again today. rising interest rates are in focus. that will be a key topic for fed chair jay powell when he begins two days of testimony on capitol hill. and facebook and australia making peace overnight we'll show you how they're resolving a fight that shut down new services on facebook's platform there it's tuesday, february 23rd already, 2021, and "squawk box" begins right now ♪ good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin, and let's take a look at what's been happening with u.s. equity futures. if you've watched recently, what we have been seeing, there has been some pressure especially on the s&p 500 and nasdaq

red arrows once again across the board. the nasdaq indicated down by 232 points, dow indicated down by 58, the s&p indicated off by about 26 we have been looking at the s&p down now five sessions in a row, and that's the longest losing streak we have seen for the s&p since about a year ago it was all the way back in february of 2020 when the s&p was down for seven sessions in a row. this is the longest losing streak we have seen since then nasdaq has been under some pressure too, it's been down four out of the last five sessions and over that time it's lost 4 or 5% the dow has been up five out of the last six sessions. you're seeing the industrials, the big industrial companies attracting some investor attention lately dow futures indicated down this morning but only by 67 points. it's the nasdaq seeing the big pressure, down about 240 let's take a look at the treasury market. we have been watching the yields there, particularly the ten-year, and the ten-year this morning is indicated at a yield

of 1.375%, a little bit lower than we were yesterday right at the point that's something we have been paying attention to. as you start to see the yield pick up, that's something that could take money away from equities we'll see. as joe mentioned we're watching shares of tesla after the company's stock suffered the biggest single day drop since september, down 8 1/2% it appeared to be part of a broader selloff that saw apple, amazon and microsoft drop 2% bitcoin was down 6% yesterday and plunging again today last i checked, it's down 11% for the price of bitcoin all the way back to below 48,000 we have seen huge swings in bitcoin, have really seen it pull higher and this weekend it pushed to incredible levels. down yesterday, and down another 11% today. other companies that accept bitcoin are also under pressure. remember, bitcoin was that huge play for tesla and joe and

andrew, it was just yesterday we were talking about how tesla could be making more money from the bitcoin investment, that 1 1/2 billion dollars that they put in in january than they would be making in all of their cars together. of course that depends on the direction of the bitcoin. >> and goes to the whole vola volatility issue and here we are. we're seeing the volatility. >> big interview today big interview today on "squawk box. big interview today on "squawk box. big interview today on "squawk box. michael sailor you look at the run down, micro strategy, so they got it. hey, they got a boat load, boat load, i think, they got a boat load of bitcoin, which i think you're allowed to say, are you not? instead of what i would normally say. >> that version you can say. >> what's that >> yeah, that version you can say. >> yeah, that version. boat load. they got a boat load that's probably what it was

initially because no one would want a load of the other stuff farmers maybe, but. >> so if you look at the way -- >> gardeners. >> you with me, andrew, you following. give me a sign, a thumbs up. now go ahead. >> what i was just going to mention is the way, but it is important for investors who are investing in tesla if we're thinking about bitcoin the way they account for it is actually very unique. they actually don't write it up. >> they don't make money. >> so if they make money in bitcoin, they actually don't write it up. it will not be reflected in the results per se however, if it falls below where they bought it at, it is reflected in the numbers and that's an interesting sort of facet of how companies are starting to think about how you account for this stuff, and we should talk a little bit later in that interview to see how -- i don't know how they're planning to account for it but it's fascinating

that's my boat load. >> investment profits like berkshire does it. why not do it like berkshire does it, where you break out operating profit from investments? >> right and there's accounting, and there's, whoa, i just lost my shirt. i mean, you know, accounting, you know. >> shirt, enunciate clearly again. >> i don't care how you account for it it's like you own enough of that stuff, and it starts doing this. that will get your attention just like the opposite don't tell me micro strategy isn't flush with where it went in in the first place. but, you know, 47, we're like, oh, my god, 47, i mean, can you believe that -- i was at 28,000. everybody was on -- when it was at 28,000, melissa, and i think santoli, they said, would you buy it at 28,000 after its gone up i don't know if i would buy it at 28,000. so, you know, and then 30,000

higher than that it's nutty, and all in what, a month, less than a month >> all in a month, and then you start to think, could it, would it. >> these folks who want to accept it as a currency, you start to think about that. >> right. >> how could you how could you? >> that's the city of miami, i thought that was the start off moment >> you got to differentiate between a currency and something that you use for transactions. for a currency, if you're holding it on your balance sheet, you may be doing it almost like you would talk about short-term treasuries would be a currency or maybe you think long-term treasuries or maybe you think gold you may not use it for a transaction, but you may want it representing dollars on your balance sheet. representing currency, but it doesn't mean you're using it for a transaction all the time that's my only point >> the city of miami -- right, the city of miami, though,

that's one that i thought was the craziest, the idea said if you're an employee and you want to get paid in bitcoin, you can do that. what >> it's just another marketing gimmick. because we're in the lala land now, don't you think >> heidi klum was in lala land five years ago, remember not five, but heidi klum, remember, she wanted to be paid -- or was it euros, it was one or the other. >> it wasn't bitcoin, it was in euros. that was like fifteen years ago. >> athletes and such, want to be paid in bitcoin. recently >> but even to the extent that we have heard about paypal or others that are going to allow merchants to accept bitcoin, now, in that case, they're planning to transact the bitcoin immediately into dollars, but just anytime you hear of a company including tesla saying you can buy a car in bitcoin, i

don't know, is that real is it marketing? what is that >> that's -- i don't know, i have seen -- i told you, i was driving along in springfield, and i went past a nail place or a salon that said we accept bitcoin, and it was russell, carolina panthers became the first professional athlete to have part of his similar paid for bitcoin. half of his salary will be paid in crypto, and that was in december of 2020 so russell is flush. >> i hope they bought the crypto at that point. >> them, but if he gets paid in december for his -- he just doubled or tripled his $13 million salary >> okay. meantime -- >> would anyone be shocked at 25, 20,000 on bitcoin again? would anyone be shocked at that? >> i don't know.

>> i don't think anything would shock me >> right >> for 70. >> for anyone that watched it at 57, would people -- would normal people like you guys, would you start buying at 20 if you could i don't know, 15. >> if you missed a moment you want to wait for it to come back like mohammed says, mentally it's hard to get around the point where you could have bought it or did sell it. >> mohammed might be waiting for a while. i don't know >> we'll see meantime, we've got another story that to me is sort of in bitcoin line does anybody have a bell, you could ring the bell. this might be the day to ring the bell on pacs i don't have a bell here unfortunately that i can hold on to there we go, something thank you. thank you so much. electric vehicle firm lucid motors planning to go public via a spac it will combine with churchill capital corp., that's a blank

check company started by michael klein. shares of that blank check company are plunging this morning. that's why i said, you might want to ring the bell on this, down 37% 38%. they had already run up more than 300% in two months on the buy the rumor, sell the news trade, led by an ex-tesla engineer executive, peter rollson expected to deliver the first one this spring. you can see the cnbc spac 50 index. we have talked about the different alignments or misalignments of interest when it comes to spacs. this is one of those stocks, and we should go back and show the churchill stock for a second, that had run up to about $60 people were buying it. 40, 50, $60. it's probably now, you can see where it is. it's trading effectively at $35, but it popped on this big expectation. yet pipe investors, the way

spacs work when the spacs sponsor, they bring in pipe investors. well, what price did the pipe investors get in at last night, at $15, so they were buying at $15 while they were literally watching retail buying this at 40, 50 and $60 so when people say, are spacs aligned with your interest a lot of folks are being caught on reddit, twitter, on all of these sites. i hate to say this, it seems to be mis-appreciation for how this works. some people are saying this is like an ipo anyway, you know, people would get in, the professionals and institutions would get in at the equivalent of their pipe price and we're still getting our opportunity in later. maybe that's the case, but i think it's a completely different story to be able to actually see, literally the black stones and black rocks of the world. actually blackrocks of the work are looking, seeing the retail,

buying it at double the price, and they're able to buy it yesterday. i mean, anyway, it just, to me, represents so many of the different issues that need to get figured out, spacs may very well become an important part of the market over the long-term. there's so many different component parts that need a little bit of fixing and maybe some disclosure. >> and ask not, ask not for whom the bell rings. >> for whom the bell tolls and if i didn't know what i was talking about, i would say, you know, hemmingway came up with that he coined that phrase, but once again hemmingway borrowed it from john dunn, the metaphysical law. death be not proud no man is an island. dow component. home depot, a lot of stuff to talk about here. number one, the home improvement retailer beat by $0.03

quarterly earnings of $2.65 a share. revenue came in above estimates. comparable sales were up 24.5% for the quarter. no benefit from stay-at-home there. compared to analyst estimates of 19.2%, the company, though, is not providing guidance for 2021, citing the uncertainty related to the duration of the pandemic and its influence on consumers also raised the dividend 10% at home depot, and ticket, what they sell to people, that went up nicely as well. those numbers are amazing, are they not >> the guidance is really important. it's incredible, you start looking at the, what was it 24 point whatever percent for all of 2020, they came in with comp store sales in the u.s. of better than 20%, and they're not giving guidance, and that's the big question, will people continue to spend like this once

the economy hopefully opens up if that happens this year. but the cfo says that they were pleased with this performance and as they look into fiscal 2021, they can't predict how consumer spending will evolve but if the demand environment during the back half of fiscal 2020 were to persist through fiscal 2021, it would imply flat to slightly positive comparable sales growth and an operating margin of at least 14%, and that's going to be important nobody knows what happens with this but there's a lot of money in certain areas out there. people aren't spending on things like going out, going on vacation, going out to restaurants, going out for entertainment. they're doing it and putting it into their homes that's the big question, will this continue through this year. >> and who knows what was i doing, oh, yeah, plunger. you know, i have fixed this one toilet before by just rehooking the little chain to the plunger. >> you fixed it?

oh, yeah, yeah, yeah >> well, it happened again, and i said i got this. i can fix this, but the plunger itself at the top, it ripped through the little thing, so i had to come out. >> at the top of the bottom. >> if everybody was there -- the plunge e it's got the little tab on top, but if you pull it right through it, you can't get the thing, so we're going to need a $250 -- we got about six toilets. it's not like it's, you know, don't worry about it okay, coming up, that was my home -- it's just not good for me, the diy market and that 24 1/2% at home depot includes zero for me and andrew. zero does it not, sorkin? he's not listening anyway, we're going to talk with barry knapp about a lot of stuff. he says the reopening trade is still more important than rising rates and all this stimulus, and

some of the other things it could be head winds, the rising stimulus isn't. as we head to break, here's a look at today's stock planner. fed chair jay powell begins two days of testifying how the fed could react to turbulence on the data front, we'll get hitter home prices at 9:00 a.m., and consumer confidence for february at 10:00 a.m. we have already heard from home depot. we'll get macy's results around 7:00 a.m., and reports from square and toll brothers are due after the closing bell, so we won't be getting those we can talk about them tomorrow. "squawk box" will be right back.

