. >> this is not the news they needed and also the homes and buildings are not meant for extreme cold they don't use the kind of insulation, and the building construction materials and methods that many in colder climates do. is there any sign of not warm but warmer weather on the forecast the next couple of days >> well, today as we go throughout the storm, it's very cold well below average thursday is still very cold behind the storm friday, as temperatures getting into the 30s, maybe the 40s in south texas. it's not until saturday and sunday, brian, that we see temperatures returning to the 50s. people in their homes, if they don't get their power on, they're talking four, five days in a row of temperatures you don't want to live in. >> yeah, and i know many people have been saying they're in their cars to run the heat, they get warm, go back in the house, try to bundle up a lot of gas stations are

closed you can't pump gas because they're preserving gas linin thr cars >> tough situation down in texas. now to three big money stories to begin your day. story number one, the department of justice asking salesforce for more information on its $27 billion bid to buy slack the company is revealing the second request yesterday sa salesforce saying it expects the must have by july. both looking to take on microsoft and its teams app. story two, apple scoring a victory in north dakota of all place, and america really, after lawmakers voted down a bill requiring app stores to enable software developers to use their own payment processing software and avoid certain fees legislation was the first major bill anywhere in america addr

addressing apple and google's app stores the win, though, might be short lived. other states are debating similar legislation. stock three, jet blue announcing it's getting rid of ticket change fees for most of its fares but of course there is a catch. jet blue also announcing its basic economy flyers will be prohibited from using overhead bin space for carry on bags. it's a similar policy united airlines introduced in 2017. you can bring a bag on it's just got to be small enough to put under the seat in front of you. president biden's covid relief efforts heading to america's heart land as he tries to drum up support for the $2 trillion spending package tracie potts has more from washington good morning, tracie. >> brian, good morning good morning, everyone the president in wisconsin last night talking about reopening schools full-time, not part-time, and talking about a faster rollout for vaccines

promising that everyone who wants that shot should be able to get one by june at a town hall in wisconsin last night, president biden predicted the pandemic will ease by the end of this year >> by next christmas, i think we'll be in a very different circumstance, god willing, than we are today. >> get the kids back to school. >> reporter: biden telling america opening classrooms means teachers need shots. >> teachers and the folks who work in the school, the cafeteria workers and others should be on the list of preferred to get a vaccination. >> reporter: the president pushing his $1.9 trillion relief plan. >> now is the time we should be spending now is the time to go big. >> reporter: but a push to increase the minimum wage could slow things down republican mitt romney tweeting that he's introducing a bill to raise pay to protect american workers. democrats say they're ready to pass covid relief without one republican vote. >> that's their decision and

they'll have to be accountable for that. >> reporter: the biden administration isupping the ante on vaccines, doubling shipments since inauguration day to 13.5 million doses a week after governors complained about the rollout. and democrats laying out their agenda looking ahead past covid relief saying in the next month they want to take action on voting rights, and police reform brian. >> t >> tracie potts, good to see you. when we come back, we're going back to the energy story in texas and the real impact all of this is having on the electricity market you've got to see what happens in a market that we almost never talk about. plus, robert frank is here to tell us about the tax nightmare that many former commuters are facing after pivoting from a work from home life. and battle of the

billionaires, jeff bezos, elon musk, jockey to be the world's richest person call them the rocket men very busy hour still ahead when "worldwide exchange" rolls on.

welcome back, stocks looking to continue to try to build on record highs futures right now indicating that's maybe not likely to happen, but we're flat we're in the red down a point. we're going to call that flat, why not. we all need that

your next guest says there is a growing disconnect between the positive expectations in the market, and consumer sentiment about the road ahead that could impact the markets chuck self is the chief investment officer at i sectors, good to see you gone what kind of disconnect do you have or are you seeing >> we have seen a report by bank of america about the overwhelming bullishness of market participants, especially as we see, the cyclical stocks do very well here. and also, everyone believes that interest rates are going up. well, they have gone up. they still believe they're going to go up further at the same time, consumer sentiment, at the university of michigan released last week was that six-month low, and so we have the possibility that the market has been overexuberant and for what's really going to happen consumers 70% of the economy, if they don't spend money, even the

money they get from the government, we could have disappointing earnings numbers later in the year. >> and what do you think that does to equities or do you think that fed put fiscal policy, monetary policy, all the stuff we talk about, chuck, ultimately is going to keep the markets humming, no matter how some of the numbers come in. >> that's the market's expectation, and that's why the market has been up so much over the past year, and all we're saying is that the risk for negative returns, which is what we really focus on is at high levels, and market participants really need to make sure that they have the proper risk for the portfolios in case the market drops 10, 20% here this spring >> where are you still seeing value, chuck >> well, the health care area has really come to -- forward in

