earnings come in below estimate, same with revenues shares down 7% those are your movers. back to you. >> just in time, dom, just in time to look at the futures. the futures this morning, as you can see down on the nasdaq, but not triple digits, and now up on the dow. make sure you join us tomorrow, "squawk on the street" coming up next good thursday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla, with jim cramer and david faber, bonds and equities are going to compete for attention again this morning as the ten year gets close to 1.47. that approaches the s&p dividend yield. high profile earnings on deck, jobless claims, a little bit better, likely some weather distortions there as well. the road map begins with the gamestop trade and focus, shares of the video game retailer surged once again and break down what is driving that rally. >> and viacom cbs is entering

the streaming fray, and touting 30 million global subscribers ahead of its launch of paramount plus. and there is continued reason for covid vaccine optimism a new study out of israel confirming the efficacy of the pfizer shot for both the young and the old. keep the good news coming, carl. >> yes, we're going to delve into tons of vaccine headlines this morning, guys but jim, let's just pick up where you left off with squawk and the gang about gamestop, and your theories about what might be behind yesterday's move. >> well, we have to try to come to some sort of a, let's just say, i'm going to say speculation about what happened, because when you have a stock, the last few moments of the day, you could argue that people bought out of the money calls and came in and blitzed the common and hurt the market makers, that's one way to look at it. what i'm thinking is there has to be something going on at gamestop, the cfo leaves, they don't really tell you why, and we have ryan coen in there, we know that this company has to

reinvent yes, probably having a decent quarter because best buy this morning talked about supply constraints but i think we're all trying to craft reasons. the main thing is, and david, i really got to get your view on this >> sure. >> you know that what is happening, is it is hedge funds versus retail. that's what they say >> that's what they say. >> and anyone who wears a suit, hedge funds -- >> hedge funds don't wear suits, they wear invests, they have invests. little name usually of their hedge fund on it so they can let you know. >> right, yes. >> running around midtown all the time in their vests. >> but this shouldn't be a class warfare issue, should it >> i don't know. listen, it's not clear to me that the hedge funds are in there shorting the stock because somebody told me at least they would not short single names in that way. >> right. >> market makers though? >> they're doing so -- well, they're certainly only doing it very little. >> what did you think about the idea of the stock tripling in the last hours >> i don't know, jim, i think it was, i mean, it was a tweet,

wasn't it? it was a frog emoji ice cream cone, i think we have it i think ryan cohen tweeted about that around 2:00-something in the afternoon. >> 300 >> and everybody is trying to -- >> the frog emoji has certain implications and the ice cream cone, from mcdonald's, do we have the, i thought we had it. there it is. that's why gamestop want up, jim. stop asking why. that's why can't you see why? come on. >> i'm struggling. carl, i'm struggling because to me that looks like something from mr. slushy. >> mcdonald's. it has the frog emoji in the left-hand corner >> we know that hedge funds are -- are gunning for hedge funds. >> and andrew sorkin had an unbelievable conference and the s.e.c. is kind of in transition. >> what does the ice cream mean, jim, that's what you got to figure out, forget this other

stuff, what does the ice cream cone mean. >> david, i don't know just like with hitchcock >> i expect more from you. i really do. i thought overnight you would have analyzed fully the ice cream cone. >> i sold ice cream for years at the stadium, vanilla and chocolate and made a killing. >> why would the cfo leave and cfos around the country are looking at bitcoin. >> ryan cohen is happy. >> how do you know that? >> eating ice cream. and the frog not eating the frog. >> look, this is not, it's the same group of usual suspects, but i think there's a lot of mystery that is, when you see a stock like this and people begin to think are prices, are prices real is the market unregulated? and then as soon as you say that, the regular people say it's not regulated for the hedge funds but it's regulated for us. and i would tend to look and say well twitter just announced some good numbers we should be looking at twitter. domino's, a little bit of a shortfall. let's look at the moderna news

but carl, this is what is gripping america and we don't really have an answer. >> i know. our challenge, jim, will be to deal with the corporate news that we can actually understand, but i want to get your point here, when you have ryan tweeting pictures of ice cream with a frog, when musk tweets a picture of the dogecoin dog on the moon, do you believe that these executives are trying to move names not by the letter but by the spirit, and is there room for regulation there >> i think the first amendment protects ice cream cone pictures and what elon musk, i'm not kidding, first amendment, look, analysts come out every day and they raise the price target, these guys are raising their price target in a different sort of way, and david, i know that it's a new world >> the ice cream machine is working again. >> what's working? >> the ice cream machine at mcdonald's. it's always broken but now it is working again. >> you have never been to mcdonald's

>> i used to goto the one in forest hills back in the early '70s >> yeah. >> right in there, i think it's still there. yeah >> really? >> we have so much corporate news and caterpillar up this is fascinating. and by the way, there's plenty of hedge fund manager, jim, you bought stocks for less reason than an ice cream cone you know you did i mean all that analysis, and everything else you did, so who knows. >> but david, youcan't have a stock triple in the last hour, without having to figure out that the company, and the company should come out and say we see no reason for our stock -- >> maybe this time the company will figure out a way to sell some stock. >> and sell and buy. >> maybe a cfo. >> with bitcoin. to become the crypto place -- don't you sneer at me. >> you're just coming up with stuff out of - >> what are you doing? >> i'm telling you about the ice ream. >> at least i have a plan.

>> this may be the most absurd discussion we ever had. >> really? >> i think it's getting close. >> carl, i think that the average american right now is trying to figure out how do i find the stock that triples in the last hour. forget what you guys are talking about with the faang, i want to triple and that is not necessarily what we can provide but it is what people want, they want a triple. robinhood wants it wall street bets wants it. >> it's definitely the tea leaf that we're learning how to read, jim. it used to be investor conferences but now it's these tweets speaking of investor conferences, jim, i know you have a heck of a show tonight including ned seeingle with twitter looking to double their revenue and reach 315 million daily users by 20923, i think the stock will move in the premarket. >> 10% ease. >> i that last conference call was prisk and i didn't know if it could be topped but ned is on tonight and i feel what has happened is twitter is going to

the next level, whether it is be a clubhouse level, and whether it is the fact that twitter go away with what happened with pinterest, kinder, gentler, and people who would never think these days of advertising on tv, if they can advertise on twitter, and meanwhile, 44 campaign, the super bowl, also on twitter, and twitter has changed dramatically from being an angry place, because what is our president called, that guy -- >> the previous guy. >> the previous guy. >> and a lot of people thought when the previous guy wasn't allo allowed to tweet, it would be the end. it looks like twitter is more hospitable and people are using it, the advertisers, it is happening so fast, conagra, 80% of their ads on line, they don't like other places, they can't reach the people, they can't reach the cord cutters, david. >> right >> well, all right, but then explain facebook to me >> why the stock is good? >> yes >> the facebook stock, does that

present an opportunity, facebook 4 33% top line growth and they seem to appeal to advertisers in a meaningful way and advertisers to what you were saying, to your point, are accustomed now to advertising in this way, and whether it be twitter or the big boy, here, facebook, or alphabet. >> gary, this is - >> and this trades at a lower multiple than viacom. >> david, you want to know what is wrong here? who picks a fight with australia? our greatest friend. there is only one guy who can pick a fight with australia. they were even with us with vietnam. zuckerberg. >> that's the ending >> that was it. >> maybe canada. >> that was church ill that was lucid you killed lucid >> i did not kill lucid. >> you killed lucid. >> cciv, the deal came out, people learned that they're 1.6 billion shares out and trying to establish a value for lucid, a company that's not really going

to have meaningful profit force quite a few years. >> well, how about fisker. how about fisker with that dramatic news. fox con. >> yes. >> we should hear from fisker any minute >> mad money tonight >> yes >> that's a lot of minutes between now and mad money. >> look at this guy, henrik, when he got phil mcdermott, that was it on board real company reddit user rally reheats. are we going to put gamestop in the right corner >> maybe we'll put the ice cream with the frog on one side, and then the stock price, carl, on the other side by the way, some of the other ones are moving again, too, let's check koss, up it's doubling. >> amc adam aaron, last time, took advantage of it, because remember, the movie theaters so far are not doing that well. but if you look at, royal caribbean is the hottest stock in this market why? because the rates are going up next year. can you imagine? people are paying more for cruises that may not happen. >> i know.

