the reddit trade back on this time for, seems appropriate, rocket companies highly shorted stock surge, 70%. 70% yesterday. it's up again this morning it's wednesday, march 3rd, 2021, and "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ just keep your eyes on me i said you're holding back ♪ ♪ she said shut up and dance with me this woman is my destiny ♪ >> good morning, everybody, welcome to "squawk box" on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. and we've been watching the u.s. equity futures at this hour. things are looking pretty good if you're a bull dow futures indicated up more than 200 points a gain of 213 right now, and this comes after a down day for the markets yesterday. the dow was off yesterday i think it was by about 140 points, give or take some. it was the best performer, though it was only down by less than 1/2 a percent

s&p by 7/10 of a percent it's still the best performer for 2021, but if you're looking at things since it hit the high water mark in the middle of february, february 12th was the high record close. it's down 5.8% from that it's down 1.7 yesterday, so we have seen pressure there nasdaq is indicated up by 94 points, s&p futures indicated up by 23. also if you want to take a look at what's been happening with the treasure y market, yield is 1.443% andrew. thanks, becky, and president biden moving up the time line for vaccinations in america. >> two of the largest health care and pharmaceutical companies in the world that are usually competitors are working together on the vaccine. johnson & johnson, and merck will work together to expand the production of johnson & johnson's vaccine.

i'm pleased to announce today as a consequence of the stepped up process that i've ordered and just outlined this country will have enough vaccine supply, i'll say it again, for every adult in america by the end of may. by the end of may. that's progress. important progress and here's j&j's ceo, alex gorsky last night on "mad money. >> this is a war, and this is a war against covid-19, and we've got to marshal all of our resources, and that's why i think it's so great to see partnerships between companies it's great to see public/private partnerships between johnson & johnson, merck and the united states government. it's great to see not only the fda, the cdc, and the nih, but also the defense department involved, and i think the more that we really bring these kind of resources and capabilities and expertise and most importantly leadership together, that's when we're really going to make strides against this

pandemic >> president biden also said he'd use the federal pharmacy program to prioritize the vaccination of child care workers in pre-k through 12. educators with the goal of every teacher getting a first shot by the end of march as of yesterday, 54 million americans have received one or more doses of a vaccine with more than 78 million total doses administered, so a bit of good news yesterday, and that appears to be propelling the markets yesterday and hopefully today as well joe. yep, reopenings happening, pretty big reopenings. not big, but covering a lot of things, you know, businesses totally open meantime, a major announcement yesterday, here it is, and we're going to talk about it here's governor greg abbott. >> effective next wednesday, all businesses of any type are

allowed to open 100% that includes any type of entity in texas also, i am ending the statewide mask mandate >> the governor said restrictions could return, though, if the covid hospitalization rates rise again. the governor of mississippi also lifted that state's mask mandate, and later this hour, we're going to hear from georgia governor brian kemp, and new hampshire governor chris sununu is going to join us at 8:00 a.m. eastern. becky. >> thanks, joe the senate is set to take up the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that was approved by the house as soon as today president biden spoke with the chamber's democrats in a bid to unify support for the measure which needs all 50 democrats to vote for it. the senate is expected to pass a different version of the relief

bill sending it back to the house eventually for approval. as democrats look to get the measure to president biden before some employment aid expires on march 14th. that's really the deadline that's ticking, andrew. >> that it is, and meantime, we've got breaking news at the intersection of wall street and washington with that news, we want to get straight to ylan mui who joins us with more good morning >> reporter: good morning, andrew, today some of the biggest names in business are urging congress to finally take action to help the young undocumented immigrants known as the dreamers corporate america is presenting a virtually united front to washington with rivals working together, and companies joining forcing across industries. uber and apple, best buy and target, just to name a few we got an early look at a new letter they're sending to leaders of both parties that points out many of the dreamers are on the front line of the pandemic, serving as essential workers. the letter reads continued

delayed or inaction will cause significant negative economic and social impact on businesses and hundreds of thousands of deserving young people across the country. >> as we think about economic recovery coming out of the pandemic, it is important for us and for businesses to look for talent in all places, and we cannot restrict pipelines of diverse talent. >> now, a texas court is expected to rule any day on this issue, and companies are worried they could throw the dreamers into limbo once more and send the issue back to the supreme court, so that is why they're making a big push now for a legislative solution that would give these workers a permanent pathway to citizenship guys >> ylan mui, thank you appreciate it very very very much becky. >> thanks, andrew. when we come back, with the vaccine time line moved up in

america, we're going to be taking a closer look at the reopening stocks, including some pre-pandemic highs that's coming next. right now, though, as we head to a break, check out shares of rocket companies surging 70% yesterday in an apparent short squeeze initiated by reddit trades, remember, we had jay farner, the ceo of the company on the show, and even as he was talking, you saw the stock move up impressively, 12, 14, even 16% we have much more on the story coming up in a few minutes

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

shares of lift are rising up 4 1/2% in a new s.e.c. filing. the company says that users booked more rides in the final week of february than any other week since the covid lock downs began. lyft is now expecting a faster rebound from widespread shut downs and financial losses than it had previously forecast and shares of zoom video rebounding the stocks fell 9% in yesterday's session amid a broader dip in tech stocks but investor, cathie wood

continued to buy the dip in her favorite stocks. arc innovation etf brought $91 million worth of zoom yesterday. in a conversation with the cfo. >> same they think she did with tesla shares, remember, buying into the dip on that, too. >> mm-hmm. >> in the meantime, we're watching shares of fubotv, the sports streaming platform reported a record 4th quarter revenue. it subscribers numbers jumped by 73% in 2020 and topped half a million by the end of the year the company is going to be integrating gaming with live sports coverage. interesting place, something a lot of people circling around. the stock is off by 5.6%. rich greenfield has been watching this stock. i don't think he loves it, but meantime, coming up when we return, we're going to talk about the rise in rocket companies, and show you what the

ceo recently told us about all the short interest in his stock. as we head to a break, though, check out the price of bitcoin we'll show you where we are this morning right this moment, we're up over 51,000 again, $51,663 back after this. some say this is my greatest challenge. governments in record debt; inflation rising, currencies falling. but i've seen centuries of this. with one companion that hedges the risks you choose and those that choose you. the physical seam of a digital world, traded with a touch. my strongest and closest asset.

the gold standard, so to speak ;) people call my future uncertain. but there's one thing i am sure of...

welcome back to "squawk. we are watching shares of rocket company, the stock blasting off yesterday, up more than 70% on, guess what, no apparent news the online lender is currently

one of the most shorted stocks on wall street according to fact set with nearly 40% of available shares being sold short that sparked interest of who else, reddit traders ceo jay farner addressed the issue with us on january 29th. >> my advice would be that this is not a stock that you want to be short in. you might want to rethink your position if that's how you playing in we have a great track record and a lot of exciting things we're working on. >> farner is speaking at a morgan stanley conference today at 10:15 a.m. eastern time cnbc will monitor to see if he has anything to say on the stock action the stock the subject of downgrades this morning as it happens. we'll have a lot more on that later in the show. becky. yeah, you know, he was just on with us again a couple of days ago, and addressed the situation when he was on because we watched the stock take off. it was up 12, 14, 16% while he was talking. it's been really weird to watch

because when he was on with us a couple of days ago, and then back on january 29th, you could kind of watch through both times the stocks really get played into action. they have better than anticipated numbers but as you mentioned, some downgrades on the stock. we'll talk a little bit more about this later today that stock at 41.47. the stock market appears to be counting on a resurgence in the economy at some point this year, and that's lighting a fire under some of the reopening stocks and sectors like the restaurant industry, hotels and travel. darden, hilton, disney, southwest, all above their pre-pandemic levels, up between 28% and 67% just over the last year we're joined right now by jake walthour, the ceo and cofounder of blueprint capital advisers. why don't we start with technology before we work into the reopening stocks technology, you're a little concerned has come too far, too fast, which leads us into any sort of correction at this point. >> thanks for having us this

morning. i have been bullish ontech for a long time, and i continue to be bullish on tech for the foreseeable future in a long-term basis, the next five to ten years, we think creative destruction is where money is going to be made. i think over the short-term investors are getting jittery about tech stocks. let's face it, the faang names have run quite a bit here, and from a valuation perspective, they make a lot of people nervous. having said that, i think the business models are still in tact we may struggle to get out of these trading ranges over the short-term, and so we're turning our attention to other names that we think will do very well once the vaccines are in place and people start to travel more. we think the real money's going to be made over the next six to 12 months, really in the consumer space, when we think about the consumer, we're thinking about what are the things they miss the most, restaurants and bars, and travel when we think about travel, the

airlines, we think about southwest, great company seems to be the darling of consumers. and focuses a lot on domestic routes and so we don't have to worry about international travel restrictions on the hotel side, we like hilton what most people don't know about hilton is hilton doesn't own a lot of hotels. hilton is a franchise company with great recurring cash flow then the alternative accommodation space, we really like airbnb. it's global, it's the leader in its space. and it doesn't take a lot of risk, and i think airbnb more so than a lot of other companies throughout the pandemic realized that it doesn't need to spend as much on advertising. it doesn't need as many employees, and the company is going to do well on a lower cost structure. just in january alone, they had 49 million inquiries for places to stay in 2021. so we're pretty excited about the consumer in the short-term.

