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 thinking about raising rates

we're going to see if he echoes those comments again today when he goes before the other chamber of commerce. take a look at u.s. equity futures this hour. we talked about the dow how it ended the day higher both the s&p and dow were down by 1%. they ended the day higher. dow is up for six out of seven days for february, an impressive performance, up 5.2% yesterday, the nasdaq may have been the bigger deal the nasdaq was down by 3.9% at the lowest levels of the day it came all the way back it was only down 1/2 percent at the end of the day nasdaq has been struggling over the last, i don't know, maybe six sessions at this point it's actually still indicated up for the month. for the month, it's got a gain of 3%. we'll continue to keep an eye on that green arrows across the board. dow futures indicated up by 26 points, s&p futures up by 5 1/2, the nasdaq up by 30. if you're taking a look at what's been happening in the treasury market, we have been following the ten-year yields,

and yields didn't do a whole lot, after calming words from jay powell, you look right now, and we are right at where we were yesterday at 1.367% andrew. thanks, becky. meantime, i don't know if you stayed up late to watch this it was a bit of a must watch financial tv late night. barstool sports founder, dave portnoy faced off with robinhood ceo vlad tenev over his company's conduct in the gamestop saga, and grilled on restricting buying in the reddit stocks rather than freeze both buying and selling take a look. >> i'm proud of the way the team handled the crisis by and large, we were able to protect the firm we were able to prevent customers from having a bigger -- >> that's the part, how can you, in that line you just said, like proud of how we handled it, how can that be possible like, you guys are billed as a

firm to retail traders. >> yeah. >> and you screwed them over i mean, so you protected the firm that's what you did. and that's what it seems every decision was made to protect robinhood, but everything that you built up as this image of catering, i mean, you literally, if you really want to protect the firm and protect -- i mean, protect the customers, you wouldn't have stopped buying that decision basically had to crater the price and left a ton of your customers holding the bag. >> i understand how you feel that way, and how customers might feel that way, but i think we have to also protect -- i mean, customers buying meme stocks rests on a foundation of our business being able to operate, which rests on a foundation of the financial system working, right, if the financial system breaks down, things could go down very

quickly. >> tenev effectively argued if he didn't take any action, the company would have likely faced a liquidity issue in the future. he actually showed that conversation that we had the first night when vlad came on and i asked him directly whether he had a liquidity crisis, and he said he didn't, portnoy showed him that clip and effectively went after him the argument he made, that portnoy made, and i have to say, i think portnoy is a smart guy, but i don't think he necessarily appreciated it he kept saying, why wouldn't you just halt trading in the stock on both sides, but that's something that an exchange would do it's not something an individual brokerage would do if you didn't it at one brokerage and others didn't, and you could still get your money out. it was fascinating to watch. dave really pushed him in some very good ways, and i give vlad

a lot of credit for sitting down him. i don't know if you guys stayed up to watch the fireworks. >> portnoy gave him credit in the end he said i'm not going to wish you good luck but i will give you credit for showing skup and taking these questions he went after him for saying one thing here, and saying something else when he was under oath for congress, which i thought was a fair point the idea that vlad keeps coming back to the whole thing that we're all for protecting what we did, protected the retail trader, you know, there were a lot of retail traders that got totally hosed by that situation. so, you know, they were protecting the -- i think portnoy is right, they were protecting the firm, and therefore protecting the money of the investors who were still there but man. that was a raw situation for the people who were there and he said he lost $700,000. >> the truth, though, and i've thought a lot about this is we talk about the meme traders,

people who are trading these reddit stocks on robinhood, and obviously there was a huge number of people doing that. but the flip side is you could have tried to serve, if you will, the speculators that day and had you tried to do that, you not only would have taken down robinhood unto itself, but all of the other investors who were on the platform who are not speculating, which by the way, are the majority of people on the platform you have to decide at some level, who are you trying to protect. >> really? >> in what is otherwise a terrible scenario they never should have gotten themselves into to begin with it's an interesting thing, and the other thing that struck me and it's very true, and this part is where i think dave has pushed the envelope in terms of what he pushed a narrative during that week around what was going on, because the truth is, and vlad did say it last night, and we have talked about the numbers, i think, a little bit maybe on this show, but definitely on this network, that

week, interestingly, it's almost a contrarian thought retail investors were net sellers of that stock, of gamestop. >> they had to be because nobody would let them buy it. >> well, no, no, if you look, monday to wednesday prior when everybody could buy it or sell it, retail was actually a net seller you can go look through the citadel numbers and some o. ot -- of the other things. when you look at the data, it looks different, and i think over the next couple of weeks and month as the story unfolds, i think it's going to get a lot more complicated quickly, and it's not just going to be about the retail it's going to be about the hedge funds and the institutions who jumped on top to surf this wave. >> there's this perception or this fantasy that the stock would still be at $350

if the buying hadn't been disrupted that day and stock's at 44 and change, still seems like a lot i don't know maybe they got a great business coming, but the stock went where it was going maybe it wouldn't have gone there as quickly as it went there, but that one day pause in the buying, you know, that's a great -- it sets up, you know, a fall guy. >> it wasn't a one-day buzz. >> the boogeyman who did something wrong but the stock is at 44 and change we'll see. maybe it goes back to 400. now they can buy again, but i wouldn't bet on it. >> i wouldn't either there's a lot of anger, though, that's been directed at robinhood for what happened there. and in fact, some of it that we've seen play out, i don't know if you guys saw this yesterday, the trading platform, public.com is looking to try and kind of trading on all of this to capitalize on the anger at robinhood. it enlisted michael bolton to

write a song, urging people to break up with your brokerage listen in ♪ tell me all about it tell me who you sell my trades to ♪ ♪ tell me one thing more before i go ♪ ♪ tell me how am i supposed to trade without you ♪ ♪ i stayed in your ad for oh so long ♪ >> this is one of the more clever things that's come out of this carl actually tweeted this yesterday and that's when i saw it but michael bolton, stepping up, making the case for public.com, you don't have to stay with robinhood if you're mad at them. go ahead, we'll show you how to quickly transfer over your assets. >> i was thinking, he can do what he wants. that's not why he did it i've seen him live

actually at a golf tournament and his voice -- >> did you >> yeah, he plays golf big golfer at the hope i think he's played in the at&t. he's not a small guy he's not a huge guy, and that voice comes out like he's pavarati his voice is phenomenal. and a huge talent. that's hilarious, you could have heard a knock off doing that ridiculous song, changing the words, but having him do it is awesome. it's really funny. >> the thing that struck me is you're starting to see public get more popular, which is great to see that there's more competition in this space. but also public is a start up. and so in the same way if there is another meme stock scenario, how well capitalized is that company going to be, and what i'm hoping we get to see is a

company like public, trying to make the argument they are not taking payment for order flow, i would love to see whether they're actually able to execute the trades through the exchanges and some of the other ways they're doing it at prices that are better than what robinhood may or may not be doing. we have heard from vlad, and ken griffin saying they're getting better execution prices. at some point it would be great to see not just a fabulous add with bolton who's hilarious in that ad, but also see head to head how the numbers stack up. i would love to trade gamestop for a day on both exchanges at the same time, and see what kind of pricing you get. >> you're a business junky i was watching the next story last night you know, you should have messaged me that vlad was going to be on with portnoy. this almost reminded me of you remember where you were when you heard it, an update on tiger woods condition. and i heard people saying, you know, an athlete involved in a

car crash who broke his leg. it's tyiiger, it's been worriso because it sounds like significant injuries to his legs yesterday's car crash, statement posted on his twitter account, just before 1:00 a.m., said woods was awake, responsive and recovering in his hospital nbc's megan fitzgerald joins us live outside the hospital. megan, i guess what people were listening to was the actual details of the accident, which were so frightening. talk about 500 and 600 feet without hitting anything, crossing over the median and crossing over incoming traffic, which is usually there down in that part of l.a., and it wasn't missing trees, so lucky, and yet, we're just worried about the prognosis for how healthy he's going to be, how much

recovery he can get. what can you tell us, megan? >> reporter: joe, that's absolutely it, and then when you look at the images of the car and to what you said, the fact that he's alert and responsive this morning it's incredible. we are learning in that statement that was released overnight, that he sustained some significant orthopedic injuries, that he underwent a lengthy surgery for his lower right leg, and ankle we also understand that his foot is being supported now by pins and rods now, i want to take you back to the scene of this crash, in retro pal, it was just after 7:00 a.m. that tiger is going down this road that they have seen many crashes on before. he veers off into a median, crashes into a sign, continues on, as you mentioned, striking a tree his vehicle flips, and he's trapped inside this vehicle. it takes the los angeles county fire department to come with

tools to pry him out of that vehicle. he was then rushed to the hospital here where we underwent that emergency surgery a deputy on scene said that he talked to tyinger and that he was responsive he was able to identify himself. the slheriff says they don't believe he was impaired. there was no evidence of that. and he says likely it's possible that speed was a factor here, joe. >> again and again it was mentioned. if you know the topography out there. there's a lot of hills, and you're coming down from a higher elevation when you're headed into -- i think he was going to rolling hills country club maybe, and that's a long winding road with a pretty steep grade where a lot of people, if you're not tapping your brakes, you're going to be going too fast tiger always likes to drive himself. you know, obviously he could -- he could probably chopper everywhere he wanted to go, if he wants to. he likes to drive himself. he was in a genesis, the

tournament of the riviera was the genesis tournament up the road there in los angeles. but going too fast no skid marks, meagan, which was weird. he was moving. do you know for a fact it only rolled over once or rolled over a few times. the car was trashed, totally demolished, the front. >> reporter: right and when you look at the images, you can see damage to the back, but it's the front end damage that takes your breath away. completely obliterated the front part of the vehicle there, and so, you know, you also keep in mind the fact that tiger just underwent his fifth back surgery a couple of months ago in december >> in december. >> reporter: he's recovering from that with the hope of potentially being able to play at master's, so certainly this is a setback for him deputies will say, look, he is lucky to be alive given the nature and just the of this cra.

>> he was headed to i guess do a little thing for discovery, for our friend zazlov with justin herbert, the quarterback, and drew brees, and he's only chipping and putting now, because recovering from the most recently back surgery but can you imagine the cops that came across, oh, my god, look at this wreck, and they get there, hi i'm tiger woods. would have been like what, unbelievable really, you know, anyway it was transfixed to this story last night thank you for your reporting >> absolutely. coming up, a full run down of today's morning movers, tech stocks versus bank stocks, and bring you an update on tesla's turn around yesterday, that ark. the stock closed well off the lows there we go, see, i say things, i should just wait because i know it's going to be here after a buy in from a big tesla

backer, as we head to break, check out the shares of lowe's, home improvement retailer beating estimates on the top and bottom line, and supporting a better surge in same store sales. we're coming back. ♪ ♪ we made usaa insurance for veterans like martin. when a hailstorm hit, he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa all the things, all around you where you learn, work, and fly we help make them healthier. we are the people of abm. for more than 100 years, we've been a leader in making spaces cleaner, from the things you touch to the air you breathe. today, more than 100,000 of us are innovating to ensure spaces are more efficient, healthier and safer. abm. making spaces healthier for you.