it was jarring because yesterday, they did, carnival, for example, did extend the pause through the end of may, but nclh, as you know, jim, wider than expected loss, but revenue was ahead, and by the way, i don't know how you're going to make room tonight between fisker and twitter and nvidia, which 3.10 crushes 2.81. needham high, street high 800. a lot to unhack on nvidia. >> i'm breaking all forms. jensen will start. i never have done this before. i thought the quarter was miraculous the numbers are extraordinary. it reminds me of intel 1996 to 1998, 1999 period, the 486 and then the pentium jensen huang, i want you to read this conference call. >> i typically read them you called him za vin chi in the past you called him da vinci in the past. >> and i look forward to it. and i'm glad you're breaking

form and you have a lot of great guests but he is probably the single most important. >> the largest semiconductor company in the world he did say, david, and the reason i turned to you, is he is, you used the word confident, the arm holdings deal that we put a hammer lock, with so much - >> they think it will go through. >> i will be very curious to hear their thinking on that given, maybe they know something out of the u.k. that we don't. maybe they understand, they certainly understand the chinese approval promise given it took a while to get mellanox done but jim, you brought it up many times, no stranger to the idea that it will be very difficult to get the arm holdings approved >> game set match if they get it. >> and game set match, it is a chance for anti-trust regulators to say no. >> i will tell you, carl, a lot of people confuse, one of the reason, people are getting hurt by crypto, by ethereum, that's nonsense, this stock should be up very big, and this stock has this situation, almost every

time, where in 2018, they had the same, but the stock goes down, and then people say wow, there must be something with the quarter and then they go back and they listen to the cfo, and listen to jensen huang and they realize the data center, it is theres the data center, they have chips that can learn, the machine learning chips that are artificial intelligence that are so muted and gaming, carl, you can't game without their chips because it's life-like i defy people to figure out whether it is an after or whether it is an actual design, and remember, jensen, at heart, is a painter he's a painter he's an architect. he is a sculptor i think he invented the first helicopter remember that? in the da vinci museum. >> i think he is inventing the electric helicopter. >> spac? >> he doesn't have a spac? >> thankfully he doesn't everybody else does. us three and him the only four who don't have spacs. >> and it's going to stay that

way, at least on our part, david. at least for now we'll take a break here. a lot to get to. we'll talk about the action in yields this morning. lots of streaming news, of course, out of disney, yesterday, at that all time high, and now viacom, and we'll keep our eye on the action in the early movers don't go away. ♪ ♪ (kids talking) pnc bank believes that if an app can help you track your pizza... come on cody, where are you buddy? ...then your bank should have the technology to help you track your spending. virtual wallet® for digital banking. one way we're helping to make a difference at pnc bank. we see increased efficiency connected to more comfortable homes.

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welcome back keeping an eye on shares of viacom, cbs this morning, of course, that stock has been a rocket ship, over the last couple of months, you can see up 83%, something we pointed to any number of times but yesterday the company having a long meeting to introduce the new streaming service and talk about its fourth quarter numbers, but streaming is what we're focused on there, of course remember, cbs all access has been in the market for some time, they gave us number, 11 million international, 19 million domestically, not quite sure what they're paying internationally but overall 30 million subs already there, but the target 65 to 75 million subscribers hoping by 2024 their content budget by the way last year was about 15 billion they spent a billion of it on streaming but it's going to go up a lot from here they will add another $4 billion to the content budget for streaming, bringing that to as much as 5 billion it would look like in 2024 not clear exactly how much, that is all about scripted content. two tiers, 499 ad supported, you

witt will get the nfl but not the local affiliate live feed. 9.99, you will get everything. obviously no ads as well there's a look at sort of that and you know, something else, guys, that have been focused on, is the windowing 30 to 45 days is what they're talking about a big paramount film and putting it on paramount plus carl, you have been focused on, this the ever-shrinking window, disney has taken stuff right off and putting it on disney plus right away, a unique period of time, hbo did that with wonder woman 84 but here, 30 to 45 days but still, to say that a year ago, it would have been shocking, and now, not so much >> yeah, i think it's interesting the way in which the optionality now increases, wanda vision, as disney was asked, could it be a season two or a theatrical project as it is a

more important question as the year opens and needham today, lauren martin always kinds of zags when others are zigging, says sell netflix to buy viacom and outgrow netflix for the next three years. >> look, bob backus said it, it's a hit machine he knows how to develop hits that's what drove netflix. i do think that when you look at that stock, you have to say there was some incredible, incredible misvaluation, david, there were people at the bottom, who thought that this company could not meet its debt obligations. how wrong was that >> that was wrong. but i pointed out, nobody loved it at five times, everybody loved it at ten times, but you're right, they generated $1.9 billion in free cash flow last year. that however may be a high point for the company, jim, because you've got the nfl, you've got the, obviously the spending they're going to be doing to support this streaming service, so we may not see that from viacom for some time, but we're going to talk, bob bakish will

join us next hour. >> tell him i apologize. i started doubting because i couldn't take the pain. >> i will talk t-to him. and sherry redstone, the chairman of the company, started off talking about the future and about her late dad. >> this is not your father's viacom and it's not my father's either. this is a viacom cbs that is being reimagined, for a new kind of marketplace, in a new kind of consumer >> i can still hear sumner though on the call, viacom is the greatest stock on the world. i can hear him still saying it by the way if he said it two months ago, we have been dead right because it has been one of the greatest stocks in the world the last couple of months. >> this is one of the few times you could have watched the super bowl and made a lot of money remember how many paramount plus ads there were they were trying to tell us about the stock, it turns out.

you ice cream cone, you. >> i don't know, carl. fascinating world in streaming, guys by the way, disney, citi goes, 205 to 230, so definitely a period in which the tide is lifting lots of boats. when we come back, guy, later this morning, restaurants are gaining, danny meyer will join us, yoon union square will join us, later on this morning. don't awhe.gonyer - welcome to three brothers bakery. - we have cinnamon, apricot, and raspberry. - we have a location that has experienced four floods, a fire, a hurricane, and obviously now we're in the pandemic. this is during hurricane harvey. the water was like a river.