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stockis connected to the reopening trade, hilton, mgm, some hit new highs in yesterday's session. joining us to talk about what's working for investors, barry knapp, and i guess one of the points in your thesis is that taxes might be going up. we may be seeing interest rates go up. and that could cause investors to think maybe the market has

run its course, but you think the reopening trade is still powerful, and will reassert itself, and you want to be there? >> the broad thesis here is that when we're in the early stages of the business cycle, those cycle forces are just so strong that they really are the dominant factors, so until you get into real policy related setbacks in 2010 we had the crash, we had the sovereign selloff when qe 2 ended and the struggle over the debt ceiling the point is that was a slow recovery, 4% nominal gdp growth. a much stronger recovery we're getting a bigger contribution from housing, likely from capital investment these are factors are bigger multipliers than the slow driving forward than we had in

2009, 2010, and 2011 the only setbacks came from when we had those big policy related disruptions. the point i'm trying to make sure is that the cyclical forces are really considerable. we may very well get a point in june where the fed starts getting concerned about the level of inflation that they may have kicked off. i would assume that you'd have to push the inflation component of treasuries considerably higher, say through 2 1/2% it's at about 2.15, 2.20 right now. before you have that sort of a setback, and the tax hikes are definitely coming but they're coming probably in 2022, and so to get a setback related to that is months or so away for now, it looks like those forces will overwhelm the disruption that's related to the reopening, which are real, right, i mean, the big tech stocks are the flipside of the

gamestop saga. they are coming under pressure because they were the big winners during the pandemic, and we are in another one of these reopening inflection points. >> you even see the gamestop stock saga as having to do with reopening, it was like a way to play broick and mortar, i don't know, was it is there going to be brick and mortar, is the gamestop going to be rejuvenated by the chewy guy. >> i'm not so sure about that. but when the whole thing occurred, all i could think of is what happened in 2003 after the 2 1/2 year bear market in internet stocks and you had this ferocious rally, and all the challenged companies that basically drove a couple of hedge funds under. i spoke to a whole bunch of people that worked at hedge funds at that time as well, and they remember it crystal clear, and so if you think about, you know, what just triggered that

was challenged bricks and mortar retailers, movie theaters, these were companies that were big losers during the pandemic when the pandemic ended or when that, you know, in this case, the pandemic ended, in that case, the internet bubble fwas finally over, those stocks rallied and so it's a low quality thing that's indicative early in the business cycle. for me, when you think about what you're supposed to do here, buying airlines, you know, buying cruises, casinos, those will work. those are decent momentum trades that will work for a time, but what i think really should work is being along industrial companies, material companies, energy companies, they were depressed not just from the pandemic, but also from the trade war. and so you've got a two-year implosion in business activity in those sectors, and those are the ones that are going to have really durable rallies that for me is the true

reopening trade, the resumption of global manufacturing activity and the reflation of assets, the reflation of commodity prices, that is what really should be durable through this, you know, through this whole cycle >> yeah, materials, energy, industrials, financials, commodities, short treasuries, and then the yield curves will steepen as well. so those are all your best ones. alarian seems to think that before the economy gets affected by some of these head winds that the market will sniff that out, so the economy might not, you know, at 2 1/2% on the ten-year, you won't see a problem on the economy, you might see the markets take notice. you don't think that >> i do. i think it's the nature of what's happening in the bond market that's important. it's a subtle point. until two weeks ago, it was the inflation component of ten-year yields that was driving the rate higher the market was good with that.

everything rallies in that environment. bitcoin rallies in that environment. it's reflation the last two weeks, the real rate or tips yield has started to move. that is what happened during the taper tantrum. that's what happened twice in 2018, in january, and then in september, and it did trigger big risk off events, the difference this go around is that that was happening because of lower demand from the fed, right, the fed was contracting their balance sheet in 2018 and 2013, bernanke was talking about tapering this one is being driven by supply the fed is not talking about tapering anytime soon. i think they'll talk about tapering in june, but for now, this is just driven by all the massive excess supply, another 1.9 trillion in stimulus that's reflationary. that's not disinflationary like when the fed pulls back. for me, just the nature of the bond market move, the catalyst of the bond market move is not all that disconcerting i think it means equity market pull backs are limited to

something like 5%, 6% maybe, and then we'll move on our way because of the strength of the recovery >> all right great. all right. barry, good to see you i know you're seeing a lot is there one person per chair? or is it the three-person chairs that you sit far apart we got to go but i'm wondering how you socially distance on a chair lift you don't want to sidestep that. >> the chair lifts are not bad >> gondola all right, and could wear some type of like a mask that does both keeps you warm thanks, barry, we'll see you >> no one eat getting sick >> all right we'll see you next time. thanks andrew. coming up on the other side of this break, wework's ousted cofounder, a deal for a stake in the company. we'll bring you the details next, and lots of spac news,

bringing metal packing public, and baseball legend, a-rod is launching his own blank check company, we have the first interviews with both of those later on the program "squawk box" is coming up right after isth so you're a small business, or a big one. you were thriving, but then... oh. ah. 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, your connection doesn't. so how do i do this? you don't do this. we do this, together. bounce forward, with comcast business.

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welcome back to "squawk box. weworks cofounder, adam newman and softbank are nearing a settlement agreement that would entitle the former ceo of a payout of $480 million for 25% of his shares in the company newman would remain a major shareholder in the company last month the journal reported that wework was in talks with a spac affiliated with beau capital management about a deal to go public, and this potentially, this settlement,

could pave the way for a spac transaction to take wework public becky. andrew, thanks when we come back, facebook striking a deal with australia overnight to restore news stories to its platform. it's this fight they have been having for the last week or so we'll tell you about the details of this resolution next. facebook shares down by about 1 1/4%. and at 8:00 a.m., we'll be talking to former adviser to president obama valerie jarett about the stimulus bill and president biden's legislative agenda right now, though, as we head to a break, get your veggemie sandwiches ready we're going to talk to yesterday's winners and losers

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good morning, u.s. equity futures at this hour slightly lower interesting day yesterday, wasn't it. sharply lower in the morning that's not the way it turned out, but the nasdaq, tough to turn that one around today down 196 points, and check out the move lower in some of the stay-at-home stocks that we were just talking about is what's good for reopening bad for all of these guys or does life not ever really get past the point of people using zoom and peloton and shopify. they all moved a long way, andrew, maybe not too surprising that there's a little bit of a pull back. this all has to do with the good covid numbers, does it not >> i think it's a little bit of that and maybe just a little bit of overheat hard to know i think there's a lot of folks who thought there would be a little bit of a pull back at

some point this terms of the market maybe this is it is this all it is? that could be. meantime, we've got other news to bring you this morning. facebook just reaching an agreement with australia's government this is going to restore news pages in the country this is days after restricting them the social network said the government agreed to a number of changes that addressed concerns about facebook's relationship with publishers, specifically the government will take into account commercial deals that digital platforms may have already made with news media businesses before deciding if the law applies, and facebook takes control of which news sites appears on its platform. now, the changes were introduced into a bill that is expected to be voted into law soon but it seems in this case, guys, that facebook is the winner of this just a week ago, they were pulling out in large part because the government wouldn't make a deal on their terms, and it appears that the australian

government to some degree blanked. >> yeah, and i wonder what that means for google, which at the same time facebook was saying forget about this was going ahead and signing deals on its own with news corp. and others based on the idea that this law was going to be coming to pass >> it's going to be very interesting to seen. a lot of people were looking at the australian model to say is that what's going to come to europe is that what's going to come to the united states. clearly it's already getting watered down. >> okay. when we come back, macy's is set to report around 7:00 a.m. eastern time today we're going to be speaking to the former ceo terry lund gren, not only about macy's but everything else you're seeing in retail right now that's next. as we head to break, take a look at bitcoin this morning, it's falling after hitting a record high over the weekend, falling a lot actually down yesterday, oh, wow, and now down by 15%. it was down 11% the last we checked.

