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engine fire aboard that boeing 777 jet, and more fallout in texas after the state's week long energy crisis this morning, a mass exodus of the executives once in charge of the lone star energy grilled. and c suite for one of gamestop's executive after the reddit frenzy. it's february 24, 2021, and you're watching "worldwide exchange" right here on cnbc ♪ top of the morning to you, i am dominic chu in for brian sullivan today, and right now, we are seeing shades of green pretty much across the board the s&p implied higher by rou roughly 8 points, dow jones by 45, and the nasdaq up by 46 points implied at the opening bell this is, yes, modest, but well

off the lows of the session. the nasdaq futures at one point were roughly 150 to 170 points lower than where they are right now. keep an eye on those futures as we head toward the opening bell. the dow coming off a wild session falling more than 360 points in early trading before wiping out all of those losses and ending the day, believe it or not, with a gain. a similar story for the nasdaq, seeing a nearly 4% loss before ending the day only slightly lower. that composite down 1/2% you can see that well off the lows of the session throughout the course of yesterday's trading. investors can thank powell for the turn around. the bank is committed to the current accommodative policy we'll see if he echoes those comments today powell's statement easing pressure in the bond market, currently the yield on the 10-year benchmark, that near term trend higher for markets in

terms of treasury yields is something to keep an eye on as we watch these trades play out continuing to watch the action in shares of tesla negative on the year, despite bouncing back from a 13% loss at one point in trading yesterday one investor and long time tesla bull, kathy wood scooping up $120 million worth of stock during yesterday's selloff and subsequent bounce back and it's not just tesla. wood also out with comments on bitcoin saying she's positive on the crypto and happy to see a healthy correction in it bitcoin back above the 50,000 mark 50,921, an 8% rise over the last six months a 330% gain on coin metrics. let's go worldwide, the asian trade generally negative outsized losses in the shanghai composite and the hang seng on the chinese size the neuropean side of things as

we swing that globe around, you can see a bit more of a mixed trade there. the german dax up 3/4 of 1%. the cac and france up 1/4 of 1%. a flat market for the ftse 100 in the u.k. back on our home shores, a new order from federal regulators over the faulty pratt and whitney engines, bertha coombs is here with more. >> good morning, dom, the faa says it's ordering immediate inspections of boeing 777 jets equipped with the pratt and whitney's pw 4,000 engines after anymore flights after the spectacular engine failure caught on video on a united flight over the weekend. airlines around the world that operate, united is the only u.s. carrier that has them.

they have voluntarily taken 24 boeing 777 planes with the pratt and whitney engines out of service. faa administrator steven dickson will join us live. four board leaders of texas's embattled power grid operators say they will resign following the outrage stemming from the massive power outage last week all of the board of directors stepping douwn, including chairwoman who lives outside of texas, which has intensified criticism of the board ironically named electric reliability council of texas the resignations are effective today, a day before texas lawmakers are set to begin hearings over the outages in the state capitol. the house of representatives will vote on friday on legislation to provide $1.9 trillion in new coronavirus relief after the house budget committee approved the measure

on monday. the sweeping legislation is intended to stimulate the economy and carryout president biden's proposals to provide additional money for covid-19 vaccines and other medical equipment. dom, back over to you. >> bertha coombs, thank you very much for those headlines, we appreciate it. sticking with the d.c. scene and that massive rescue package, while it may survive a house vote this week, it may be a different story in the senate. nbc's tracie potts is here with more on that and your d.c. day ahead. good morning, tracie hi, dom, good morning. good morning, everyone in the senate, republicans are already complaining that the package is too expensive and democrats may try to go it alone and get this done before unemployment benefits run out on march 14th but today, the president has a different focus taking action on manufacturing and trying to prevent supply chain problems. a demand for cell phones and