our quantitative models. as you know, health care was very much under valued in the past year, so because of the concern of the democratic blue sweep. there's concern about medicare for all, the prescription drug price problems, and a tax situation getting worse for drug companies, but these things doesn't seem to be a focus of the administration or congress right now, and at the same time, we're going to get through this pandemic and there's going to be a big increase in the use of the regular drug prices and surgery, so -- and then of course the country is getting older, all the secular stuff that everyone knows, so we think there's going to be a rebound in health care stocks relative to the market in the next six months. >> yeah, listen, that is a great

and important point. obviously all the focus right now is on covid. this is our fourth or fifth pandemic in 125 years. we've gotten through them. it's painful there is another side, and we might go back to focusing on the bo bo boring health stuff we talked about in the past. great to talk to you have a great day. >> thank you. warren buffet revealing his latest big money moves with a slew of big changes. we're going to lay out what is in and what is out in omaha. >> and of course, this month is black history month, and we are honoring some of our cnbc contributors and friends, and here is my friend lima kroft sharing how to silence your doubt and believe in yourself. >> always believe you have the right to be in the room. i think that is one of the biggest hurdles that you have to get over silence that voice in your head

that says you're a diversity pick, you don't belong always know in your that is right that you make that room better, that your views, your e stnt is important to getting thbe outcomes for any organization that you're a part of well we have a safety net. we'll be ok right? ♪ at cdw, we get these new ways of working bring new threats. that's why we started an office commune. not a security concern around for 50 miles. unless you count the wolves. and all the llama milk you can drink. you know at cdw, we can design a security solution using hp elite devices with real-time threat intelligence to help protect your data from new threats, anywhere you work. anywhere? ring the bell thrice, we're going back to the office! for technology that moves you forward, trust hp and it orchestration by cdw. the holidays weren't exactly smooth sledding this year, eh santa?

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i opened a sofi money account and it was the first time that i realized i could be earning interest back on my money. i just discovered sofi, and i'm an investor with a diversified portfolio. who am i?! i refinanced my student loans with sofi because of their low interest rates. thanks sofi for helping us get our money right. ♪♪ here's aj! when are you going back into the office? i don't know dad... ♪ well we have a safety net. we'll be ok right? ♪ welcome back to "worldwide exchange," it is time now for our daily vaccination update of course there's a lot of noise out there.

so let's check the actual, you know, numbers and see how the rollout is really going. here are the facts from the cdc. overall, 71 1/2 million doses have been delivered. 55.2 had been administered with about 40 million people in america receiving at least one shot what that means is about 15 1/2% of american adults have received at least one shot and here's some more good news. u.s. hospitalizationsrelated t covid are down 48% from their peak of just a few weeks ago let's hope that trend continues down, down, down meantime, as the vaccine distribution ramps up around the world, the travel booking industry is looking at a time line for recovery. and consumers are looking to capitalize on deals from airlines and hotels. joining us with a look at the latest global trends, is axel,

ceo of trivago great to have you on the european vaccine rollout is going about 1/3 the pace of ours have you noticed any trends between more vaccinations and more willingness to book travel or is it still very slow right now. >> it is overall still very slow that is correct. but what we have seen, countries that are much further ahead like israel have seen a significant increase in travel, and we believe that once the programs will reach a certain point, and there will be more certainty when it will be safe to travel we will see a return of the bookings. >> yeah, i mean i was at the airport a couple of days ago i had flown a few times. one woman actually told she had been i thought, i wonder if there's this concept of vaccination tourism that once you're vaccinated, you are eager to get out. this could roll up fairly quickly. what do you think? >> i think it's very clear that

everybody's eager to travel, and everybody's eager to do something and break out of the daily routine. so whenever it's possible, and that's what all the research shows, people will want to travel to be be friends and family and experience something. it's all a matter of time. >> yeah, it's amazing here in the states, you know, we always talk about, you hear the u.s. is more divided than ever, we hear it politically as you travel, halfof the country is going about their business with masks on, and northeast chicago and california seem to be very very different it's a little bit disconcerting. what kind of trending are you seeing here in the united states >> in the united states, there is more traveling going on than in europe because it's much more divided but it is predominantly