>> i'm with you 100% in terms of consumer behavior and what that might mean i think a lot of people are really eeg ager to get back out there and do things they haven't done in a long time. the stock market has figured that out that's why a lot of names are trading above levels they were before the pandemic hit. why do you think there's more room to run in the stocks? >> i think there's more room to run because we've got a really large fiscal stimulus package coming out of washington second, i think, interest rates will remain low for the foreseeable future we flirted around with interest rates raising, but really haven't seen anything that i think is harmful to the overall stock market, and third, i think we're going to see a high rate of gdp growth coming off, you know, relatively low basis but i do think that those three factors will continue to drive the market higher. right now when you think about interest rates, investors don't have a lot of other options and

although we have been talking about most of the companies, which i mentioned today hitting new highs or being very close to their 52-week highs, there's still a lot of room to grow when we think about what the earnings numbers are going to look like for the next two quarters. >> let's look at some of the restaurant stocks specifically because you mentioned cheesecake factory, and darden. cheesecake factory has gone to $56 from 14. darden has gone to 130 from 26 and, you know, those are some big moves on these names that we see come in. you think that even despite that, these are names that you want to be in because why? >> i think the restaurant space, you know, for the most part, all the restaurants were shut down and so those numbers that we're comparing them to, to some extent, i'm a little bit dismissive of them look, i think at 14, going to

56 i mean, no one expected the cheesecake factory to put up performance numbers like a tech stock. however, it's a solid business, and when the consumer starts to dine again, i think you're going to see that these companies have done a lot to rationalize their cost structures and i think you're going to see greater than average demand for what they do. and so i like cheesecake factory. i like darden a lot because of its diversification, and i think that the numbers, again, and the third and fourth quarter are going to be very exciting numbers relative to what expectations are >> we were just talking about cathie woods and how she has bought some names of her favorite stocks even when they came down. she was buying zoom yesterday, and i know she was buying tesla recently when those shares were under pressure you have been a fan of tesla, too, did you buy on the drop in shares >> absolutely. we saw about a 25% selloff in

tesla. i think having a lot to do with the closing of one of it factories which is carrier i think the market sort of misunderstood that but when you have a name with a lofty valuation like that, the slightest bit of negative news causes a selloff investors are looking for a reason to get out and to book their gains. however, we continue to be very excited about the electric vehicle space, specifically tesla, which is the leader on a global basis, and we were buying more on the 25% dip. however, having said that, we're also looking at other names in the electronic vehicle space more on the supplier side like fiskar and quantum state, which have been great names to own as well. >> hey, jake, thanks for your time today good to see you. >> thank you, becky, good to see you. >> joe, i should point out when we're talking tesla bulls here, and early bulls, ron baron is

joining us tomorrow to talk about tesla and what he's seeing. >> excellent i know he's coming on. i'm sitting here dreaming about cheesecake how is that, 34 different kinds of cheesecake, how is that stock not at a million 2 million? and then i think, you know. >> okay, homer. >> baskin robin 31 flavors how can you cover the entire gamut with 31. 34 is a minimum. look at that stock, that right there, you're right. you know what else, large portions, so large that you can't even -- it's like it comes, and you're like this is -- >> you bring it home you bring it home. that's the key. >> followed by, like, cheesecake that's macadamia nut fudge >> i have never gotten cheesecake there i've gotten the salads, they're great, but i've never gotten

cheesecake there. >> don't short that stock either anybody that shorts that stock is out of their mind. coming up, two governors on the path to reopening the economy. next, georgia governor brian kemp, and later new hampshire governor chris sununu, covering their respective states. we have a lot of choices for songs for this upcoming interview, but chris is on at 8:00 a.m. as we head to break, a look at yesterday's s&p 500 winners and losers ♪ i'll be with him i know you will on that midnight train to georgia ♪ ♪ leaving on a midnight train t gia ♪ ♪ i'd rather live in his world than live without him in mine ♪ f. i made a business out of my passion. i mean, who doesn't love obsessing over network security? all our techs are pros. they know exactly which parking lots have the strongest signal.

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. we see engineers simulating the future to improve today. at emerson, our digital twin software makes power plants smarter, helping facilities optimize operations and increase worker safety. emerson. consider it solved.

♪ that's the night that the lights went out in georgia ♪ >> good morning, welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc. let's show you u.s. equity futures at this hour things look like they're going to move higher this morning, 209 points higher, nasdaq up 88 points, s&p 500 looking to open up 23 points on the back of the

good news about vaccinations and where we are, and hopefully where we're headed, joe. >> thanks, andrew. playing a lot of georgia intros here because of our next guest, georgia governor brian kemp expressing his disapproval over the latest round of relief making its way through congress. the governor says the proposal favors states like california and new york he's calling on georgia's newly elected senators to help level the playing field. i don't know, governor, whether you're going to have much luck there. governor kemp joins us now good morning, they must be in kind of an interesting spot, governor, because as cyou point out, unlike the previous relief bills where it was kind of a per capita thing, this is completely different. now, they're newly elected i can't imagine that they would go against the democratic party, but in your view, this is just unfair to the great state, the peach state?

>> oh, definitely. i mean, we've been winning down here from an economic standpoint, and now we're being made out to be a loser in the stimulus bill, and states like california, new york, illinois and others that haven't taken that measured approach to reopen their economy and have been losing economically is now a winner you know, with all due respect, they probably didn't even realize this if you look at the way cities around the country are treated, it is equitable, but it's not equitable in regards to the states i can only imagine after being on a lot of the governors only calls with the trump administration and vice president pence if they had treated democrats this way, you know, the national media would be up in arms. and all we're asking for is to be treated the same, just like the previous stimulus packages and hopefully there's a couple of, you know, moderate to conservative leaning democrats in the senate that will push to have this changed. >> you know, governor, so many different nuances to this, and

for lack of a better term, we've settled on lies and livelihood in trying to balance that delicate balance in the states that we have all had to deal with in the last year. in your state, you point out, you haven't raised taxes, you haven't cut back on services, you haven't furloughed workers critics would say that covid infections were too high or deaths were too high, but you have managed to keep a strong economy, they would say, as a result, you don't need as much money from the federal government as some states that maybe are in much greater need because of all the furloughed workers? so maybe by doing what you thought was the right thing, now you're unable to recoup the same percentage of, you know, of this bill that other states are getting. >> well, that's a failed train of thought in my opinion.

>> tell me why >> which is typical of washington, d.c. they're focused on a one size fits all approach that won't work really they should be targeting the people that have been displaced by the pandemic, and that's different in different states obviously here you've got the airline industry i think around the country, you have parts of hospitality and tourism that have just gotten absolutely hammered. you've got people that have lost their job. they're worried about making their car payment and keeping a roof over their head and buying food and medicine and clothing for their kids and getting them back into school you know, that's who they should be targeting instead of giving those individuals $1,400, you know, give them 3,000 or 5,000, and let them go get, you know, buy them some time to get new job training to go into the, you know, hundred plus thousand jobs that we have available in the state versus a bailout for past really sins that blue states have done with pension plans and

other things that had nothing to do with covid. if you look at the bill, a very small percentage has to do anything with covid. it's more about helping, you know, these states that didn't make tough choices even before the pandemic >> and governor, i'm curious what you make of governor abbott's decision in texas to reopen and to remove the mask mandate and how you think about that both from a state's rights perspective and the respect we have for that, but also the collective and the fact that people are going to be traveling around the country and moving around and what that means potentially to other states? >> well, listen, i think it's coming faster than we thought with the news of the increased vaccine supplies a lot of states are moving that way. look, we have been open for the most part the whole time we took a very measured approach we worked with the private sector to keep our factories open you know, we have some stipulations on a small segment

of the business population just to help protect lives in our state, but we've been for the most part open the whole entire time we haven't had a state mask mandate. i'm seeing other states move that way now because i think what we're doing is working. we can't take our foot off the gas, but if you look around the country, states that have been locked down, their numbers are not any better than states that have opened, like georgia and florida and texas and really for the most part, the whole southeast, but our economies, our budget this year that we just passed, we didn't have any new cuts we didn't have furloughs, we're not laying anybody off we put over $500 million back into public education. we're funding public health. we're funding shovel ready economic development projects. you know, our list of projects that we're working in the department of economic development right now in georgia is unprecedented we've set records for jobs and investments the first half of this fiscal year which for us starts in july, which is insane

when we're in a pandemic, but it's because people know that we fought through and did two things at once we protected lives, but we also, you know, had to protect livelihoods and keep our businesses going. >> hey, governor, i understand opening up the businesses wanting to get back to 100%, and as you mentioned, in your case, a lot of businesses never did close. but the mask mandate seems like a pretty simple way of trying to keep people safe i know that some of the big auto manufacturers in texas have said they will continue with the mask mandate at their facilities despite what the governor has said in terms of the mask mandates not being necessary what have you heard from big business in your state, and where are you leaning in terms of mask mandates >> well, look, we've never had a statewide mask mandate you know, we had that debate down here for many months. it was never about a mandate dr. toomey and i both believe, you don't need a mandate to get people to do the right thing i wear my mask all the time when

i'm in public. i encourage others to do we have protocols in our office. we've left it up to the private sector to deal with that issue, and they have. as you know, delta air lines has a mask mandate we've supported that some businesses don't. you know, i believe in the private sector and doing the right thing to keep their people and their customers safe, and we have seen that in georgia. you know, our numbers are as good as or as bad as anybody else, depending on what you're looking at, and we haven't had a statewide mask mandate states have done it a lot different. i think it's important for people to follow the guidance. i continue to talk about that. we cannot take our foot off the gas even as we continue to open back up, which we've done, and have been in georgia for a very long time. i'm still encouraging people, if you can't social distancing, wear your mask you know, follow the regulations on, you know, sanitizing and cleaning i have a great e-mail from one of our school systems.