$45,578. we'll talk more about what's behind this move and maybe where it's headed next, as if anybody knows. we'll be right back ♪ i know all about the time before with that obsessive little rich boy ♪

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visit paycom.com for a free demo. hon? first off, we love each other... welcome back, everybody. macy's is scheduled to report its earnings around the top of the hour the stock really taking off this year this year to date, we should say. despite facing a number of head winds in the fast changing retail industry.

joining us is terry lundgren, former macy's ceo and chairman also the founder of the university of arizona's tjl center for retail education and the founder and ceo of tjl advisers, and terry, it's good to see you this morning. >> good to see you, too, becky >> so macy's shares have been doing well so far in this new year but if you look back going all the way to february of last year, they haven't seen the kind of rebound and takeoff that a lot of other retail stocks have. the stock is still below where it was a year ago today. what's happening with macy's that is so different from what we've seen with other retailers that have really been able to take advantage of the pandemic, and getting out in an omni channel way. >> we talked in the past about how the government classified retailers in two categories, essential and nonessential, and macy's was in the second category those retailers have the greatest potential upside because they're either closed or they were significantly, you know, harnessed in terms of

their opportunity to communicate as well as effectively provide goods and products and services to consumers, so i think they have a lot of up side. they're against double digit decreases for the prior year, and that's why the stocks, i think, were beaten down, as a moment in time as you look forward particularly in the second half, if in fact, we see the recovery that you and others are forecasting, then i think they've got a great deal of up side in front of them. >> you know, this is kind of the million dollar question. we ask it about every stock. are people going to go back to their old ways of shopping before the pandemic or are they going to go back to their old habits before the pandemic or are we looking at a very different world, at least for the foreseeable future, and i'm not just talking about retail. i'm talking about are you going back to starbucks for your coffee if you're not going back into the office. there are all of these different routines we were talking about, peloton, and stocks seeing a pull back down what are consumers going to do once they're allowed to get back out there in a more normal way

>> predicting future consumer behavior is one of the hardest things to do, and i studied this for all of my career, and even consumers will gladly predict how they're going to act six months from now, and they're generally wrong, so, you know, this is going to be the million dollar question for all of us, and certainly for investors is how to play that and how to forecast that. but frankly, historically, first of all, there is such a huge amount of available spending power in the pockets of the consumer they are at unsustainable savings rates at this point in time with low debt, and so they're going to spend them. historically, they always have under all circumstances. they will spend that over time, and get back down to prepandemic levels with their savings rates. so that's a big number, like a trillion six or something like that of excess available cash to spend. so where are they going to spend it i think is your question and mine, and i think they're going to want to travel.

they're going to want to go back and be entertained once again, and when those things happen, becky, they're going to buy clothes. clothing is event driven, whether it's going to work, going out on a date or going to a concert or going on a trip and so i do think those subjects will regain traction maybe not tomorrow maybe not in three months, but over time, i definitely believe they will, and i think we'll start to see that, i believe, anyway, in the beginnings of that in the second half of this year >> terry, there was a report a few days ago that macy's was kind of sounding out investors about the idea of rolling out some high yield debt we have been talking about how that market, there is a lot of demand for it. in fact, high yield debt, the rates that people have to pay for it have gone to historic lows, and i just wonder if you think that's a good idea >> you know, i'm not sure because i don't have that insight any longer, and frankly, that's okay with me that i

don't. but i do think that management and this board is very savvy when it comes to financial, you know, conclusions about how they should manage their visit. i think their balance sheet is in good shape today. i think they have taken some good actions over the last year. and i know they'll make that decision over time but i can assure you that they have turned over every rock, and looked at every possibility in terms of making sure that they are ready to go. it's all cylinders firing on their balance sheet. >> what do you think of kohl's we talked yesterday about the activist investors who are kind of rattling things there, kind of trying to take over the board, but what do you think of kohl's performance and how they have done recently >> i don't think they have performed particularly well, but again, they're in that nonessential category, becky, so it's easy to throw hand grenades from the outside at any retailer that hasn't performed well when their stores have been closed or constrained.

i understand i have seen this play book before it's very similar to something i have seen in the past from these outside investors, and you know, you have to believe if you're on the investor side that they're going to bring something new and different and special to the table. it's not in the write ups that i have been able to see, but, you know, kohl's needs to perform better, and i think they will be in that category of the second half of 2021 of naturally performing better with or without outside influences from these investors or other investors. >> that's a fair point you know, just the idea of the essential versus the nonessential retailers it's a story that's played out again and again, and affected a lot of small businesses, too, but also these bigger companies that were deemed nonessential. terry, what else are you kind of watching in retail right now >> well, the big subject for me, becky, is how -- you know, what's the play going forward here you know, these big essential guys, and we talked about home depot this morning, what a run they have had. great company, great team there.

and they've had an extraordinary run. they have clearly benefitted from the challenges associated with the pandemic. but part of that benefit, and it's true, walmart, target, lowe's and others, a lot of their competition for certain categories was closed or not performing well or not strong in their ability to invest in in omni channel, i think all of those companies i developed have developed this new muscle. none of them were great with direct to consumer, none of them are great at that a year ago they're all very very good at that today the omni channel experience for consumers, and i think that's going to continue on so i think there's more legs for these companies to continue to grow, but they are going against huge 12 months, and as i said, the nonessential retailers are going

against nothing. they're down 20%, you know, and the like, so they seemingly to me have got potential. this is going to be a market share gain coming out of these blocks, i think, in the second half of this year is going to clearly be a market share gain, opportunity, and those with the strong balance sheets who can invest in those ideas, i think you're going to win. >> we will continue to see terry, it's great to see you this morning come back soon, okay >> thanks, becky >> thank you andrew okay thanks, becky. when we come back on the other side of this, airlines hoping for a post pandemic recovery take a look at the jets etf which tracks the performance of the sector it's up more than 16% so far this year. 'rgog to have a lot more on the future of travel when we come back right after this

the pent up need, urge, desire to travel is unlike nothing from before. one thing i tell our team to keep them encouraged because this last year has been

difficult as you can appreciate is that our product is missed. >> that was delta ceo ed bastian speaking to "the new york times" dealbook conference. joining us is elaine becker. you're more positive on the airline business than a lot of folks are at the moment. i'm he curious where your optimism comes from? >> thanks for having me on this show it's nice to see you to here's my thought we're a little disappointed that we're not at consistently a million to 1.1 million passengers a day we had thought we would be there by december and we saw that and then the increase in cases led to a decline and last week we

had between 900 and 1 million passengers a day i think there's a lot of pent-up demand as ed said and i think there's going to be a jail break when there's enough vaccine out there, when things open that people are wanting to get out and travel again i think, andrew, the weather here has been so bad in the northeast and really around the country that i think people are looking forward to getting to someplace outside and do things. >> elaine, i very much agree with you that there is a feeling of people wanting to have a jail break. there's obviously the question of is this going to be consumer led, meaning families going on vacations relative to business travel, which i think even your analysis is it's going to take a while longer for that to come back the question is, if you listen to a dr. scott gottleib, for example, come this spring, come this summer things are going to

get a lot better but he also has talked about, you've heard from dr. fauci and others, come next fall, next winter things get more complicated all over again. the question is if things get more complicated all over again, how does that change your outlook? or does it >> i don't know how to think about that i hear dr. gottleib on your program all the time and i feel like we are going to -- i think he talks about having booster shots, right we know every year we have to have a flu shot because the flu comes back and -- not to make it, you know, amusing, but it comes back we have to get vaccinated and i feel like that will -- people will continue to want to travel, i guess that's how i'm thinking about it once they start, i don't think they're going to stop, a and, b, i think you're right about business traffic, right?

we think business traffic won't come back before 2022 not so much because people don't want to travel for work, people can't figure out how to bring their employees back to work, let alone accept visitors. so i think that's where the confusion might begin for the fall we always have flu virus for the fall i suspect this will be the same. i heard him say we might have to have booster shots maybe that's what we have to do to keep traveling and keep things open. i feel like we can't keep closing things down because it's just wrecking havoc especially with airline employees. >> you like a geej gant travel, spirit, jetblue, delta is not on the list why? >> it was on our list and the stoppage has done a lot in a

short period of time i would hold it if i owned it. i would definitely not sell it because they have a great balance sheet. it's just from a leverage perspective i think united has more leverage than delta that was that choice. >> fair enough elaine, we have to leave it there. it's a longer conversation >> thank you, andrew. >> maybe one of these days we'll do it in person. thank you very much. >> that would be nice. bye. >> thanks. joe? >> all right coming up, dr. zeke emanuel worrying about the spring and the spread of covid-19 despite a recent drop in numbers we'll get his take of what's ahead as the vaccine rollout ramps up tesla sliding again after falling more than 8% yesterday "squawk box" will be rig bk.htac

wall street struggling to shake off big tech slide we'll get you up to speed on what's moving markets. rising yields hitting investor appetite for growth as we await fed chairman powell's testimony today. pat toomey will join us for a preview. plus, billionaire investor ready to bring another company public via spac. he's going to join us along with the ceo of argan metal

packaging. the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now good morning and welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc. i'm andrew ross sorkin along with becky quick and joe kernen. take a look at u.s. equity futures. 2 1/2 hours. dow looks like it will open up marginally higher. a little over 2 points nasdaq down about 187. s&p 500 down off 15. joe? >> good morning, joe

macy's with stronger than expected earnings. 80 cents adjusted. that beats analyst estimates of 12 cents it marks the first adjusted earnings revenues 6.7 billion better than the 6.5 billion expected comparable sales, that fell 17.1%. consensus was to be down 21.3% that's something, too. macy's is calling 2021 a recovery and building year giving a wide earnings range most of that falls above u.s. consensus. that beat wall street's estimates. watch categories are called out among the strongest in the holiday quarter. digital sales up 21% that did make up 44% of the total sales.

1/4 of those online sales were fulfilled by stores. ceo jeff gennette expects the annual sales reach $10 billion he says it will be a more profitable year to macy's business inventory down 27% it aggressively addressed slow selling merchandise. shares have bounced a little bit. they were lower and now they're higher by about 2.7% andrew, back over to you >> thank you for that. a couple of headlines we're watching home depot lower it's in the top and bottom lines as well as for comparable store sales. they wanted to focus on the fact that they did not issue guidance

for 2021 take a look at bitcoin's volatility it's continuing on the down side the virtual currency falling below the $50,000 mark janet yellen calling bitcoin extremely inefficient and warned about its use in criminal activity in a conversation we had yesterday morning. meantime, wells fargo has struck a deal to sell its wells fargo asset management unit being bought by two private equity firms. wells fargo will maintain a $9.9 million stake in that business becky? >> andrew, thanks. tesla competitor lucid motors is going competitive through a spac it's combining with micro climb's churchill capital. it spiked recently on expectations for a deal. leslie picker joins us for more. that stock is down by 36%.