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.

mentioning, tesla slide reversed

course in a big way yesterday. that stock was down by as much as 13% it fell as low as $619 during the trade session before a big turn around. it ended up closing just shy of $1,700, it's up 3.3%, back to $722 perhaps helping the reversal was arc invest kacathie wood. as of yesterday, the innovation etf held 3 1/2 million tesla shares worth 2 1/2 billion dollars. it's not just dectesla. wood out with comments on bitcoin, saying she's positive on the cryptocurrency and happy to see a healthy correction. bitcoin is back above $50,000, this has been a pretty wild ride to watch it was well above $50,000 almost at $55,000 over the weekend. came down, but now as you can see, it's up again this morning, about 7% to 50,395

joe. >> down in the mid 40s for like a -- if you blink, if you turned on the tv and looked back, it was like, oh, never mind back above 50. and you had the square news, although compared to micro strategy, that's like he's buying individual sitoshis or whatever they're called. tech stocks pulled back up not quite, but not buying nearly to the extent that our friend was buying tech stocks extending a recent slump on moneys rotated. joining us is greg bull, managing partner at verify tech financial, and portfolio manager at independent solutions wealth management tech is much sexier, i still want to start with you greg. you are a bank bull, but you note you were a bank bull when it made a lot more sense, and i think you're not quite as

excited at this point. i'm talking about in the summer when you were anticipating a reopening trade with the banks, and now we've already seen it. they were so cheap back then, are they still cheap or, you know, do you just keep what you have? >> right well we're not in the crazy valuation days that we were in pre-election, low, and that's right, you remember me talking about this over the summer that the election would focus people on 2021 earnings, and we saw that trade right, the indexes are up 50% since november select names are up 50% since november it's now a stock pickers game. you know, the sector is about to have some pretty significant tail winds but it won't lift all boats equally. what i'm looking for in particular is the large diversified names that were able to aggressively provision on the back of robust trading businesses, on the back of

robust capital markets those are the names that will benefit disproportionately as we start to enter a real cycle. now, the head winds will be that wer we haven't seen the net charge offs and off of the last recession, it took ten years to get above 2%, we saw credit normalize first, and i think we'll see that again again, we have seen some pretty significant releases last quarter. j.p. morgan released 2.9 bank of america released almost a billion, and so i think again those will be tail winds, i would stay in the large diversified names. >> paul, let's get over to tech. yesterday we started seeing maybe a glimpse of the future and what tech looks like in a higher interest rate environment. if there's any sector that loves low interest rates, extended low interest rates, obviously it's tech, and it took powell in the middle of the day and those competents to sort of have tech

rebound. but your point is it's got nothing to do with the actual fundamentals of each company it's kind of a macro view for when tech goes down like that. but isn't it something to be concerned with if rates continue to go higher >> yeah, joe, this is reminiscent of chairman powell's comments back in october of '18 where he talked about potentially starting a slew of rate raises, and the nasdaq 100, the qqq in the next couple of weeks dropped 23%. that's a full fledged bear market in just a couple of weeks. so i am bullish on tech fundamentals, since we had that episode, here comes covid, terrible pandemic, but it's forced the world to digitize even faster. so fundamentals are strong we have just come out of a real successful quarterly reporting period, and guidance for most tech companies, so fundamentally, we're clean, joe,

but i do worry about comments coming from the fed, and if we do have rates rising and they get out of control, i mean, this is the discount factor or the denominator in a discounted cash flow valuation as you said, for growth stocks, it really impaired valuation i would probably, if i'm a tech investor, thinking about getting bigger or somebody that's not in, thinking about getting in, let's hold back a couple of sessions a couple of weeks, and let's see how these rates play out and the more comments from the fed. we've got some good news yesterday, but remember, this can be real evil for tech real fast i would like people to stand back unless you're really a long-term investor. >> think about it, paul, not only does reopening perhaps mean higher interest rates, we got no km chips for cars because everybody is staying at home for chips on their computers.

tech has benefitted from stay-at-home you've got a double whammy, higher rates and the reason for high rates is reopening. unless tech, the gains it made during stay-at-home, you know, the time dilation or the digital transformation, maybe it's here to stay. maybe tech doesn't give back those advances. >> it will be interesting to see how it plays out because obviously some companies were not only benefitted from but they were created by the work at home phenomenon, and when they come back, you know, how much zooming are we going to do we'll see. it's probably somewhere between 0 and where we have been we have to take a look at all of these carefully. >> i want to get a few comments from greg. we mainly talked banks and financials, do you have comments on tech? >> like financials, i believe that tech is, you have to be really discriminating on the stories you pick, and so next year, analysts expect the s&p to

grow 35% ex-tech, and tech to grow around 15%. you're not going to be able to support higher multiples at a lower growth rate. the story is important you talk about zoom. zoom's phone business is the growth driver there. that's a multiyear driver that is very much not in the stock or at least appreciably in the stock and should outweigh its actual conferencing business in 2022 e retail gained significant share. that's not going away. it gained about ten years of share in the last year it used to be growing at 1%. it's growing at 10%. those are stories you can bite your teeth through and should sustain through market jitters. >> gentlemen, thanks, greg branch, paul meeks good to have you on. >> thanks, joe when we come back, attorneys for the former theranos, striking

back, we have the latest on this crazy case. a programming note, tonight at 8 eastern time, carl quintanilla is hosting a cnbc special report, a path forward, focusing on small business you got to check this out. weal be right back

♪♪ ♪ now here we go ♪ ♪ i can't help it if i'm poppin' see them watch like ♪ ♪ who that girl ♪ ♪ it's outrageous how this flavour got em shook like ♪ ♪ hold up ♪ ♪ work work work it out ♪ ♪ ah ha ♪ ♪ i hit it back with a brand new style ♪ ♪ like woah ♪ ♪ bring it up into the fold get wild ♪ ♪ we turning up all the way on the dial ♪

♪ like woah ♪ ♪ baby i'm fabulous so come on ♪ limitless possibilities. the boldly new 2021 nissan kicks. ♪♪ for skin that never holds you back don't settle for silver #1 for diabetic dry skin* #1 for psoriasis symptom relief* and #1 for eczema symptom relief* gold bond champion your skin we see smarter software delivering cleaner power. emerson's breakthrough technology enables

the power industry to integrate renewable energy sources to modernize and improve the electric grid. emerson. consider it solved. in the theranos elizabeth holmes case it came late last night. attorneys for holmes accused the government of losing a database which had three years of accuracy rates of theranos tests. prosecutors claim theranos destroyed the database because it proved the blood testing was

inaccurate this will be argued out before a judge next month, and that will set the stage for holmes much awaited trial set to start in july this is complicated. the prosecutor says they asked for this information they were given a back up drive that theranos executives gave them the drive but forgot the password they had set on it. they say the theranos people forgot the password that was set on it. they asked for this back in 2018, and i think three months later, the main computer system, the lis, the database was destroyed after that they say it was done intentionally. the prosecutor says they have e-mail evidence that shows that this was done intentionally, but this is going to be another step in an incredibly compelling argument that we have watched back and forth >> it's a crazy case it's a crazy case, becky >> shakespeare, from the heights, i mean, shakespearian

can't get much lower, couldn't get much higher. >> so you want to bet on this? what do you think about a comeback for elizabeth holmes, do you think we'll be talking about elizabeth holmes in a decade from now? >> we'll look it up on draft kings. i put some long odds there who knows, though, everybody can be -- >> i have a feeling show we're going to be hearing from her again. >> what? how? >> i do. i don't know you know -- >> why >> like what's his face, justin belfort or whatever his name is. tell you how i did it so you don't get taken again. when we come back, a lot more, we're going to talk about today's top stories and the latest on the stimulus deal in washington we'll also talk square and bony in bitcoin in just a moment we'll be back after this

i made a business out of my passion. bitcoin in just a moment we'll be back after this bitcoin in just a moment we'll be back after this bitcoin in just a moment we'll be back after this bitcoin in just a moment we'll be back after this bitcoint we'll be back after this i just don't have the bandwidth for more business. seriously, i don't have the bandwidth. glitchy video calls with regional offices? yeah, that's my thing. with at&t business, you do the things you love. our people and network will help do the things you don't. let's take care of business. at&t.

use a single hr software? nope. we use 11. eleven. why do an expense report from your phone when you can do it from a machine that jams? i just emailed my wife's social security number to the entire company instead of hr, so... please come back. how hard is your business software working for you? with paycom, employees enter and manage their own hr data in one easy-to-use software. visit paycom.com for a free demo. hon? first off, we love each other...

good morning, and welcome back to "squawk box" this morning. take a look at u.s. equity futures this hour. dow looks like it would open at 17 points higher, s&p 500 up a little over a point nasdaq off, though, about 24 points meanwhile some headlines, the faa saying it's ordering immediate inspections of boeing

777 jets, equipped with the pratt & whitney engines, before further flights following that spectacular engine failure on a united flight over the weekend we saw those viral images. faa administrator steven dickson is going to join us live this morning at 7:20 eastern time to talk all about this. becky? >> thanks, andrew. when we come back, the u.s. black chamber of commerce president ron busby is going to join us to talk about the recovery for small businesses, the fight to raise minimum wage, and more. right now, though, as we head to a breaker take a look at the biggest gainers, the index fell deep in the red yesterday, down by 3.9% it reversed most of those losses, though closed down by just 1/2 a percentage point we'll be right bk.ac

welcome back, everybody. the debate over raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour isn't an easy one. the senate and house democrats are split over its inclusion in president biden's $1.9 trillion relief package some republicans now propose a new plan for a $10 minimum wage. opponents are arguing that it will force small businesses to shed workers supporters like the u.s. black chamber argue it's going to reduce pay inequality, and say they are in favor of it. joining us right now is ron busby, president and ceo of the u.s. black chambers and it's great to see you this morning, ron. thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having us on this morning. >> let's talk first of all just about the minimum wage that's been a contentious issue in terms of including that with covid relief plan. that plan is tied up in congress it's not going to easily pass. in fact, probably the earliest that president biden can expect to see it on his desk is at

least three weeks from now what do you say about $10 minimum wage, first of all, should it be included in the pandemic relief bill >> i think all relief to small businesses, particularly black-owned businesses is going to help. i think that the minimum wage is an issue that most black businesses understand that's important. the majority of black owned business two-fold one of the 2.6 million black owned businesses across the country, 2.5 really have no employee base we have 1099 we have sub contractors, family members and a lot of cash and carry, so the majority of us are already paying in excess to the minimum wage, as well as the majority of black-owned businesses, their number one concern is really increased customer availability of cash, and so for them, they're saying the minimum wage would impact a large percentage of african americans, which would give them the extra spending cash to be able to support black owned

businesses across the country. so for the u.s. black chamber, we are in favor of the increase of the minimum wage. >> you sat down with vice president harris earlier this month, along with janet yellen, the treasury secretary in terms of the things that your businesses are looking for right now, what's at the top of the list >> obviously we're looking for an inclusion of support financially to get through the covid-19, this next period of time from the last 12 months, especially this time last year we actually saw that over the course of the months between february and april, we actually lost 41% of black-owned businesses and of those businesses that are still in operation, many of them, 47% said that without some additional support, they will also go out of business, and so the majority of our businesses are looking for additional financial support from the federal government they're also looking for

additional investments as opposed to just grants and long-term loans, as well as looking for additional contract opportunities, as we look at infrastructure bills, we want to make sure that the infrastructure happens in our communities that are being contracted with black-owned businesses and in turn, those black owned businesses hired within those communities there is a true all impact effect as it relates to black communities and black businesses >> you know, you didn't mention minimum wage as one of the top issues that you all are looking for now. i know you're in favor of raising the minimum wage, would it be fair to say that you would like to see this other fiscal relief come first, and then worry about the minimum wage later or do you think it's important to be wrapped into this particular bill >> i don't know if it has to be in this particular bill. i don't want this issue to hold up the additional funding that the businesses across america

need but i do believe the that minimum wage needs to be addressed. i would hate for us to have to go through an opportunity like this to really address the needs of the american businesses across the country, and so i would hope we would be able to do both at the same time, but in reference to black-owned businesses, our primary concern is access to capital, access to contracts and opportunities, and then we'll look at how to deal with the minimum wage, but i would hope they would not stop or slow down the progress of this american rescue plan, trying to make sure that both the republican as well as the democrats can agree upon the minimum wage >> ron, i talked to mitt romney about his plan last night. he was talking about $10 an hour, and the rationale for his $10 an hour, which i know you think is too low, is effectively if you look at the cbo score, the $15 scores you a losing