they have over 8,700 people in their school system. they have less than a half percent of infections and they don't have a mask mandate in the school they're just encouraging people to do it so we're allowing people in georgia to do what they think is best, and protect people. >> thinking back on recent months, governor i love georgia, so many great things about georgia, sea island, peaches, all that stuff. suddenly the entire, seems like a large part of the presidential election was based on what was happening in georgia, and then if that wasn't enough, the balance of the senate suddenly was in georgia so many things voting around about voter, voting integrity, voting in georgia. there's a law moving forward now. can you describe that? i think it's 531, and it seems to imply that there was a problem, but you did, you know, more than a few recounts and turned out that nothing would

have changed is there a problem that needs to be addressed down there in terms of voter integrity, and it's getting some pushback that, you know, it will make it more difficult for minorities to vote >> well, listen, i've always had to take for a long time, we need to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat and have secure, fair, accessible elections, that's where i am if you look beyond the rhetoric of the bills that are moving forward, addressing problems that we had in the last election cycle, when you think about the enormous increase absentee ballot by mail, i believe that we need to secure that process i believe by doing that or further securing, i believe that by doing that, we can actually streamline the process and make it easier on our county elections officials to count that ballot by simply putting a photo i.d. requirement for absentee ballot by mail. we have that and we have since

2006 for voting in person. it will be a lot easier to deal with than the signature process that we have now i think that's something that concerned people but listen, it also concerned people that they couldn't get close enough to watch the process, to make sure it was done correctly and that, you know, you had people suing to try to allow ballots to come in a long time after what the legislature said, and this is really just the general assembly, i think, putting their stamp back on elections in regards to some things and decisions that the secretary of state made because we have a public health state of emergency. it's been an unprecedented time, but at the end of the day, we have to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat, and that's what i stand for. >> and governor, you had really high approval ratings. suddenly the election happens, the former president trump unhappy with what was happening down in georgia, obviously, and impugning you, impugning the secretary of state, impugning

almost the same as what we saw when the vice president didn't, you know, follow the path that president trump wanted him to follow what's your relationship right now with president trump, and was that -- i mean, that's difficult for you. your approval rating now is way below where it was based on, i think, a lot of trump loyalists in the state of georgia that are still mad at you for not, i guess, overturning the results >> let me just say this, i worked very hard for president trump. you know, i was disappointed that he lost, too. i was disappointed we lost the senate races, but if you really look back to what happened in georgia on november 3rd, folks that were running on the agenda that we have had the last two years, members of our general assembly, state senate, state house, we had a really good night november 3rd so i think it's a good reminder for us that all politics is local. we got to continue to do things that georgians want us to do we're seeing the benefits of a lot of president trump's policies right now, like tax cut

in this great economy that's going to come roaring back the medical miracle of the vaccine, and operation warp speed, and on the other hand, you have democrats that are treating, you know, republican-led states unfairly, helping their buddies in new york, california, and illinois, and trying to, you know, govern by executive order and raise taxes. i mean, that's going to be terrible for our country, so you know, what i'm staying focused on is what i can control in the state, and a lot of these ideas that the president had, i supported and worked hard to let people know that. >> you think you can win if president trump is not on board or actively tries to make sure you don't? >> yeah, absolutely, i'm going to win we have a great record you know, our unemployment rate is lower than the national average. as i said, we have record investment in our state the first half of the fiscal year. we have added jobs we have been open the whole time

we have given 1.1 million vaccines in the last 25 days we are getting back to normal, and we are letting people realize, look, we heard what they're mad about with regard to the elections and security we need all voters to have confidence in that, republicans and democrats should be able to do that. that's what we're working on we're going to keep moving the needle i'm looking forward to campaigning on those issues. >> governor, thank you appreciate your time this morning. and as i say, i own some property love the state itself. >> come to a braves game >> i don't know about that i don't know about that. they're pretty big rivals against the cincinnati reds. that might not be happening. anyway, i do appreciate all the time you spent with us this morning, governor. thank you, good luck becky. when we come back, some deal news out of las vegas. we've got the details right after this >> and make sure you tune in at 8:00 a.m. eastern time today

don't tune in. just stay with us until then investor, lee cooperman is fired up about the ultra millionaire tax proposal by senator elizabeth warren he's gngo inoi tjo us live to respond. "squawk box" will be right back. ♪ hey baby let's keep in touch ♪ 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

welcome back u.s. equity futures, seems like, well, you know what, we're at high levels, so these point

moves aren't that big, but 600 the other day, 150 down yesterday, back up 200 this morning. all this on the dow obviously. the nasdaq, as you can see, indicated up triple digits also up, it was, going back and forth between that and the s&p up about 23 or so. not far, any of these averages from all time highs. breaking news, las vegas sands is selling its las vegas properties in a $6.25 billion deal it's selling the venetian resort in the sands expo and convention center to private equity firms apollo global and vici properties it says the deal will allow it to pursue new growth opportunities. contessa brewer will have more on that story in the next hour andrew okay thanks, joe. when we come back, microsoft warning that a state-backed chinese hacking group is targeting its popular business

e-mail product exchange, and we're going to bring you the details next. also, you don't want to miss a special interview later with ervin magic joso ahnn,nd michael rubin. we'll be back after this 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. ♪ ♪ ♪ dana-farber cancer institute

discovered the pd-l1 pathway. pd-l1. they changed how the world fights cancer. blocking the pd-l1 protein, lets the immune system attack, attack, attack cancer. pd-l1 transformed, revolutionized, immunotherapy. pd-l1 saved my life. saved my life. saved my life. what we do here at dana-faber, changes lives everywhere. everywhere. everywhere. everywhere. everywhere. we see harnessing natural gas unleashing the promise of cleaner energy. at emerson, we advance the safety and efficiency of the lng industry to meet the world's need for reliable, affordable electricity. emerson. consider it solved. everyone wakes up every morning to a world that must keep turning. the world can't stop, so neither can we. because the things we make, help make the world go round. they make it cleaner, healthier, and more connected.

it's what we build that keeps things moving forward. so with every turn, we'll keep building a world that works.

welcome back to "squawk box. microsoft said chinese hackers will be targeting the email service with a bug trying to steal information from a number of targets including universities, defense contractors and infectious disease researchers. microsoft released a security upgrade to fix vulnerabilities let's talk about that and so

much more in the head lienz. joanne litman is here. and emily glazer, reporter at the "wall street journal." kind of scary to be hearing this from microsoft but perhaps scarier still to hear it could be state sponsored by china what do you think the significance is, joanne? >> thanks, andrew, it's so concerning because it makes you wonder what have we not found? i think in this particular hack, there are so many more questions than answers we don't know when it started. we don't know who specifically was targeted we don't know what was the kind of information that was harvested from here. we don't know how that information is going to be used. as you said, you know, institutions that we've been talking about that have been hacked include defense contractors, think tanks, law firms, infectious disease

centers and researchers. and so, you know, coming on top of solarwinds of several months ago, how long that hack was going on we do know that the biden administration is focused on that $9 billion for cyber security cyber security post within the administration but it does seem like what else is out there it's a frightening thought >> a couple other headlines i wanted to get to emily, help us with this situation because we've all tried to make sense of the stock of rocket companies which has blown up, up 70% obviously, there was some short interest in it but again, the reddit community comes roaring back do you think this is going to become a feature of the market >> well, the way that investors used to judge stock based on fundamentals has really changed

recently i don't know if this is the new normal yet, but we've seen reddit posters on stock, with gamestop, amc, blackberry. and "the wall street journal" did an analysis recently and found that those stocks had hundreds of thousands of posts and were some of the most actively traded. die think this is a change even with dave portnoy with the tracker buzz to track what's being said on social media, it's bringing up a lot of momentum that you really can't ignore these days >> andrew, don't you think that everything old is new again? i'm old enough to remember 2000. the bubble then, then it was about chat boards and people getting together and pumping up the value of stocks which then crashed, by the way. >> to me, you're 100% right. the question i would ask, gary

denzler who just testified in his hearing for confirmation was asked about how he thinks about reddit and the like didn't really have a firm answer. how do you think he should approach it because there's sort of two issues? on one side, you might say let's regulate this to protect the small investor on the other side i think there seems to be i don't know if it's the prevailing view, but a view that there's a freedom in this a freedom of speech issue and a freedom toskeffectively to work together as a group which historic the ftc has notal allowed? >> yeah, right i understand the anger, i understand the glee sticking it to the man i think, andrew, you made a really, really good point there's very likely professionals on both sides of these short squeezes and at the end of the day, i do

think that the day traders are the ones, you know, some of them will make out. and a lot of them are going to get really hurt. so, i do think actually a big piece of this is education a big piece of it is not forgetting history >> right >> because we have been through similar kind of boom and bust events before, where small investors at the end of the day are the ones that get hurt >> emily, you referenced this new etf under the ticker buzz. this is dave portnoy's, he's licensing -- or they're licensing the name from him. do you think over time, i've looked at the five-year chart, it's outperformed -- mostly it's outperformed in the last year, based on the buzz we're seeing online it's hard to fully back-date this stuff would you buy in ctf >> ooh, i don't love to give investment advice because people will tell you why you're wrong

what i will say is that social media is maybe something perhaps has been applied to the past but we don't know the full extent how this will play out because this has brought more momentum than ever before with individuals sharing memes, sharing rocket emojis. and it's just the way to communicate for the little man and the little investor. and they love dave portnoy, i think we'll see the reddit community buy up the etfs, whether i will or not, i don't want to go there >> okay, emily, joanne, thank you so much. >> thank you >> joe >> coming up, dr. scott gottlieb will weigh in on the two states dropping mask mandates and investing legend leon cooperman will be with us, we'll

get his take on yesterday's big interview with senator elizabeth warren you saw it it should be fun because when it's decision time, you need decision tech. only from fidelity. ♪♪ ♪ 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. ♪♪

vaccine progress and a looming stimulus package vote are helping to boost

sentiments we got the futures after wall street's yesterday slide we've got the latest on what you're watching straight ahead texas lifting the mask mandate and reopening 100% is the move too soon and could there be repercussions we'll talk with skcott gottlieb in just a moment and rocket companies as the shorts get squeezed. will that trend continue the latest on the reddit trade and how social media is playing a roll in stocks the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now ♪ good morning and welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc i'm andrew ross sorkin along with becky quick and joe kernen. u.s. equity futures looking up after an up day yesterday. dow looks like it will open 270