>> reporter: that's right. cciv and lucid motors is making it official. why isn't the market cheering? they're disappointed in the way the merger is structured cciv has committed $2.5 billion. that's nearly 74% below the closing price of cciv yesterday making the new investment quite diluted to those who already owned the stock. while shares plummeted, they have gained significantly. they've received an onslaught of attention in recent months and they bid up the shares 500%. the company is led by peter rawlinson. with lucid, he's looking to build a luxury ev brand. the deck says tesla is, quote, innovative but not luxury.

cciv is the fourth iteration of banker michael klein's series of spacs. the $24 billion merger, if approved, is expected to close in the second quarter when the ticker will convert from cciv to lcid, guys >> leslie, you've been watching a lot of these spacs and what does it tell us about the risks from the retail investors who are buying them? >> reporter: i think these public investments in private equity, they're things that we don't understand especially if you look at a company like this one where the stock has been sextupled purely on speculation that the deal will get signed.

certain investors, some prior investors like the saudis who anchored this pipe and other new investors were able to get their equity so much cheaper and then causing some dilution to those who already owned the company. for those excited to own lucid, i was excited. i was looking at some of the reddit forms on this last night and people were saying now we're going to own a lot less lucid than we thought we were going to own. that was a perfect way to encapsulate how they were structured and what it means for the people championing them for months until the deal has been announced. >> if you are a retail investor sorting it out and separating the wheat from the chaff, how are you doing it and getting your arms around it? >> reporter: yeah. one way is if you really like the company, if you're very excited about lucid, you take the dilution and move on it just means you own less of

the company, but i would say the vast, vast majority of these deals now do have things that go alongside them there is dilution for those that trade at $10 a share. this one is unique at 15 these deals do tend to come with, you know, a certain amount of pair around them as you do see the time line get closer to the actual de-spaccing process. >> leslie, a couple of things. this to me, this transaction in particular, was a victim of the leak in sofar as it created speculation around the spac itself this is not necessarily typical of all spacs in fact, it's atypical on a relative basis my question if you is do you think ultimately this deal gets

done, meaning that the shareholders vote in favor of it given the number of private investors or big institutions effectively that are now piled into the pipe as well as the retail crowd, some of which did get in early at 10, 15, $20? >> right you bring up a good point about the leak it is notable about the spac deals, they're a very leaky deal and news of this first surfaced last month everybody got excited about tesla competitor, it's lucid the cars look very shiny, new, exciting and so that helped a bit of the stock whether this gets done, it's pretty rare that it doesn't. what's embedded is you can redeem as opposed to voting the deal down. if you don't like the deal, you can redeem as opposed to voting it down. if there is an investor group that gets together and says, no,

we don't like these terms. we don't want this deal to go through. we want to see lucid go public, but we don't want to do it in these terms, sure. that's a possibility that's the way the market works and the way the deal market works and the way this deal is structured i'm not exactly sure at this time it would be a pretty rare event if that happened >> leslie, thank you great to see you this morning. >> reporter: thank you by the way, in just a little bit we're going to be hearing from alec gores who is bringing another company to market as a spac that is coming up later in the hour joe? >> thanks, beck. just seeing that i thought we were going to have nagel on i've been thinking about this home depot down $6. when they say we're not going to give guidance because we don't -- >> he has no idea. >> we don't know about the -- yeah, but here's my point.

they're not giving guidance. they don't know when the pandemic's ending. during the pandemic they did 24.5% same store sales so are they saying it may not be lasting much longer so our business is going to drop off back the way it did before >> no. they didn't say that the cfo specifically said that if these things continue -- >> i know, right >> bad news, people are going to be out and about and other places to shop not just home depot, other things to do. they said if the trend continues like they saw in the last half of 2020 -- i tonight know whatever fiscal year they're in. if the trends continue, they'll probably be relatively flat in terms of the comp store sales. >> i'm just saying most companies are waiting to reopen because business gets back to normal there are some companies when reopening happens that may miss the days of when they were -- >> yup

yup. >> that's what i'm saying. are they saying, i'm not sure how good it's going to be because we did 24.5% so that's my only point is that some of these stay-at-homeplaces, they don't have guidance because things are reopening coming up, despite falling numbers, dr. zeke emanuel is concerned about the spraying and spreading of the covid-19. he's saying keep on keeping on we're making progress. don't get complacent check out some of the stay-at-home stocks. zoom four consecutive day of losses, peloton, shopify and teledoc vaccines start to ramp up. here are the futures aad ohef jay powell's testimony today "squawk box" will be right back. d live bookkeeper for peace of mind. your books are all set. so you can finally give john some attention.

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honored the 500,000 americans killed by covid-19 let's welcome dr. zeke emanuel he served on president biden's coronavirus advisory board and as a white house health

adviser -- health policy adviser, still is in the biden administration doctor, we've been getting more optimistic with the numbers and the vaccine rollout and the numbers that maybe more people have had the virus than we were able to measure. your point is keep wearing a mask, take the vaccine and just basically don't let your guard down because we're making progress but we're not out of the woods yet. simply put, that's kind of what you're saying, is it not >> you read it very well you gave a great summary you get an a yeah part of the problem is as the news gets good and the graph has the number of cases, number of hospitalizations coming down,

we've already begun to let our guard out permitting indoor dining that's very worrisome. that's the new variants whether it be b117 or south african or p1 from brazil we know they're here and we're worried they could spread. they're more transmissible and at least in some cases more deadly so by opening up too quickly, we could spike another surge which is very worrisome. >> zeke, if you're at -- let's say you're at 25% occupancy in a restaurant, do you have a problem with that? because, once again, we'd like the restaurants to be around next year at some point and not be all gone.

should every teacher be vaccinated before schools reopen once again, looking at the negative consequences for the remaining too closed and what happens if it is possible to start doing things, to start loosening up a little. we've got the same problem again. if you're doing what we're saying, we won't do anything and schools stay closed, businesses go out of business there's got to be a constantly trying to walk a line and we could be too conservative or too liberal with what we're talking about. >> let me be very, very clear. i have been a big advocate for opening schools ever since last summer we can do that well. we have good data on doing it well you also have good data from doing it poorly. the cdc reported on the georgia situation where they did it poorly, but there's plenty of good cases where you can do it well, you can mask people, you can vaccinate teachers and

staff, you can do hand hygiene, separate people. i think that's a place where we should move forward and i've been strong advocate of that and i think that's very doable it's a very different thing about restaurants. look, i love restaurants i'm big into food and i've been a big advocate for better eating in this country. i think it's really, really important to have restaurants in this country they're big employers, but i also know people go to restaurants and they sit down and when they're ordering they take their mask off when they're ordering and talking that is not a good item. whether we open restaurants or not depends on many, many things how safe are the staff do they have good ventilation systems and other things we're coming into the spring and summer we have to hold on a little longer and it will be much

easier because we'll spend more time outside and have more people vaccinated. so we have to do things in a measured way i agree with you, open up the economy. the place i would start is schools where we have an overwhelming amount of data, you can do it safely >> the vaccines, the acceptance by the majority of people, how is that going, do you think? and the rollout. i guess finally i'd ask you, if we can, the restaurant's got to hang on. obviously we need to try to help them out with the stimulus or some type of aid that is a bridge when they reopen. those are three things to talk about. a lot of people want the vaccine. we've given it out a lot, right? i don't know, that seems very safe the option of either getting covid or getting a couple of -- being fatigued for an hour doesn't even seem like it's something you should consider.

everybody should get it, obviously. are we getting there >> despite the name of warp speed, these vaccines are proving to be extremely safe and extremely effective. we have the latest data from brittain and scotland saying one dose is very safe. 44 million americans have gotten it we're rolling out 1.7 million doses a day. we'll be ramping up. i, again, encourage no matter what vaccine, get it and get your inoculation i would say the big problem with the vaccine rollout so far has been the racial disparities. i'm in washington, d.c., right there in washington, d.c about 57% of the population is black or latin x you can see the same thing in maryland and virginia. that's a problem we need to address that problem. we need to work with the

communities. work with the opinion leaders in the communities. work with influencers in those communities to begin changing their opinion. this isn't about, you know, abusing people, it's about getting people who are really at risk to get the vaccine and to be at the top of the list for that vaccine we've recently had a suggestion which i think is worth considering that you lower the age group for minorities not just 65 and older getting the vaccine but consider 55 or 50 for minorities to expand the group who are at risk among those populations. so i'd say inequity is the chief challenge at the moment not, as you point out, the attitudes seem to be changing as more people see we're getting out the vaccine, we're not having serious side effects and it's being protected. >> so the other scontroversy we talked about is with the recent progress we've been making, that

$1.9 trillion number seems high to some people based on, you know, teventually you have to start thinking about paying things back or just not being -- maybe there are other things in the bill that aren't covid related. how big should this bill be in making progress and bringing down cases in hospitalizations >> well, i think -- i think the argument that we under rescue in past is a very relevant argument we do -- i know i was in the federal government in the obama administration when we had the 2008, 2009 recession we spent $800 billion. it was probably too small and slowed down the recovery i think it's always good to go and say, do we need to spend all of this money? i would say the money for vaccines, the money for getting schools back open, the money for

testing, the money for developing more therapeutics all very, very well spent. and then you have to look at families that have been hard hit and they definitely need support in this situation so i think those are all top pry orpioritis i would say one other thing, we should not just look at the total number we should look at the long-term change to american society are we supporting people in a way that is sustainable, that is going to be more structural? that's one of the reasons i am strongly advocate of getting up to $15 an hour let's remember, you work a full year at $15, you're making $30,000 a year that is not a huge amount of money. that is, you know, in many places not even a living wage. so i think getting up to 15 is perfectly reasonable >> yeah. hopefully a lot of companies have done it already

i have one thing to ask. a lot of people write in saying contact tracing numbers from bars and restaurants, 1.4% of new cases. they're mad. all these people write in and they're like 1.4%. is that a wrong number for the contact tracing of what happens for new cases in restaurants do you have other numbers? >> we have inadequate contact tracing in this country because there are too many cases what we do know is places that are crowded and not well ventilated are prime for spreading. >> okay. all right. thanks for being with us this morning. stay healthy you have a couple of brothers. how did that happen? thanks, we will see that again. >> i would love to tell you. take care. >> all right becky.

>> i think there may be a book on that. >> a busy day in washington. we'll speak to senator pat toomey in a few minutes. check out shares of carnival cruise lines it's priced an offering of 25 million shares at $25.10 with the cruise line operator seeking to raise $1 billion for general corporate purposes the cruise industry has been shut down in the pandemic. at astock is trading at $25.10 th's decline of 3 1/3 percent. "squawk" will be right back.