computers during the pandemic has led to manufacturing shortages. president biden meets with lawmakers on that today. he's set to issue an executive order reviewing the u.s. supply chain after telling essential workers. >> you all are -- you're basically holding the country together. >> reporter: also today, an update from the covid response team vaccine shipments are up 70% since inauguration 20 million americans are now fully vaccinated but with command utpacing supply, there's concern about what happened for those who can not get the second shot on time. >> we don't know what happens if you only have one dose, and you don't wait five or six weeks we don't have that data. >> reporter: on capitol hill, lawmakers are planning an initial covid relief bill on friday >> we are on track to get this bill done. >> they're going to try to muscle us through on a totally

partisan basis. >> reporter: more riot hearings are happening today, focusing on employee wellness, building damage, and domestic extremists. officials admitted tuesday they declined help two days before the attack. >> we all agreed that the intelligence did not support the troops and collectively decided to let it go. >> reporter: law enforcement officials say an intelligence warning the day before never made it to their desks now, next week we expect to hear from the fbi, the pentagon, and homeland security. dom. nbc's tracie potts with the latest in d.c. jay powell is back on the hot seat does he have what it takes to juice the markets yet again. we will ask paul donovan about the fed chair. and calling for an investigation into the natural gas industry following last week's massive power outages and price speikes in texas.

a "worldwide exchange" exclusive with minnesota senator tina smith. and later, the payment company snapping up millions of dollars in bitcoin yeah, we're going to tell you. a very busy hour still ahead when "worldwide exchange" returns after this break ♪♪ in boxing or any other business, one day, you're gonna take a hit you didn't see coming. do you stay down? or do you get up? [announcer] and this fight is a long way from over, leonard is coming back. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ dana-farber cancer institute discovered the pd-l1 pathway. pd-l1. they changed how the world fights cancer. blocking the pd-l1 protein, lets the immune system attack, attack, attack cancer. pd-l1 transformed, revolutionized,

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below the level of payroll jobs before the crisis. there's still a long way to go to full recovery and we intend to keep our policy supportive of that recovery. >> all right that was fed chair jay powell testifying before the senate banking committee yesterday telling lawmakers the central bank does not expect to shift its policy stance until a lasting recovery is achieved powell also emphasizing he does not expect a large or persistent increase in inflation, even as trillions of dollars of stimulus move through the u.s. economy and the global economy as well let's talk more about this and other global economic issues with paul donovan, chief economist at u.s. global management paul, was there anything from the comments yesterday that really stuck out at you. it seems like jay powell has been echoing the same message for quite some time for months about the lack of inflation and the fed's intention to stay active in the markets until the economy is back on solid footing. >> it's a consistent message which at this stage is really

what the fed has got to be giving, i think, so the inflation point, i think, resonated a little bit more in the markets. we've had more concern about inflation coming through i think it's unwarranted i don't think beyond an oil price base effect in the second quarter we've got anything to worry about with inflation nevertheless, there has been a vocal debate, and so i suppose the fed chair's comments in that regard, you know, hit home a little harder. otherwise it's business as usual, basically. >> paul, there are parts of the market now that we have been highlighting for the course of several weeks that show that the markets at least are indicating a pickup in inflation or at least inflation expectations is there a disconnect here is that something technical happening with the financial markets or are we seeing signs outside of energy that inflation and prices are picking up? >> we are getting some signs of specific prices picking up but

that's not necessarily inflation. prices go up and down all the time if you look at the median inflation rate, the mean inflation rate, in other words, what are most prices doing, most prices are doing exactly what they have always been doing, which is growing about 2, 2 1/4%, most prices are not being shifted. because we have got some supply chain disruption with these long complicated global supply chains, that is causing some manufactured goods prices to spike up as demand picks up a bit. that's not going to last, and it's not symptomatic of a general inflation issue in the economy. >> paul, as you take a look at the world economy kind of around you and your coverage universe, what is it that the u.s. is doing differently, better or worse than say europe or other part of developed asia with regard to its policy or the economy they can move with i'm just curious how central bank policy is affecting different regions, differently based upon their own policies.