$1.4 million, $10 scores you at losing no jobs how do you even begin to think about that distinction and could you phase something in over a period of time, meaning go to 10, then 12, then 15, so you don't get into a situation where you could potentially lose any jobs >> i think that the current bill, the way it's laid out is that this minimum wage would be rolled out over a period of time and in reference to a $10, we have not seen an increase in the minimum rage over the last ten years, and so you're really looking at dealing with the lowest income bracket in america. they need to be addressed. i do agree that we could have some conversations about what the right number is. i do believe that $10 is too low. i believe that the american economy could use a boost. and what you're looking for from

our community, we're looking for businesses, and we are talking to them, they're all saying i'm looking for additional customers that have dollars this their pockets. i think this would accelerate that movement and that opportunity as well. >> ron, i want to thank you for being with us today. it's really good to see you, and we hope you come back. >> looking forward to it, love to have you join us as well. thank you. >> okay. thank you. a programming note for you, we're going to be talking more stimulus and minimum wage with house minority leader kevin mccarthy that's coming up at 8:00 a.m. eastern time andrew. >> thanks, becks on the other side of this, we're going to get more reaction from new comments from the ceo of robinhood last night during that contentious interview with barstoolpo srts founder, dave portnoy. it got hot we'll talk about it and show you some more in just a moment strengthening client confidence in you. before investing consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses.

go to flexshares.com for a prospectus containing this information. read it carefully.

the forum that's supposed to have our back is essentially the one who put us in this mess. >> look, we -- again, i'll just say, the last thing i want to do is create this problem for our customers where they want to buy something, and they can't, right? so, i'm going to do average i can to make sure we don't see this happen again. we believe people should be able to trade what they want. that's the whole reason we exist. that's the whole reason we brought zero commissions to this market with no account minimums. i raised $3.4 billion with the team in 72 hours which i don't know if it's been done before. >> and that was barstool founder dave portnoy grilling rob tenev

over the robinhood gamestop. joining me reporter for "the wall street journal," emily glazer good morning to both of you. i don't know how late both of you stayed up last night and whether you got to the watch the fireworks. i'm curious your reactions on two ends one is the implication for robinhood long-term. the business seems to be oddly doing even better in terms of the number of customers on it. but also that you both cover media and what we're seeing with barstool and its influence in all of this. sarah, do you want to start? >> yeah, dave portnoy is an influential figure certainly among barstool's young audience and robinhood here going to dave you can see there's a trust problem amongst his community. the other thing that's important, dave brought up a good point how are they so caught off guard by this?

people following reddit were not as caught off as robinhood's ceo. and there's probably more he needs to do is keep an eye on internet conversation when he's managing a platform like this, andrew >> emily, do we have competition? it seems like dave portnoy, he may become a news afternooner? >> you know, i was thinking how congressional ceos go on jim cramer and get grilled there dave portnoy held up a photo of maxim maxine waters and said you couldn't handle this and tenev was answering questions that he couldn't fully answer in the house services committee. it took on a whole new level what they're going to say, let's not forget, he's got more coming up >> it's an interesting strategy and obviously a good one for him to get out there like he has

let's talk other headlines square buying into bitcoin in a big way. curious what you think the reaction is going to be, how you think of square on one end buying bitcoin and twitter which is also controlled by jack dorsey on the other end not buying bitcoin, emily? >> well, twitter's ceo said they're considering buying vendors in bitcoin we saw tesla buy up $1.9 billion in bitcoin what we're seeing is ceos saying look this is who risky to have on our balance sheet they're considering it's like a currency that fluctuates wildly. whereas, square and a few other companies are saying look, this is quadrupled in 2020. we want this on our balance sheet and tesla got approval from its board to have we are starting to see companies

consider holding bitcoin on their balance sheet. >> the interesting elements when ned segal came on our air, i think becky might have asked the question we were talking about bitcoin and whether they would take on bitcoin. and he said only if they were going to antransact in it, not necessarily as an investment in the balance sheet. you could argue you could invest in bitcoin or the stock market, right? >> what's that what's that, right bitcoin is on a whole new level. yes, i agree when twitter's ceo came on cnbc, he said they were considering it it's interesting "the wall street journal" spoke with cfos and a number of companies back when tesla made its big purchase earlier this month, cfos from cisco and mozilla said, look, it's not worth it right now. >> sara, let's pivot and talk about facebook for a second. we saw the news cross yesterday

about the -- i don't know if it's an agreement. but the shift in terms of what's happening in australia who won that battle? and what does it mean for what's going to happen here in the united states? >> i really think facebook won that battle because they eventually got what they wanted which was a little bit more time to negotiate deals with publishers before being forced to be decimated by that code but, andrew, i talked with the ceo of media alliance and other news publishing trades saying is this a win too ultimately, facebook is paying out publishing in australia. link share will be brought back. it's kind of a win-win what this means for news systems and tech bargaining is critical. in the united states, members of congress are saying, look, we want to adopt some of the framework for this australia code, because now we're seeing a framework whether or not it's

going to work. i would expect more conversations on capitol hill to ramp up as well as conversations in europe. right now, europe is solely focused on copy right. but expect it to move into antitrust-type of framework around customers which is similar to the framework that australia has adopted in creating some of these negotiations >> fascinating stuff sara and emily, thank you for joining us this morning. hope to see you very soon. >> thank you >> joe thank you, the latest out of washington president biden's proposed stimulus bill. we're expecting a house vote on friday plus, the faa ordering immediate inspection of all of boeing 777 jets after this weekend's engine failure on united flights. in coro, wreolade' going to talk to the agency's administrator in the next hour. "squawk box" is coming right back

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.

♪ good morning welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc i'm andrew ross sorkin along with becky quick and joe kernen. taking a look at equity futures. 2 1/2 hours set to open. 8 1/2 points on the dow. s&p 500 up 200 points nasdaq off 8.5 points a couple of headlines to bring you right now lowe's beating wall street estimates --

projections i should say, with the latest earnings report lowe's report, profit 1.33 per share. 12% above store sales count 21.1% more than the 22% that analysts have been anticipating. this is interesting. gamestop's cfo jim bell leaving that job next month. the retailer video game saying not related to operations. a source telling reuters it was not related to the friendsdyed trading around gamestop in the past month or so although it was initiated by the company. jim bell raised questions about the money didn't try to raise money during this period and the potential information that the company had at that time that would have prevented them from trying to raise money or otherwise it will be interesting to see what comes from this meantime, new york state tax commissioner michael schmidt has

come out against governor andrew cuomo's proposal for the stock transfer tax the house of representatives voting on legislation to provide $1.9 trillion of coronavirus relief on friday ylan mui joining us. >> it's an open question whether this is going to fly in the senate today, democrats are going to try to convince the senate parl parliamentarian, that it does belong in the covid relief package and the argument they're going to make it raising the wage it reduce the deficit an only uc berkeley say it could

have new refuse new from payroll taxes, savings on social programs and workers delaying retirement the caveat, that study does not assume any impact from employment from higher wages the cbo begged to differ it projects 1.4 million workers would lose their jobs and need federal assistance that would drive a $54 billion increase in the deficit over the next decade. ultimately, it's not whether the math raising that but whether it's incidental to the broader relief package so many businesses are going to have their fate decided by what are admittedly arbitrary rules back over to you >> i've seen both sides argue on all of those issues. that it's not a reconciliation issue and that won't fly the other thing is, in the cbo analysis that you mentioned, unlike the uc berkeley analysis, it puts people out of certain

health care benefits that they get by being below a certain amount which the cbo analysis said it hurts the deficit. it raises the deficit. doesn't help the deficit so they're using different figures because it prices some people out of medicaid and they're going to get it another way which would -- i don't know, it was very arcane, as you said. but in the cbo analysis, the deficit goes up. that's going 0 to be a tough sale, thanks though, ylan. becky. >> thanks, joe when we come back, the newest companying going spac we'll here from renew power. and the faa regarding investigations of all boeing 777 after the engine failure on a flight faa administrator steve dickson will join us to lkta about this. stay right here. "squawk box" will be right back.

oh, you think this is just a community center? no. it's way more than that. cause when you hook our community up with the internet... boom! look at ariana, crushing virtual class. jamol, chasing that college dream. michael, doing something crazy. this is the place where we can show the world what we can do. comcast is partnering with 1000 community centers to create wifi-enabled lift zones, so students from low-income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. oh we're ready. ♪ ♪

welcome back to "squawk box. this morning, tesla's slide reverse course stock had fallen before shy of $700 perhaps helping that turn around ark invest's cathie wood she brought additional shares for two of the company's other

funds. as of yesterday, it held more than 3.5 million tess lal shares worth $2.5 billion it's not just tesla, wood came out with comments on bitcoin saying she's positive on the crypto and very happy to see a healthy correction take a look at bitcoin, just have been 50,000 $50,282 right now. at&t is nearing a deal to sell a stake in directv unit in directv at&t businesses now. at&t acquired directv in 2015 for $58.5 billion. the company moved away from traditional pay tv in the past several years as it centered its medial strategy around hbo max

and the edge fund elliott management took a direction in 2017 to consider investing in noncore assets including directv. and a new development in the elizabeth holmes case came last night. accusing holmes of losing a database that contained three years of accuracy of testing an accuracy rate of 53% which says is the same as flipping a coin this argument is going before a judge next month and that will set the stage for holmes' much awaited trial set to begin in july coming up, we've got the faa administrator steve dickson to inspect all boeing 777 equipped

with the pratt & whitney engine. that interview coming up next. we'll be right back. time now for today's aflac trivia question. what publicly traded company is the nation's largest alcreational boat and yacht deer the answer when cnbc's "squawk box" continues aflac!!! what the heck, troy - that's not your kid! the aflac duck is just covering for sophie. same way he got me money to help cover her hospital bill when my health insurance didn't pay for all of it. but this isn't fair! that's exactly what i said! but then i learned health insurance isn't even supposed to cover everything. wait...for real? for real real. luckily i had aflac. aflac!!! get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. go aflac! !mm-hm! get to know us at aflac.com. hi, i'm a new customer and i want your best new smartphone deal. !mm-hm! well i'm an existing customer and i'd like your best new smartphone deal. oh do ya? actually it's for both new and existing customers.

i feel silly. but i do want the fastest 5g network. oh i want the fastest 5g network. are we actually doing this again? it's not complicated. only at&t gives everyone the same great deal. like the samsung galaxy s21 5g for free when you trade in.