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welcome back, everybody. later this morning fed chairman jay powell is going to be testifying once again before the senate banking committee with his semi-annual monetary business report. joining us with what he expects to hear from the fed chair and to weigh in on the president's covid relief efforts joining us is senator pat toomey it's good to see you this morning. why don't we start with what you expect from jay powell later today. markets seem to be getting nervous. you see the bond market signaling higher yields and

people wondering what's going to happen once the economy reopens. what do you want to hear today >> becky, i think you've put your finger on it. what i'd like to hear is some acknowledgment that we're getting data we haven't seen before in a long time. you touched on some of it. what's with the backup in the yield on the 10-year and the increase in the break-even inflation rate in our securities all the asset prices so many categories they feel like they're elements of a bubble including some equities, including things like bitcoin despite the last couple of days. commodity prices we're seeing actual inflation numbers starting to tick up and this is happening at the end of a year in which we've had a record expansion of the monetary supply, m2 anyway, and we've got an accelerating recovery underway it certainly looks like yet we've got overnight interest rates at zero, the fed is buying $120 billion worth of bonds

every month. you know, i think there's a real danger here. i'd like to see what the fed is thinking and it's pointing to significant inflation. >> this is such a weird time in the economy because you have more than 10 million americans out of work, high unemployment numbers. you have businesses and industries that have been completely shut down but then you have other industries and businesses that have done incredibly well. i think that might be part of the most difficult part of trying to determine if you're looking at these broad-based numbers that combine all of that into one, you're really talking about a tale of two economies here that's hard to sort through and hard to plan with and deal for how would you suggest we make sure we're taking care of people who have been hurt so badly by the pandemic and all of the

associated closures? >> yeah. first of all, i think it is absolutely not the role of the fed to pick out subsets of our population or economy and try to device monetary policy for them. to have monetary policy for restaurant workers doesn't work. doesn't make sense the fed has to look at the aggregate. it has to look at the macro picture and the macro picture is one of tremendous growth and i think likelihood of an acceleration in that growth. you know, on your show you air the debate about growth for this year is it 4.5 or 7? it's very, very optimistic in what it looks like what do you do about the restaurant workers i think that's the role of congress to decide what do we do about the folks that have been left behind because they happen to be working in an industry that is really, really bearing a huge disproportionate percentage of this burden it's not something that the fed should be doing.

similarly, by the way, there's a couple of other areas where i'm concerned about some folks advocating a creep in the fed's mission, including becoming somehow climate regulators or focusing on wealth gaps between different ethnic groups and racial groups. these are not things that the fed is well suited for this is not the role of a central bank what they need to do is keep -- maintain the value of the currency and maximizing broad economic growth. that's how you help everyone and we in congress should be looking at, as we have, right, 500five times last year. the ppp loan that was designed really overwhelmingly to allow small businesses to keep their work force that's what the focus should be. >> how do you get at those questions with the fed chairman today? what do you plan to ask him to figure out how he deals with that >> well, i'll ask him directly

as i have, you know, in our private conversations, the same thing publicly i think one of the real dilemmas that the fed could face this year and i hope they don't but it's quite possible, you know, what if interest rates continue to back up what if the bond market is telling us something what if inflation starts to pick up, yields start to rise and we haven't gotten back to the 3.5% unemployment rate that we were at a year ago? what does the fed do we've seen what other countries have done and decided that the central bank is going to simply by fiat establish where interest rates are. i think that would be a bad outcome. i hope they don't move in that direction. what does it take to begin the process of tapering the bond still buying $120 billion of securities a month does that just go on forever i mean, when you have strong economic growth already and prospects for even stronger growth, does it make sense to just continue this indefinitely?

these are some of the things i hope to explore. >> senator, i hope you don't mind me going off on a little bit of a tangent here. i've seen some things about the backlash you're receiving because of the vote that you -- the vote you made to vote for the impeachment of president trump. >> right. >> you're a republican you're not running for re-election so you don't have to worry about anybody coming in and trying to primary you. you do have the gop in pennsylvania, your own state, considering censuring you. you've always voted your principles and has talked about it no matter where the chips fall many times with us on this show i just wonder what you're dealing with in terms of the backlash and what you think about that in terms of the future of the party? >> as you point out, i'm not running for re-election so there has been several counties have voted to censure me, others may follow suit. i don't know what the state party is going to do the thing that i think is important to focus on, this

doesn't affect me. i'm not looking for an endorsement in a republican primary ever again i think the important thing is what's the message we're sending to voters across pennsylvania. i'm not the only person that thinks that the president's post election behavior was unacceptable and if we send a message that a conservative republican who has been a solid conservative for ten years in the senate casts one vote that many republicans disagree with, that that's somehow unacceptable, i don't think that's the message you send to grow the party which is the job of the party, right? to grow the party and to win elections. so i think what we ought to do is focus on what unites us the overwhelming number of areas where republicans are in agreement and we ought to be going forward on that basis. >> what's it like in the capitol these days with republicans who agree with you and those that don't? >> look, in the capital i think

there's a very broad respect for having difference of opinions. we've gotten used to that. when you're in this business, you have colleagues, friends, people you work with every day who come down on opposite sides of any number of important issues so we're accustomed to this and i haven't seen any difference at all in the interaction among my colleagues. >> same thing to be said at home >> you know, at home we hear from people on both sides. i hear every day from people who agree with my assessment of the post election situation and i certainly hear from people who disagree as well you know, we're a big state. we've got a wide range of opinions and i get to hear the full spectrum. >> senator toomey, thank you for your time and your candor with us good luck and we'll be watching the hearings today take care. >> thanks, becky

>> joe okay check out the futures this morning. the dow is now down a couple points bitcoin check right now, it was down about 6% yesterday and it's plunging again today but it is actually off some t ls.ofheow we're coming right back. dad, i'm scared. ♪♪ it's only human to care for those we love. and also help light their way. ♪♪ it's why last year chevron invested billions of dollars to bring affordable, reliable, ever cleaner energy to america. ♪♪

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welcome back to "squawk box. lucid motors is going public in a spac shares of that blapg check company are plunging however down 33% they've already run up 300% on the buy the rumor sell the news trade. you don't want to miss the lucid motors ceo live on "squawk on the street" at 9 a.m lots of answers he's going to have to provide because clearly a huge portion of the retail audience and retail investor getting slammed there. private investors participating in that pipe being able to buy at $15 a share, meanwhile, they could see literally that the shares were being traded 40, 50, $60. so we will look forward to seeing that interview.

mean time, metal and glass packaging supply company is going public through a spac financed by gores. this is a fascinating transaction. is this the first time this has been done? there's question whether this type of structure was going to happen >> actually, i've done many carve outs in my career but this is the first time we've done it in a spac vehicle. it's a great way to access our division like we have in this case. >> speak to this because i know there are public company ceos that are watching. there are bankers that have brought this idea to them about carve outs the issue has always been that it takes a lot of time you have to create separate books for that division. you have to bring people over the wall, if you will, investors taking a time-out on whether

they can be invested or get in and out of that stock during that period. can you speak to that? >> sure. look, it was a very smooth transition they're set up to go public, the divisions with all of their financials maybe, paul, you can jump in and say how you are set up to go public. >> i think, alec, it was a straightforward transition we prepared carve outs in case we went public the diligence process was very comprehensive. you know, i think the thing went very smoothly. i didn't see any real issues i found also that the length of time we spent discussing the transaction with investors was much more thorough than a

regular way ipo which i've done a couple in the past, both in europe and the united states i found the process very thorough and very good >> in terms of just one more process question, then i want to actually talk about the business itself a alec, do you think we're going to see a lot more of these there have been questions whether we would see the spac structure used in this way, but a lot of folks said that it would actually be tough to pull off. you're now pulling it off. >> sure. it's a great way to unlock value like we had the a&p. i think this will happen quite a bit in the future. i've always loved carve out. it's for big companies to car of divisions out and to unlock some values >> paul, you do packaging for claw, pepsi, heineken and others it's a question i've asked every company that's spun out this way. what do you think a fair comp is and how investors should think

about multiples? >> look, one of the great things about the beverage industry is we have a very strong market leader involved and the second being crown. so they have strong comps. they've been well established in the market and we are bringing a pure play beverage cannabis to the market now to well-established businesses as a divestment which we bought divested assets both in brazil, europe, the u.s. when they bought it in 2016. so we see them as very clear comps for us. >> alec, you know, coming into this segment we mentioned the other big spac news of the day, which is this lucid transaction with churchill i'm curious as you're watching that stock fall this morning the pipe actually being invested in at a remarkably lower price than where the stock was trading

at what your thoughts are on this. >> i can't comment on that i haven't been following it. i focus on what we do and finding great companies to take public we do what we do and we do it very well with a great label >> let me ask you two in a different way then there are questions about the alignment of interests in the context of spacs and the churchill transaction is maybe a microcosm of all of them in many ways because you had a situation where the stock jumped on speculation about a certain company being acquired stock went up to $60 a share and yet because of the way the pipe was structured, it was priced down to $15 a share. so effectively the big public institutions were literally able to watch the retail audience buy at a much higher price, knowingly watch at that price

and then buy at a lower price. can you just speak to some of the alignment in the context of spacs then >> for me as paul will tell you, being aligned is number one. number two, we want to be very transparent about what we're doing. these are two things we always follow >> in terms of the sponsor piece of this for you, what is it? 20% of the spac? how does it work >> typically, yes, but then you blend it in with the pipe and everything else, again, paul can speak to that, it is all transparent. it is usually about 20% of the vehicle, yes >> and have you bought into the pipe as well >> yes, of course. we always do this is how we get aligned with our partners we always buy a good piece of the pipe so that we also have skin in the game so it aligned

with our investors and paul as well >> and what's your lock in >> i'm sorry >> how long are you locked in for? when do you get out? >> in this case i forget what it is usually three to six months usually. for us -- >> paul, can i ask you about that -- >> for us, andrew, we're very long-term holders. we look at this as long term, not as a trade, if you will. >> paul, when you think about the lockup here, i'm thinking in context of the lucid transaction, micro climb was forced to extend his spac to 18 months when you look at 3 to 6 months, how do you think about the alignment? >> the lockup for ardaghn is 180

days we're quite comfortable with that, quite frankly. >> is your thought you would be out of the stock in six months or if we had this conversation in two years you'd be in it? >> not necessarily to me this is a company you have to deal with two years from now, three years from now it's a long-term investment. this is a company we'd like to own for a long time. >> can i ask then why -- >> andrew, i feel -- sorry, andrew i feel very comfortable with the alignment between the spac sponsor and ourselves here and also the whole pipe process was designed to bring some great institutions into the pipe where it will be natural long-term holders of our stock you know, we fully expect that as the -- i think there's a misunderstanding here in some cases that the thing is going to be de-spacced. some are not necessarily going

to be long-term holders of ardagh metal packaging, nor would we expect them to. there are a number of great institutions that have come into this deal and we're delight today have them and they're long term shareholders. this is a long-term game we are holding 80% we'll keep long-term control we've been in this business a very long time. >> fair enough paul, we wish you lots of luck with it. alec, thank you. >> thank you. >> always talk to you very, very soon i know there are more spacs coming we look forward to having conversations with those. >> thank you bye-bye. when we come back, valerie jarrett, the former senior adviser to president obama will join us to give her take on president biden's first month in office, the proposed stimulus plan and much more. right now as we head to break, let's get a quick check on futures you had seen bitcoin down by