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lots of names to watch on the highly-shorted reddit list this morning, gamestop already up 80%, pre-market, amc, 20%, koss, 85, and we'll keep our eye

cehehat and see how they trade, on t opening bell rings in seven minutes. don't go away.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> time for the mad dash. >> i always love the ice cream truck. >> good humor guy. >> manny, the good humor truck driver >> i'm glad you brought that up. makes less money for people than what we've been doing so far. >> dollar tree opening bell. >> one of the things that people have been buying, when we get stimulus is, they've been buying these companies where there's been a lot of share take, dollar tree is one of them, but this time bank of america is not going to go there, they are saying you've got to get rid of this stock why? freight costs. wages. going up traffic recovery may not be there. david, if you look at some of these stocks, of companies that

did well last year, they're the opposite of what's working now l brands is now working now. l brand, david but dollar tree the first go-around when we had stimulus, look at that and dollar general by the way even better. they downgraded that so i say look out. this is the beginning of what i think are people are saying, you know what, these staple stocks, they've been rolling over, got to get out of them before they roll over. >> you talked about home depot and lowe's the last couple of days and said similar things. >> lowe's is getting better but home depot's quarter is amazing and people are saying it can't get better and i look at these other companies and i say look, these stocks have come down and at a certain point you want to buy them, and you don't want to put all of your money in macy's, and l brands and tapestry, and you don't want to be there, gap stores >> it is hard to imagine you would. >> but they're working >> as you pointed out, simon property group, a nice play on the mal has been working as well. >> david simon is doing a

remarkable job that acquisition when he lowered the price has done really well federal realty, he didn't believe as much asd i did, and said don, your company is coming back and frt, with touchless, david, put it right in your car. >> one thing that has not been working is faang, right? why isn't it working >> alphabet is working >> alphabet has. >> you can't say faang and netflix is up a bit. but apple, obviously, is not facebook is not. >> it's a whipping boy. >> amazon is not. >> people are so angry at me for saying shoe stick with apple they say it's just killing them. >> really? >> yes, it's killing them. >> upside down ice cream cone. >> upside down, that ice cream cone is melting on them. >> yeah. >> meanwhile, look at this twitter, ned segal, going crazy, it is the stock of the day david, the key this morning. >> you heard it there. twitter, the key to this market. >> not gamestop. but we want to follow gamestop

every minute because we got to see to the guys who sold those call, short the calls and now -- >> we're slowing it up 85% but really, it was $42 at this time yesterday [ bell ringing ]. >> the opening bell. at the big board, ushg acquisition corp, danny meyer, spac, celebrating its listing. we will talk with danny later on this morning actually in a couple of minutes. at the nasdaq, it is another spac alpha capital acquisition company, david, so i don't know if it's 28 today, or what the total number is going to be, we definitely got some interesting listings and s-1s out of things like coin base which is going to do a direct listing on the nasdaq, from the looks of this one, s-1, with the ticker symbol coin jim? >> look, that's going to be just too exciting for people to stay away from. i do want to warn people, when you get these direct listings, at the very beginning, i would

not sell them. a lot of times they're under price. look at spotify, and last quarter spotify is really good, and palantir became a favorite, and i think coin base, for those of us who believe in crypto is going to be very exciting for people don't forget by the way that nvidia call, jensen huang directly just said march, they're going to have cards, they do not, do not sell nvidia because they are involved with crypto they talked about crypto is a real business and they accepted there is going to be for ethereum, people buying cards but not a reason to sell nvidia. that's crazy you want to buy nvidia because of gaming and you want to buy nvidia because of data, and they own the data center, and amd has done a good job, intel, david is, a shadow of its former self. >> you said that many times a new ceo there. a lot of people enthusiastic. >> very smart. >> and it can be a years-long turn-around there, given how long it takes to just move to the next, to the next nanometer

technology. >> did you get an answer from nxp why they're the ones who have not been able to get the chips -- >> i didn't because i wasn't the one who was asking the questions. did you get an answer? >> no, i didn't get a shout-out. ice cream cone nothing. >> there's a look at gamestop which we will be following now again, where was the stock yesterday? >> the company saying it is unusual -- >> and is ice cream cone a material thing >> absolutely. ice cream cone frog emoji yes. >> and he didn't share it with anybody else prior to posting it >> i think a twitter post is a public dissemination but if not, that's material nonpublic information right there. look at that to me, that says a lot of things a lot. >> oh, you're owned by the hedge funds to say that. that's what everyone says about

everybody who doesn't agree that gamestop should go to a thousand. >> and all of the years i've been following company, i don't think i've seen a company not release a bit of news, even saying we have no, we do not know why our stock is doing this, and the gamestop, i'm sure there's some lawyer there, who is using noncommon analysis, but it's sub optimal, and it's ill-advised. >> do we have to keep an eye on robinhood and have to watch and make sure they have adequate capital and everything else for the volatility >> you will have to ask the grand inquisitor for that one. >> why can't we ask vlad >> why hasn't anyone suggesting that vlad didn't have the money, that everything would be shut down why isn't that the case? why if they didn't have the money, that robinhood would be shut and everyone would be hurt and -- >> if you don't have the capital, we'll talk to you monday it's not like wimpy.

and gladly allow you to trade tuesday. >> you got to have the money. >> listen, in the same way that melvin, plotken, my understanding that short at the worst part for melvin, the hedge fund that started this all off $16.8 billion loss in that short position. >> what? >> 16.8 billion. >> are you series? that's like a stimulus package. >> and it came down from fthere and he got the money from citadel and point 72 to keep going. it is not exactly clear what the economic situation was. >> and what about the term sheet? >> i can't get a straight answer on that. is he really working now for them >> please don't say that don't say that >> why >> that he's owned by -- are you saying he's owned -- >> they gave him a big, they bailed him out. >> david, that's, that's - >> if they say you got to raise money now, too that isa lot of money raised around the first gamestop move a lot. between robinhood and melvin

6 billion or more. but yeah, that number is stunning as is gamestop right now can't tell if it's halted. >> halted again. >> it looks like it is halted. >> so organized. >> gamestop, i mean s.e.c., remember the s.e.c., if there is one, the masters is on s.e.c., right, tony romo and a government agency and they should call gamestop and they should say do you have any reason why your stock is doing this are there any reasons, are there any reasons -- >> they know there isn't you know there isn't you know, there's no answer to that >> you're supposed to issue a statement. >> and say we have no idea why our stock is doing this. >> they're supposed do that, david. >> other than an ice cream cone. >> guys while it's halted. >> i can't get enough of that. i do want, i think we're going to have to get - >> are you talking about - >> i will talk about the auction. >> mr. softy here today, would you like me to bring you one

later? i'll bring you an ice cream cone >> i'm not eating ice cream. >> i want to talk about real news real money real money which of course is that c bend auction, we got the results yesterday and verizon and at&t went to town here to help of course, for their 5g spectrum needs, they bought a lot verizon by far the biggest $45.4 billion, about 13 million a license. at&t stepped up for 23.4 billion. that was a bit more than people, or the analysts that follow the company had anticipated. been looking for as much as 20 billion, for 23 billion, the big winner is t-mobile who spent 9 billion showing you didn't need that much because it's already got a strategy in place. you know, it's rolled out 2.5 gigahertz. it's got the nationwide 5g coverage it feels it needs because of that very rich spectrum position that it also got when it acquired sprint, jim, and you can see the reaction here. the key one i'm watching, is

at&t because of the dividend. because of just, you know, they got the wireless business, and its capital need, and cap ex, and spending 23 billion here, and they've got the dividend payout, and you just wonder, can they make it all work, when i speak to every quarter, the cfo john stevens says absolutely, and points to the numbers themselves, and the free cash flow numbers, but there's still people, there are still investors and others who wonder, at some point, do they have to start to think about selling a lot more than just a minority stake in directv >> i'm very worried about that balance sheet. >> are you >> spending to much. spending too much. carl >> we will keep our eye obviously on yields, the 30 year close to 228 once again. and we'll keep our eye on the markets here as they open. i think we're going to santelli first, this morning. hey, rick. >> hi, carl. indeed, not only the 10 year,

and look at december 31st, two-year note yields and what you'll see is we haven't been at these level, and crazy going from 11 to 15 but basically haven't been at these levels since early december but here is what is so interesting, so flat on the short end and look at the chart, going flat lined but here's the key, the auction, the auction, two-year note, the other day, the yield was a whisker under 12, yesterday was five-year note, the yield at the auction was 0.62 look at those yields now 15 and almost 70 the point is you have to pay for these on monday. and what are they doing? short end. and up as much as long end rates right now and really something unique if we look at what is going on with respect to tens quickly, february, one-year highs but when you zoom back a little bit more, what you'll notice is 150 is big level resistance, we're getting to those levels right now, finally, let's look at a year to date of dollar index,