♪ now, the answer to today's aflac trivia question. what publicly traded company is the nation's largest recreational boat and yacht dealer the answer -- marinemax. ♪ still to come this morning a big lineup of guests we're talks to former dallas fed richard fisher house minority leader kevin mccarthy national housing association president becky freemore and

more and courtney gibson with her advice for the next generation one piecing of advice that i would give to the next generation of young black people in this country is to be unapologetically black it is your superpower. it can be your superpower. it's up to you to use it ultimately, think big and focus, focus, focus ♪ wanna build a gaming business that breaks the internet? that means working night and day... ...and delegating to an experienced live bookkeeper for peace of mind. your books are all set. so you can finally give john some attention. trusted experts. guaranteed accurate books. intuit quickbooks live.

no one likes to choose between safe or sporty. modern or reliable. we want both - we want a hybrid. so do banks. that's why they're going hybrid with ibm. a hybrid cloud approach helps them personalize experiences with watson ai while helping keep data secure. ♪ ♪ ♪ from banking to manufacturing, businesses are going with a smarter hybrid cloud, using the tools, platform and expertise of ibm. ♪ ♪ ♪

welcome back to skwx skwgs barstool sports founder dave portnoy facing up with tenev last night on the restrictions on stocks rather than to freeze both buying and selling. >> i'm proud of the way that the team handled the crisis, by and large. we were able to protect the firm we were able to prevent customers from having a bigger -- >> that's the part -- how can -- how can you in that line you just said, proud of how we handled it, how can that be possible like, you guys are billed as a

firm to retail traders >> yeah. >> and you screwed them over i mean -- you protected the firm that's what you did. and that's what it seems every decision was made to protect robinhood. but everything that you built up has this image of catering -- i mean, you literally -- if you really wanted to protect the firm -- i mean, protect the customers, you wouldn't have stopped buying that decision basically had to crater the price and left a ton of your customers holding the bag. >> i understand how you feel that way and how customers might feel that way. but i think we have to also protect -- i mean, customers buying stocks rest on the foundation of our business being able to operate. and rests on the foundation of the financial system working, right? if the financial system breaks down, things could go --

>> i don't want to -- >> tenev argued ifhe didn't take any action, the company would likely have faced a liquidity issue in the future. that was his response, frankly, to my original question that we had brought you when i said did he have a liquidity crisis an he said he didn't have a liquidity crisis we talked about the semantics of that a bit of this debate that dave portnoy put forward, it was fascinating in many ways, but i would arguea little wrong in s far as the idea that they could freeze the stock on robinhood, would have had no material impact because others weren't freezing it. that's what an exchange does it's not something that a brokerage would do and on the flip side, as joe and becky, we were talking about in the last hour, i think the stock probably would have ended where it is today eventually maybe it would have taken longer to get there but if you believe the market is efficient at all, it's not clear that you would have effectively

protected yourself at least the buyers, the speculators. >> i immediately thought that, you know, you're definitely not going to buy any robinhood or any gamestop if robinhood is like shut down because they went out of business. i mean, who -- you -- obviously, you got to satisfy your customers. but if you're not going to be around, your customers aren't going to be satisfied at all and that was a threat, if we believe -- if we believe what actually happened. that it was an emergency funding for what and you do need to say, that's pretty good, $3 billion. how long did it take there's no small feat. >> 72 hours. >> no small feat and i would think portnoy would have to call him a liar and say you would not have been -- there would not have been a liquidity problem if you left it trading i guess what he's saying you needed to do both, buying and selling. i don't know

$44. it was going there one way or another is what we said. and having buys available that day, what, do the traders think it would have been levitating all the way to today still up at 400? is that really what they think >> no, look, it was going to be a game of musical chairs it's the question of who gets the chairs and who doesn't >> right wow, you got to keep -- what would anyone that was running robinhood, what choice -- if you believe him, what choice did rob tenev have, sorkin >> i don't know, i give portnoy credit for at least making me think about this, could it have gone, meaning all of the different brokerage firms gone to the explain and said you need to freeze the stock because too many of the exchanges can't actually handle it right now that would have been interesting. >> then we'd be hearing about the exchanges, right >> right, the exchange is not

going to take on your problem, your liquidity problem >> it was -- i don't know. it happened. it happened. here we are. i mean, i'm still thinking about when we used to talk about gamestop three years ago not in a million years or scenarios would you have convinced me three years ago that it would have been something that we'd talk about to this extent would you? we were like, hey, what happened to gamestop. seems like a lot of people are getting it online. what happens remember we talked about it >> remember blackberry, we stopped talking about that, too. >> that was another one too. one another they decided -- >> yeah, i know. a lot of these stocks came back in a big way >> nokia >> if it were you, blackberry would be a thousand bucks a share if you had your way, becky because you're a thumb typer >> no, no, i'm the iphone now. >> i know, it was a tough

transition for you >> it was, i made it all right. we've got some breaking news for you the faa says that it is ordering immediate inspections of all boeing 77 jets that are equipped with pratt & whitney pw engines before further flights are allowed. this comes an an engine flight over the weekend that was well photographed and imaged. the airlines around the world that operate planes with this engine type have grounded effective jets but phil lebeau joins us with a special guest. phil, good morning >> good morning, becky let's bring in steve dickson, the administrator of the federal aviation administration. steve, let's start off with the directive that you issued late last night essentially saying these all have to be inspected every single titanium hollow fan blades on the 777 engines, they all need to be inspected what is the major issue?

what is the main concerns you have right now >> well, good morning, phil. it's a pleasure to be with you we actually announced that we were going to take the emergency air worthiness directive action on sunday, within 24 hours of this event occurring and it took the next couple of days to work with pratt & whitney and with boeing, together, the data, the initial investigative data and make this determination about what the directive would consist of as you said, last night, we decided to put out a directive that before further flight we would inspect each one of these fan blades they are a design. it's a very reliable engine. 777 is one of the most reliable airplanes ever built, but we will require inspections before the flight >> now, we've had other issues similar issues with these pw 4,000 engines. you had a similar engine failure in japan last year

united had a similar type of engine failure issue with this on a 777 a couple of years ago at that time, you said, look, inspect these every 6500 flights. is this a systemic issue are you concerned you've got not just one incident here but you've got several incidents, or at least three, and it raises the question, is there a systemic issue with the safety of these pw 4,000 enins? >> i want to be clear, phil, this is not all pw 4,000 engines. this specific design, with this specific type of fan blade the other models of the 4,000 are not affected but as you said, the inspections will identify if they're properly accomplished, they will identify these issues as they crop up. and we were in the process last week, actually, of reviewing the incident in japan which was not as significant of a failure as we saw in denver

but we were already ratcheting down the inspection cycle. because the inspections will identify these cracks as they develop. remember, they're developing on the inside so is this not a visual inspection it takes about eight hours to inspect each blade and each engine has 22 fan blades in it >> steve, what do you say to the flying public who looks at the images, or they look at the images from last weekend they're horrific for anybody who can imagine themselves on this type of a flight looking out the window and seeing the engine on fire or they see the debris that is strewn all over broomfield, colorado what do you say to the officials who say i'm not sure the inspections that should be done are being done on the aircrafts around the country >> well, we have worked very hard over the decades to make sure that the u.s. aviation system and that we influence aviation safety around the globe so that it is at the highest

possible levels. and the safest mode of travel in human history is traveling b air, on a commercial airline in the united states or on a u.s. carrier. and these actions that we're taking are extremely conservative and they are designed to make sure that our aviation system continues to be as safe as it is has been historically. and that it continues to become even safer in the future >> steve, last question for me, how long do you expect the inspections to take -- i know it's eight hours per fan blade how long will you say with pratt & whitney and united airlines, yeah, these are good to go again? >> it will take some time initially but as we learn more, enter, this is an interim action that we're taking. so there will be follow-on analysis where we will look at the operating parameters around theengine. you know, engine warmup times, power settings and also inspection protocols there could be additional

inspection protocols that are introduced that may change the cycles that you talked about the number of flights that are required between inspections but we'll continue to refine the directive going forward. but we wanted to make sure that we started out with looking at each engine individually >> hey, steve -- >> oh, go ahead, becky >> sorry, a quick question, phil steve, you said something that piqued my interest the idea that you're going to look at engine warmup times or things is it a guess or theory anywhere that this could be a problem because of a temperature in an area or because the engines weren't warmed up longer is there some sort of process that you all are running through? >> you always look at all of the parameters how an engine is maintained, operated, the design itself and the physical make-up of the components so, what i'm saying is we're going to take a holistic view at

the entire safety system in this case, the airplane performed extremely well the pilots performed well. and we want to make sure that a margin of safety, again, stays where it is. >> thanks, steve, thank you very much i appreciate you joining us this morning. guys you you heard from steve dickson there, the head of the faa. they're going to be doing these inspections just for scope here in terms of how many planes we're talking about right now. you have 24 of the united 777s with this engine that have been parked since this initial order came out over the weekend. those are going to be inspected in addition to 28 others already in storage basically because they're not flying due to lower traffic levels with covid-19 so, 52, altogether, will be inspected by united airlines guys, back to you. >> okay. phil lebeau thank you for bringing us that interview coming up on the other side

of the break, former dallas fed richard fisher taking a look at where things stand dow, up 77 points. s&p 500 okg lointo open 15 points higher. we're back in just a moment.

fed chair jay powell warning lawmakers that the full economic recovery is still a long way off. he also dodged questions about president biden's nearly $2 trillion stimulus proposal steve liesman joins us right now with more on that. and, steve, i guess some of the dodging about the proposal -- that the $1.9 trillion plan is not unexpected the fed chair is supposed to stay out of that stuff >> yeah. he was, i guess, call it one cool remove away from saying hey, that's your business, not mine but, becky, in two hours of testimony, fed chair jay powell was steadfast that his main concerns were not the higher bond yields or systetimulus bill instead, he focused on the economy's lackluster job creation and how far the u.s.