15%. it's now down by 9%. dow futures have turned positive s&p futures down by 13.5 the nasdaq down by well over 200 points still down by 186 in the futures this morning "squawk box" will be right back. . voya doesn't just help me get to retirement... ...they're with me all the way through it. voya. be confident to and through retirement. hey, dad! hey, son! no dad, it's a video call. you got to move the phone in front of you like..like it's a mirror, dad. you know? alright, okay. how's that? is that how you hold a mirror? [ding] power e*trade gives you an award-winning mobile app with powerful, easy-to-use tools and interactive charts to give you an edge, 24/7 support when you need it the most and $0 commissions for online u.s. listed stocks. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today.

good morning dow futures close to flat but it's the nasdaq that's grabbing our attention. the index pointing to another sharp drop as treasury yields push higher. expected to get nervous about growth names tesla shares falling again after the stock's worst day since sept

september. good morning and welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin u.s. equity futures, at least the dow. dow's markedly positive. nasdaq, hard hit some of the stay-at-home stocks and tesla is pulling back a little s&p down 15 points or so take a quick look at treasury yields which finally invoke look being at the 10-year we will do that. 1.36%. also bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are falling hard this morning. off the lows that we saw earlier, at least to some extent almost back to 49,000. 36,000 on bitcoin.

we had about 15% here are some of the stories that investors might be talking about today. earnings out from dow component home depot the company beating analyst investments on the top and bottom line in the fourth quarter. comparable store sales were up 24.5% versus forecasts of about a 19% increase people are tweeting that they do sell flappers there. i just don't think i'd put the whole flapper on company raised its quarterly dividend by 10%. it's not providing 2021 guidance saying the pandemic-related uncertainty does not allow them to do that we made the point that what do they mean? if it lasts longer, it will delay business getting better or is business so good with the pandemic going on that when it goes away, we won't do 24.5%

same-store sales macy's also out with fourth quarter results hoping adjusted earnings per share well above analyst estimates. stock's up but remember when it was 40, 50, 60, $70, it's up for the year at 16 did beat forecasts comps did fall about 17% on an owned and licensed basis that was smaller than the 21% drop that was expected also, you might want to check out the shares of tesla this morning. they're under pressure following yesterday's 8.5% drop. that was the worst day for the stock since late september tesla fell as other megacap names suffered bitcoin continued its recent slide. by that we mean monday or tuesday. we'll talk much more about the companies investing corporate

cash into bitcoin in a few minutes with perhaps the best-known person that is employed in that strategy. the ceo of micro strategy. actually, issues convertible debt with 0% yield convertible into bitcoin to buy more bitcoin. crazy. here are shares of churchill capital 4. lucid motors is going public with a merger with the blank check company in a deal that values the combo at $24 million. this is one that's been rumored for a while. you see that symbol go across on the tape nonstop on cnbc this is a first on cnbc interview with lucid motors ceo peter rawlinson in the 9 a.m. hour of "squawk" on the street." >> ylan mui joins us with more on the president's stimulus bill. >> reporter: good morning,

andrew the house is expecting to vote by the end of the week next up is the rules committee and then it will head onto the floor. this is expected to pass the house fairly easily. likely along party lines as republicans slam this bill as too big and too broad. now president biden has indicated he is still willing to hear ideas from the other side but he also points out that his plan enjoys strong public support as is. >> now critics say the plan is too big. let me ask a rhetorical question what would you have me cut what would you leave out >> reporter: one of the main provisions that republicans point to is raising the minimum wage there are at least two senate democrats, joe manchin and kristin sinema who are opposed democrats don't expect to lose either of their votes on this package. they will square off on whether raising the rates is allowed

we have not seen the senate's own version of the broader legislation. chuck schumer expressed confidence that they can get this done and out the door before the enhanced unemployment benefits expire on march 14th. >> ylan, thank you so very, very much becky? >> thanks, andrew. joining us to talk more about the stimulus effort, president biden's first month in office and his first 100 days is valerie jarrett. of course you know she was president obama's senior adviser from 2009 to 2017. she now serves as the president of the barack obama foundation she's also a senior distinguished fellow at the university of chicago law school and the author of "finding my voice, when the perfect plan crumbles the adventure begins. truer words were never spoken. we're watching that. >> thanks, becky hello, everyone.

>> so we are just over a month in to president biden's term and we're still in the honeymoon period the covid relief bill is caught up what would you say about that first month? >> i'd say president biden is off to a very strong start he has stayed true to his commitments focusing on containing the coronavirus and rebuilding our economy he's surrounded himself with a team that is not only experienced with subject matter expertise but competent and dedicated public servants. he's moving his cabinet through confirmation process very well and he has made a commitment to always look through the lens of what does this mean to the american people. i think the stimulus package coupled with redoubling the efforts to get the vaccine out and in the arms of the american people demonstrates that that's what he's thinking about each

and every day. very strong start. >> that stimulus package is going to be the big issue that people are watching so closely as ylan just pointed out, there are two democratic senators who have raised issues with at least part of what they're going to see in the bill, the $15 minimum wage what do you think happens? does this bill get slipped down? does that get taken out? what would be your guesswork having watched that in the white house? >> i certainly hope not. the republicans raised questions about the stimulus package in 2009 and we now know it was really important to not only have what ultimately got passed but it probably should have been larger on the minimum wage, i guess becky the question is who can raise their family on $7.25? we've not raised the minimum wage since 2009 and we know that those who are in the lower income bracket, if we do raise their wages, they will go out and spend those resources immediately because of needs that have been unmet

you think about what's going on around our country and fed chairman janet yellen mentioned this yesterday on your show. we have 12 million people worrying about losing their homes. we have 12 million children who are hungry 24 million adults who are hungry so there's a huge disconnect between the performance of the stock market and what's happening in our families around the country not to mention having hit the 500,000 americans who have died from the covid-19. so this is a time of great crisis, and i think what president biden will try to do is move the full stimulus package along. he's said he's open to ideas i think he put it well yesterday. what would you cut what would you cut it's hard to face the american people that support the package and say make cuts. >> valerie, no question. there is a tale of two economies in this country, and you are right the economy is not reflected in what is happening in the stock market. there are a lot of people who

are suffering right now but if the aim is to get the most urgent things out in terms of making sure you get covid vaccine money, making sure you get money out to the schools to reopen, making sure you extend unemployment so that people who are without jobs will continue to get that federal boost, all of those very important things for people who are truly in dire need right now, why add something like the $15 minimum wage, which is controversial, even with some of the senators that the democrats would have to rely on, democratic senators coming up for this while it's an argument that you could make, it's pretty tough to say this is something directly that could happen with covid relief particularly with small businesses that have suffered through this too. >> what you try to do is not only address the issue of a pandemic, you're trying to rebuild our economy. that goes back to my earlier point. americans who are making $7.25 an hour are not supporting the economy. we want them to have that disposable income so that they, too, can help stimulate the economy.

look, the republicans have been also blocking support for state and local government those coiffeurs are dry as a result of what's been happening this year. we learned back in 2009 how important it was to provide those resources at the state and local level. so as president biden said, he's open to listening, but right now he's fighting for everyone and i don't see him giving that up in the short term >> i don't see him giving that up -- he will always fight for every single american. >> valerie, it's joe kernen. good to see you for a while. you're back. you didn't go anywhere, but back on the show. it's good to see you the cbo numbers where they talk about 1.4 million minimum of jobs being lost, so those people aren't going to help obviously the economy if that were to happen in parts of the country where $15 doesn't make sense

if the cbo says you lose 1.4 million, the minimum wage is zero for those people. you know a lot of these are entry-level jobs that get -- like college kids or people that -- summer employment, whatever it is they're able to get that first job and then they eventually move up to where they're making above where the minimum wage is anyway there is a controversy about what this actually will do to employment and we're in the middle of a pandemic i'm just wondering, do you dismiss the cbo numbers as a fantasy that jobs will be lost >> i think what we have to keep in mind is this is going to be graduated over time. i think it is important to recognize that if you look at what the longer term effect is going to be on the economy, are the economists that surround the president, some of the smartest in the country, believe there will be an increase in jobs. that's the perspective we have to make, the long term, and to

recognize, again, we have not raised the minimum wage since 2009 i don't know what we say to those americans who are struggling today and so raising it will be graduated and it will ultimately benefit our economy and have a net increase in jobs. >> valerie, we're almost out of time very quickly, if you're looking at the first 100 days, what would be your measurement of success, if this bill gets passed, if it gets passed with all of those components? >> look, i think what we're looking at are what are the metrics that reflect the desires of the american people how many vaccines are actually getting into arms? are we reaching communities that are hard to reach where there is vaccine hesitancy? is the president fulfilling his commitment to close the equity gap to make sure we treat all-americans fairly is he able to get a package through that benefits the vast majority of americans. i don't think there's a litmus

test i think americans will sit around in 100 days and say is our country on the right track is president biden focusing on our needs? is he helping us meet our ends and make sure we can provide for our families do we feel as though we're making progress? no one is expecting this pandemic to be over in 100 days. no one is expecting the economy to be fully rebuilt? are we on the right track? i think we certainly are. >> it is really good to see you. thank you for your time today, va valerie. >> thank you all. coming up, we are going to talk about corporations that are using cryptocurrencies or bitcoin for their treasury, for corporate cash and it has worked out for this next company. the ceo of microstrategy buying more bitcoin. they have 72,000 already i wish i did

72,000 plus, none other than a-rod will join us to talk about his new spac which begins trading today. stay tuned even a-rod, a-rod has got -- of course he does you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc [announcer] durán catches leonard with a big left. ♪♪ you can spend your life in boxing or any other business, but one day, you're gonna take a hit you didn't see coming. and it won't matter what hit you.