we're only half a cent away from testing the level from early january, the low heest close going all the way back to april of 2018. carl, jim, david, back to you. >> rick santelli with the bond report. >> and we want to go to oil and gas and we talked about it a strong performer as oil prices moved up over the last few months and chevron being one of the names, they are making an announcement, as so many of these companies are at least trying to do, for what they're calling, what is called their future energy fund this is future energy fund two, jim. the first one they put in 100 million. and this one $300 million into and it is not just about trying to make money. in fact, it's much more about trying to sort of fund technology break-throughs that are going to be something helpful to them, as they try to reduce carbon, and/or even eliminate carbon take a listen. >> we'll be focused in on some of the more difficult sectors of

the economy, there are a lot of innovative people out there with ideas and we like to invest in companies that have new and novel technologies that they're trying to advance. we can help with some of our experts, we can also serve as a test bed, and do pilots with these companies. >> it gives you a sense as to what they're thinking, jim, at chevron. that's the name you always liked. i sat down with mr. wirth, we had a long conversation with our evolve series on cnbc.com and the environment being an important component of that and a lot more with mr. wirth. >> i think he is real and very thoughtful and he tout me a lot about what can happen that's good okay i really do want to watch your interview. thank you carl >> when come back, a spac going public, and danny meyer. don't go away.

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cra, creation of his own spac earlier this year and today they will begin to trade on the new york stock exchange, joining us is union square hospital group danny meyer along with the ceo of the newly formed spac adam sokolov, welcome, gentlemen, good to see you both. >> great to see you. >> zany, let me start with you a lot -- danny, let me start with you a lot of the spacs that come to market come with names that aren't assigned a personality per se, or a world view, and you could argue that you do come with one, you've written entire books about it how does that apply to the spac that you're, that you brought to the market >> well, carl, i'm not sure about the personality part, but the philosophy is everything and when we look at the world of spacs, what we saw was that there are an enormous number that are financial instruments by some really, really brilliant

people out there, and the other side that we saw were a huge number of spacs that are business sector specific, alternative energy, retail, sports entertainment, you name it what we thought we were about, and what we believe is going to be the most potent business principle of the next many, many years, is not a specific business sector, but a specific cultural principle the cultural principle which we call hospitality, which is the way a business treats its stakeholders and the way it makes them feel, is really the biggest differentiator in addition to whatever disruptive business plan they may have. >> adam, that's pretty broad, so how does it apply to various silos within dining, within hospitality, and i guess more broadly, just within events in general? right? >> well, again, as danny said, we're not industry focused, and

you know, there's a tendency for people to have thought, when we first went off, given danny and ushc, that we're going to go out there and buy a restaurant it's possible, but i wouldn't think that it's likely that that's the deal we're going to do here. again, we're focused on culture-driven businesses. obviously, looking for growth, great management teams, with a moat around the business that have not only shown their ability to grow up till now but sustainable long-term growth and we want to partner with companies like that, that share our view, or danny's philosophy of enlightened hospitality we think we bring a lot of resources to bear, i'm happy to talk about that, but we can go pretty broad here. it really doesn't matter what the industry is, it's more a function of how that business

has grown, what they're focused on, culture-driven, and again, a great business bviously, looking forward. >> danny, first, i can tell you, i miss your restaurants, i miss your hospitality, i believe that when things happen again, know he people feel that it's going to be delivery, i think it's going to be hospitality, because that is the secret sauce i look at these enlightened hospitality companies and the investments, and something that i've used ever since i've had you on the show, and how do you determine who is really enlightened and who is a poser >> jim, do you remember back in 2010 you had me on your show, and we spoke about this very, very concept, and in fact, you called me and asked me if i would create a market basket of companies across all sectors, you called it the meyer hospitality index, it outperformed the standard and poor's by i think 3 x and you had me back, and we kept doing

it so this is all your idea and the reason it is all your idea, is that i got so frustrated through the years that i never invested in those companies that you asked me to put together and so this time, we're going to do it on our own you're right, we have a private equity fund which has been doing really, really well, called enlighten the hospitality investments, early stage investments and the acquisition corp, the special purpose is culture. the special purpose in spac is culture and we're going to apply the exact same philosophy, that you asked me to do back in 2010, and it works, and we know how to do two things. we can analyze whether a company has a disruptive business model that is likely to succeed in the public marketplace, but we also have an amazing opportunity, i think, to assess the culture of that business. how does it feel to work there how does it feel for the people who do business with it? you want a company that has

attracted a tribe of people, where the people who work there say this job is the best thing that ever happened to me in my life, and the people who do business proudly want the world to know that they are customers of that brand. it could be a consumer company it could be a tech brand it could be a digital marketplace. but we just know that culture is the killer app today. >> i have salesforce on tonight and remarkable with customer relations management and when i look at a special engagement workshop to take, in order to be more like the people who are working, who work at your wonderful restaurants, or events, and consulting, i got to tell you, danny, i think there are literally thousands of companies that need your help, this is not an algo, this is about how to treat people well i know you were instrumental in helping me open one of my restaurants. i cannot believe we're even offering this. you will offer the secret sauce to others? >> well, we're going to partner with a business that we believe is already doing it. we're not looking to turn around

a company, we're looking to be the miracle gro for a company that is doing really, really well and a company that says i get it, i really believe that by virtue of becoming a public company, with the strategic help of this group, and we've got an extraordinary group of board members and advisors across many sectors, everything from a.i. to consumer to finance, randy, the ceo of shake shack is on our board. he is also on the board of square this group of people have brought companies public this is a crucial moment for a business i don't think i can possibly overstate that that moment that you become a public company, everything in your world changes. and the group of people that are a part of our spac understand exactly how to help another company do that, and this is what we want to do, jim. i can't say it enough. we believe this is the future of business we believe we are in the hospitality economy right now. hospitality as a business

principle as opposed to hospitality the old-fashioned way, which simply means food, beverage and lodging. >> adam, can i ask a question, please >> sure. >> you know, listening to the two of you, and i am a little surprised. i mean, you have got the partner here, the greatest restaurant you're of his generation who knows hospitality inside and out, has reps across the board with everybody who has admired and respected and is the name behind your spac and you are talking about potentially buying a software company and changing the culture. i want to make sure i am understanding. >> we are not talking about changing culture we are talking about finding a company -- listen it could be a software company, could be a restaurant company, could be a consumer branded company or a service. we are looking for companies that share that view, that have that kind of culture maybe they aspire to do it better, but we are not looking

to change their culture. we are looking to partner with a company that is a lot like ushg, and maybe they do what -- they do something better than everybody else in their industry just like danny and the ushg folks do things better in the restaurant industry. if we can find a company like that, and again the resources that we're bringing, this is the "a" team you look at our board, you look at our advisory council, we have got the backing of leonard green and partners on the private equity side as well. this is the "a" team we are looking to partner with an a team company, culture driven, industry is not the only thing that matters here. >> danny, finally, just to comment on spacs as a tool, you know, yesterday charlie munger said at this conference he thought the world would be better off without spacs thinks it's a crazy speculation

in is enterprises not found or picked out yet he called it an irritating bubble what does the spac world think when they hear that from a guy like munger? >> i thad a great conversation with him two weeks ago he was eating a big piece of chocolate cake and he told me how much he liked shake shack, which i thought was the biggest compliment from a guy in world who owns dairy queen listen, the spac world is absolutely on fire right now, and fires tend to be put out over some period of time and i think the reason people are asking that question, which is a fair question, is that it's a very special company that is actually ready to become a public company and if the number of spacs exceeds the number of bona fide businesses that are ready to be public, he is potentially right. that said, when we got into the hamburger business, it's not like there weren't a lot of hamburger businesses out there it's not like there weren't a whole lot of italian restaurants out there.

i am a big believer that cream can rise to the top and we are going to lock for the kind much business that has i risen to the top and wants that iextra boost. also the speed to market this a spac can provide for a potential ipo. >> danny, adam, congratulations, guys really appreciate you coming on to talk about it we will be looking forward to our next conversation. thanks >> thanks for having us. >> thank you we will take a break here. some mild ssloes three halts so far on gme. don't go away.

jim, just to recap, the amazing show you have tonight. >> 15 years i never had anything like this. nvidia, i have fisker, twitter, airbnb and salesforce. and i can not wait thank you regina for setting up the night of stars is what i'm calling it we are going to have it. >> jim, you are not going anywhere you are going to stay with us because we also have the ceos of viacom/cbs, j.m. smucker and booking holdings when we're back in a minute.