domestic, and i would expect similar to what we saw last year, there would be predominantly domestic travel in the summer with the situation improving across the country, with some traveling to nearby countries and predominantly mexico >> so we are seeing a fairly big uptick in travel from here to mexico because i have heard anecdotally that flights to places like cabo san lucas, and c cancun, and hotels in some cases are sold out >> yeah, the -- i don't think that that's a surprise again, i mean, if you look at last summer and take that as a proxy for what we will experience in the next couple of months, the nearby destinations were fully booked in a lot of countries and the u.s., and also in continental europe, and the trips to intercontinental destinations or longer air travels were still available,

but some of them you couldn't reach, and some of them travelers didn't want to reach so there was a very significant imbalance to what these numbers are seeing. >> have you seen any up take in long dated bookings? people booking for, saying, ce september or the christmas holidays or new year's. >> yeah, i mean, we've heard about some of these bookings from industry participants our platform tends to be a bit shorter in booking windows it's too early for us to see that i think overall the bookings will be a bit more short noticed and travelers will want to see a bit more certainty about the regulations. so how easy will it be to get to the destination, and then even more importantly, what will be the consequences of coming back, and there in particular in europe, there has been a lot of back and forth, and a lot of short-term imposition of new

restrictions and quarantine requirements that make travelers a bit more cautious and booking a bit more short-term. >> you know, that's a great point, axel. it might not be about the pandemic or rouules, will you b allowed to travel where you want to go. axel hefer of trivago, appreciate it. thank you. still on deck, how could america's energy capital run out of energy? officials demanding answers, the latest from the still dangerous situation in texas and a reminder if you haven't already subscribed to our podcast, if you missed the show any day, you listen on apple, spotify, "worldwide exchange" is the name. check it out today, we're back after this #1 for psoriasis symptom relief* and #1 for eczema symptom relief* gold bond champion your skin so you're a small business,

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deep freeze, texas continues to face major power outages, and now parts of the south are bracing for another major winter storm. warren buffet's big bets will tell you what berkshire hathaway bought and sold in the latest quarter. a commuter's worst nightmare, no, it is not traffic. we're talking the other key, taxes. why the work-from-home trend could be causing major issues for many of you, and you don't even know it you're watching "worldwide exchange" right here on cnbc

all right. welcome back to "worldwide exchange," i'm brian sullivan, everybody, thanks for joining us on this wednesday. here's how the markets and your money look right now stock futures are not giving you a lot of help as to which way this market wants to go. kind of like yesterday started strong, tapered off toward the end of the day. that's effectively what we got the s&p 500 futures, we'll call them flat. let's get a check on the cryptos, because bitcoin hit 50,000 yesterday bitcoin right now is up 51,609 the institutional buyer continues to come in bitcoin remains hot. you've got ether on the coin base exchange at 18,160. who's got their bitcoin 60,000 hat sitting around oil and gas, also some of the big news items this morning. that deep freeze in texas along with louisiana, oklahoma, and other parts of the midwest playing havoc with parts of the

fossil fuel market oil, back above 60 about 3 million barrels per day of oil production is estimated to currently be offline. it is often simply too cold to get the oil out of the ground or to where it needs to go. same situation with large parts of natural gas of course often a by product of oil pumping. yesterday was a nice moneymaker for many oil and gas shareholders the xle etf, up 2 1/2% many stocks in that etf up much more than that by the way, that etf up more than 26% in just the last 90 days we also found out yesterday that berkshire hathaway's secret stock purchase was chevron more on warren buffet, actually right now. let's stick with that. berkshire hathaway disclosing not only chevron but a number of big stock moves in its latest quarter and quarterly filings. here we go, got your pens or pencils or apple notes ready

here's what the moves were, that new stake, it was in chevron, but not only chevron a new position in verizon also announced. apparently they like the mobile phone industry because they more than doubled their position in t-mobile u.s berkshire actually trimmed its apple holding by about 6%, cut its wells fargo stake again, a big chop, 59% cut on wfc they continue to unload that stock. and gm, they sold off about 9% of their position there. berkshire hathaway increased their purchases in abvie, bristol myers, merck, and not just health care, and kroger, and exited investments in pfizer, and pnc financial. meantime, in covid news, the white house delaying the time line on when it expects most americans will have access to a vaccine. it is now looking at mid to late may or early april