points high. s&p about 23 points up right now. nasdaq up 92 points and we've got that great vaccine news about where we very well may be by the end of may. here's what's making headlines at this hour shares of lyft higher in premarket trading the ride sharing company said last week was the highest since the pandemic began saying the financial results for this quarter will be better than previously predicted meanwhile, johnson & johnson is touting one of its products to the supreme court johnson & johnson in a trial which resulted a $2.1 billion verdict against the company which is fundamentally flawed and involved numerous errors that the products in question were alleged to have caused ovarian cancer and we're about an hour away from the latest atp report on the private sector report. the number to beat, we'll be

watching that number and bring it to you. becky. >> thanks, andrew. casino operator las vegas sands is selling its las vegas vasions to apollo management contessa brewer has got the details. good morning, contessa >> yeah, $6.25 billion that's what las vegas sands is selling vici, and apollo will buy the operations for $2.5 billion, roughly half financed by sands look, sands before the pandemic and all of that got about 95% of its money from asia. from mccow, really important for sands and singapore. what they're doing, they're doubling down on the future in asia and letting go of las vegas

sands. this was a deal rumored in the works. we had talked to las vegas sands. they said they were open to considering it it was their fiduciary responsibility this may not be the end of las vegas sands. because they're working very hard for a license downstate in new york city. so that could be in the neighborhood, it's been estimated to be a gaming market of between $6 billion and $10 billion if the state would grant those three licenses that are outstanding. and then we're in the early stages, sort of a ballot initiative in texas which is also considered a superstate for gaming, becky. so when you look at what's the potential for las vegas sands in the united states, those are both very potentially ly lucrae markets that sands is looking to move into and spending a lot of time trying to position themselves to be in competition

for those licenses >> i mean, it's a pretty stunning turn of events. i know some of this was anticipated but these are premier properties when you look at the venetian and the convention center. that's a big bet really a return, huge pickup, not only in consumers going back to these things but for business coming back to vegas for conventions, too. >> you know, the interesting because we'd heard on the call during the pandemic that rob goldstein said, look we just can't be this big $500 million business if we don't have any groups coming in. we can't turn the kinds of profits we were accustomed to turning in las vegas without the group business and that's been suppressed but i asked the company after the news, how should i think about this in terms of commentary in las vegas. and they said, we think it's bright clearly vici and apollo think

it's bright as well. however, you know, the driver for this country has been asia that's where sheldon adelson has done his and a lot of exposures in macao, and sheldon in january, this is a continuation of the work he had begun. the company, by the way, will keep its headquarters in las vegas. it will earn las vegas part of its name by keeping the executives there joe. >> contessa, i'm trying to count the sports teams in texas in terms of a sports book it boggles mind, two football, two baseball, the mavs, and college, i don't think there's so many things in the state where i couldn't hold a job, i don't think. >> texas is going to be -- yeah,

it's going to be a huge market now you that bring up the shorts betting, sheldon had been notoriously hard opponent of any kind of online gambling. he was not interested in any product tooth and nail and put his money where his mouth was. and now we're seeing departure from that where they consider online options and it's a big future and you can't consider gaming without online. >> cowboys, when you think about it -- anyway -- >> america's team. >> yeah, exactly >> thanks, contessa. breaking news now on the housing front, diana olynyk joins us now diana, we have some time can you doll the front and the back, if you know? >> joe, i'm talking mortgage rates. they rose at the fastest pace in over a year.

essentially flat for the week according to the morning association seasonally adjusted increased to 3.08% the rate was 30 basis points lower a year ago but last fall, mortgage rates were 100 points lower than half a year applications to refinance a loan which are highly loan sensitive. they managed to eke out 0.1% last week. but just last december, refi value was over 100% higher year over year. mortgage applications to buy a home increased 2%. 1% hire from a year ago. purchase was up 20% from a year ago. you see the difference with higher rates mortgage rates did pull back but february was one of the worst months for mortgage rates on

record andrew >> okay. great to see you when we come back, texas and mississippi lifting mask mandates and allowing businesses to open at full capacity is it the right move we're going to speak to dr. scott gottlieb after the break. before we get to it, let's check the market right now, in the green across the board. the dow opening up over 200 points ♪ wide and high deep in the heart of texas ♪

want to save hundreds on your wireless bill? with xfinity mobile, you can. how about saving hundreds on the new samsung galaxy s21 ultra 5g? you can do that too. all on the most reliable network? sure thing! and with fast, nationwide 5g included - at no extra cost? we've got you covered. so join the carrier rated #1 in customer satisfaction... ...and learn how much you can save at xfinitymobile.com/mysavings.

welcome back, everybody. the white house moving up its covid vaccine time line. president biden yesterday said there will be enough supply to vaccinate every adult in the united states by the end of may. that's two months earlier than the administration had previously expected. separately, the texas governor ending the state's mask mandate and saying that all businesses can open at full capacity starting next week joining us right now is dr. scott gottlieb, a former fda commissioner and a cdc contributor and he sits on the boards of both pfizer and ill humania. dr. gottlieb, thanks for being here >> thanks a lot. >> what we heard yesterday from the biden administration, it seems to me that's basically them catching up what you've been telling us for months that we're going to have plenty of

vaccines and eventually a glut >> well, not a glut. i think we'll end up using the vaccine because a lot of these doses will be used as boosters in the fall. fall and winter. we may end up giving some of it away to some of our neighbors. i think the reality is there's going to be enough vaccine in the market that people will get a shot in april. i think this is going to be wide open in april. the president talking about a time line that they'll be enough doses for every american i don't think we're going to get every american vaccinated unfortunately by end of major, supplies going to surpass the demand and i think this is going to open up in the next three or four weeks >> you know, just in terms whewher people want this vaccine is it geographically diverse i ask, because right now, we're sending out the doses as if it's based on your population and

state. are there states where more people want to get vaccinated and will that lead to more uneveness as we get further down the road >> that's definitely the case. demand isn't even across the country. supply and demand, the supply is more brisk in some states than others that's going to be a challenge that's a challenge that gets worked off in a matter of a couple of weeks. some states are doing a better job at distribution. you talk to people in certain states still having a difficult time getting appointments, going online some states have done a better job than others. i talk to people in pennsylvania that report a lot of difficulty getting appointments even for those over the age of 65 while other states seem to be opened up. that's a function, i think, of how many access points they have >> scott, we talked a little bit earlier today about texas. the governor there saying they're going to open up

businesses at 100% and they're going to get rid of the mask mandates. is that a problem, in your perspective? >> look, i think we need to be careful how we start to relax provisions we're certainly going to be relaxing provisions. march is a difficult month that sits between two worlds. february was a raging epidemic it was clear we needed measures in place april is going to be better. march is sitting in the middle it's going to help to accelerate and still dealing with resurgence and grappling with it and not understanding and need to get people vaccinated we need to take care how we take the foot off the brake that said, we need to relax the guidelines and set up a time line a lot of people in the u.s. were critical of the what the uk did when they set updates, and have a more open population, you know, more open environment. i think you need to give realistic targets. cdc is going to come out with

guidance to describe what people can doll after they're vaccinated i think it's going to be presentive and if we give people a vision for what the future looks like they're going to start to ignore the held guidance. for the most part, the american population has put up with a lot. they've complied with provisions put in place and we're safer for that now, march is a little premature. i think to lift everything but certainly getting on a glide path towards lifting a lot of these provisions right now makes sense. >> it's interesting that you talk about the krtsdz provisions that i think we're expecting on thursday anthony fauci was talking about them yesterday and basically said, look, if you have a group of adults, maybe a small group of adults, your grown children who come home, you've been vaccinated they've been double vaccinated then it's okay to have masks off in a small environment at home i thought exactly what you just said that seems incredibly conservative i feel like people get the vaccine they feel like they can

get out there. maybe it's not life back as normal as it was before. but the idea that you can only have fully vaccinated people around you especially when kids aren't going to be vaccinated and that's the only way you can take your mask off in that environment that seems incredibly conservative and something is that people will push back at >> look, the bottom line, people aren't going to follow it. it doesn't make sense to put out public health guidance that you know people are going to ignore because you lose your credibility. the bottom line, people who are fully vaccinated have waited a period after vaccination, they're going to want to see their families den in a high prevalence environment, if you don't feel well, don't do it. why not wear a mask in public even if you've been vaccinated in a high traveled environment and people are going to want to see their grandkids and you need

guidance because people are going to do it the most prudent thing to do from a public health standpoint in my view, try to prescribe guidance that gives people what they can engage in we know people fully vaccinated goring to want to see their families. >> we've seen the case numbers come down astronomically what's high prevalence, how do you tdetermine if you're in a high prevalence area >> i think we need to shift that debate as well 20,000 infections a day is different than what 20,000 infections looked like last spring or last summer. last spring or last summer, the entire population is largely vulnerable right now, the vulnerability of the population is being sharply reduced. assuming something doesn't happen with these variants, particularly, the south african and brazilian variant, we're reducing the population to this virus. and more likely, vaccination, we're vaccinating more than 50%

of those over the age of 65. more than 60% of those over the age of 70. after the vulnerability of the population overall comes down i think we did deal with prevalence if the cases are that people are less vulnerable. we need to look at the population for vulnerable and prevalence we can't say 10,000 infections today are what 10,000 infections were a near. it's not the same anymore, because the population as a whole is gaining more protection from the virus >> scott, if you look at the market, investors are pretty optimistic about the reopening we're pleased with the vaccine front. i'm feeling much more optimistic i know, it certainly seems like you are, too, in terms of where you see things headed. april being a much better scenario, may after that if we do reopenings, if we stop wearing masks, do we risk that narrative? or do you think this is pretty much set in stone at this point?