>> i think the first point is this is not a crisis that central banks are going to be taking a lead on essentially what happened in 2020 is governments took your money. that's what happened, and it's down to governments to give it back this is something which requires fiscal policy far more than central bank policy. i think there are obviously some differences. one of the things is that the u.s. had to sort of build european style welfare straight from scratch you have had slightly different policy timings in materials of the recovery, what you're seeing in the united states rightly or wrongly is a lower level of fear around the virus compared to what we're seeing in europe and the u.k., and that's fear from consumers and from policy makers so in the united states, we are seeing a relaxation of restrictions relative to what we have in europe people are more willing to travel, say, in the united states i have barely traveled outside my house in the last 12 months

so you've got very different reactions coming through that's actually the main driver of the dicfferences in economic activity that we're seeing at the moment. >> the virus front and center for policy makers out there. paul donovan, thank you very much, always great to get your thoughts. >> thank you. we speak with one voting member of the fda's vaccine advisory committee judging the readiness of johnson & johnson's covid-19 single dose shot. that's coming up. and a programming note, tonight, 8:00 eastern time, carl quintanilla hosts a cnbc special report, the path forward, focusing on small business don't miss it. 8:00 p.m. eastern time tonight he's going to do a fantastic job highlighting issues for small businesses in america. keep it right here, "worldwide exchange" comes back right after this

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today's big number, $50 billion. that's the total economic impact from the severe winter storms that hit texas this month. according to estimates from accuweather. all right. that's a really big number here. we have new calls from lawmakers and governors for investigations into energy companies. this comes after massive price spikes amid last week's wild winter weather in the midwest and that left consumers of course footing the bill, often thousand dollars in terms of bills for utilities. some gas trades that would normally go for $3 are trading

up to $900 during the crisis one such official is democratic senator tina smith of minnesota who is calling for a federal probe into possible price gouging. she sat down with our own brian sullivan just yesterday. >> so you have this disaster in texas, a complete failure i would say of the system in texas to weatherize itself, to be prepared for any kind of extreme weather event, and it's a ripple effect that happens as they lose natural gas wells, and then as they rechannel natural gas only into texas and then that starts to ripple throughout the rest of the country. it gets to minnesota, and you have the bigger utilities who are seeing massive price increases that they're paying for natural gas, and then you have the local munis that i'm in some ways most worried about who are finding that they're burning through literally almost a year's worth of budget in just a

few weeks because of these rapidly escalating prices. then what happens is that that gets passed on potentially to consumers, and meanwhile, some, you know, natural gas in texas is making millions of dollars right out of the pockets of people in minnesota and around the midwest. i want to get to the bottom of that we need to protect people, and especially right now, we have tons of thousands of people in minnesota that are in arrears on their energy bills because of covid because they have lost their jobs, and they can't pay this could be even more devastating for them if these costs hit their utility bills. >> if i understand, please correct me if i'm wrong, because the electricity market, it's an odd world. it's its own beast, cut off from federal regulation, given that it's its own grid. if a customer is on a fixed rate plan, the utility company will have to eat it, the cost, if

they indeed paid some of these spot market prices because they really can't pass it on. but for people who are in these you pay what we pay type plans that have become popular, they're showing off bills, i don't mean showing off in a good way on social media, thousands or tense of thousands of dollars where it's normally 200. so there could be small, you know, utilities that could be at risk are there not? >> that's exactly right. you have small utilities that don't have billions of dollars of reserves to be able to handle this kind of price shock, and yet they have to somehow manage it and i'm thinking about little utilities in communities in southern minnesota that are either owned by the local town or they might be a cooperative kind of utility that are still on the hook to provide energy, and of course we want them to. we just have risen -- or temperatures just rose above zero for the first time in ten days in minnesota, so this is not a laughing matter. it is very urgent for people,