dr. fauci pointed to j&j cutting their initial supply estimates of course the j&j vaccine still needs to be approved but all in all, those numbers ahead of some of the more dire estimates a big money story this morning, elon musk's spacex just raised 850 million. that puts the company's valuation at a stunning $74 billion, about 60% higher than its valuation only last august elon musk, wow all right. time now for your morning rbi. it's back. and this one has to do with the big story out of texas that we and the nation have been following. millions remain without ower, and serious problems in the power market one of the big problems is a huge spike in the cost of power. now, you may not realize it, but electricity is bought, sold and traded every day, just like many other stocks or commodities, and parts of that market have gone

absolutely insane last 24 to 36 hours. look at this trade that happened yesterday. there was an erco it trade. that is the platform, of course, in texas that was done for $8,750 per, we'll call it, a unit. put that in perspective, traders tell me around february when it's cold, the normal price will be about $70 so put that into perspective somebody bought a chunk of electricity at about 12,000 times the normal trading price why would anyone do that probably because they had to remember, a lot of this is contractual obligation, just like gamestop and a short squeeze f you have got to buy something, and the price goes up, you will buy it at any price. many of you outside of texas may not care, if you live in texas, you might have to. because if you use one of those you pay what we pay type entity

distributors that have been popping up, you may be paying thousands of percent more to heat your home for part of this month. in fact, it's gotten so bad that companies like griddy are effectively begging customers to leave their company and find another power distributor. good luck being able to do that in this market because begging companies to leave because of sky high prices may be coming, and in fact is already here. now, that is random. but interesting. let's talk more about what is going on in texas. what the ultimate fallout might be morris greenberg, senior manager, north american power analytics at s&p global plats. glad to have you on. i showed that trade, by the way, there were others done around that price range i heard rumors of higher, but i could not confirm it what the heck is going on in the power market >> well, really, it's a question of the severity of the cold

weather conditions, which have caused numerous power plant outages beginning early monday morning, and really right through to this morning. a significant amount of capacity remains offline. >> yeah, and of course the blame game is going around and some people are saying, well, look t the turbines are frozen. the reality, as all the data starts to come out it looks like unfortunately texas just didn't plan well for the cold, and apparently some of the meteorological weather estimates were so far off that there was no ramp up to pay for this kind of demand, demand far above the highest estimates in some cases two or threefold, and a lot of wells are simply frozen shut it's really just the entire infrastructure got caught off guard, did it not, morris? >> yes, and the reason is that the conditions are so unusual

that the system really wasn't designed to withstand them, and that can change. there will have to be investments made to weatherize the facilities, and prevent this from happening again in the future, and i believe that the texas legislature will be addressing that issue along with an investigation of exactly what happened this week >> what kind of legislative remedy for the future do you think might there be, morris because i showed our audience yesterday that in 1990, kind of a similar thing happened, and they were screaming about changes, and that was 30 years ago. >> it would probably be in the form of more stringent regulation on power plant preparedness or extreme weather conditions the transmission system operator, ercot answers to the

texas public utilities commission, and that public utility commission of course is accountable to the legislature so the texas pec, which has been getting involved in framing these new rules and ercot would have to decide about how to implement them >> a lot of criticism has been labeled to the fact that ercot is its own power grid, texas the only state with its only power grid infrastructure. i have learned how complicated this mashrket is the last 24 hours. if i say something wrong, forgive me there you go, they can't buy power from other states like other states can or these other grids can. can do you think ultimately ercot will surrender its position as the lone wolf in the lone star state? >> i think that's fairly unlikely i think that texas likes to be

independent of the federal regulation, and even if the capacity to import more energy had been available to them, the markets in neighboring regions have also been affected by these cold conditions and are also very tight >> yeah, a lot of blame being placed on just the entire system there, but the weather playing havoc, lack of preparedness. you've got natural gas while it's frozen. caught off guard we're hoping whatever the ultimate solution is, they get power on asap because people are literally freezing in texas. morris greenberg, we appreciate your views important story. thank you very much. >> thank you all right. coming up, call it the plan to save day care, how to get many closed child care centers open and their parents back to work. as we head to break, a few other big headlines happening right now. number one, president biden scheduled to meet with labor union leaders today. they're expected to talk about

infrastructure spending and alternative energy two, selling its north american water brand, including pure life, shifting to premium lines. nestle's ceo will join us live tomorrow here on "worldwide exchange." and three, jeff bezos reclaiming his title as the world's richest person overtaking elon musk the change comes after tesla shares slid more than 2 1/2% yesterday, but with this new spacex valuation, maybe musk will take it back tomorrow what a battle. dow futures, they're down four we're back right after this.