economy has to go. >> main thing we can do is continue to support the economy, give it the support that it needs. we're still 10 million jobs 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 of that calmed market worries but it didn't stop the inevitable gaming outside of when the fed might there were two main scenarios out of the fed fed shift in the fall reduces qe later in the fall or 2022. the hawkish view in the summer reduces in early 2022. and the fed with we continue to see risks and maintain a base in quest

q4 expect powell to stick to it but that's not the real story, powell with investors holding the line on policy in the summer if the economy posts the kind of numbers we've seen in the rapid update and widespread vac vaccinations powell's point was not how fast the economy recovers it's the job loss becky. >> with the difficult task that powell faces as we get close to what we hope is an inflexion point when it comes to the economy, he can't say we're thinking about, thinking about, changing things, because the second he says that, that's the signal for the market, right there's no gradual eases you've got one shot and one shot alone. the second you say you're thinking about it, you might as well say you're doing it >> you know, becky, how many times have we been through this

talking about the terminal rate. greenspan in his decade or early 2000 bernanke and then yellen stopping the market from pricing in the terminal rate what we get is sort of like says, folks, we're all going to have to eventually get up and leave the theater here if we all get up slowly and walk quietly to the exit there will be no sptampede. it's the stampede wants to avoid because it's higher than what the federal reserve believes is right for the economy at that time so, his thinking, not thinking about, the double is trying to say, hey, we're a long way off and it's going to be gradual and we're going to give you plenty of notice when it's going to happen. and notice what the sequencing is, becky. it's pretty important. fed chair is pretty clear, what they're going to do first is reduce qe. bring it down before they raise

rates so there's like a double buffer in there. >> i know. it's still the same old thing, right? you don't get to say it twice. we're going to gradually tell you these things, we're going to gradually move on these things but the second you do, everybody up, everybody go to the door, right now, out of here >> we saw some of that this week >> really tough. yeah i don't know how to better-maneuver that stay with us, steve, joining us here to talk more about fed chair powell's testimony and president biden's stimulus is former dallas fed chair richard fisher good to see you. thanks for being here. >> good to see you, thanks >> well, let's talk a little bit about this, because i do feel like it's a tricky time. we're getting into that, you know, very kind of dicey time when you know there's going to be a change at some point. we don't know exactly when that's coming. but we're looking for any signal

from powell. he did a good job of basically saying not yet, yesterday. >> yeah, look, there's a deep open scar still at the fed at the affluent seat of the market committee, and that's what happened in 2013 so, you want to make sure it doesn't happen again you want to be gradual, as you just explained you're going to use the balance sheet to titrate back. i like the word "titrate" i want to show i had chemistry, in high school last time i used it. but slowly, slowly the way the market is today, close to 138, back to where it was pushing up before. so it's a question of speed and direction. if the markets detect that we're going to go above the 2% level on a sustained basis that's the key operative word, that sort of changes the way one discounts the present value of future cash flows.

and it takes off the so-called trade that is exhausted further that's where you get competitive returns compared to equities so, if you are at the fed, you don't want to encourage that and i always said when i was there, what i learned in my ten years there, there's a little bit of what i call wizard of ozry, you got to, when what you say is critical here and we're at tender terms in terms of economic recovery. the last thing that powell needs is to trigger a reaction and have a significant correction in equities, accordingly, as we did. and the bond markets as we did in 2013. so, until people, or the market pulls back the curtain, so far, i think he's done, and the committee's done a good job of not triggering a response that could add to further angst about economic recovery. does that make sense

>> yeah. richard, it does but you said it more clearly at the end than at the beginning where we were talking about not wanting to accelerate the t-note takeoff trade where there's no alternative. what they want to do is avoid a market crash because people look at the stock market and say, hey, it's not a measure of the economy but it shows us we're doing some good on some levels how concerned are they concerned about a stock market crash and a bond market crash? >> again, they warned the committee, the chairman then, that by continuing to push on this we were setting a trap. and we would be locked in. and whatever we did tocorrect for that would trigger a stock market correction. so he's very wary of this. he's much more credit-market educated, in fact, the best since paul volker. he understands markets

and they're just going to have to be very, very careful having said that, the markets for fixed income instruments, looking at the ten-year and so on, might perceive them in triggering a reaction and that's what they have been careful about not piling on -- that's my point. >> yeah, i get that. i think the key, or i guess nirvana would be if you could hand this off to an economy that is well recovered and able to pick up and run with it on its own two feet that's like the ideal situation. but you have to start wondering, how much of the idea that the economy has recovered is baked into the stock market, too just is there a way of doing that perfect handoff, because investors and traders aren't willing to always be patient and sit and wait to be told that this is what's happening next? they're kind of figuring that out on their own >> yep, they are figuring that out on their own again, this is a tough thing to thread the eye of this very

narrow needle. but that's what you're trying to do you'll never get it perfectly right. but i think they're doing a good job so far of moving this along. and your point is spot-on, becky. which is it's much better to have a market reaction, however severe, or however gentle. if you have a fully strong economy. the last thing you need is to pile on to still significant doubts about recovery. you don't want to hinder that process and add to further uncertainty. so, i understand where they are. i think they're doing the right thing. i don't think that conversation goes on forever. you're not going to let the market know when you begin to titrate until you feel that the economy is more secure >> richard, i want to thank you. >> becky, you're better at this

than steve or i am >> no, i'm not it's a very nuanced situation. and you've been in the room. you know how complicated it is and trying to hold everything together while we wait and hope that the economy improves and wait for that stimulus package to see what happens there. anyway, richard, it's great to see you. we'll continue this conversation very soon. thanks for being here. >> right thanks for having me, bye. >> okay. andrew meantime, an update -- thanks, becs, on the churchill capital stock. it was nearly cut in half during yesterday's session although it finished off the lows in the past month the stock ran up 470% on rumors of that deal trading around $35.93 a share. the pipe investors, the big institutions that got into this, got in at $15 a share just in the past 48 hours. joe. >> thank you, andrew coming up, is the appetite

for growth and growth stocks shifting? we're going to head up north, speak to noah blackstein about that after the break here are the futures at this hour you can see we're green. we're up crazy day yesterday. we're coming right back. your daily dashboard from fidelity -- a visual snapshot of your investments, key portfolio events, all in one place. because when it's decision time, you need decision tech. only from fidelity.

oh, you think this is just a community center? you need decision tech. no. it's way more than that. cause when you hook our community up with the internet... boom! look at ariana, crushing virtual class. jamol, chasing that college dream. michael, doing something crazy.

this is the place where we can show the world what we can do. comcast is partnering with 1000 community centers to create wifi-enabled lift zones, so students from low-income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. oh we're ready. ♪ ♪ this is bob minetti and his wife wendy. in 2016, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. bob participated in a clinical trial that included cutting-edge radiation therapy and surgery. he's been in remission since completion. i am so glad i learned what was possible for me stand up to cancer and lustgarten foundation are working together to make every person diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a long-term survivor. visit pancreatic cancer collective.org. welcome back to "squawk box. i'm dominic chu. let's look at the themes playing

out on this wednesday. first of all, a highlight of the one big, big, divergents that is energy over technology in is the smallest sector in the s&p. only 2% of the overall index meanwhile, technology 28% weighting. tech has been an outperformance for years now. take a look at stark difference in outperformance. 2.5% for technology. that gap getting wider there possibly a theme to watch in the coming weeks another one to watch, growth stocks versus value stocks on a year-to-date, value iwd up 70%. meanwhile a 1% gain for the growth etf that gap is getting wider, whether or not that value outperformance continues over the next three months and beyond is another big theme to watch as well one of the big etfs everybody's got their eyes on, innovation

aark up 3.5%. remember, this move, 157% rise over the last year it has now fallen by about 13% at its highs at one point yesterday, joe, it was down 20% this amidst the biggest single day outflow for that fund in its inception history. we're going to watch what happens there. joe, by the way even though the stress is there with the aark, it trades for the 1% premium for the assets underlying it something to watch there as well, joe. >> i can't believe the way you stick to business. thedom the elephant in the room we are send our prayers and our best to tiger. i was just reading about and trying to figure out exactly whether this was similar to hogan's horrific crash that he had. hogan was 36 years old terrible injuries, they weren't

even sure he was going to live tiger's injuries are significant, too hogan went on to have six more majors as i said he was 36 and didn't have the back pains that tiger already had. 16 months later he played five rounds to win at marion, do you remember that? >> i don't remember it because i wasn't alive >> i wasn't alive either i wasn't alive either. i've read about it there's something called google. >> yes, so, the first thing that i saw when the news first broke of tiger were the immediate allusions to or comparisons to hogan. the idea that hogan at his age went on to win more majors, of course, everyone thinks that, because tiger is just a handful of majors away from taking jack nicklaus' record for all major accounts for me, the interesting part about the whole scenario is trying to figure out whether tiger can fully recover from this because of just how many injuries and surgeries he's already had.

i would also say this, joe, because i'm a numbers guy, you know this and you are as well. i've been following the odds for tiger to win at augusta. even though we didn't know if he was going to play or not given his back issues right now. before the accident on certain vegas odds sites he was listed as a 31 to 1 odds of winning the masters at augusta later this spring he's now obviously been taken off the board. but it just goes to show you that the game of golf is always going to focus on tiger woods. a lot of people don't think he's going to win it per se but they always liked having him around i would say dustin johnson is 11-2 right now a prohibitive favorite >> there was a time years ago tiger versus the field, even money, that's how dominant he was. what i worry about, dom. and my knees aren't what they used to be all of your strength comes from your legs. i'm worried that his legs -- it's going to be painful

rehappen all of these guys hit the ball -- as far as tiger, remember where he used to hit it, look at bryson, they hit it so far that's not going to do it for them anymore it's going to be the putts remember, the putts, that's where he seemed different recently those five-footers that you just drained every single time because of your nerves >> you're giving me too much credit here. legs and core, that's what i'm going to work on >> i don't get it, five-footers, i can't get to the hole, i can't follow through because of the yips investor appetite for growth stocks may be shifting the energy sectors outperformed techs. our next guest likes growth but says finding an active manager is really important to construct your portfolio, joining us to explain, noah blackstein, senior portfolio manager.

i want you to explain it, i read your notes i'm not sure you're making a case for value or you're saying that value, what we think of as value is no longer appropriate shall we be making the shift are you, to value? because you've been all growth for ten years. >> i've been all growth for the 23 years i've been running my growth fund. so, i mean, the way i frame value is i'm trying to figure out what's the value of the future growth, whether that's measured in earnings or cash flow i do think values are extremely important. stocks like penn gaming got down last year to 120 royal caribbean down to 20, now, it's 92. the distress value investors, or the contrarian investors, i think that's an important piece to own in your portfolio, but that's done through active management

over the last 15 years, a lot of value managers focused on restructuring breakups probably have moved into private equity it's easier to do it there in terms of value and growth represented by the popular indexes out there, those are two sector calls divided up by price to book. and the large value indexes for the most part are just financials and the relative underperformance since 2006 has become -- you know, because of the banks. if you look at the value growth and the relative index of performance, because a lot of those value indexes are so heavily with the banks they've been doing significantly better since july and august. i think the big cap growth stocks have stalled since august and september. a lot of huge move has come from, you know, financials which have gone straight up. a lot of that is statistical value or quantitative value of indexes. a lot of that because of big moves in the banks because of upward slope in yield curve. there's a difference between value managers and the

statistical value. i would bet much more with the active volume managers you know, there are some out there, perhaps a bunch of them in private equity now. that i think are really important in a portfolio as for myself, we're always trying to look at the value of present value of future growth and whether there's an opportunity there, if that makes sense. >> kind of does, i guess it's a way of buying value, but still doing it with growth in mind, i think. and i guess it's -- it's not really -- when you divide the two and say either/or, it's not really appropriate because there's elements of both in there. >> yeah. ultimately -- >> go ahead. >> ultimately, i'd love to find this company growing 20% or 30% over the next five years trading at five times earning. >> right >> that becomes 11% of the portfolio in a heartbeat they're hard to find, though >> we're on like the eighth

derivative for the fed now they're thinking about maybe some day, thinking about the possibility of thinking about, thinking about raising interest rates. we've got to go that far out otherwise people ultimately price where it's going immediately. they take great pains to tiptoe around this. things are starting to move forward, aren't they, noah rates will go up as they normalize? there's just no way around it. >> yeah, i think for sure that the market has obviously gone past to where it was i think rates are beginning to approach where they were around this time last year. they're now at the 150 level the bottom line, higher inflation. but this is different than the typical recession that you and i have lived through i'm not sure, you might have been there since spanish flu i wasn't there because this pandemic hit both

supply and demand. typically, there's an oversupply situation and demand this has hit supply chain as much as it hit aggregate demand. you've seen the semiconductor space. this isn't just about 5g for phones or cars you can make fun of me >> look, i'm sorry -- >> i'm sending a geese down -- i'm sending the canadian geese to your golf course, joe >> we don't need a wall down south. we neat a net up north to keep those squawking pooping things out of my yard they're here all the time. spanish flu is 1917, you're not funny. i did see the moon landing, you did not, did you do you think that's great? that's a big bonus, you didn't see the moon landing, i saw it live, okay mr. xer.