and as i said, with covid, people have already been struggling in many places to pay their utility bills so it becomes just a double whammy. >> and texas famously deregulated and somebody asked me why do they do it, because texas is going to texas. that's kind of what they do, and what they're famous for. as a senator, do you want to push to try to force texas on to or connecting to the national power grid it has some small connections to oklahoma, new mexico and the country of mexico, but would you like to see an official push to get them entered into the other power markets and interchanges that exist >> well, look, i think that what's happened in texas, and as we see the impact around country is a great example of how no state is an island when it comes to electricity if texas is deregulated, unregulated electricity environment fails, you know,

they're going to -- there still has to be a way for the lights to go on in texas. we truly are all connected when it comes to the electric grid, and i think what it does tell me is how important it is as we think about building towards a more resilient, more reliable, less carbon intensive electricity system that we can do that in ways that would prevent the kind of catastrophe that we have seen in texas from happening again. you have to plan for these extreme weather events and that's part of the problem that happened in texas, right ten years ago they had a weather catastrophe similar to this. they were told that they needed to weatherize their electric grid system in order to protect against a situation like this, and they didn't do it. they try to blame it on frozen windmills when frankly in minnesota the wind energy has been working just fine, thank you very much, because we have it weatherized. >> that was senator tina smith our thanks to her on the energy

crisis. nbc's frances rivera is in the new york newsroom with the latest there good morning, frances. >> good morning to you we start this morning with a new update on tiger woods who suffered serious injuries after his vehicle went tumbling off a california road. according to a statement, the golf legend is being treated for serious injuries to his legs and right ankle, but he's alert and recovering after emergency surgery. the cause of the crash is still under investigation. police reported there were no signs of impairment. the sheriff says accidents in the area are not uncommon because of the downhill slopes and curves. a clean up effort is underway in central texas after a fiery crash northeast of austin a semitruck barrelled into the side of a fuel train, sparking that explosion several were loaded with gasoline that fed the flames, amazingly, despite this video, nobody was hurt. with new york governor andrew cuomo allowing fans in the stands in the arenas, the

knicks and nets hosted their first crowds of the season if you can call them crowds. madison square garden was close to the maximum 10% capacity for the knicks warriors game the warriors came out with a victory there. in brooklyn, the nets chose to admit just over 300 fans in their game against the kings james harden put a show for the crowd there with a triple double in that win. we're seeing it very slowly in new york city, and hopefully other cities across the country, dom, slowly getting there. >> small steps of course there, frances, but reasons for optimism for sure. thank you very much for that update there frances rivera in new york >> sure thing. still ahead in the show, the elizabeth holmes saga takes a new turn as she denies destroying evidence in the case, and points a finger at the government and if you have not already, subscribe to our podcast if you missed "worldwide exchange" check us out on apple, spotify or whatever podcast apps you choose

"worldwide exchange" will be right back it's moving day. and while her friends

are doing the heavy lifting, jess is busy moving her xfinity internet and tv services. it only takes about a minute. wait, a minute? but what have you been doing for the last two hours? delegating? oh, good one. move your xfinity services without breaking a sweat. now that's simple, easy, awesome. xfinity makes moving easy. go online to transfer your services in about a minute. get started today.

fed chair jay powell tries to tamp down the mounting inflation worries spooking markets. buying the dip, arks kathy wood, boosting bitcoin along the way. and another high profile exit from amazon keep an eye on that. it's wednesday, february 24th, 2021, you are watching "worldwide exchange" right here on cnbc. ♪

♪ welcome back to "worldwide exchange." i am dominic chu in for brian sullivan this morning. and here's how stock futures are looking halfway through the 5:00 a.m. eastern time hour. you can see here the dow jones industrial average implied higher by roughly 32 points. the s&p implied higher by 6 points and the nasdaq higher by 30 points. it doesn't seem like a lot but we are well off the lows of the session so far at one point, the nasdaq was roughly about 150 to 180 points lower than where we are right now. keep an eye on that. investors are waiting on fresh comments from fed chair jay powell after the chairman yesterday did much to smooth inflation fears. >> my expectation will be that inflation will probably be a bit volatile over the next year or so, due a significant amount to in particular things with the