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welcome back well, of course the covid crisis has created many big challenges for families as it comes to child care centers, and day care centers to remain open ylan mui joining us with more on this important story, one specific story important to parents of children out there. you know of which i speak. >> absolutely. this story is personal for me as well, and so much of the focus has been on getting the schools back open. a lot of day care centers and child care providers have actually been operating throughout this pandemic but they say that it's come at a

cost an industry survey found that more than half of them, 56% say they are losing money every single day that they are open. more than 80% say they're dealing with lower enrollment and for a lot of these small businesses, that means they have had to take on debt. 42% said they would have to put supplies on their own personal credit cards there has been money for the industry in each of the covid relief bills that has passed this has been a bipartisan issue previously, but now democrats are pushing for a new dedicated $24 billion stabilization fund that they say will provide the industry more direct access to the money, and more flexibility in how they use it there's also $15 billion to be delivered through more traditional block grants the chamber of commerce has come out in favor of additional relief for the industry, and this has really become a business issue they're saying you can't bring your workers back to the office. they don't have any place to put their kids there was a recent study by pew research that found that 45% of

parents say that child care responsibilities are the main reason they're working from home even if their offices are open back to you. >> it is amazing, ylan, and it's such an important topic for particularly the northeast having traveled more than most because nobody's traveling, we forget that like 40% of american students are in school either full-time or most of the time around the country it's kind of a northeastern and california type situation. do you think that will impact the budget conversation? i mean, when the southern republicans are like what are you talking about, most of our kids are in school, and others are going to look at them like they're crazy, do you think there's going to be some bipartisan come together when vastly different parts of the country are living vastly different? >> i think the difficult thing here for a lot of these operators is that even when they're open, they can only open at something like 50% enrollment it's a similar situation you're

seeing the restaurant industry in even if there are policies and guidelines that allow them to operate, day still can't do so and turn a profit or make this a reliable business venture that it was before because these are private businesses, not public institutions republicans have proposed $20 billion in relief for child care centers this time around. so that is money that is about half of what the democrats are proposing. so there is room for negotiation here it's just a matter of are they willing to do it >> ylan mui, a very important topic for a lot of families and working parents that are watching us right now. thank you very much. now to another, less wel known issue created by the pandemic and lock downs, and one you may only be finding about the hard way as tax time approaches all you workers that used to commute from another state for your job, like new jersey or connecticut to new york are facing a tax nightmare since you have actually been working from

your home state for months robert frank joining us with more on this asking for a friend, what exactly is going to happen >> well, look, it is tax season, brian. accountants say the number one question they're getting asked this year is how to deal with working from home in 2020 when your work or home changed and that was a lot of people the first advice here, the first tip is count your days if you lived and worked in a state other than your tax domicile for more than 183 days, you may be subject to income tax in that state, depending on state rules, and that's why you need to check each state rules on covid relief. now most states they waived any claim to income tax on temporary residence during covid, but some states like connecticut, they have not released details so they may actually claim income tax if you were in that state. lastly, make sure you document any move if you left new york for florida, sffor instance, and yo

want to avoid new york taxes, you have to show proof of when you intended to move not just i started moving due to covid and ended up moving later. there are billions at stake. new hampshire is suing massachusetts, which continues to tax new hampshire residents who used to commute. that case now before the supreme court. over 400,000 people commuted to new york from new jersey before covid. s&p estimates new york will take in more than a billion dollars of tax revenue from new jersey residents and more than $400 million from connecticut residents who haven't set foot in new york since march. they say that's not fair, and brian, that's why we had this case before the supreme court. >> all right well, covid will end, and taxes will go on so when covid's over and everyone says we're still going to be working from home, how is that going to be taxed >> yeah, look, the tax law did not imagine a future where

people would permanently or at least long-term work remotely from their office. so right now, if you report to google in new york, but you live in north carolina and decide to work remotely for years, new york is still going to tax you every seng l day for that work new hampshire and new jersey saying that's not fair there's a lot of money in the supreme court case, and technology has just changed the way we think about working remotely, and right now, it's not set up for a long-term remote system. >> yeah, it's not, but it's going to have to be and those tax changes are coming the lot of people are moving to where, i think, robert, rich people go where taxes are low. that's a rhyme i sounded like joe. >> i like that >> robert, thank you. >> i like that could be a song. >> kernan, if you're listening, you can use that, rich people go where taxes are low.