>> i think we risk what happened last summer where we reopened in a dramatic fashion a little bit prematurely in a lot of the parts of the country we had persistent infection. we didn't fully snuff out the virus. i think the combination of keeping our foot on the brake a little bit longer and getting more of the population vaccinated before we fully lift a lot of these meshes can get the virus down to prevalence levels where it really isn't a factor this summer barring something happening with the mutation, i don't think b.1.1.7 by itself is going to change the narrative it's not a linear profession we could have low infection, and people get back to their normal lives. but then we have to, you know, take more precautions for late fall and winter. this is not going to be a linear progression where after the

summer we'll have to gone forever. we'll have to deal with it in fall and winter. we'll have a toolbox for vaccines oren inhibitor, a drug that can be used to treat this >> dr. gottlieb, thank you great to see you as always >> thanksa lot coming up, blaunelizabeth wn making her hitch >> a sales tax, a revenue straight across the board. it's the fairest, it's the most progressive, and here's the thing, it helps level the playing field just a little bit. >> i'm going to talk through another sound bite, andrew and becky, you don't have to answer, but if you do answer, i want an honest abc about this. >> okay. >> possibility this ever becomes law? who wants to start quickly

>> i'd say less than 5%. >> andrew? >> less -- i think higher than that, but still relatively low >> did you ever see the jim carrey movie where the guy says when monkeys fly out of my butt -- >> saying there's a chance >> then it actually happens that a monkey -- aaa! that's when it happens we'll be right back. time now for today's aflac trivial question how many federal reserve banks are there in the utenid states the answer when cnbc "squawk box" continues go 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.

now, the answer to today's aflac trivia question. how many federal reserve banks. >> reporter: thare there in the united states? the answer -- 12 welcome back to kwx"squawk box. the true cost to investors may be a lot more than you're told robert frank did digging into the numbers. robert >> good morning, andrew. warren saying the wealth tax

would only be two cents on wealthy billionaires, all tax over $50 million where she puts it two cents on over dollar past 50 million billionaires pay 3% over over $1 billion. a lot are investors are private business owners and 2% can turn over 60% when it comes to their investments. let's say you invested $100,000 on a bond yielding 3%. your return would be $3,000 but the tax on that gain would be $2,000 that creates an effective tax rate of 67%. for billionaires, the effective rate could be over 100%, especially in an environment when ten-year treasuries are under 1.5% and inflation close to 2%. as the tax foundation wrote, for safe investments like bonds or

governments a wealth tax of 2 or 3% may compensate over time. that speaks to what senator warren said yesterday is this confiscatory and is this truly the aim or unspoken aim of this tax to break up the fortunes and truly take some of this wealth back >> so, the thing that strikes me, and that's fascinating reporting is we talk about it as 2% or 3% on an annual basis. and said in that way seems like a tiny amount. but just think, on a steady state basis, over the course of ten years, if you're a billionaire, for example, 30% effectively of your wealth gets taken by the government, right during that period 20% if you're at the lower threshold. that's a lot different if we talked about it like that over a decade. 20% of all of your wealth, or 30% of all of your wealth is

going to be taken. and that's when it gets into some of the questions about being confiscatory i know it was a question that i don't think the senator loved. she gave it back to me robert, thank you for that report we're going to talk a lot more about this in a little bit in a programming note, we're speaking to leon cooperman in the next hour about senator warren's tax proposal. stay tuned for that. becky. >> you can probably imagine lee's take on this we'll see. much more still ahead this morning, we're talking to an expert of all things internet, gary vaynerchak. and the tech rally, with the state opening all businesses next week. we'll get reaction from governor chris sununu and talk about his state's plan for reopening "squawk" will be back.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

welcome back to "squawk box. i'm dominic chu. here's your market minute. let's take a look at what's happening with the dow higher by 208 points if you look at the nasdaq, though, that's have the

volatility has been over the last several months. the pullback from record highs roughly % at this level. a love to watch here, support the 13.333 that's an reason for the index and maybe the possibility of why we're bouncing premarket the difference between the nasdaq and small cap stocks. these are etfs that track that particular segment of the market small cap, up 6% and almost a four-time outperformance by the small cap stocks we'll see if that continues as well f taking a look from a sector perspective we're seeing outlooks, energy stocks and financials, both outperforming overall on a year-to-year basis. staples down 5%. the worst performer. would you believe it if i could tell you, joe, that the two best

performing stocks in the s&p 500 were media companies discovery communications doubling over the year to course period viacom cbs up 82%. those stocks seeing real performance in the last couple weeks as well. watch media stocks, joe. >> we had them on last week, i didn't know it was the top two, dom. thanks for that. coming up, vaccine progress and a looming stimulus package are helping to boost sentiment we're going to speak to morgan stanley, saying stimulus is a short lived sugar rush we'll look at gains on today's closing bell american eagle which has doubled over the last couple of weeks. big data soft ware producer

splunk will be out that stock flat over a one-year period and data snowflake, they're everywhere, they've risen since the ipo. we'll be right back. is breakinn your biggest project yet. worth is giving the people who build it a solid foundation. wealth is shutting down the office for mike's retirement party. worth is giving the employee who spent half his life with you, the party of a lifetime. wealth is watching your business grow. worth is watching your employees grow with it. principal. for all it's worth.

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. re-entering data that employees could enter themselves? that's why i get up in the morning! i have a secret method for remembering all my hr passwords. my boss doesn't remember approving my time off. let's just... find that email. the old way of doing business slows everyone down. with paycom, employees enter and manage their own hr data in one easy-to-use software. visit paycom.com for a free demo.

as lawmakers debate the next round of stimulus, our next guest says more relief to be a short-lived sugar rush for the subjects joining us is rasheer sharma and the author of "10 rules of successful nations." does the continued stimulus in your view violate one of those rules? >> yes, absolutely i think that's exactly what's happening across the world and the u.s. is doing it in a way that fewer countries are and one statistic, with an article that you referenced, 20% of all of the dollars in circulation around the world were printed in just one year,

which was 2020 so this is the incredible amount of stimulus that we have launched, especially in the u.s. and other countries have also followed suit. and this is happening at a time when we're already seeing signs of economic recovery and we're piling on with even more stimulus. the natural conclusion i reach here and one that is yo underestimated, inflation is the surest way to discredit yourself i think we finally see that just because what we're experimenting with this year is truly extraordinary and something that has never been done before at this scale >> ruchir, we take solace in thinking that inflation is sort -- needs to simmer for a while before it can come back. but you make an interesting point that the impact of business closures it has a

deflationary impact. but then it results in supply shortages and a -- that could quickly turn into some pretty big price gains when demand comes back and nobody is ready for it so is that possible that an inflation switch can just be switched on? or will we have plenty of advance warning? >> no, i think this has been building for a while if you look at a rare opposite moment of the early 1980s. in the early 1980s when we were convinced that inflation was here to stay once the inflation sat in, it sat in rapidly and got a decline in interest rates in the 1980s i think that something opposite could happen here in the next year or two. which is that you have an uptick in inflation and more pronounced especially in long-term interest rates than people are

anticipating.the interest with forecasters, and with the inflation forecast, everything is a varying incremental okay moved from 1.9, to 2.1, that kind of stuff. but my point here, it could be that major turning point here where the jump could be far greater. and far more discontinue wd. because we're really looking at a very big economic boom later this year. and there's a limit to how much the economy can even tolerate a big boom in demand that i think is in place. we have this huge savings windfall that the consumer is stepping on. massive amount of discretionary pent-up demand on top of that, even more stimulus so this could lead to an overheated situation much more quickly than the forecast has anticipated. >> we worry about the effect on the financial markets, but is that really the primary concern?

shouldn't that be really -- could it be so negative and have ripple effects if that were to be the case that it -- that it didn't make it worthwhile for the underlying economy and people and businesses and individuals that we're trying to help here? there is an argument we can overshoot, even if we do get a bit of a sugar rush. that's something that we need to do because we're still in a position where people are in need >> yeah. you know, that's true. because they're spending a large -- the kind of stimulus that they're spending on is not really very productive, right? because they're doing it in the name of tapping out welfare checks and other sort of checks that are being sent out, rather than the infrastructure and those kinds of investments and this is a mistake that many emerging markets such as china made in 2008, 2009

of overstimulating their economies, and as i said, you can stimulate in haste and repentant pleasure we've benefit an interesting juxtaposition here many emerging markets are really about putting out too much stimulus like china what they did in 2008 and 2009, regretted the bubbles that formed and aftermath that they deal with for much of the last decade. and they're doing that mastiff stimulus out with no consequences whereas, i think there have been insidious consequences of this amount of stimulus, with lower productivity increasing in zombie companies but inflation could shore up in the second half of the year, in a more decisive want than forecasters are predicting because a lot of that stimulus isn't going into productive investments but simply into handouts