pandemic i don't think those effects should be large or persistent. the real reason for that is we have had decades of well anchored inflation expectations. >> all right watching the yield on the ten-year benchmark u.s. treasury note you can see there we are ticking slightly higher in the last couple of hours or so. however, off the lines we have see, by the way, the highs for the ten-year treasury going back multiple years, almost back to a year to the action and shares of tesla on the stock a 13% loss yesterday. wall street attributing the rebound to one investor, and long time tesla bull kathy wood who scooped up $120 million worth of stock in yesterday's selloff, and it's not just tesla. also out with comments on bitcoin saying she's positive on the cryptocurrency and very happy to see a healthy correction bitcoin back above the 50,000 per token mark, up 7 1/2% so

far, 60,621 and change now let's take a look at a couple of charts playing out this year. we mentioned interest rates, take a look at the difference between two-year treasury yields and ten-year, the steepness of it, how big the difference is. you can see we're at the highest levels going all the way back to the early part of 2017, so that move higher, pricing in possibly this idea that reflation is happening, a reopening of economies, not just in the u.s., around the world also this idea that perhaps you can see inflation expectations start to pick up as well all of that is playing out in the difference in treasury yields the idea that things are going to get better, the cyclical, economic sensitive sectors in stocks will do well. check out what's happening with energy one of the smallest sectors in the s&p 500, but yes, economically sensitive, the energy sector spider is up 29%

that's so far year to date meanwhile, the biggest sector, technology, the one with the most weight, up only 2% right here this is that gap widening out. energy, a real under performer last year. technology helping to pace the market over the course of the last several years that rotation playing out as well watch that trade, value versus growth energy versus technology to the latest in the ongoing th theranos case. bertha coombs has more on that in this morning's other top headlines. good morning, bertha. >> dom, there's always drama in this case. attorneys for holmes are blaming the government for failing to preserve what they call critical evidence in a filing late yesterday, her lawyers said prosecutors are at fault for losing a database called the laboratory information system which they say helped three years worth of accuracy and failure rates of

theranos tests prosecutors claim that theranos executives destroyed the system that proved the company's blood testing product was inaccurate shares of gamestop are lower this morning after the company announced that cfo jim bell is leaving. gamestop says bell will step down march 26th, and it has started searching for a replacement with quote the capabilities and qualifications to help accelerate gamestop's transformation and another key member of the jeff bezos inner circle leaving amazon senior vice president of business development jack blackburn announcing he's leaving the company following a yearlong sabbatical, the second high level executive to leave amazon this year, following consumer business head jeff wilke's left last month. and jeff bezos announced he would step down as ceo.

it appears he's doing what billionaires do, buy the washington football team what else do you do when you're a retired billionaire but run a sports franchise. >> and jockeying for position as the world's ripchest man. thank you for the updates and headlines as well. fda advisers will meet friday to decide whether or not to recommend johnson & johnson's covid-19 vaccine for emergency use authorization. johnson & johnson says it plans to start shipping the vaccine immediately upon receiving authorization, and that it should be able to vaccinate more than 20 million americans in a single dose by the end of march. joining us now is dr. leavy, and also a voting member of the advisory committee evaluating the johnson & johnson vaccine. he was also on the panel that gave the green light to pfizer biontech vaccine

thank you very much for joining us here. take us through your thought process. how is it that this particular johnson & johnson vaccine will change the landscape for vaccinations in america and the world. >> good morning, dom, and thank you for that this is, you know, we don't want to prejudge the process. on friday, we're going to have a rigorous process of the fda advisory committee that i serve on we are going to be discussing and contemplating safety and efficacy of this johnson & johnson vaccine product. i will say without prejudging the outcome of friday's deliberations, should it move forward, it could potentially be a very significant further tool in our armament against this dreaded pandemic we need more vaccines. we need them because there are vaccine shortages. this particular vaccine from johnson & johnson does not require freezing it can be held at regular 4