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welcome back to "squawk box. let's take a look at futures this morning we have seen some pretty significant activity the nasdaq is still under some pretty significant pressure. it's down by 238 points right now ahead of the opening s&p futures are down too by about 19 points. part of that is tesla which is not only the nasdaq but the s&p 500. it's seen serious pressure the last couple of sessions. dow pressures have turned around they're indicated up as people are looking at big industrial names rather than tech growth stocks dow futures indicated up by 16 points they closed higher yesterday, too. s&p is now down by five sessions that's the longest streak when it was down for 7 sessions in a row. we are also watching some of the so-called stay-at-home stocks. the stocks that have done so well during the pandemic but may

face pressure as we see glimpses of life returning to normal. zoom down 4 poi.6 shopify off 7.3. teladoc off 6.25. when we come back, a battered tech pioneer who could up end the electric vehicle company. we have highlights with elon musk's former number two at tesla. the ceo who just did a billion dollar debt offering to buy bitcoin. (calm music) - did you know that americans that bought gold in 2005 quadrupled their money by 2012? and even now, many experts predict the next gold rush is just beginning. so call u.s. money reserve. the only precious metals organization led by a former director of the united states mint. as one of the largest u.s. gold coin distributors in the country, u.s. money reserve has proudly served hundreds of thousands

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welcome back to "squawk box. bitcoin is at $49,000. tegs la, square, paypal will also come off. tesla purchased it and shares of the electric car maker are down 20%. still up 25% i spoke with janet yellen about bitcoin and she warned about

what she called potential dangers. >> i don't think bitcoin, i've said this before, is widely used as a transaction mechanism to the extent it's used, i fear it's often for i wllicit finance it's an extremely inefficient way of con ducking transactions. it is a highly speculative asset and i think people should beware it can be extremely volatile i do worry about potential losses. >> once again, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies getting hit this morning joe? >> thanks, andrew. speaking of bitcoin, we're joined by a ceo who completed a

billion offering mic michael saylor it's good to see you before we get started i was thinking about some of these other people that have, like your company, decided on bitcoin for how they want to be paid i read what russell okung, the former seattle seahawks player, he took half of his salary, $13 million in december, he took in bitcoin initially. at 56,000 the half was as worth as the whole and he became the highest played nfl player. listen to why he said he did it. when we are all paid in bitcoin, no one can tell us what to do with the value we create in a post fiat world you won't have to worry about your labor and your time being stolen i just love that that the nfl player was speaking in those

terms. that's probably similar to your sentiments, i guess, on what bitcoin represents >> bitcoin's not for spending. it's not really a currency sometimes people get confused like the janet yellen quote. they're thinking they're going to move it around in order to pay for coffee bitcoin is for saving. it has a compound annual kbroet rate nearly 200% for the past decade if you want to save your money for the next decade, it's logical to do one transaction. put all your money in bitcoin and wait for a decade and wait for it to go up. that's what russell understands. everyone buying bitcoin is doing it for the same exact reason >> michael, you've got -- i read through your notes and i've thought about it a lot and i still found things that -- the points that you made that i went, wow -- i went wow when i read it because i hadn't really considered it. so there's 100 million holders

now. you figure it won't be long theoretically until there's 1 billion holders and the global nature of who they would be is what hit me. everybody is going to have a phone eventually doesn't matter who they are. you can afford that in every country of the world, most people you could have people saving where they had no other way to save you could have people in countries where the inflation rate is 1,000 percent on their currencies and they could be saving on their phone using bitcoin and there could be 1 billion holders at some point. i hadn't considered how powerful that is for people who don't have access to that now. >> the story here that's not being told is that bitcoin is egalitarian progressive technology we're going to see a day when 7 to 8 billion people have a bar of digital currency on their phone and they're using it to

store their life savings google took 27 years 57le took 24 years microsoft took 44 years. bitcoin became a trillion dollar digital monetary network in 12 years. so the world needs this thing and i think you can expect we'll have a billion people storing their value, in essence a savings account, on a mobile device within five years they're going to want to use something like bitcoin bitcoin is the dominant digital monetary network >> the thing that is so fright new eng enning for people, if everybody decided to be micro strategy at $57 a coin, if it had a move like it did in the previous years where the highs and lows are so different, a corporation could end up with a loss in their treasury of much greater than they could ever have if they stayed in dollars theoretically or if they were just in short-term notes

is that not true don't you have to be kind of a trader or don't you have to time it right as a corporation to take a huge stake in your treasury with bitcoin? >> i've been the ceo of a publicly traded company for 21 years. if you had asked me about bitcoin in february of last year i would have said not considering it, but conventional treasury reserve strategy stopped working in march of 2020 if you're holding short-term cash and treasuries, you're looking at a minus 15% yield versus the monetary inflation rate the cost capital's lead to 15 to 20% so it's forcing corporate treasuries to think out of the box here bitcoin is, again, appreciating 200% year over year for the past ten years. it's outperforming -- i mean, treasuries are minus 5% in the last 12 months bitcoin is up 387% so -- and

investing the comfortable is very rarely the profitable and i think at this point if you're holding $100 billion like apple computer and you're staring at a 15% monetary expansion rate or cost of capital, you're going to lose 80% of that shareholder value over the next eight to ten years if you cling to conventional treasury strategies, and that's the dilemma that every public company is facing right now. >> michael, did your board have to vote? did you bring this to the board to make this decision? >> you can be sure we deliberated long and hard. every officer, every director over and over on this issue. it's not an issue we had to deal with for 20 years, we had to deal with it this year, yes. every member of the board not only delivered it -- deliberated on it, i gave them all homework. they had to study the history of

bitcoin, the entire market they're watching hours and hours of videos and we went back and forth to decide what's the most creative course of action. if we had done nothing, we would be down -- i think we're up $2.5 billion right now versus doing nothing. we would have been down otherwise. it was challenging, but i believe it's the right thing to do. >> michael, one other related question do you or any of the board members or management team own bitcoin yourself >> oh, yes i own bitcoin and i disclosed that to the board before we went through the deliberations. >> hey, michael, i read a really interesting piece yesterday just in terms of how we might be looking at this a little bit wrong, those of us who follow stocks and know about reversions to the mean, that this is different because the mean that you're going to be reverting to

is constantly growing. it's happening as all of these new companies, new investorsar kind of buying into that so the mean itself, the line is one that's moving pretty sharply higher do you agree with that theory? >> the most important thing i've said about bitcoin is bitcoin is a bank in cyber space for people that don't have the ability to run their own hedge fund it's not stock it's an asset class and so, you know, if i put $1 billion into a bank and then came back a year later and put another $10 billion in the bank, the bank is not over valued by a factor of 10, the bank is just 10 times bigger people are using bitcoin to store their monetary energy for the long term. so the price is a reflection of the monetary energy in this bank in cyber space >> hey, michael, just wanted to go back to a question about your

holdings of bitcoin personally and potentially the holdings of members of the board or executives in the management team and the reason i raise this is i think there's a lot of companies now that are thinking about buying into bitcoin and yet their employees and or board members who are either owning the coin already or buying in knowing perhaps that their company is going to buy bitcoin, how you think about that from a legal perspective? because historically if one company was going to effectively buy another company, it would actually be considered illegal insider trading or just a breach of the fiduciary duty because effectively you'd be taking advantage of corporate information. >> the first thing to note is bitcoin is property, it's not a security that's a very critical idea. property means you can own a house or you can own land and your company can also buy land with regard to public companies, the key is to make sure that you

have adequate disclosure of all your holdings that might be viewed as a conflict of interest and so you can be sure that i went to great lengths to adequately disclose to every member of the board the exact extent of my bitcoin holdings before we started to deliberate this bitcoin is the most widely held investment asset in the world right now. we have congressmen, we have senators, we have members of government, we have ceos we have 100 plus -- 100 million individuals out there that have it you're going to find that lots and lots of people have this property i think that whenever you're running an institution, be it a charity, an endowment, a government institution, a corporation, the key is to make sure that you're very transparent in your holdings before you enter into deliberation that might impact that company >> right it's a trillion dollars.

there are stocks that are a trillion dollars i'm trying to find out what type of total market cap you'd need until you wouldn't ask that question anymore, michael. people with gold, if a company decides it wants to put its treasuries in gold, i don't think they would ask the ceo, you're going to move the entire gold market. it's a much bigger gold market i'm wondering if there's a number where you don't ask that question, where it becomes -- would you worry -- if you went out the yield curve on bonds or if you went into corporates on your treasury, would you have to make sure that people -- that were at the company weren't buying corporates in the meantime i don't know what do you think the number is? at a trillion you could still almost make the case you could move that. >> there's a $500 trillion monetary planet and the outer layer is currency, then you've got stocks, bonds, real estate there's $10 trillion worth of gold in there, 1 trillion in bitcoin. the bitcoin is going to flip

gold and it's going to subsume the entire gold market cap, then it's going to subsume negative yielding, sovereign debt and other monetary indexes until it grows to $100 trillion once it gets to 10 trillion its volatility will be dramatically less and as it marches towards 100 trillion you're going to see the growth rates fall, the volatility fall and it's going to be a stabilizing influence in the entire financial system in the 21st century. >> michael saylor, thank you for -- obviously those are all of your opinions but well laid out in terms of logic and everything else. we'll see what happens appreciate it a lot. michael saylor, thank you. >> thank you thanks, joe. still to come this morning, we will hear from tesla's former chief technology officer and right-hand man to elon musk on his quest to disrupt the battery industry becoming more critical every day.

stay tuned, "squawk box" will be right back we see breakthrough medicines getting to patients in record time. at emerson, our automation software is empowering pharmaceutical companies to accelerate their production of critical vaccinations for the world. emerson. consider it solved. ♪