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fidelity. ♪ good thursday morning. welcome to another hour of "squawk on the street. i'm q i'm carl quintanilla with david faber, jim cramer is with us we will talk to bob bakish in a minute dow is down about 50

watching yields, of course, as the ten-year yields bumping close to the s&p dividend yield of 15. pending homes down 28 for january. we were looking for a decline of about half a percent sara, we definitely know that the housing market has a little tougher sledding in this yield environment. >> yeah, rising rates continues to be a major theme. but we are glued to gamestop again this morning shares doubling last night they are soaring again this morning. the stock was halted during the last half hour of the trading day, closed higher by 104% shares right now, guys, up 36% we were just going into a normal market zone yesterday at the end of closing bell, and then, bam, out of nowhere with seemingly no catalyst, i know david you guys are looking at the ice cream treat by ryan cohn, the activist investor in gamestop and we saw the stock just surge. it was reminiscent of what we saw in january a mcdonald's ice cream, everyone

is trying to decode it it has 8,100 likes right now not sure if that tweet was it. there was the cfo departure which came 24 hours earlier and reports throughout the day that cohn helped push him out whatever it was, it reignited this flame, jim, that we saw in jan. the short interest isn't as high from the last time reported. what do you think is going on? >> i think that there is a narrative here that allows people to come in and really take it to market makers you can come in, buy a lot of out of money calls that were bought yesterday and come in and jam it by buying the common stock and it cause people to be short and that causes what you are seeing here. but overall, i do want to say, sara, the quiet nature of gamestop is something that, if i were in the s.e.c., i would pick up the phone right now and say, come on, what's going on you can't keep doing this. you can't just allow this to

happen without you putting a statement out there. everyone seems to think the s.e.c. doesn't have that power not only does the s.e.c. have the power, it should be using it right now. that's not to hurt the little guy or the hedge fund. but there is a company, if the stock is erratic, if there is news other than ice cream cones, i would like to know it. >> well, janet yellen, treasury secretary, when we talked to her last week said that the s.e.c. was preparing a report she convened all the financial regulators but, david, not clear, they are in an interim position at the s.e.c. what's going on behind the scenes and why we're not really getting commentary from the company or from the s.e.c. on what's happening. >> yeah, i am not sure they have much to say. i am not quiet sure what you say. they didn't comment the last time. >> we are monitoring it? >> yeah, we're monitoring it, we don't know, we don't consider an ice cream cone tweet with a frog emoji material non-public information.

you know, listen, we don't know. but there it is. and again that doesn't put it in perspective. it's up 40% today. as you made the point, it's actually up well more than that because the stock was trading in the low 40s yesterday around this time. >> yeah, and i think now halt number four, guys. so, i mean, it's not a complete repeat of the january action, jim, but definitely an echo. >> let's talk about -- let's use another comp let's say it's costco. and costco's stock is up 40% and we don't know. do you think that costco would just say nothing no they would put out a statement the fantastic cfo would put out a statement and say there is nothing going on at the company that we can attribute the stock going up that's what a real company does. a real company has real people who do real things not this company i mean, this guy is marching

where is he marching to the sea, general sherman, the ceo? is this the burning of atlanta great scene, by the way. >> speaking of real companies -- >> back to your -- >> give a damn right. let's move on to real companies and real news this morning talk about viacom/cbs. the company reported fourth quarter full year results for 2020 yesterday as well as, and this was the bigger news, revealing details of its march 4th launch of paramount plus joining us is bob bakish shall the ceo of viacom/cbs. great to have you. it's been a while. and let's start with streaming you are looking to have as many as 65 to 75 million subscribers for your streaming service, paramount plus, by 2024. now you are starting at 30 million right now with cbs all access, which will, of course, just become paramount plus what gives you the confidence you can get to that number >> great to see you, david it's been too long we are really excited about what we are doing in the streaming

space. in fact, as you know, we are the only company that's been basing an ecosystem in streaming that spans free pay and premium you referenced the pay side of the house of which the signature move we made yesterday was unveiling paramount plus we are tremendously excited about what we're doing with paramount plus it starts with the content we talk about paramount plus as live sports, breaking news and a mountain of entertainment and the breadth of the content truly is extraordinary whether it's the preeminent collection of kids content obviously, related to the nickelodeon brand. the leading position we have in reality programming. all kinds of scripted and drama programming. a great film offering. plus, the news and sports. so you look at that, we think that is compelling, and it's volume based as you have on the screen right now, over 30,000 episodes of

television we are going to have almost 3,000 films on the platform. and importantly, that library program is linked to a robust slate of originals, because originals bring people in. yesterday we talked about 36 original series which are debuting this year on paramount plus importantly, we don't start from a standing start we have real momentum. as you pointed out, on the pay side, 30 million global subs, 20 million domestically, and that's in addition to the 30 million maus on the free side and 43 million globally and about an exit run rate of revenue in 2020 in streaming of $3.6 billion so tremendous momentum you put that momentum, you build it off the global infrastructure we have, and we think there is really exciting things ahead. >> and you can get to the numbers that you talked about. bob, i have had this conversation with mean of your peers who likewise started streaming services the question is how much do you

can bollize the existing product? it's not as though a subscriber is not paying you a lot of money and and/or resulting in a significant amount of advertising revenue. do you get it a point where the streaming subscriber is equal to the revenue number you are getting from your old media subscriber >> we are clearly living a multi-platform world today there continues to be tremendous consumption on linear television and that continues to have attractive economics at the same time and parallel to that the streaming and over the top side is clearly the growth end of the business and you see that category growing very significantly overall and for us you look at projections of 100 billion dollars of streaming revenue in the not too distant future as that business scales, the economics will scale as well, and we see a very nice business. >> yeah. but on that note, i mean, you know, $6 billion in revenues in

2020 came from viacom from content licensing, from your making great shows and selling them to other streaming services how much of that is now going to be self-licensed by the company as a result of putting those shows on paramount plus? >> yeah. so we have been evolving our strategy in the content licensing space. require, viacom/cbs is one of the preeminent content companies in the world both with respect to new production and with respect to library so we have both third parties as well as our owned and operated services as we have built a scale position in streaming and as we go and transform into paramount plus, we have leaned more in the owned and operated direction, really preserving key franchises for our own services, and again you saw a lot of that in our presentation yesterday as a result of that, our licensing business is getting more in house. but we will stay in the licensing business with third parties. it is a good financial business,

and it has important non-financial benefits, including for franchise development. one of the shows we announced yesterday was icarly, which is bringing back a historic nickelodeon show with the original cast. we have the original icarly right now on one of the big streamers using that to build the ui.p. and then a new original version. >> for example, you guys produce yellowstone. but you sold it to peacock how do you explain, you know, because one would imagine having this incredibly popular show on the platform would be a real positive >> absolutely. so the story of yellowstone is probably the biggest hit in cable. when we licensed yellowstone to peacock, it was before the virus virus deal closed and it was certainly before any plans for paramount plus at the same time we will have yellowstone on the platform and more importantly we have three