degrees celsius refrigeration. that's huge in terms of practicality, and it is a single dose regimen, so those 20 million doses you alluded to by the end of march would potentially be immunizing 20 million additional americans so the potential for benefit is very large, but again, we have to let the process play out, and contemplate the safety, efficacy there will be a public deliberation on friday and the briefing documents will be made public for americans to see. >> dr. levy you're a medical doctor, a medical professional, you have a science background. for a layperson like myself and viewers and listeners out there, what exactly will you be looking at what are the considerations you will make in evaluating whether or not j&j's vaccine comes to market >> it starts with safety vaccines are something you give to healthy people so they better be safe. so we scrutinize very carefully

from the phase one, two and three clinical trials that the sponsor in this case j&j put forward the safety data. you know, there's certain minor discomfort at the injection site for a day or low grade fever that's acceptable. there would be certain safety signals that would not be acceptable we have to look carefully at the safety data, and then we look at efficacy how well did the vaccine prevent covid in those who received the vaccine, versus placebo. these were blinded studies, rigorously designed. we pore over the data, and make that determination. >> dr. levy, there's a good part of the american population that's very anxious to get these vaccines however there is a group of people out there, not just in the u.s., around the world, that are skeptical of the vaccine they are worried about the process that it's being kind of authorized in, the testing process and everything else. what exactly would you say as a medical doctor to those people out there who say i don't want the vaccine, i don't think i

need it. i haven't gotten sick yet, and if everybody else is getting it, why do i need to get it myself. >> vaccines usually take ten to 20 years to develop. we didn't have that kind of time thankfully, new technology it is, including the johnson & johnson technology, an vector, it's not able to replicate but it delivers the spike protein gene, when you inject this vaccine into your boedy, it expresses the spike pro teen and your body makes antibodies the safety process has not been cut in any way it's a rigorous procedure, a blinded study. a lot of safety information is gathered did the person have a fever or headache or any other type of symptom. it's captured for the vaccine group and there's a statistical comparison to see if there's any

safety signal with the vaccine and that is looked at very k carefully not just by the sponsor, the company, the u.s. food and drug administration and the advisory panel which is inde independent of the fda or nih or company. there is a lot of due diligence for the members of the advisory committee. we have no financial conflicts of interest. this is a rigorous process all the briefing documents are made publicly available. i think our process compares favorably with that of other countries with respect to how we evaluate the vooaccines. >> it's a big deal a third candidate could be a game changer dr. ofer levy thank you very much, and good luck to you sir. the stocks to watch in the day ahead including what has shares of square getting hit hard in the premarket trade, down 5% in extended trading. and farm equipment stocks seeing big gains as more people take up hobby farming amid the pandemic.

jane wells is looking at the trend that's producing big returns for investors. hobby farming, can i do it, jane >> reporter: you can do it, dom, i will go anywhere for a story, including the woods of maine, but as americans are leaving the city for the country during covid, they're discovering green acres is the place to be that's when "worldwide exchange" comes back

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." some of the stocks on the move in early trading shares are falling as the company indicated first quarter numbers are trending only marginally better right now. square also buying another $170 million in bitcoin, which is fueling revenue for its popular cash app where users can buy and store that cryptocurrency those shares off 4 1/2% in the pretrade toll brothers is reporting higher first quarter profits and sales. low mortgage rates, tight inventories, favorable demographics and the pandemic all helping to boost demand for home ownership the company says contracts rose nearly 60%, while home deliveries were up 10% those shares up 1 1/2% in the premarket trade. shares of workhorse continue to drop after falling nearly 50% at the end of yesterday's session that's after the u.s. postal service awarded a contract to replace its mail trucks to oshkosh. workhorse was the only all