>> yeah. it's hard to separate financial markets and the economy. if rates really do spike based on what's happening right now there can be a negative feedback if we end some of these moves that we've seen in some of the great companies that could come back and actually affect the economy, negatively, i guess in your view? >> yeah, i think what you have to remember here is this, that the size of the financial market is four times larger than the underlying economy the combined value of stocks and bonds in the global economy. in the 1980s, this number was one to one the size of the financial market and the size of the economy was similar. now, as far as financial markets are concerned as to why policymakers and all of us pay so much attention to what's happening in financial markets and keep writing about the negative feedback loop but for now, what i'm concerned

about is the fact that from the financial market perspective, a booming economy at least for a while could end up having an opposite effect on the financial markets which people think a booming economy, the economy opening up from the pandemic could lead to this massive reflation trade where earnings increase and the stock market keeps going up and i think that in the next few months could be challenged last year we were befuddled, why is the market going up sharply even as the pandemic was spreading and the economy was going through its worst downturn in 75 years. the opposite could happen. the economygrows back and the financial markets have been so hooked to easy money and low interest rates and any discontinued rise in market rates to stop the rally in its tracks. >> ruchir, thank you for being

with us this morning it's something that a lot of people are talking about, how much is too much we will see. and watching rates, it may be happening already. thanks >> thank you >> your welcome. andrew coming up, we are going to talk about rocket mortgage and whenever it's the next gamestop. we'll talk about that after the break. and hear a lot more on what the rally is and what's driving some of these stocks. here's a look at some of the reddit favorites just this morning. we're right back, after this dwar 19,000 financial advisors create personalized investment strategies to help you get back to your future. edward jones. everyone wakes up every morning to a world that must keep turning. the world can't stop, so neither can we. because the things we make, help make the world go round.

they make it cleaner, healthier, and more connected. it's what we build that keeps things moving forward. so with every turn, we'll keep building a world that works.

first of all, what would you say to the short sellers, jay? >> well, i'm going to say the same thing that i've been saying for quite some time now. we've been doing this for 35 years. we're building out a great platform a platform that captures the lifetime clients that we interact with. we're long haul guys technology, rocket cloud force, our brand, our data leg, all of those things, that's the type of mind-set that we have. over time that will play out and you'll probably see fewer and fewer shorting the stock >> that was rocket company ceo jay farner, he joining russ on "squawk box" last week rocket mortgage is a stock that soared 70% yesterday leslie picker has more on that

front. >> it's starting to become a familiar narrative, a heavily shorted stock, a boost on little or no news and the momentum takes hold yesterday, stock du jour, the parent company of quicken loans soared on the stocks nearly half of the company is sold short making it a prime target for squeezed sourced traders. last week it was fueled by explosive growth as the company called it concurrent with earnings rocket announced a special dividend worth 111 per share. special dividends are a return to shareholders but some lenders will receive borrowed shares to receive the dividend according to the dividend itself and it appears that traders behind some of this activity, it's not exactly clear why they're the driving force. while rocket became the most

actively traded stock on fidelity's plaid foplatform yesterday. this morning, rbc downgrading the stock down to 6.5% this morning. guys >> leslie, thank you >> andrew, over to you >> thanks, becky joining us on this topic and so much more, an expert on all things internet gary vevaynerchk is here. you have a pulse on this that frankly so many of us really do not. what do you think is happening here >> i think the internet is maturing the consumer internet is now getting into its 25, 30-year window and people realizing that the masses, communities can come together, started as message

boards on aol. and we've seen it go after or create trends or start memes or do things of that nature but now we have an entire generation that is growing up really excited about being an entrepreneur really excited about investing and excited about flipping and trading. and communities get excited in groups and decide to do things we had group buying in china 20 years ago where people would come together and 1,000 people would go to a store and say we want that tv give us a better deal. we see a bunch of people gather and make a decision and the open market is the open market. >> well, that's what i was going to ask you, gary the open market is the open market but there have been rules that the s.e.c. has had in place for decades now about groups and it historically was about trying to prevent investors, professional investors, mostly from creating groups where they would own more than 5% of the stock.

obviously, idea dinners for years that hedge funds have engaged in >> of course and people have questioned that these types of groups have informed informally, now, they're gathering in the public. i do think some of this is going on in private as well. do you think the laws have to change >> you know, that's not for me to say, if the laws change, then people adjust to the reality of it, right? i would also talk about you've got another entire movement of decentralized finance. alternative variables. i mean, i'm just shocked, andrew by the naivety of how big technology has an impact on society. i mean, the things will never be the same the cat's out of the bag i would call these selective stocks and rally behind them minor technology shifts compared to what's going to happen going forward. >> right but, gary, hearings the question, if you're the ceo of gamestop, or let's say you're the ceo of rocket companies,

should you therefore today immediately try to issue as many shares as humanly possible to collect on this, if you will and would you consider that unto itself to be manipulation? because this is where it gets very complicated very quickly. >> well, you know, i think you can agree with me there's been manipulation with small groups now you're seeing manipulation with big groups. for me, if i'm rocket and gamestop i'm trying to think about how to innovate my business to capture, you know, momentum if i'm gamestop, talking about something you may talk about, i'm thinking about how to mint nfps around the original game culture and collectible culture. not necessarily the wall street dynamic. but actually taking advantage of the momentum to actually innovate to create real business dynamics. >> you just mentioned nfts for those uninitiated, those are

nonfundable tokens, a new digital often -- you describe it i was going to say authenticate different things both on and offline? >> yeah, it's about ownership of digital assets, right? so, it's a ledger. it's an infrastructure that is going to go way beyond art and collectibles which is where we're at right now but, you know, it's something that takes an asset and creates a ledger component that allows trackability that allows ownership. people are very much struggling with the concept i remind people what's the blue check worth on instagram what's a skin on fortnite worth for your kids? they're like i paid 50 bucks for that thing social currency is going to hit every aspect of the world. >> here's the thing, right, there is a bit of a mental game that people are playing with themselves, saying to themselves, especially for the older generation saying okay, there's a video.

let's just say a video of michael jordan dunking a ball. i'm making this up, right? >> yep >> and there's the original video and then there's obviously the copies of the video that go around and people are saying, well, what's the difference between the original and the companies, right? >> the difference is there's a rolex and there's a fake rolex but as we become more digital native we're going to actually be able to see shoo owns the actual asset and so the fake and real game has always played out in the physical world, but was never really provable. it's going to be provable on the ledger on the blockchains >> right but, gary, the critics i think would say, look, the mona lisa say physical painting. >> yep >> you can take pictures of that painting and distribute them all you want but there's still only one physical painting. the difference between a video of michael jordan -- the first

michael jordan dunking the ball and the 10,000th video dunking the ball, they're the same video. >> the critics will say that but the people watching this show when they realize they can transact on the ownership of that asset and make a profit and the original i.p. creator can make a 10% or 15% rate on the transaction will have a very different conversation >> let's talk a moment about coin base. you're an angel investor in companies. coin base may be your latest this is a company that's going public very soon i mean, obviously, i imagine you very high hopes for it but what do you think the risks are? let me actually turn it around, what do you think the risks are for coin base in the future and what can coin base be in the future >> you know, i think the ricks are other wallet innovations, people going after a leader and

invested in coin base in 2015. shoutout for that. i think it's competition to your point earlier, there's a lot going on maybe it's regulation, right? i think those are the two things to stand out when you think about the amount of revenue that company made last year and profitable and on trend, we haven't seen tech companies being profitable in its ipo process, that's going to excite people that cross "t"s and is and looking at numbers in washington dynamics. >> gary, before you go i need personal advise i very happily have 1986 clear basketball with the entire set with the jordan card >> wow, wow. >> hold on, and it's my parents' house. do i sell it now or not? >> is it graded? you've got to give me your address, i'll go over and help them clean up the backyard >> maybe i shouldn't have said

that see you later, gary. appreciate it. >> see you >> use some of that ipo money on coin base just hire a receptionist coming up we're going to talk to governor sununu. and later, lee cooperman on a wealth tax we're coming right back. [typing sound] i had this hundred thousand dollar student debt. two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars in debt. ah, sofi literally changed my life. it was the easiest application process. sofi made it so there's no tradeoff between my dreams and paying student loans. student loans don't have to take over for the rest of your life. thank you for allowing me to get my money right.

good morning, futures nicely in the green once again as we make our way towards the opening bell we had that monster day on monday but then a pullback yesterday. especially tech shares stepping up the vaccine time line president biden vowing to have shots for all americans by the end of may two months earlier and a legendary investor responds to elizabeth warren ultra millionaire tax. >> this is two cents on assets above $50 billion. >> in just minutes, leon cooperman is going to join us live with his thoughts and he's got a few the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now

good morning and welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin u.s. equity futures up this hour we're up a couple hundred earlier. some of the best levels on the dow. nas danger indicated up 65 s&p up 17. after some pull yshs yesterday, the dow is down 140 points after the big gains we saw the day before which means today is wednesday, is it the 3rd already the 3rd? that's 3/3 the odds are -- >> up one. >> what's that >> if you add up the 2 and the 1. >> 3/2/21. if you another, it's 3/3/3 which is half of 6/6

president biden saying he expects to have enough vaccines for all adults by the end of may two months earlier than the administration was expecting and the johnson & johnson working with merck on that shot. biden saying his goal is for every educator and child care worker to get at least one dose before the end of march. all of this comes as texas and mississippi say they're rescinding mask mandates despite warnings coming from health officials that the public should stay vigilant. deal news as well, casino operator las vegas sands announcing a deal to sell to apollo and global and vici prothonotaries for $6.225 billion. the that sale includes the venetian resort and las vegas and the sands expo and

convention center. and we have to show you shares of quicken loans, the parent company of rocket companies that share has doubled in three trading sessions it's relatively high level of interest has been drawing attention on wallstreetbets and reddit joe. the senate could start debating the president's covid relief package today a house version cleared that chamber early last saturday. the first guest this hour calls the $1.9 trillion plan a bailout for blue states. joining us now, governor chris sununu republican of new hampshire. governor, we had governor kemp on earlier i guess my question is, it reminds me, i guess you feel like someone that's paid off all of their student loans and then we forgive everybody else's.