spinoffs in the work, including the first one this year. so we can bring a larger -- the yellowstone consumer broader and exclusive experience on paramount plus and that's very much part of our strategy leverage i.p. and then build on it to create a compelling offering for different lanes of consumers. >> i mentioned when we were reporting on the numbers, $1.9 billion in free cash flow for 2020 there is an expectation that will be a high point for a while. what can you tell the viewers on the financial side in terms of when you expect to reach peak streaming ebidta losses, if we want to call them that, and how we can expect margins to look a number of years out? >> so, look, let's start with the quarter. we had a great fourth quarter financially. 3% revenue growth. 5% ebidta growth 13% adjusted diluted eps growth. under the covers, you had ad sales, growth of 4%, which was a sequential improvement from a

minor negative in the prior quarter. affiliate sales up 13% sequentially improved from 10% then we talked about some of the streaming metrics, which were up about 70% in the quarter earlier. so we've got a good financial trajectory now, as we lean more into streaming, as we said on our third quarter call, we will increase our investment, but we are doing that because we see great early momentum we see a massive market and we see an asset base that will clearly perform in this space. and again when you look at the content lineup, we showed yesterday i think a lot of people really got it and came away saying, this paramount plus thing is real. >> i certainly would agree. three more quick questions if i can. bob, let's talk windowing for a moment 30 to 45 days before your big movies are going to be available on the platform. that's a short window. does it involve any negotiations with the theater owners in the future, or is that here to stay? >> i am tremendously excited

about what paramount is doing in films. the mountain is back it's got a great -- obviously, had to deal with covid but we have got a great set of films in the can and a great slate going forward. i am also really excited about what we are doing in the film space on paramount plus. as you indicated, some of our biggest films, like "a quite place part ii," mission impossible 7 will come to paramount plus 45 days after theatrical debut that's a very short window we believe that's a great combination of allowing people to see things in the theater should they wish to and to have that big-screen experience, but bring to very quickly to streaming, which they also want. we believe that is a sustainable model. we believe that is a model that works really for all the key contich sensies. so we're tremendously excited. >> on football, it feels like we are getting close. are we getting close are you going to beannouncing

new deal with the nfl in the near term? >> you know, nfl's always a popular topic. i will say what i always say, which we have a great partnership with the nfl decades long, mutually beneficial we talk to them all the time nfl is very much a part of our streaming offering on both of our tiers, by the way, the $9.99 tier and the $4.99 tier. we feel great about being in business with them other than that, stay tuned. >> and finally, when it comes to the nfl and affiliates, there are a number of questions. this one last question on the ad supported tier, previously on cbs all access you get that live local affiliate feed now it will only be on the premium tier, but the nfl will be on the ad supported tier. what's going on with the affiliates here and how should we view it are you cutting them out do you have to work a new deal with them? some people are trying to understand that. >> yeah, sure. so what we announced yesterday

is there will be two tiers for paramount plus in the united states one is the 9.99 product which includes live linear cbs feed and is essentially ad-free i a/c essentially because the live feed has ads but the on demand stuff is ad free. and 4.99 product only on demand, although includes live elements like nfl we are doing that combination because we want to reach the widest addressable market. we think it's important to be in, at both price points and we also want to maximize our advertiser reach for that important part of our business we provide tremendous value to our station affiliates in the form of programming, including the nfl. they also, by the way, participate economically in the 9.99 verge of the product. this is an example of how media is transitioning to the multi-platform world that is something we're doing. we are very excited about it again, paramount plus is a key piece of that puzzle for us.

>> and can you believe the stock price? did you ever think your stock would be up 830% in two months, bob? >> 80% in two months feels great. this was a stock that was beaten up multiple was very contracted we have had a good run out of the covid lows we had a great run since january. importantly, if you look at the multiples and look at the multiple relative to companies that have established credibility in the streaming space, we are still trading at a low multiple. >> understood. >> we feel good. there is upside from here. >> bob, always appreciate it thank you. >> thanks, david stay well. >> i will try. bob bakish, ceo of viacom. >> almost a double in three months as we head to break, j.m. smucker announcing third quarter results this morning better sales, stocks up 3.6% we have the ceo next on "squawk ayitustrt. st wh

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j.m. smucker stronger than expected earnings this morning stock up 4%. mark smucker, president and ceo of the company joins us now for a first on cnbc interview. glad to see you again. >> thanks for having me. >> no doubt people are still spending money on snacks at home, coffee at home, and their pets you are in the right categories. my question is on the outlook and what's giving you the confidence to expect these kinds

of trends to continue as more people get vaccinated and start to go out. >> yeah, sure. first of all, i'm incredibly proud of our entire industry if you look at how all of the manufacturers and retailer customers have been partnering together to make sure we are meeting demand, it's fantastic and clearly, we have benefitted from a lot of the stay-at-home trends, but specifically we are very focused on making sure that our commercial execution all the way down to the store level is on point and that we are using our marketing dollars to engage with con psalmers broadly and specifically as new consumers come into our brands and reengage them to stick about those brands going forward we do view that this is a trend that will continue for a long time >> we have been talking to each other for a very long time i look at the portfolio. so glad that you managed to get a very good price for crisco i see carnation, mark. i see eagle.

i see these lower-end brands and i see fantastic brands like santa cruz, true roots, and i wonder if it's still a work in progress because i see a tier high end, whether it be dog and cat, snacking, that you can own because of your great brand name. >> jim, nice to see you. you know, we are never finished. 'wuls will continue to look at our portfolio to make sure that we're leading in the best categories it's a core tenanet of our strategy we want to make sure that it consists of assets that we have confidence that we can grow. and so in pet, nutrition, way more focused there we have got great new innovation coming in big life on that and then as you think about the other brands in our portfolio, we feel very good go the makeup of those right now and our ability to continue to focus and grow them. >> mark, are you getting the

price increases through that you need to see? >> yes that's something very important to us. there are multiple levers that we can use to impact net price when it comes to an actual list price increase or decrease in some cases, we have to work very closely collaborating with our customers to make sure that it's clearly, there is underlying justifiability that can be in cost, that can be in consumers' willingness to pay for more value. making sure we are collaborating with the customer partners helps get the prices through jimmy f jif is a perfect example all the key competitors have followed that pricing action and so leading in those ways is going to be key always >> mark, we had an unbelievably good interview with bob bakish of viacom. i was thinking, is an

advertisement on cbs as good as an advertisement on facebook, on instagram, on twitter, conagra told me the other day 80% of their ad budget has shifted to online what is your percentage right now? >> you know, we generally, it varies, but all advertising, all channels have value. so in some cases it's about reach. so when you think about mass media, we want to reach as many consumers as we possibly can in some cases, it is getting very granular and specific to where we are getting new households we got 3 million new folgers households finding and engaging with the new consumers that have come back tour brands is key. so it really is about making sure that we have the right mix across all of the different media channels, jim. >> you talk about the lower net pricing for pet food are you seeing a chewy

phenomenon a fellow started chewy, ryan cohn, regarded as maybe another great visionary for another company, gamestop. but is chewy a factor in keeping prices down for pet food >> we have a great business with chewy. clearly, pet food is skewing more online sales, and there are multiple ways to engage with them we are very pleased with that relationship we have grown tremendously with chewy. they do great with premium brands and so continuing to make sure that we have the right brands at those online retailers as well as the right assortment is critical >> there are reports, mark, in the local papers, in ohio and akron, that you have been doing layoffs, and my question is, why? if the company is doing so well and you continue to put up these quarters of double-digit sales growth in your categories. >> sure, sara. going into the pandemic, we knew

that we had some structural issues we needed to deal with. at the end of the day, our company has always had a strong continuous improvement mindset, and so as we have been very clear, as we communicated externally with our desire to be more agile, a leaner, flatter organization, we felt that some of those changes were necessary to ensure that as we move forward coming out of the pandemic, that we are as strong and agile as we can possibly be. we take these decisions incredibly seriously anytime you make decisions that impact people, you have to be very mindful of those impacts, a we want to make sure with every single employee that could be impacted by those decisions, that we will street them with the up most respect and help them land on their feet. >> my other follow was on the stock. it's a little bit higher the last year, and it's certainly taken off a bit today on the back of the results, mark.