coming up -- i know, let's get me off tv. is bigger always better. we'll talk stimulus and the impact on your money, and by the way, the national debt if you haven't already, subscribe to our new podcast, it's called, believe it or not, "worldwide exchange," every day it's out in audio form check it out on apple, spotify, and other podcasting platforms, where they play lie. we're going to be right back right after this

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welcome back, and good wednesday morning, futures right now are not giving us a lot of help about which way this market wants to go. you can see they're flat i'm not going to call that down. a couple of points dow hitting a new record high. the markets hit a new record high vis-a-vis the dow, s&p down a bit. your next guest says he is considering telling clients to remain in pockets of value as he called them when navigating the

market sean snyder is the head of investment strategy at citi personal wealth management welcome back, i guess the question is with the kind of run we have had lately are there any pockets of value out there >> you know, i think there are, and i think you have to look a little bit harder but it's really telling to me that, you know, if you look at the top five stocks in the s&p 500, you've had a really tremendous run. maybe 250% or so on average since 2018, but if you look at the other 495, you're looking at returns that are probably half that so the headline don't always tell you the full story about what's going on. i also would say there's many unloved sectors that are out there, and i actually think financials are one of those. we focus on the mega cap names, the high flying technology and retail names financials have been the market leader over the past six months with a return of almost 30%.

they have beaten the technology sector the last six months there are pockets of value out there when you compare to the large huge mega cap names. >> listen, they're not sexy, but, you know, oil and banks have been -- it's like the original game of monopoly, right. oil and railroads, radio companies, but oil and banks have been the big moneymakers in the last three to six months do you expect obviously it sounds like you like the financials do you expect energy to continue its run? >> sure. so you mentioned energy and financials, i think that's interesting because those two sectors will have the highest positive correlation to risings. those are two sectors you may want exposure to and i think the rallies are probably sort of tied to this rise in fields, particularly financials, energy of course has other things going on you hear about the permian based

being reduced production right now due to the freeze in the south. these other idiosyncratic things that are there, they are quite correlated with what's happening in yields. >> in fact, citigroup, your ultimate parent company, there could be longer term impl implications of these well heads being frozen and everybody is tripping over themselves to raise their oil forecast in terms of pricing do you think on a macro level, the pandemic will end, life will return to whatever we call normal, though it might look slightly different in the near term, will rates ultimately rise again, maybe not this year and if they do or when they do, how do we start prepping for it now? >> so i think there is a chance that rates will continue to rise i'm not exactly sure when that rise stops so some of this is pricing in inflation expectations and if you think about what's about to

happen with inflation, some of it is tied to an increase in raw material prices and energy a lot of it is what's tied -- what we call base effects, so you're comparing this year's data with last year's data, and you get to march and april, you're going to be preparing against a time frame when the economy was in lock down, and sort of in free fall, so you're going to see higher inflation pr prints, and i do think the market may be sensitive to that in the months ahead, particularly when they consider what is the federal reserve going to do in the future if the pandemic does end and the economy is recovering faster than they anticipate, so i think there's a chance that yields will continue to be higher. >> yeah, very quickly, are your clients asking if the work from trade is over? >> i haven't heard much about that, to be honest i do think there's going to be some expectation that how much -- how many goods to you need, right, so i think we'll see a rotation away from this demand for goods, you know,

exercise bikes, you know, streaming services and stuff, and maybe move more towards the services sector of the economy that's what we're really kind of preparing our clients for eventually there's going to be huge demand for leisure and hospitality when this ends so we're preparing that way. >> i could not agree with you more, maybe from streaming and peloton to travel and hotels, and pools. it sounds pretty good. sean snyder, city private wealth a pressure to have you back on good to see you. we will get out there, folks, certainly. that does it for us on "worldwide exchange. "squawk box" and the gang will pick up the coverage we will see you tomorrow take care. okay. plan, pivot. how do you bounce back? you don't, you bounce forward, with serious and reliable internet. powered by the largest gig speed network in america. but is it secure? sure it's secure. and even if the power goes down,

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near highs again as president biden makes his case for another round of stimulus we're doing some whale watching, several of today's biggest stock movers are names revealed as position ads or cuts in berkshire hathaway's greatest findings we'll have a run down straight ahead. we're looking at a crisis in texas with millions still without electricity, nearly two full days after snow, ice and plunging temperatures strained the power grid beyond the breaking point wednesday, february 17th, 2021, and "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, and welcome to "squawk box" right here on cnbc. i'm andrew ross sorkin along with joe kernen, becky quick is of