>> it's gen-x. >> yeah, i know what you are, xxx. >> my shirts are xxx-l >> all right, noah, thank you. andrew. >> he's quick. noah's quick coming up on the other side of this, house minority leader kevin mccarthy is going to join us, later it's been a tech wreck for big names, stocks like apple and tesla seeing recent losses we're going to talk about what's next "squawk" returns with another hour ahead after this. are you buddy? come one ...then your bank should have the technology to help you track your spending. virtual wallet® was designed to change what people expect from their bank. easily see what's free to spend... ...and where you can save, so you can budget even better. ok, he's gotta be close. six blocks in the other direction. make a left, make a left, make a left! he made a right again. virtual wallet® for digital banking. one way we're helping to make a difference at pnc bank.

the world's first fully autonomous vehicle is almost at the finish line what a ride! i invested in invesco qqq a fund that invests in the innovators of the nasdaq-100 like you become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq

good morning futures pointing to a higher open this morning. a day after a head-snapping turnaround from wall street. the dow recovered from a 350-point loss as investors cheered jay powell all that being said, are the mega tech cap stocks ones to bet on in your portfolio we talk about the recent slide and what to do about it. and a barstool brawl robinhood ceo vlad tenev faces one of the toughestiest,

barstool's dave portnoy, we'll bring you the highlights on the late night jab that captivated throughouts as "squawk box" continues right now. good morning and welcome back, welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm joe kernen becky wanted me to say that to you, becky quick is her name andrew ross sorkin here as well. you want to say it, becky. >> welcome back. >> welcome back. u.s. equity futures. we assume you've been with us and you didn't go anywhere we still think it's nice to thank you for being here the futures, 92 points now on the nasdaq the dow is up 71. the s&p is up about 16 or so and the ten-year is basically in that area that we've been talking about recently, above 1.3. but no longer, you know, not

soaring, just without any pause to 1.5, we haven't seen that yet, becky but i don't know it's coming this time. finally coming, maybe this time, unless some horrific -- >> waiting for it to go. >> unless some horrific mutant strain throws us all off track someone mentioned yesterday that's the one thing that people still worry about. otherwise, it ought to be, off total races for yields at some point, right if the economy reopens because we're all ready, we're all ready to -- right? >> boy, are we ever. get back out there anyway, joe, it's the midwestern thing we have going on welcome back, we're glad to see you. see, don't get so stuffy about that >> you're right, you're right. instead of forget about it and all that no i love new yorkers. >> let's get you caught up on some of the stories that investors are very likely to be talking about today.

first up, home improvement retailer lowe's came out with numbers that beat the street's expectations on both the top and bottom line. that was for the latest quarterly numbers out this morning. stock is up by 2.7%. sales store sales at the company, up 28%. 22% would have been phenomenal enough, up by 28%. you can't get your arms around how companies like lowe's, home depot, same store sales phenomenal the faa is ordering immediate inspections of boeing 777 jets that are equipped with the pratt & whitney pw 4,000 engines before flights that comes after that dramatic enjoin blowout last weekend. faa administrator steve dickson told us in the last hour that the faa will be able to identify cracks on engine fan blades. >> remember, they're developing on the inside so this is not a

visual inspection. it takes about eight hours to inspect each blade and each engine has 22 fan blades set gamestop's chief financial officer jim bowe is stepping down next month. the move was initiated by the company. gamestop said his departure was not because of any disagreement in accounting principles or practice that stock down by 1.3%. joe. >> thanks. the house is preparing to pass president biden's $1.9 trillion covid relief bill without the help of republicans. joining us more on the state of the gop, house minority leader kevin mccarthy leader mccarthy, good to see you, a big piece in "the wall street journal," op-ed pages from senator romney, mitt romney, when you lose romney

with the democrats -- when you lose romney, there must be something wrong with it. the biden stimulus bill is a $1.9 trillion clunker. he makes a lot of points here that $700 billion wouldn't even be spent until after the end of this year. wouldn't be spend until 2022 or after. how is that immediately fighting covid was this point >> well, it's not fighting covid because only 9% of this bill goes towards covid, toward testing, vaccines or others. 1. trillion is for everything else i think think for a moment, this is where the problem lies. we've done five covid bills bipartisan this is the first one that the democrats just want to do by themselves, to get the votes what are they doing? they're putting in a special project for nancy pelosi $100 million for silicon valley rail project a bridge for schumer we're watching that the money that's going for schools --

kn95% of is won't be spent this year when schools open. you've got $60 billion sitting there for schools approprappropriated. a lot in this bill is a waste, a wish list from the progressives that's why they're going to have difficulty making sure all democrats vote for it. it's very similar to when barack obama came in and they passed that stimulus bill by themselves remember what happened at the end of the day than later, more people thought elvis was alive than the stem imulus created a b unfortunately, is this going to do more damage to america putting that much out money out there at the time when it's not smart or surgical to do it in the piece, we'll talk about it, and i want to get to other stuff but senate republicans are eager to get aid where it's needed to reopen schools and try to give people a bridge to more reopening which who knows when that's actually coming because we seem to -- you know,

there's a whole faction that seems like they want to stay close a lot longer than the other group of people want to. but what do you want what is essential right now? >> i think the three things we need to do, back to work back to school, back to health and so i would spend more money on covid i wouldn't reward states -- what they're doing, they're reversing the order of how they provide resources to the states. those that actually shut down get more money california just came out with a $10 billion surplus. and they're going to get the biggest chunk of the money but states with low unemployment that stayed open are actually going to be in a negative ability of receiving resources so, i would focus, and i would give incentives to open up schools. i would give incentives for covid vaccines and others. i would give incentives that this country starts working again. and i would be more surgical because when they just put out these checks there's going to be people that have high income that aren't working at that time that are receiving them.

and those who really need it are not. and to go back on small businesses that's been hurt the worst through all of this to raise a minimum wage that isn't based on locality is only going to do more damage and more job losses we know what happened in washington, seattle which is wealthy, they lost jobs when they raised it we watched in long beach, two grocery stores they closed once they said give them 4 more dollars for working during the pandemic this is economic problems that is going to hurt the lowest income and this is going to hurt those who need it the most >> one of the things with andrew, i think senator romney also said if former president trump decides to run in four years that he would be the presumptive nominee. and there are some polls that have him at 54% among republicans with the next closest vice president pence, at 11% or 12% and everybody else in single digits do agree with that >> right now, yes.

that's what the poll says, but remember when president trump first started running with 17 others they wasn't in the lead then, too. four years is a long way away. but i think when you look back at policies i think president trump's policies are very popular. four years is a long time away let's make sure we're able to win where quwe're going right n and let's take back the house? >> would you be a backer i don't know whether you're in a forthcoming mood today, but did that conversation really occur where you said who do you think you're talking to? and he said, well, i think voters are a lot more upset than you are with the outcome is that an accurate conversation that happened, leader? >> look, i've talked all i'm going to talk about on that. >> oh! i thought you were in a forthcoming mood all right. let me ask you this, then. >> sure. >> dominion voting systems they're filing suits left and right. they filed a $1.3 million

defamation lawsuit against the my pillow guy. you wouldn't believe any of this >> mike lindell. claiming that dominion used the technology to steal a 2020 election wane frye from president trump, i'm leading into a sound bite. that trump actually won the election and formed the core of rioters which attacked the capitol on january 6th which is my birthday. >> the larger point really is to get the facts on the table in front of a court of law where evidence is properly judged. in this particular case, we will mr. lindell who advertised absolute truth and all he produced was absolute nonsense and like others he touted so-called evidence yet, he produces fake documents. and just like others they

refused to take these claims to course where evidence is properly weighed by a judge. >> dominion told eamon that lawsuits are definitely on the way. saying it was already planned, leading up to did leader mccarthy, it wasn't just a week or two of challenging certain irregularities, it went on much longer than people thought and there was a lot of incendiary language. do you still blame or assign some blame to former president trump for that and also the reactions of the president after it was already starting where some people said he was actually okay oral pleased with what was going on can you comment on that? >> he wasn't pleased with what was going on i did speak to him that day. he wasn't pleased. i stand by my statement. but i also think back for one moment if you look at the whole

perspective, i think everybody in this country, when we talk about how now we go after people that -- members of congress are writing letters to cable industries not to run networks they're writing letters to amazon not to print books. now, we're going after free speech and others. i think we've walked through this i think they've tried to impeach this president twice a lot of it is political nobody supports what went on january 6th. we believe everybody should be prosecuted who entered that building i was in that building i was escorted out of that building who came into my office i got things stolen in my office i had zip ties left in my office nobody supports that and the president didn't support that i think we have to look at it by all the evidence that's the most important way. >> when you met with president trump, he's interested in helping to win back the house in 2022 is -- will he be a big asset

there, in your view? will the memory of what happened -- i mean, certainly, with democrats, he almost seems like -- well, you've seen that they don't want to get buried at arlington. so there's going to be no rehabilitation well, he was never popular but with republicans, do you think that that will help win back the house with president trump's house? >> look, i think the president is helpful elections are about ideas. elections are a question of what is in the voter's mind that day. the one thing i do realize in the last election for the first time since 1994, no republican lost an election this is the smallest majority since 1870 so, when i look at history, yes, republicans are in a very good

position republicans are led by the power of the idea. at the end of the day the only thing to help republicans they have better ideas than what the democrats have today if that decision is based upon them pushing forward this $1.9 trillion that only 9% goes to covid, i think republicans goring to win the majority >> becky, you're okay? i know you wanted to ask -- >> no, no, this is more important. i was going to ask about the naa president coming up. we'll talk to him the next time around >> leader mccarthy >> thank you i'll be back >> you'll be back. thanks we like having you on soon i like that shot, too. there is the aforementioned capitol. thank you, we'll see you when we come back, we have a live update from our own meg tirrell on some johnson & johnson vaccine news this is important you're going to want to hear it plus, as i mentioned the

president of the national education association is going to be joining us to talk about why she thinks teachers need to have priority to vaccinations. and robinhood's ceo goes one-on-one with barstool sport's dave portnoy we'll bring you the highlights stay tuned to "squawk box" on cnbc ic: “you're the best” by joe esposito] [triumphantly yells] [ding] don't get mad. get e*trade and take charge of your finances today. don't get mad. no one likes to choose between safe or sporty.

modern or reliable. we want both - we want a hybrid. so do banks. that's why they're going hybrid with ibm. a hybrid cloud approach helps them personalize experiences with watson ai while helping keep data secure. ♪ ♪ ♪ from banking to manufacturing, businesses are going with a smarter hybrid cloud, using the tools, platform and expertise of ibm. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ - as the original host of wheel of fortune, i was blessed to be part of building one of the greatest game shows in history. during that time, we handed out millions of dollars to thousands of contestants. i thought, what if we paid the contestants their winnings and gold instead of cash and prizes? back in 1976, we had a wonderful contestant named lee whose three-day winnings were valued at $12,850. and you know what? that was a pretty big haul back in 1976. so i wonder, what would have happened if lee had put $12,850 in cash and then put $12,850 in gold in a safe, just sitting there side-by-side from 1976 until now. well, i went back and i ran the numbers and what i found was amazing. we all know that $12,850

in cash would still be sitting there but it would be worth a whole lot less than it was in 1976. but that $12,850 in gold, safely stored away, it's worth $135,000 as of the taping of this commercial. now that's more than 10 times the original amount. - [narrator] if you've bought gold in the past or would like to learn more about why physical gold should be an important part of your portfolio, pick up the phone and call to receive the complete guide to buying gold which we'll provide you important, never seen before facts and information you should know about making gold, silver and platinum purchases. for faster wealth protection, request a digital version of our complete information kit which will be emailed for faster delivery. you can also receive a copy of our new us gold report for 2021. inside, you'll find the top 25 reasons why you need to start owning gold today.