electric offering among the finalists. the stocks had run up after president biden, talked about making the federal vehicle fleet all electric those shares off in the premarket trade. the mass exodos from cities and suburbs has led to a growing trend among folks working at home in rural areas. the increased interest in the lifestyle is fueling big gains among farm equipment jane wells is in harborside, maine, with more and green acres, like you said, the place to be. farm living, is it the life for me >> reporter: well, listen and learn, dom chu, as americans have been moving out of the cities into the country to work from home, they have discovered gardening and farming and sales of tractors under 40 horsepower, the fastest growing segment of the industry banker nick penfield plans to buy one. >> when you plant a tree, it's very addictive, you start to get

the hang of it, and hopefully you get some good fruit from it. >> reporter: that is the ceo right there of adco, you know, overall, farm equipment sales under 40 horsepower tractors grew 21% over the last year but at adco, they're up almost 30%, and they have had to really scramble to fix supply chains. >> i will say once you plant a tree, it's very addictive. you start to get the hang of it, and hopefully you get some good fruit from it. >> reporter: well, we wanted you to see that again, in case you didn't hear it the first time, so here's what eric had to say about reconfiguring supply chains at adco. >> we've got factories all around the world, supply chain around the world we need to optimize that for the spike in demand that came.

and we feel good about our position there. >> reporter: penfield plans to spend $25,000 on a tractor he started with a john deere mower. look at how the stocks have performed. not only has there been tremendous growth in the small equipment, small tractor sales but now big farmers are seeing peek corn and soybean prices like they haven't seen since 2013, and for companies like deere and agco they are expecting pent up demand for bigger farmers to go on a spending spree >> you look at deere and caterpillar, we have reported extensively over the last several days about how both of those stocks are sitting at record highs right now there's a huge assumption that for those companies like deere and cat that it's about the construction equipment and the bullishness there. if it's hobby farming, people getting into farming, how hard is it for me to get into hobby farming if i've got to buy

equipment that costs 20, 30, 40, $50,000 at the low end. >> reporter: you want to start small. nick penfield's deer mower is $2,800, but basically a 48 power under tractor is going to set you back about $25,000, but if you're going to get into farming, it's a lot of work, and you know, you can plant an apple tree for 30 bucks, which he's done, but he says it's not just the $25 for the tractors, what implements does he need to have. so it's kind of like buying a car, but you can buy these things with 0 none down, and 0% interest think of it as buying a $25,000 car. >> and forget about the land you need to create crops on that size and scale, i guess, is the other way to put it. i don't think i need a $25,000 tractor for any little quarter acre sized lot in my backyard, right? >> you get the nice mower that you can ride around on. >> i want a riding mower i don't think my wife is going to let me do it

jane in harborside, maine. downward pressure on stocks getting relief as the fed signals its accommodative policy is here to stay. david cats, and lay out if the market can catch that momentum subscribe to our podcast if you missed "worldwide exchange" check us out on apple, spotify or whatever podcast app you choose we'll be right back after this break. since we founded affirm 8 years ago, and through to this day, our mission has been to build honest financial products that improve lives. we're proud to be putting consumers back in control of their finances without the fear of falling into debt or paying exorbitant fees. we're also proud to be a powerful revenue accelerator for merchants. a payment system like ours has never been built.

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student loans don't have to take over for the rest of your life. thank you for allowing me to get my money right. ♪♪ welcome back to the show futures pointing to a continued pressure in the markets. this after a wild day in trading yesterday with the dow and the nasdaq seeing big swings following fed chair jay powell's testimony on inflation, and the central bank's policy moving forward. i'm joined by david katz, chief investment officer at matrix investment advisers. what was it in the context of jay powell's testimony that

caught your attention and was the market justified in coming that far off the lows? >> we think the testimony was more of the same, basically what powell has said is that inflation is going to be in check, and the fed is going to keep rates low indefinitely. and the market likes that. we think that the market is very momentum driven at the moment. so you started off negative and the news flow wasn't as bad during the day we would not read too much into one given day or week with the stock market. >> the momentum last year is very different than the momentum of the end of the year and into this year right now. we highlighted earlier in the show just how far the outperformance has been in energy and industrial type stocks, versus certain part of the technology and communications services sector is that kind of rotation here to stay can we expect to see those economically sensitive value sectors continue to outperform >> we believe it is. last year was the most lopsided year between growth and value since 1979 we don't think it's going to