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welcome back, everybody. elon musks former number 2 has a vision of his own. he founded a startup with the goal of disrupting the battery industry phil lebeau was given access to his growing industry and he's joining us now good to see you. >> reporter: i have a question for you. how many old cell phones do you have sitting around in drawers at your house? if you're like most people

either with cell phones or maybe old batteries, becky, from cordless utility uses, drills, et cetera, look at all of these. they've got millions and i mean millions of these types of batteries that they are recycling here at redwood materials. this is what they come up with in the end cobalt nickell. nickell, if you were to go out and mine this, it would take a long time. they can recycle batteries, come up with nickell and sell it to battery companies and battery companies like panasonic we were at panasonic and spending time at the redwood materials facility redwood inc.i inking another deal this is the reason this is so important. this is from energy research advisers look at the demand that is coming for electric vehicle lithium ion batteries. we do not have enough supply in the united states to meet that

demand that's why j.d. straw hold said it is important to recycle in order to come up with these minerals >> it's incredibly exciting to see these announcements and see major automakers, new startups, and the like announcing huge programs and factories but a lot more of that investment has to find its way to the top of the food chain to figure out where these materials will come from, investing in new mines, refining and recycling. >> there is money to be made within the minerals for electric vehicle batteries. the proof. take a look at the etf if you were to look at all of the minerals, it approximates those that go into electric vehicle batteries. it is close to an all-time high. in carson city, nevada guys, i can't stress this enough you cannot go out and just build or create a new nickell mine you're going to have to come up with other sources for it.

this came from an old battery, an old battery like this that had lithium ion battery components in it ultimately gave them some of the nickell here. they are selling this back to panasonic and plan to do it with other battery companies as well. just the beginning of a business if you saw the pallets upon pallets of old batteries here, you would say, wow, we've got a problem that needs to be solved. >> hey, phil i guess it was a rhetorical question at the top but i'm guessing i have at least 12 to 15, 12 to 15 cell phones and other batteries sitting around here am i sitting on a bunch of digital gold, bitcoin money in my drawers can i make money off of this, too? >> no. no, you can't. you can take them to somebody. here's the problem, becky. where do you take your old phones to be recycled? i guarantee you 99% of people do not know >> i don't know. >> that's why they're sitting in my drawers. >> redwood materials are working

with third party vendors who are saying, okay, whether we work with a retailer who says -- like a home depot bring in your old cordless drill batteries and we'll recycle them >> get rid of them. >> ultimately they have to go somewhere. you can't send them to a landfill so they send them here to be recycled this is just -- they're scratching the surface in terms of what needs to be done >> phil, we're totally out of time but very quickly, what does he think about all of the ev spacs out there. he knows the industry so well. thumbs up, thumbs down >> reporter: he thinks ultimately it is not going to end well for some of these people with these investments. he's not saying which ones but he's very clear not enough diligence is being done on the ev spacs. >> thank you, phil see you a little bit later today. all right. i love listening -- i like when

he says battery. battery. i love it, spacs coming up, a-rod live. baseball great alex rodriguez joins us as his new spac gets rey adto trade stay tuned, you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc

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♪ ♪ while the tablet holder keeps everything in the perfect position. nice. the best way to secure your devices is at weathertech.com welcome back to squawk the spac is seeking to raise money for the sports media and health sector. slam corp. a-rod is joining us. and the spac's chairman is here. good morning to both of you. a-rod, tell us we talk every day there's a new spac tell us why you're doing this

and what you're looking to do. >> hi, andrew. thank you for having this. we're joined together to create slam corp. we both are very excited to come together and put our super powers together. there's a market we can go together and put our skill sets to work. i know that i personally have tremendous deal flow amantra has a tremendous record with antara. 1 plus 1 equals five together. >> in terms of something you're looking to buy, just so i'm clear, this is not a sports team you're targeting here, you're looking at media companies, health and wellness companies. we just had the folks who run theragun on yesterday. >> we took hims and hers public earlier this year. it's done extremely well it's not going to be a sports

scene. why don't you take this. >> my pleasure thank you for having us as well. we're focused on an investment in this, as you mentioned, sports media, health or wellness what we want to do is find a company that has a large tam, total addressable market, high growth and one with an all-star management team. when you look at us versus other spacs, our difference in our value add is we think we make a company more valuable. we take our track record from an operational side, working with management teams to help introduce them to customers and growing their top line and you couple that with alex's broad network and his social media, we can help create a better company that we partner with. >> alex, speak to that the value you can add in terms of the social media piece, the exposure there's a little bit of a shark

tank like effect that i think you can bring to a company >> yeah, andrew. we like to get involved with our founders take hims and hers, we invested millions of dollars in hims and hers just a few years ago. the valuation was well under $300 million today it got de-spacced earlier this year and the stock is trading well over $20. we have 30 companies in our portfolio. we are taking six public this year you see a couple, wheels up and archer a lot of them value add. sometimes it's very different. hymns&hers we told it publicly we took health care. it's a perfect company for us. it's bringing telemedicine to the masses at a price. what they needed was marketing that's a perfect example of what slam corp can bring to the market >> let me ask both of you about alignment because one of the questions that's been raised even in the past 24 hours looking at this churchill

transaction with lucid is the alignment of interests between the spac investors, the pipe investors and effectively the retail and "de-spacced and how anticipate being with the despaced company >> alex, why don't we take a crack at that. from our perspective, we want to be aligned with all our investors. we've invested into a team so we can make sure we are at disciplined when we find a company in terms of valuation and the businesses we look at. alex and i both expect to be on the board. we're going to be long-term. this isn't a transaction we're looking to get in and out of we look to partner with a company and help them grow their business for a long-term, so it's a great investment for us

and our shareholders >> do you have a take on this churchill lucid deal it was sort of a favorite of the reddit community and you're now seeing it falter in large part because the pipe transaction took place at $15 a share. meanwhile the stock was trading quadruple that >> well, let me talk about in general markets. there's speculation in markets all the time, whether it's merger, single security, stocks, bonds. we see it everywhere it's not new or anything related to a spac. i look at that transaction they priced it originally at $10. it's trading where it is there's been significant value created for some shareholders. some may win some may lose. but that's what the market is. >> let me ask you a separate question that relates to maybe something you guys would end up getting involved in which is the business of baseball cards i red mentioned you collected

and sold baseball cards. one of the things you sold was an a-rod rookie card early onto help pay for college >> that's correct. interestingly enough, baseball cards have become a very large store of value it's all sports card a large store of value with rates moving out and the dollar having depreciated where people are looking at this as a bitcoin or silver or gold it's not something we're going to focus on in this, but i think it's an interesting analogy to what's happening in markets. >> alex, are you buying cards right now? either for yourself or others or getting into what's called nfts? >> i used to collect my baseball cards. i've sold them all i'm a good investor. no, but it is a really hot market the fact that -- one of the things i loved when i connected with is the grit his family came to this country with $89 he played tennis

put himself through college. as a teenager sold his baseball card collection for over $100,000 to put himself through college. one of those cards was an a-rod card that means he still owes me. >> alex, i'm going to repay you back with this transaction and all our shareholders, we're going to do great things and we're very excited for slam corp >> we appreciate both of you joining us we do plan to follow and hope to follow your progress we hope you come back as you work on the transaction and potentially find a target. >> thank you >> thank you for your time >> you bet joe? >> thanks, andrew. let's get to the head quarters jim, we're coming out of a spac discussion we've had a few this morning and i know you have a pretty interesting discussion coming up with ralenson, right from lucid >> yes i think today is the day the fulcrum days. people expect one thing and get

another. the lucid is a very, very exciting proposition but joe, you and i know, it's not about excitement what is it about it's about making money. and the people who were so enthused about churchill of which we see everywhere, are now starting to think well, wait a second did i get had? now, you didn't get had. you just got too excited but even saying that, joe, makes it so i am regarded as what? a suit and there are people out there who got -- who i think did not understand the way these things are priced and even when you look at what lucid is valued here, very expensive stock. they compare it to tesla everything is compared to tesla. it's below where it was when it was added to the s&p this is a day where people are going to say to themselves, wait a second maybe the free money is not as free as we thought >> yep really exciting that you have this coming up, especially with what we've been talking about

the whole show with this situation. >> the whole show. i mean, just wrapped it's all about what's about to happen in -- 36 minutes. >> i hear you. i know thanks, jim. we'll see you in just a upcole minutes. "squawk box" will be right back. big news travels fast on t-mobile, the leader in 5g coverage and speed. get an iphone 12 on us on each and every plan. and save 20% on your bill every month versus the other guys. only at t-mobile.

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>> we're going to put context around the moves in big technology names and how far they've fallen from the recent highs. we've talked about interest rates and valuations are a concern and maybe some stocks rising because of their exposure or highs to crypto currency. first, pay pal fin tech is a megacap technology but it's a huge massive rise a lot of it due to concerns of crypto coming into play. here's the last year you can almost see a straight line higher. the pullback recently is down roughly 11% from the high. yes, a substantial pullback for pay pal. also, the biggest stock of them all, apple look at the pullback we've seen from there it's been a roughly 13 % drop since its record highs we've seen again, a big move higher over the course of the past year.

valuation still a concern. a big 13% drop, and look at how far it's come. context there for sure tesla, we'll show you that one as well. this has been an outsized drop from the highs over the last couple months. we're down roughly 21% from the levels again, a big drop for tesla. some traders would call that bear market territory, but look at the way it's come up. a huge move higher especially in the last few months here to these levels. again, 11% drop in pay pal a 13% drop in apple. 21% drop in apple. context around the moves we've seen in big technology stocks. back over to you >> yeah. dom, and the one-year gains you're looking at put all of that in context. the one-year gain for tesla, i think it's 276%. it was up 57.7 % for apple a little different than what

we've seen in the past >> that's right. that's why we looked at the charts in the one-year >> i would ask you why you're not in front of the wall, but we're out of time. you escaped. we'll see you tomorrow you? got it all right, everybody we will see you back here tomorrow at this time. have a great day right now it's time for "squawk on the street. bye, guys. >> good tuesday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla s&p is trying to avoid a sixth straight loss as investors await powell on the hill farm execs on the hill talking supply a host of reopening headlines. the road map begins with a big tech tumble. apple, amazon, microsoft all falling. >> lucid motors. yes, they got to deal done it was a highly anticipated spac