- with nearly two decades in business, over a billion dollars in transactions and more than a half a million clients worldwide, us money reserve is one of the most dependable gold distributors in america. welcome back to "squawk box. news just out on johnson & johnson's coronavirus vaccine.

meg tirrell joins us with more meg. >> hey, andrew these are the much-awaited documents from the fda, with its own analysis of the johnson & johnson vaccine ahead of its meeting of its outside advisers on friday. we're getting a first glimpse at how the fda looks at the vaccine. remember, it's the first one to require one single dose. the fda has said it wants the committee to discuss and provide a recommendation based on the totality of the data if the scientific evidence available for the vaccine showed that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh its risks for people age 18-plus. we're seeing that the overall vaccine efficacy as it was in the trial, 66% across the globe. that includes south africa where the efficacy was lower and also in the united states where it was higher. 72%. interestingly, we're seeing in the documents, we've been wondering were there any variants of the coronavirus that could affect the efficacy here in the u.s we're seeing in the documents

that really most of the cases in the u.s. were older strain, about 94%. he didn't see any changes in the b.1.1.7 variant or in brazil, that was interesting to see. they're getting information about what it would be like to take the vaccine, the most common reactions injection site pain, headache, fatigue. they've seen five cases of nonserious hives among people who took the vaccine, versus one case of people on a placebo within a week of getting the vaccine. so, they suggest they potentially could be related to the vaccine. they also noted in the trial of 40,000, one serious event of a hypersensitivity reaction. they say this was not classified as anaphylaxis, that strong allergic reaction. they said this is beginning two days after the vaccine and was likely related to the vaccine. guys, one case out of 40,000

people here. importantly, in terms of the efficacy, they're showing hospitalizations two weeks after getting the shot two in the vaccine group none after four weeks getting the shot, versus 29 in the placebo group. guys, no deaths versus seven in the placebo group. we're going to continue this and get interesting takeaways. overall, favorable headed to the advisory committee on friday for potential vote and we could see this vaccine if everything goes well getting authorized over the weekend, guys. >> meg, we've got to run, but i would be shocked to not see the approval come if you're looking at the two measures of safety and efficacy, what about you >> i think the overall expectation it will get the nod. i'll be interested to hear the discussion or eight or nine hours on friday. all of the ins and outs of the vote we'll see that on friday evening. >> you bring us the highlights

on that. in the meantime, the national education association issuing a plea to the national governors association to get teachers vaccinated immediately. in a letter, the nea writes we want educators to be back in our school buildings with our students but we must do that safely and the only way to do that is fully implement the strategies identified by the cdc. joining us is becky pringle. she is the president of the national education association and one of the authors of that letter we should note that the nea is the largest labor union in the united states representing 3 million people becky, what's the response that you've gotten from governors so far? >> good morning, becky it's good to be with you this morning. we issued that letter because at this point, we only -- we have about 23 states that have not yet prioritized vaccination for educators. and we know, i can tell you, becky, as a science teacher for

over 30 years that educators all over this country want nothing more than to be back in person with their students. but we've been saying the same thing for 11 months. and that is, that we have to do that safely. and we have to pay attention to issues of equity we know that many of our schools have not had the resources to actually put in place the guidelines that the cdc says are necessary. becky, i bet you could say them with me, masking, social distancing, testing and tracing, making sure that we have the supplies and the people to be able to do that continuous disinfecting of the surfaces in our schools. we have to make sure that we have the resources to do that. and we know that vaccine will provide that additional layer of safety so that we can get our students and educators back into our buildings as quickly as we can >> becky, i have enormous amount of respect for teachers, our

teachers right now in our public schools here in town are there for half-day sessions. they have been through the entirety of this started back in september or so. i've been really impressed and amazed about how well they've done thing i've been frustrated with our governor, too, for allowing smokers get priority over teachers which i thought was wrong. having said that, how quickly you can get the teachers back, especially when you know there are so many teachers who are back and have been back for months and months? what do you say to the families who say i can't do this anymore. i have to get my kids back in school they're missing out too much by not being there. >> becky, you just shared something that a lot of people don't know, and that is most of our educators are back in classrooms in person with their students but those districts are working very closely with educators and parents, infectious disease experts to make sure they have the resources to protect our students and protect our educators. and to protect our families as

well we know that far too long of those schools don't have those resources. we know which ones they are. those are the students who have been forever been marginalized in our society we know our black and brown and indigenous students. our students living in poverty, our special needs students, all of them have been in a place throughout this pandemic that they're not only impacted by the pandemic, becky, you know that but by all of the crisis that it spawned. so we are working hard with governors and other policymakers to make sure we have the resources that we must have to bring our students back to school, all of them, and not just that, becky, you have to keep them in school. we saw the chaos throughout the hall going in and out. we think it's priority that we do that and we believe that prioritizing vaccinations for educators an important part in our process. >> what states are getting the

most pushback, in terms of getting teachers to the front line >> we see states that you've seen this throughout the fall, that did not necessarily believe that we had a pandemic we that we were in the middle of a pandemic, that we're not following the science, the same as pointing out eye were the vaccines we also know, becky, we actually did a survey of our educators -- one of the things they told us -- first of all, 70% said they would feel safer being back in school with students or staying there, to your point, many of them are already there if they had the vaccination. but what they told us was there's so much chaos and confusion around getting vaccines, we've had reports where some states who have not made that decision to prioritize them have sent out notifications and teachers arrive and there are no vaccine doses available to them. a lot of chaos and confusion they don't know who to call. we're trying to work with governors and health care

professionals to try to fix that that is an issue that must be addressed right away >> becky, thank you for your time it's good to talk to you and all of our best to your members. we know teachers are working really hard through this we appreciate it >> they are doing an incredible job, becky, you are absolutely right. we're so proud of them >> thank you joe. thanks, becs coming up, our school brawl. more on that the ceo of robinhood logs on to a late night chat with barstool's dave portnoy, sparks were flying. we'll bring you the highlight. and a programming note, carl quintanilla is going to host a siport, the path forward, focung on small business don't miss it. "squawk box" will be right back. i invested in invesco qqq. a fund that invests in the innovators of the nasdaq 100,

like you. become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq. ♪♪

♪ welcome back to "squawk box. on cnbc. tiger woods is recovering from surgery after a bad car accident in california. the chief medical officer at

harbor-ucla which does have a trauma unit, in los angeles, has said that woods shattered his tibia and fibula bones in his right leg. had a rod, screws and pins inserted during surgery, woods was driving in the suburbs of los angeles yesterday when his suv crossed the median hit a sign crossed two oncoming lanes and then flipped over, rolled down an embankment. a statement on tiger's twitter account said he was awake and responsive to talk more about tiger, let's bring in todd lewis of the golf channel. todd, you can see from the car, mangled front. and the back doesn't look good thank god the interior looked pretty well intact and the air bags worked or else it could have been a much worse outcome >> you're exactly right. bradenton, florida, at the wgc championship, some of the best players on the planet, 48 of the

top 50 are here to compete i was on the grounds when the news started to trickle out that tiger was in a very serious car accident and then we saw the visuals. and players immediately went to their phones and started thinking the worst why wouldn't you but although there are still many concerns in regards to tiger woods' future, there is quite a bit of relief that none of these injuries are life-threatening >> exactly coming back from, what, his fifth back surgery, a pretty serious one. and he was talking about, you know, there's another mri he was going to need. so, he's in the middle of that it's too early to really talk. we want him to just get better and i don't know about the golf future but the injuries from what you can hear, from on his legs, can you rehab those to the point where he could be back at 100%, todd do you know? >> well, it's interesting, i had a conversation, extensive

conversation with two surgeons one being a trauma surgeon and the other being an orthopedic surgeon about exactly the procedures these are general ideas. but from the information that we received overnight, a couple things number one, the doctors went in and tackled what was a compartment syndrome they had to actually cut a layer of fascia right above the muscle on his leg to continue circulation. if that procedure was not done, it could have led to many complications including amputation so that was a very critical moment for those surgeons. in regards to his injuries, the bones will heal. i talked to brad burkhart who is the chairman of orthopedicic surgery, he's dealt with many amateur and professional athletes he said the bones will heal but it's going to take a long time to rehab. you're looking at six to eight weeks for the bones to heal. and then months after that, to go through rehab

the concern really, according to the surgeons, isn't the tibia, the rod there. it's more the ankle, in regards to multiple fractures there. and then you add in the joint trauma that was there. because there are a lot of joints in the ankle. that could lead to arthritis pain and some other things that he will have to deal with now moving forward but that's down the road right now, the doctors are monitoring him to make sure he doesn't have any blood clots or infection. >> never count him out, i know that >> no. >> we wish him the best and we hope for the best, todd. thanks for telling us what you knew about it. and good luck. i'll probably be watching your channel over the weekend again, as i usually do anyway. >> you got it. >> thanks. andrew meantime, robinhood ceo vlad tenev facing one of his toughest questions yet, barstool sports founder dave portnoy going at it

last night kate rooney with more. kate >> well, andrew, this was a tense 40 minutes the discussion comes after weeks of portnoy slamming vlad tenev, robinhood ceo on twitter kicking things off on the issue, you asked tenev pushing him once again on whether or not winning trades was due to a liquidity crisis >> a liquidity issue was knocking on the door >> yeah, we had -- we had to act to make sure we prevented a liquidity issue in the future. >> and is that future like the next day >> yes potentially, yeah. >> portnoy -- robinhood didn't shut down both sides of the gamestop trade accusing robinhood of essentially cratering the stock by freezing only the buy side. >> we also had to play by the rules, right >> but you couldn't have played by therules by freezing both

that's within the rules, no? >> i'm not sure. i mean that -- we can look into that but it wouldn't be standard. and it wouldn't have -- >> there was nothing standard about this >> that's true >> tenev pushed back on portnoy's accusations about robinhood colliding with the hedge funds as he called it. tenev called that misinformation and, quote, irresponsible. he said if he did not shut down or limit trading things could have been a lot worse. >> robinhood, one, customer was eight. >> i think we can debate that a little bit, right? if robinhood ceases to exist, our customers would be in a much worse spot than if we didn't we did believe that protecting the firm and protecting the system ultimately, we had to do the best thing -- that was the best thing for customers >> tenev did say there were things robinhood could have done better including communicating some of these back end issues