but food stocks have not really been popular they are not mean stocks they don't tempt to do well when you get rising rates there is also this just general skepticism about whether we can continue to see younger consumers buy brands like folgers or uncrustables, pb&j, for that matter, because they weren't doing it before the pandemic do you have data do you have something hard you can point to that you can show that that's not true >> sure. the industry, our industry in general tends to be safety stocks but if we continue to execute on our strategy, focusing on the consumer, making sure that we are streamlining our cost infrastructure and driving commercial excellence, we will continue to win, and we think that we can prove that over time and so it really is about continuing to execute and ensure that we are delivering our strategy >> mark, you repurchased 4.5 million shares

and i think that's great i would have loved it had you bought three or four fantastic boutique coffee brands to go with what you have it would have said you have all bases covered. you have got the capital the other guys don't why not use it to grow and own the coffee category? >> jim, acquisitions are a key part of our strategy and always have been. when we think about using cash and how we deploy it, we tend to defer or prefer acquisitions as our first option to our lines are always in the water. you are correct. you know, we're continuously looking to build on our portfolio, lead in the best categories and make sure that the brands that make up our portfolio, whether they are new ones coming in, whether it's new categories, all of those are going to be critical parts of our strategy so clearly we are looking. but nothing to report at this time >> mark smucker, good to check in with you. thanks for joining us here. >> thank you

good to see you. >> up more than 4%. again, recap what you got tonight, jim >> the stars we have got brian chesky, ned segal, jensen huang. henrik fischer is a guy that most people want to listen to because of the deal that he did with foxconn wow. i can't believe it the night of the stars it's a really big show. >> can't wait. see you at 6:00. really big show. "mad money" at 6:00 p.m. tonight. we will take a break here. the dow looks like it might end with a win streak. nasdaq trying to hang on to ckn atomthmoh. ba ith ment. bile is the leader . we also believe in putting people first by treating them right. so we're upping the benefits without upping the price. mom. introducing magenta max. now with unlimited premium data that can't slow down based on how much smartphone data you use. plus get netflix on us,

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today, more than 100,000 of us are innovating to ensure spaces are more efficient, healthier and safer. abm. making spaces healthier for you. ♪ welcome back i'm rahel solomon and here is your cnbc covid update at this hour pfizer is doing a study to he is how much a third dose of its vaccine increases protection

against covid-19 two tos are95% effective. the ceo tells nbc news a third shot may raise the antibody response to 10 to 20 field and that could be helpful. the case count in the u.s. may be leveling off following the sharp drop from january's highs. the past week cases hovering around 70,000 a day. the death toll topped 3,000 on wednesday, the first time that has happened in two weeks. california is the first state with more than 50,000 covid deaths. and country music star tricia yearwood has symptoms after testing positive for covid-19 her husband, singer garth brooks, is negative. he is worried about potential long-term effects on his wife, but, sara, he said that she is a fighter. they are going to get through this together and said she is on her way. you can see the light at the end of the tunnel there. wishing them positive thoughts. >> that's good thank you. time for our "etf spotlight.

today we are taking a look at what else, the spider retail etf. ticker xrt led higher this morning by one of its more volatile holdings, gamestop shares surging this week the company announced cfo jim bell was resigning because, saying it wasn't because of my disagreement but according to reports bell was pushed out by ryan cohn, the activis activist investor in the stock in order to execute the company's turnaround faster. retail traders are back onboard. the stock is up 40% and it is pushing that retail etf higher "squawk on the street" will be right back dow's down about50ois. 1 pnt ♪ ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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if you see wires down, treat them all as if they're hot and energized. stay away from any downed wire, call 911, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. rising yields, the reddit trade, volatility topics to bring up with the next guest liz anadarko saunders, chief investment strategist at charles

schwab good morning i would love to start with you on yields. a couple days to process what powell has told the market about a little reason, i guess, to fear a rate shock. it sounds like you are kind of onboard with that? >> i am. and i think that was particularly interesting that powell focused on, and i think it will garner increasing attention, is on the employment side of their dual mandate, and a lot of discussion about let's call it the breadth of the decline in unemployment they want to see. they want to see dispersion, particularly in areas of the economy most impacted. i don't think it will be a sort of simplistic move down in unemployment rate because all that would be needed to start to suggest the fed that they have to pare back policy. i think they are going look at the inner workings at the decline in the unemployment rate

>> yeah. this brainerd speech yesterday really zeroing in on what's happened to unemployment i mean, depression-level unemployment even now, for the bottom quartile of income earners, i guess i wonder what it means for the discussion about what full employment means in the years ahead. >> well, i think we are going to see a shift in the industries and sectors that drive employment what we saw in the last cycle is services consumption is a fairly small part of the economy in gdp terms, but that's where most of the job creation was concentrated a lot of that was a function of the carnage in housing in the prior crisis and a lot of movement of the labor force into leisure hospitality retail, and that's, obviously, where the carnage has been most significant here i think the key is the job creating industries right now and in the near future is there a significant skills gap that

means that the scarring effect of this crisis and the ability to get those folks employed, either in existing industries or new industries, i think it's going to be a unique aspect of this recovery that is not the norm in the past when we've had more goods-driven recessions this was clearly a services-driven recessions so the dynamics are very different. >> yeah. it's going to be interesting to watch. there has been a lot of discussion the last couple of weeks about where there are bubbles in the market. some on the street argue it's in evs. jpmorgan tried to argue it's in the vix. there is the gamestop phenomenon and the reddit trade do you think it's possible have micro bubbles extent in the market without actually bringing the whole market down? >> i do. i think we have had a flavor of this for a couple of years now we started to develop some micro bubbles in the latter part of 2017 in some of the areas where i think they exist again now

i am going to dare say cryptocurrency's bitcoin, remember that back in 2000 you had an internet bubble that didn't mean the internet disappeared. it's just you had a valuation and a sentiment problem. and i think heading into early 2018, as we know with the benefit of hindsight, massive shortfall implosion and there was a mini bubble leading into that, that leverage on volcanoes staying low. now we have a lot of bets on the market continuing to go up, but volatility going up. and that sort of strange bed fellows. but we have seen these periods where you can kind of rick these micro bubbles through a process of rotation without an overall corrective phase for the market. that's what we have been seeing so far, and i think it could persist. >> it's david. when the internet bubble went, it took a broad swath of the market with it you are not anticipating that will be the case this time >> well, keep in mind where a

lot of the speculative fervor was concentrated was in the big leadership stocks in the market and that bias in terms of excess valuation and where you were seeing it in the options trades, that was in those dominant parts of the market. i think where you are seeing a lot of micro bubbles are in the more arcane segments much the market, whether it's heavily shorted stocks or more recently penny stocks, the weak balance sheet stocks, not profitable tech companies you just don't see it in those major dominating parts of the market, and what we are seeing, though, is that where you have valuation excess, where we have had in many of the large cap growth areas, you are seeing some of that pressure ease i think that's due to rising deelts it's more of a force down on multiples than it is necessarily broadly on the market. if you have a force pushing a

high multiple stocks down, you are going to see those in areas that had been leadership so i think there is a lot of important differences between now and circa 2000 maybe the most important one is that we had ridiculous valuations back then because both prices in earnings were going up now part of the reason why valuations spike is because of the collapse in earnings and now we are on the upswing in earnings so tit's the nature of the denominator that's different this time. >> even as we're talking, ten-year yield above the s&p dividend yields. there will be much to talk about in the days ahead. thanks good to see you. >> thank you liz a this n saunders. >> nasdaq is down 1.paraphernalia% for the week. coming up, the ceo of booking holdings on his company's results in the post-pandemic future of travel plus, a mixed quarter for dr.