last we think it's reversing now. it's started to reverse in the 4th quarter and has gained momentum this year looking at your portfolio, we would try to buy things that have good potential over the next year. they're selling at reasonable valuations that did not do as well last year financials have started to do nicely as late energy has had a graduate bounce there are also groups that have not done as well of late that did not do well last year, that we think were going to be the next rotation, areas like health care, utilities, consumer staples, selling at 13 or 14 times earnings, paying a 3 to 4% dividend yield, the markets at 2% earnings. that's going to be the next rotation that's where you want to go. let's bring in drew mattis, the chief market strategist at met life is the macro environment right now constructive for markets to keep their march higher or are we due for some kind of a pull

back given the fact that we have seen conditions overextend themselves in terms of expectations >> i do think people are getting a little bulled up about the outlook. at the same point, we have to remember one basic fact, which is, you know, things are getting better and then secondarily, what i always am struck by is when you look back in history and you look back to pictures of the 1920s, no one is wearing a mask, and that was after the greatest pandemic that the world had seen in the modern age. i think this idea of returning to normal is one that if people had grabbed on to, and i think it's reasonable, the real question is in my mind with rates moving higher, how much can be sustained for how long. >> with rates moving higher, you mentioned sectors that we had talked about in the past, financials being one of them are interest rates a concern, are they going to tap the brakes on this market rally >> for financials, they actually

are a significant beneficiary of rates moving higher, and after lagging so much last year, there's a big catch up trade there. that's a place that you are going to start to have business momentum in terms of the other areas or the overall economy, we think with rates as low as they are, though they moved up, 1.3% is reasonable we don't think that derails the economy. and short-term rates are at 0, and that's where a lot of borrowing takes place. >> what are your favorite stock picks, david, going into the new year here? >> we like companies like u.s. bank corps, con ed, cvs also very attractive. merck, verizon, coca-cola, a very interesting reopening play. pays a very good yield 50% of their businesses from venues and restaurants we think as the world opens up, that stock probably has the most momentum in the consumer staples. utilities have been creamed. we think that's gotten over done con ed, they also benefit from reopening of new york.

>> all right drew mattis. last word to you here. what's your favorite part of the market right now, and what are you staying away from? >> you know, i'm not an equity person when i look at things, you know, in my frame work, i'm looking at private securities >> private securities. take us through exactly from a macro perspective, what asset class are you talking about here >> i think, you know, private debt, so you know, it's not a matter of just there's certain corporations you like. do you want to buy what they have offered in the market or do you want to talk to them and see if they've got something they would rather sell to you directly. >> do you feel as though the markets are over extended right now given the rate environment >> i think it's concerning, you know, you have to be very careful you're being paid for the risk you're taking and you have to be very careful that you actually consider how much risk you're taking, and i don't think it's obvious right now how much

risk people are taking and that they're aware of how much risk they're potentially taking. >> all right david katz, and drew mattis, thank you your yofor your marke thoughts we appreciate it that ends "worldwide exchange," market coverage is up next do you stay down? or do you get up? [announcer] and this fight is a long way from over, leonard is coming back. ♪♪ ♪♪

good morning, jay powell jay powell to the rescue comments from the fed chairman helped turn the tide on wall street after a 350 point dow slide. the nasdaq was down even more on a percentage basis before recovering but not turning positive today's markets and the moves straight ahead. bar stool brawl, not in a bar. dave portnoy took the ceo of robinhood to task over his handling of the gamestop saga.

and a late night update on tiger woods position after a car wreck and emergency surgery yesterday. we'll bring you a live report from outside the hospital. it's wednesday, february 24th, 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 we're going to start this morning with the markets because this was something to see. the dow coming off a wild -- actually ended the day with a gain investors can thank fed chairman jay powell for that turn around. he tells lawmakers inflation remains soft and bank is committed to policy. and no hints that they are