with more transparency andrew >> and kate, one question, because it came up several times and daveportnoy raised it. and then you heard vlad on the other hand actually cite cnbc in this case, suggesting that retail investors the week that all of this took place, that monday through wednesday, before robinhood actually had even shut down the buying, that actually the retail audience was actually a net seller is that right? >> that was from a jpmorgan note and cnbc had reported on that. the majority of the buyers were ab akcquisitions and hedge funds. we'll have to see that research. >> kate rooney good to see you, thanks. when we come back, navigating the new tech sector volume title, investor dan nyles

will join us on the faang and whether they can still deliver on the portfolio stay tuned

turn on my tv and boom, it's got all my favorite shows right there. i wish my trading platform worked like that. well have you tried thinkorswim? this is totally customizable, so you focus only on what you want. okay, it's got screeners and watchlists. and you can even see how your predictions might affect the value of the stocks you're interested in. now this is what i'm talking about. yeah, it'll free up more time for your... uh, true crime shows? british baking competitions. hm. didn't peg you for a crumpet guy. focus on what matters to you with thinkorswim. ♪♪

welcome back, everybody. we saw a strong turn around for the markets during trading yesterday. the dow completely wiped out a 360-point loss to close positive joining us right now to talk about what we should take away from that bounce if anything is mike santoli what do you think, mike? >> we canny, there's always

something to takeaway, right you don't want to overextrapolate. the market held around areas that prevented everybody from getting too concerned. here's an orderly trend we've been in a while here obviously you had the burst to the downside intraday yesterday, you went below that call these hernias if it reverses it's no big deal, it doesn't have to be treated. it's really the same rotation of realignment. take a look at different sectors since the s&p 500 hit the record high on the 16th seven or eight days ago. you see the momentum etf is taking the brunt as well as as the large cap growth and the beta, cyclical stocks and stuff that's going to move with the cycle high yield did not give you reason to worry about credit stress the hygtf is not something to worry about there. >> mike, i like the way you put

it on twitter, what was it a frat party rally >> well, boot and rally. which is not something i recommend but i do recall. it was exactly what it was, a morning flush and then right back to it throughout the rest of the day >> right, uh-huh mike, thanks, good to see you. >> thanks, becs. we want to talk more about the recent selloff in tech check out the market cap damage to some of the biggest name since the recent highs apple down $170 billion. amazon down $67 billion. alphabet down 34 billion tesla $150 billion the faang names plus tesla lost half a trillion in recent highs. joining us, dan niles, founder portfolio manager of the sitori fund

i know you were bullish and cautious on the high flyers, what do you make of what's happening right now? >> right, andrew, entering this year, we had five of the top picks one of those was in technology, that was oracle. the rest is focused on picking up and the reopening of the global economy since we had the energy sector etf. j.p. jpmorgan as well on the banking site sle down 37% last year and automotive-related play in there. and nga. and most of our picks were on that side and it wasn't in tech. the only one we had, as i said was oracle which is a very low pe stock so, i think with inflation picking up, interest rates going higher which is what we expected, you know, we thought the tech sector would struggle

you know, we still believe that, and we think it's probably going to get even more pronounced as we go throughout this year as you get more inflation and more concerns about valuation which are all-time record high >> to the extent that some of these stocks do fall, do you then say to yourself, kay, now it's time to go in what's the price at which you say to yourself, google or any of these faangs make sense to you? >> sure, we've got charts on the website that go through this right now, if you look at, in the bigger picture context, the mock faangs, microsoft and apple, and traditional stocks 30% to 80% last year multiples went up a lot. that's why you've got market cap to gdp which is one of our favorite measures for the entire u.s. stock market. sitting at 1.8 times by the way, during the peak of the tech bubble that was 1.4 and the 50-year average is 0.8 so valuations are extremely

high for each of these names, they're different. we own google, facebook, amazon, we own little bits of them but we've also hedged those names by being short of the high valuation names, a lot of which got drawn up during this mean rally or short-term rally. whatever you call it specifically with google and facebook which benefits as the economies pick up, advertising picks up, that's where we're focused right now in terms of benefits through the back half this year. >> we saw cathie wood buying the tesla yesterday, given what we've seen in the fall of that stock. what do you make of what she's done with ark invest she's clearly concentrated on the stocks that have done remarkably well but it seems to suggest the world is turning into a different direction >> yeah. i mean, i've been doing this for a very long time so, as you know, i was around in the late '90s when we saw the

tech bubble. you saw a lot of stocks go up a lot based on the fact exposed to great themes going forward amazon is the example i always like to bring up obviously, a great company, stock is at $106 a share at the peak of the tech bubble. and the revenues they were doing in '99 was $1.6 billion. over the next two years revenue went from 1.6 to 3.1 and the stock went from $106 a share to $6. 90%, revenue has doubled lots of stimulus, lots more coming, that helps but eventually valuations have to make sense and for some names i think you'll have problems even though revenues might double over the next couple years >> sos, we're looking at the ten-year now topping 1.4 at what point do you think it has to go what i imagine is the

tech wreck >> that's a great question, andrew the analogy is like smoking three packs of cigarettes for a day you may not have any problems for years and then it catches up with you. with the rates, some people at 1%, the market ignored that. right around the level where you're getting closer to the s&p yield dividend is 1.5% ten-year treasuries 1.4 right now. started the year at 0.9. i think that's where things get dicey. i think where it's really getting interesting is when you get to april, you got april being the strongest in that the economy was the weakest a year ago. inflation is already high. europe as low as they've seen in terms of core inflation since 2015 u.s. inflation, 1.5% that's going to continue to strengthen i think to your point, around here, we've already seen the market wobble. i think it gets worse as rates

go higher april through the end of the year when economies reopen >> and let me separately ask you, as you think about potentially shorting stocks because i know you have including gamestop at one point, had in a post-gamestop world, in terms of whatever lessons you think have been learned, is it going to going to make your life materially different in terms of how you approach shorting stocks in the future >> yeah, i mean it honestly makes my life a lot easier, because for us, we've done incredibly well on the short side this year we're having our best start in our 17-year history to the fund, we're up double digits to start the year, and a lot of that is thanks to things like rallies in gamestop, and other meme stocks where we were able to look at them and we think the right value is about 80% lower and we were able to short a lot of those names as they went to levels that made no sense. the good news with that is that it's going to keep a lot of funds from being overly concentrated in short ideas, it's going to make future short

covering rallies, which has happened all throughout history, this is not something new, you can go back to the late 90s, all the way through today, and it's going to make it so that you have less of these in the future, which makes it actually a lot easier to short stocks, when you don't have, you know, concentrated short positions that are just way too risky, and i think that's where some people went wrong, is you know, if you're shorting stocks that are this heavily shorted, you can suffer unbelievable losses, if you don't size them properly and that's what i think a lot of people have learned from this. >> dan, it's great to talk to you, i hope you'll come back and give us an update on how you're doing and how we should be thinking about the markets very, very soon. talk to you soon >> appreciate it, andrew. rs> coming up, jim cramer's fit take on the trading day, stay tuned, "squawk box" will be 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. ♪♪

cyber attacks are relentlessly advancing. to end them, cybereason built a cyber security solution so advanced... it can end attacks today -- on computers, mobile devices, servers and the cloud.

and deliver future-ready protection, keeping you sharp for tomorrow. join us, the defenders, in our mission. cybereason. end cyber attacks. from endpoints to everywhere. let's get to cnbc headquarters, check in with jim cramer, jim, i know you were watching last night, dave portnyo and vlad tenev, what did you think? >> i think vlad coming on was a very big deal because of the things that dave had been saying ahead of time and also saying at

the beginning, vlad seemed like at one moment was going to be a punching bag but then was able to say what happened and i didn't like the idea that he couldn't raise money and his customers weren't able to do certain things but in the end when in the last exchange when dave did not wish good luck and questioned the company survival, powerful take-aways, even as they seemed to go have a dance together, i don't think that is going to happen any time soon. >> what do you think happens next >> i think that there is actually, i think, i actually expect that the depository, the dtcc which is what caused a lot of these problems is probably going to go with vlad and talk about how we got to have a quicker system than like a checking account, and we have to do a t-1 which is something that vlad wants and that would have caused a much better situation i know that cnbc's data, which i did look at this reference by vlad today, about how the

individuals were sellers is compiled and true, but i like to think that this is the peak, the high water mark of bad, because they brought in a lot of compliance people at robinhood, they're really trying to do this right, and the fact is, that because he went on dave's show, that was a sign that, look, i got to take my beating, i expect that, i understand it, but i'm going to do better and i really liked it i thought it was very good >> something i'm looking forward to today is an interview you all have coming up next, the new ceo at marriott. >> yes. >> tony wapliano and interest, capliano and what he had to say and a terrible situation to be subbing into because of arnie's passing but a pretty well-known character and who has been around for a long timeand what are you hoping to hear out of it >> and disney, and come cat, because of theme parks, but -- comcast, because of theme parks but it is the best reopening trade there is and they can raise price, they've come

through, they've done a remarkable job, and this stock just doesn't stop and i think it won't stop, because when you hear something like j&j, you should be thinking buy marriott. >> we are looking forward to this conversation today, and we will see you in just a few minutes. >> thank you, becky. >> joe we're all, everything has turned south, in the red now, you think it's coincidence with the 140 on the 10-year, remember we were down sort of stable at 135, 136, and there we are now, i think it's moved into the red, as we have moved over, from one point, 1.4, and dom chu joins us now with a few of this morning's top stock movers good seeing you again, dom good morning >> joe, good morning 1.422% by the way the intra-day high so far on the 10-year treasury yield, things are red but three green ones for you right now a variety of headlines

driving the shares so far, fisker, two million shares of volume, and up more than 2%, and as the ev maker announces a partnership with fox con, and jointly develop what they call a break through electric vehicle, fox con known as a well-known manufacturer of apple products so those shares up big and next micro strategy up 6%, roughly 40,000 shares of volume, software and analytics company that has gotten a lot of attention for bitcoin, just added more, and they announced the purchase of 19,452 tokens for $1.03 billion and brings the total holdings to over 90,000 bit coins and bought them for $24,000 a piece and then we will end on mattel which is up around 3% 20,000 shares of volume, upgraded to buy at citigroup, and the target price at 22.50. $20 a share. they cited among other things progress on profit margins and balance sheet and tail winds from strong toy demand and the

expectation of more stimulus checks aiding consumers. and three green ones as everything end sort of drifts red today. at&t is nearing a deal to sell a substantial minority stake in the direct tv, at&t now and u verse business to private equity firm tpg and resources say the deal will be announced as early as this week and the at&t businesses valued around and only around $15 billion and at&t acquired direct tv for $48.5 billion. the company moved away from the traditional pay tv in the last several years in the center of the media strategy arrange the hbo max, the streaming service, and hedge fund elliot management taking an activist stake in at&t in september of 2019 has pushed the company to consider divesting some of the noncore assets including direct tv one last note, we do have the markets, now bitcoin was back over 51,000, and 50,000,

earlier, it is now back below 50,000 as the market is now solidly in the red in terms of the nasdaq down triple digits there's bitcoin, the ten-year, as we just pointed out, over 1.4% it seems like it's related, guys, interest rates are back, back interesting again we'll see you tomorrow andrew, becky, make sure you join us. "squawk on the street" is next good morning, welcome back to "squawk on the street" i'm carl quintanilla with david faber and jim cramer powell is on the hill, day two, as rates are on the rise, ten-year, 1.4 is the high for the year, the 30-year at 2 1/4 a road map that begins with vaccine optimism though. the fda staff endorsing j&j's single shot fo