pepper, earnings missed, revenue beat, the company announcing a big dividend increase. we are going to talk to the ceo later on closing bell. his first tv interview you won't want to miss it. "squawk on the street" will be back aerhiquk eaft ts icbrk. ear? no, but we came through smelling of mistletoe. the now platform lets us identify problems before they became problems. if only it could identify where my ball went. this you? hmm... no, mine had green lights. whatever your business is facing. let's workflow it. maybe i should workflow my swing... servicenow. this is how you become the best! [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito]

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♪ welcome back to "squawk on the street." stocks are mostly lower today, near the lows of the session right now as you can see with technology and consumer discretionary stocks amongst some of the worst performers among the discretionary laggards two of the pandemic's winners, domino's pizza and best buy, both companies posting disappointing same-store sales as some of the demand seen in prior quarters because of the pandemic has waned also a pull back in travel stocks which had been on a tear earlier in the week. booking holdings, royal caribbean, hilton all part of that selloff in today's travel-related names norweigian cruise line with earnings this morning. more on the state of the travel industry from booking holdings

ceo glenn fogel after the short break. keep it here "squawk on the street" comes back after this. at fidelity, you get personalized wealth planning and unmatched overall value. together with a dedicated advisor, you'll make a plan that can adjust as your life changes, with access to tax-smart investing strategies that help you keep more of what you earn. and with brokerage accounts, you see what you'll pay before you trade. personalized advice. unmatched value. at fidelity, you can have both. ♪ more than this ♪

shares of booking holdings

down today on the print, coming off that all-time high yesterday. seema mody joins us with the ceo. >> thank you glenn fogel, welcome back to cnbc. >> thank you for having me. >> we are looking at your stock down about 5% after hitting a record high yesterday. things are still a lot of questions with this road to recovery on the earnings call last night you talked about israel being a case study for the vaccine rollout and how quickly that can translate into travel bookings. can you talk to us about what you are exactly seeing there, and implications for this broader recovery in travel >> well, it's not just israel. i mean, israel is a good case example of where you have 50% of the people getting inoculated and all of a sudden when the government says, okay, you can travel, people want to travel. but we saw that in the u.k prime minister johnson says here's the plan to recovery, getting out of this crisis people went out, they want to start booking.

we are seeing green shoots for summer bookings in the u.k., and in germany, you go not everywhere it's all going to pan out. how fast do the vaccines get rolled out so, one, people feel safe to travel and, two, governments feel it's safe to let people travel and those restrictions go away. restrictiy >> yeah, and then there's the question, glenn, about hotels versus homes i've speaking with the ceos of marriott and they tell me they're looking to build their home rental category to compete with airbnb. what's your game plan? how does booking try to beat airbnb at its own game >> we don't have to build it because we've got it we're doing a lot of business in that area. we've talked about this in the past, seema. we offer homes and we offer hotels we let the customer choose what they want. we think we have an advantage because by offering on the same page, compare and contrast and choose what they really want

we know that when a lot of people come, they're not sure what they want we're offering both. i think we have a great hand to play >> glenn, just to narrow in on the recovery question, you're waiting for vaccines we're all waiting for vaccines when we do see that happen at a widespread level in the u.s. whether it's this summer or potentially in the fall, everybody is trying to figure out what the pent-up demand for travel looks like. what is your expectation how strong could it be >> it's hard to say but i think we have a little bit of history with what happened last summer we saw when people came out of lockdown they wanted to travel we had a fairly strong -- well, a stronger than we thought last summer because people did have that pent-up desire to travel. i don't know about you but i want to travel anecdotally i hear a lot of the same things from people, but we'll see. we'll see what is the availability going to be

airlines, imagine that we do end up with this huge, huge demand comes back, do they have the capacity they've parked a lot of planes will they be able to provide it? wouldn't that be good if we have too much demand and not enough flights? >> yeah, we're already beginning to see some signals of that, glenn. i wonder the way the vaccine rollout is happening logistically it goes to the older population first i wonder can we game that out and argue that if older people are vaccinated first maybe they have more discretionary income being retired. does that mean luxury outperforms or is that a stretch? >> interesting thought i haven't gone that far into the details. one thing we do see is how much faster these vaccines are being rolled out i saw connecticut announced they're dropping down to 55 in a couple of weeks. i don't think that's that old. and going down further and further. we're getting more and more of these vaccines distributed

the johnson & johnson hopefully we'll get that out get the vaccines distributed it's just not going fast enough. the u.s. we're doing okay. some states not doing as well as others you go outside the u.s we're an international company we are based on doing the best travel around the world. a lot of countries, there's not a lot of progress being made there, and we need the whole world to get safe with vaccines if we want to have a real strong recovery for all the travel. >> what's interesting about your strategy, glenn, over the past couple of years your focus has been about going global, increasing your footprint in emerging markets on the call yesterday you said for 2021 it's all about the u.s., building your home inventory. i'm wondering how you do that. is it by beefing up your sales team to get more homeowners to list their house on booking.com, or is it acquiring a property management firm that has millions of homes on its site already? >> first of all, i hope i didn't say that's all we're thinking is

the u.s. the u.s. is one part of a focus we definitely want to do more and i talked about how we are very international, but we want absolutely to concentrate more effort in the u.s. it's a huge market and we absolutely are going to do all the different ways, get more product on the shelf, get more awareness to the consumers make sure we're giving the best value to the consumer. we don't talk about what we may or may not do in future m&a but i am confident we have some great things to make ourselves a much better player in the u.s. >> glenn, on international travel obviously it's a huge question mark for large cities like new york here in the states yesterday the international air transport association, iata, started talking about a digital vaccine passport are you confident that countries will be able to coordinate levels of immunity documentation that will allow foreign tourists

to come back to different countries? >> well, there's no doubt there's been a lot of talk about that and there are a lot of different proposals put out, a lot of people doing different things trying to come up with how do we have people who are safe, how do we allow them to travel, to get going so we can get this international travel back up faster you're seeing some of that happen before there was anything digital. if you went to certain countries you have to prove vaccination of certain times of diseases or they won't let you in. there's nothing wrong with that. i think that could help bring back international travel quicker. now, of course, this requires governments to coordinate and be able to put together the protocols and the ways people can put in if they are safe to travel and then let them travel freely i'm looking forward to progress being made there because i think that will help >> glenn, you're talking a lot about the outlook and hopes for the future and the pentup demand, curious what you're seeing now because we have seen

millions of vaccinations already in this country. my parents flew in to new york to see their grandkids for the first time in a year last week is it already happening and are people already booking vacations and starting to open up in a way that you're expecting? is it better or worse as we've seen the vaccinations go out more than 10% of the population now. >> we talked about in in our call last night. obviously there was a lull in the fourthquarter where things were getting worse in november and then things got a little bit better this december we talked about january. the issue is every time i think somebody gets a vaccine, i think then they just feel a sense of relief they can do things perhaps they were a little not certain they wanted to do in the past i think your parents are a good example. i hope they used to us do their travel i do think that will help as people feel safe they're going to travel. i am absolutely certain of that. >> all right

we'll be tracking those real-time numbers from booking to get a sense of when it this recovery takes place and when it starts to show a meaningful uptick in travel glenn, thank you for joining us. glenn fogel, ceo of booking holdings >> thank you very much check out the range today in names like gamestop. session low was 101. session high 170 right now somewhere in the middle at 141. still a 55% gain

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