you don't need help. their loans are paid off there are people who it's affecting the economy and it's not working for them i think that's how the states feel they may have profited, they may have felt the right thing was to lock down and shut down the economy. they may have had to lay off people is it okayels of the population it's fair, republicans agree it's on a per capita basis this one of a couple weeks ago they decided to change the formula and make it inherently unfair saying that the states were going to be rewarded the most a little new hampshire loses out $240 billion georgia it's over 1 billion for

governor kemp and georgia, maine. you can go down the line and then you have billions of dollars going to states like california and new york and new jersey just weren't managed as well all we're saying, make it fair our taxpayers have to pay this bill as much as anybody else do it on a per capita basis and allow states to manage it. the other obvious issue is so much isn't covid related something close to $1 trillion is not even related to covid i have no problem if they want to look at that stuff but those aren't germane issues i think folks would like that process as well there are two inherent processes with it, all we're asking is for senators to step up and say let's play fair across the board. >> oh, the fair word

did you ever see when people on the left use the "fair" word and what it mean for the kind of legislation we're supposed to pass, governor >> well, look -- >> yeah, and no one should -- that's where you get to not a quality of opportunity but they want an equality of outcome because it's fairer. but if a state doesn't need the money, if it doesn't have a big deficit, if it has everyone working and it didn't furlough people, and other states are in dire need, why shouldn't it flow to where the real need is? >> well, spend less, right there are states like ours who managed well, made tough decisions, hiring freezes, all of that sort of thing. managed our economy very well, found balance. again, we're not out there begging for money like other states are maybe you don't need $1.9 tril yanl somebody has to pay for this we all have to pay for this.

the folks in washington live in a bubble where they don't really care about the national deficit. they don't care about the taxes. you have this ulta millionaire tax bill being discussed -- ultra and tax are two words that should never go together at all. but that's the mentality out of washington all we're asking them to do is get out of their bubble. look at what governors are doing on the ground the fact that we have to pay for this stuff and do it like you've done with the other ones in a fair proportionate manner because we do have vaccination needs and covid costs to cover without a doubt but you have to treat everyone the same way. >> watching the latest covid numbers, you brought that up, we see texas opening there, mississippi as well. we had dr. scott gottlieb on talking about march, kind of in the middle it's not really a summer month it's after the holiday so maybe we're getting a false sense of security that things are waning, but we're still very

vulnerable what's the right -- i mean, how do you strike a middle ground. between saving lives and livelihood you worry about the balance between lives and livelihood >> that's exactly right. lever state has different variables. as things are getting warmer in the southern part of the country, i think you'll see a lot of the southern states flex their restrictions a lot faster because people can be outside in the fresh air. as vaccination becomes more available and as that gets administered quicker and quicker every week you look at vaccination, hospitalization and fatality those are the three areas that every governor is focused on as those continue to trend downward and we put that bubble of protection, if you will, around the most vulnerable citizens that's going to allow the states to flex but every state is different based on demographics, density, size and other issues going on again, people have to chart their own path, but those are the most important variables the idea that we're going to

wait for everyone to be vaccinated in the entire country before we loosen restrictions that's just not going to happen. a lot of folks aren't going to take the vaccine especially as we get into the younger population here in new hampshire, 97% of our fatalities or hospitalizations are those 65 and up so, that's where our focus has to be. once you've provided them, that protection, at least the option for that protection doesn't mean you'd throw everything off but it means that you can obviously -- people are going to keep getting covid we're going to have surges for covid for years. i know a lot of folks say wear your mask into 2022. that's asking a lot and no data that supports that concept we have to take it on those variables of fatality, hospitalization and vaccinations and make those decisions as each governor will for their variables. >> governor if you were going to have your way and we were going to make it tough love for some

of these states that you talk about, maybe some of the blue states that you think have been good at managing their affairs, do you think anything would work, do you think anything would change if they were starved further for funds. and what would you cut how would you rein in revenue >> in a state like california, they have record revenue coming in, right? there are certain states actually doing very well with revenue but we're still piling more and more money into them based on unemployment. none of that money is going to citizens it's going to bigger government that's actually in some cases doing okay what are they spending that money on bailing out pensions or whatever it is that have nothing to do with covid so what's going on here isn't putting out more money for those that are actually unemployed based on the rate it's pumping more money into oversized governments based on a variable

that in effective again, we have to pay for it. treat everyone fairly. if you want to provide less money, provide less money. to understand at the end of the day to change the formula at the end of the day is inherently unfair i think you'll see democrats saying their states are mistreated as well >> we all want it but it means different things to different people anyway, governor thanks for -- >> everyone has to play by the same rules, how about that >> that would be the day governor, thanks we'll see you again. coming up, february's ad employment numbers ♪ ♪

♪ all right that's a fifth-floor problem... ok. not in my house! ha ha ha! ha ha ha! no no no! not today! ha ha ha! ha ha ha! jimmy how happy are folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico? happier than dikembe mutumbo blocking a shot. get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

want to save hundreds on your wireless bill? with xfinity mobile, you can. how about saving hundreds on the new samsung galaxy s21 ultra 5g? you can do that too.

all on the most reliable network? sure thing! and with fast, nationwide 5g included - at no extra cost? we've got you covered. so join the carrier rated #1 in customer satisfaction... ...and learn how much you can save at xfinitymobile.com/mysavings. welcome back to "squawk box," adp the private payroll company forecasting their private payrolls rose by 117,000 in february. that's quite amiss relative to the forecast out there for adp and the jobs number on friday. they revised up their january payroll 195,000 from 174,000 now, looking at some of the details here, 225 was forecast on the estimate for economists

so 117 suggests maybe there should be downward revision. good sectors up 131,000. all of that is needed to bring back employment to where it was before the pandemic began. and 210 including government and employment look at business size. small business up 32 medium up 57 large businesses gaining by 28,000 and then by industry, the leaders, trade/transport and utilities up 48,000. education and health services, up 35,000. leisure and hospital up 26 and construction and manufacturing numbers, andrew, by my count, we're still down 9.8 million jobs from february

bulk of that in the service sector, and bulk of that leisure and hospitality. when you see that, in a normal month that would be great but as far as we have to go, simply not enough adp right here, a lackluster job growth a huge forecast for economic growth, but in the past several sessions you can have strong gdp growth without >> steve liesman, appreciate it very much. we've got a lot more in just a moment two big interviews, leon cooperman responding to elizabeth warren >> and michael rubin, and he's

got a special guest, magic johnson. we'll head to news, draftkings announcing a deal that will bring draftkings and fantasy apps to platforms. and you'll be able to see betting odds and initiate bets directly from your televisions don't go anywhere. we've got more "squawk" right after this ♪ if your money is working toward the same goals, why keep it in different places? sofi is a one-stop shop for your finances- designed to work better together. spend with sofi and get cash back rewards that automatically go toward your goals. like investing in stocks, etfs, and crypto. that's better together. or pay down your sofi debt sooner. that's better together. and that's how sofi is helping millions get their money right. ♪ ♪

well, we've heard a lot

about wealth taxes in the last 24 hours yesterday right here on "squawk box," senator elizabeth warren laid out the thinking behind her new ultra millionaire tax saying it will level the playing field in her words in america. >> this is two cents on assets above $50 million. and just to put that in a little context, since the pandemic, our 660 billionaires in america have increased their wealth by $1.3 trillion >> joining us now with his thoughts on warren wealth tax is billionaire investor lee cooperman, of course, he's the chairman and ceo of the omega family office. lee, i know you were a little agitated from what you were hearing from senator warren last night. what would you like to say in response to what she laid out.

>> let me say good morning to you and your viewers >> good morning. >> the idea has no merit it's foolish it probably is not legal and there's a much better way. with the money yesterday, gave a number of examples what it could create and the way i see it there's plenty of ways of raising revenue. we can eliminate the interest, we talked about in your program seven or eight years ago we can eliminate the ability of real estate taxes with sales procedures on new purchases. we can set a minimum tax for all to pay, no matter what the structure income is. raise taxes. try to eliminate waste which is the best way to go most companies have tried a wealth tax and repealed it because it doesn't work. i can go through lots of examples of the problems it

would create but there are two issues we've got to deal with here. one is the wealth tax which has less than a 5% chance of passing. i don't think it's intelligent and i don't think it's legal but we also have to deal with the dialogue that progressives are taking against wealthy people they tend to villainize wealth i don't get it and this is a very sensitive subject because i'm very sympathetic to people with difficulties in the economy. my whole focus i gave back the money and run a family office that's devoted towards trying to recycle my money back into society. you guys got me into this unwittingly, i guess, a couple years ago, i spoke at a conference, said nothing about politics at that time, elizabeth warren was running strongly in the polls. and the moderator of my session asked me what would happen to

the market if she won the presidency i said probably go down 20%. the very next day saying, leon, i'm only working for 2%, give everybody the american dream i took a line from michelle obama's book that said when they go low, we go high and a wrote a letter in the letter was insider available which she libelled me, i won the case i don't want to talk about it much there's nothing wrong with that, everybody knows that including the s.e.c. and basically she said -- i got to tell you something about the letter i got a caller from the former president of a university who said if you submitted that paper to my class i'd give you an a-plus

honestly, in response to it, i sent five pages which you have my permission to post on your website that hasn't been done. and say insider trader and stop, in the last number of months and she's got a thing about student loans which i don't quite understand but i have to explain, this is a very difficult conversation, talking about myself, i don't feel comfortable i'd rather talk about ken langone, one of my heroes, bill gates, carl icahn and many others, whose success is much bigger than mine and i admire, i'm the first generation of my family to go to college. my father came to america, at the age of 13 as a plumber's apprentice, he worked six days a week he died carrying a sink up a

tenement building. i went to high school in west bronx. and i went to college and now called lima college. and i had a short stint at columbia business school which opened the door to wall street for me i joined goldman sachs and had 25 enjoyable years there i believe that rich people should pay more. the question we have to coalesce about as a nation is why tax the wealthy people, the government could side these activities. and i've said repeatly on your program that i have no problem working six months of the year for the government, six months for myself it happens in my case, the six months i pay for taxes and give it back to society i met with warren i guess in 20 2010, asking him, my clients

give it all away, as he's doing. i don't get it -- i don't get -- how do you get wealthy in america? you get wealthy by developing a product or service that somebody needs. they reward you for it that's how you get wealthy >> lee, can i just jump in >> sure. >> i just want to ask you, look, you're making an excellent point. i understand where you've come from on this and i take issue with a lot of what elizabeth warren says however, let me play devil's advocate for a minute and try to push back on what i think she might point out, the way you made your rise, by going through public schools, going through public colleges and working so hard, but that path is not as available to many people today there's been a distortion between the haves and have nots. the haves have made a lot of money and it's harder to work up the ladder the way you did she says, look, we need this money and the only way we get it

is to go after the people who have the money what would you say to her on that >> i would say, like i would say the s.e.c., they're trying to intervene in a system where there's lots of protections available, we have to enact them we have a federal income tax, raise it to a level that you think is reasonable. eliminate carry interest eliminate the ability of real estate, where they have a lot of money to sell the property and reinvest the premises and define the tax liability. you know, eliminate waste. you can't just dump tax and spend tax and then they talk about fair share what is fair share tom asello with stanford institute said since it's an era many people are concerned about fairness and social justice what is your fair share of what someone else has worked for? what is your fair share for what

someone else has worked for? whether a capitalist nation or socialist nation -- >> hey, lee, let me ask you a question, i agree with the list of items you've put on there and we've talked about it on the show and i've written about the issue. there's one singular issue that's not on that list. i tried to raise it on the air before, but i think it's actually the other piece -- if you're not going to approach it the way elizabeth warren is, i'm not suggesting we should, but that is to deal with the stepped-up basis at depth. if you look at the fortunes that have been made in america today, for fortunes over $100 million, and the cbo has scored it, 55% are unrealized capital gains that are never realized. as a result, the stepup takes place at the end and taxpayersand those who pai for your education and mine and everything else that's gone around in this country have not

been beneficiaries of that do you believe that the step-up basis should be -- that that loophole effectively should be closed >> well, actually, i've not focused on that because my plan is to give away all of my money at death i'm not worried about it i don't know enough about it to speak about it but i know the artificiality created by the wealth tax if the wealth tax passes go buy yourself some gold i can't imagine -- i have no idea what my net worth is every day. it fluctuates every day. the idea to hire an appraiser to come in and value my assets one day of the year, it just makes no sense you know, they're talking how bad this gamestop stuff. okay there is a rule, you can't short a stock until you have a borrower therefore, if the rules are being followed they should not be able to short 100%.

but they have not enforced that rule i'm not acquiescing to your questions i don't really know about it i do believe in fairness i do believe in equity, and i believe in rich people paying more and it's anticipatory and not legal. it's not a good idea simple as that 13 or 14 countries that implemented the wealth tax, most of it didn't work. >> lee, you might think this is crazy, i'm a huge fan of your phil anthropy and so many other. but there are questions whether philanthropy across the board to some degree should never be taxed. because there's an opportunity to effectively direct your resources wherever you want to go hopefully in a philanthropic

way which is what your intention is, but you're able to make those choices in ways that most americans can't. and most americans' income is taxed. so those are unrealized gains again that you're able to direct that others can't. i'm wondering whether there should be a system, i just raise it as a question not because i support it necessarily, but whether there should be a cap or some kind of a tax that capture somal realized gains meaning -- again, you may be able to direct better than the government the fairness of the system, how do you think about that. >> look. i think our caps are allocated in the u.s. government okay, my signature event, again, i hate talking about myself, because there's so many wealthier more generous people than me, and i admire them i admire them. my signature activity is i get $50 billion to contribute to cooperman college scholars

it was enough money to send 1,000 young sisters in essex county to college. i take no credit for the quality of the work they've done but where i gave them the money, crystalmorgan runs the program she's a fabulous executive the statistics are as follows, 35% of high school kids went to college. only 5% graduated. i said i worked too hard for a 5% graduation rate you show me a respectable graduation rate and i'll support the program. my first cohort just graduated we had a 73% graduation rate i take no credit for that. we're changing the lives of these young sisteryoungsters i think i've done a better job in allocating that capital because i've picked the right people to run it the average college graduate is

more than an noncollege graduate because you're giving them a skill set to go into the world mine is education and that's where i'm directing a lot of my funds. there's an old expression, shrouds don't have pockets you can't take it with you there are a lot of people that have expressed the view on wealth you have to decide, do you want to be in a system of capitalism or socialism i always take the quote of winston churchill. a man with great ability he said the main vice of capitalism is the quality distribution of prosperity the main vice of socialist we all have to work together i have no problem in page more taxes but why are we artificially creating things that make no sense, creating

abnormal activities. we don't need a surge in the price of gold where people rush to buy gold to hide their wealth, we have -- you know, i don't know what year the federal income tax was enacted i guarantee it wasn't 39.6% or 36% when enacted and the wealth tax, i don't want to give it a room saying 2% will be 4%, stop taxing new york, new jersey, connecticut, california, they're seeing the adverse impact of constantly raising taxes on people okay andrew cuomo said kocooperman, i live in new york because of the weather. that's baloney the mayor there says i don't like wealthy people. what's wrong with wealthy people i walk around with carl icahn's name, ken langone's name on it these are people that have hit it big and understand the moral

imperative of giving it back >> hey, lee, let's talk fairly about share buybacks that was another issue we got into with senator warren -- >> she has no idea what she's talking about. you know, buybacks should be valuated as a management diagnosis like any cap allocation decision. you go out and buy another country. you go out and spend money on plant equipment. you pay a dividend you know it's a decision made by management and it has to be evaluated i learned a lot about buyback by batching henry c. milton operate. he was a brilliant, brilliant executive from that from 1972 to 1984, retired 90% of his stock every selling a share of his own stock. i hate buybacks. he never sold a share of his stock. he died as the second largest owner of land in america after

ted turner became a multibillionaire because of his wise decisions. he created a tremendous amount of wealth for the shareholders when the shareholders cashed in the stock, they paid tax to the government we don't need the government -- we don't need artificial decisionmaking let the invisible hand of capitalism work. we have the greatest economy in the world. the thing i fear the most the young people of this country are embracing socialism not understanding that we have one of the most effective working economies in the world we should not look to make radical changes. we can make changes around the edge we can do a better job, no question about it. i have no problem in raising taxes. i have no problem with eliminating loopholes. we've talked about interest for a decade on this program nothing has been done. it should be taxed as ordinary income simple as that we don't need a new regime, it's

not wise and will lead to economic decisionmaking, i thought he did an excellent job on one of your segment, not necessary to repeat what he had to say he did a very good job of disclosing it. it's a sound bite. it's sound bite. >> lee, lee, the answer -- that's exactly what i said that, you know, balance sheet management sometimes, a company is in a position where they're selling shares for certain reasons to raise money other times in a zero interest rate environment it makes sense if there's no other options to reduce the flow. it's balance management and companies have done that forever. the response i got, oh, come on, buying back a few shares, they still make widgets all they're doing is buying back shares to juice the stock market to me it was so naive and so ignorant

i asked the other day, what university are we talking about and what was the degree? because it seems so -- i think it's dangerous to just throw that around and just not try to explain it because knee-jerk -- msn knee-jerk reaction is yeah, that's all it is it's so patently scary and ludicrous that it scares me that somebody is in power to say that >> i listened to you yesterday, you guys were very polite. i'm not axed out i should be very upset with her. i wrote her a very intelligent letter and a professor would give me an a-plus, she doesn't respond to the letter. and i have stock in navient which i'm happy to own it's just a bad attitude

there's no reason to be hostile to health, aoc, bernie sanders, elizabeth warren no reason to be hostile to wealth we all have to work together you got to decide whether you're a capitalist or a socialist. simple as that >> we made ail l a lot of those points it wasn't just a total walk in the cake -- or sorts the senator. thanks, lee. coming up, fanatics executive chairman michael rubin and some guy named magic johnson, the legend will be joining us news just out that magic is joining fanatics board we're talking about that in a few minutes. keep perishable food at proper temperatures, to assure its safety and quality. emerson. consider it solved.

♪

♪ if your money is working toward the same goals, why keep it in different places? sofi is a one-stop shop for your finances- designed to work better together. spend with sofi and get cash back rewards that automatically go toward your goals. like investing in stocks, etfs, and crypto.

that's better together. or pay down your sofi debt sooner. that's better together. and that's how sofi is helping millions get their money right. ♪ ♪ welcome back to "squawk box.

sports merchandising giant fanatics reporting it's appointing magic johnson to its board. joining us, michael rubin is here, executive chairman of fanatics, partner of the philadelphia 76ers and the new jersey devils and the one and only nba legend magic johnson. good morning, gentlemen. michael, thank you for bringing magic on the program >> i didn't think that great excitement was just for me i think it was just for my guy >> i'm excited to see both of you guys michael, tell us how this happened then i want to talk to magic about his sperspective on it. >> absolutely. i've known magic for more than a decade i've watched him in business with great value and bringing so many people together for me, to bring such a great

business person into fanatics but also someone who represents everything that fanatics about is a great opportunity $3 billion with licensed sports merchandise this year. millions of dollars of magic's jersey itself. and an iconic business person and a person i know and trust all in one >> magic, did he call and you say yes automatically? or how did it go >> i said yes right away first of all, i respect michael, and he told you, we've been friends. but the way he's carried himself not just in business, but also what he's done for communities across the country has been amazing. the company fanatics is doing very, very well. as a matter of fact, even before michael asked me to join the board i probably was buying 300 to 500 jerseys every single year to sign and give away to

charity. so i'm a big fan of fanatics even before he asked me to join the board. and last but not least, when you have a company that's grown like fanatics, they have a great leader in doug mack so everything is fantastic about the company. and i'm just happy that michael asked me to join the board i'm really, really excited >> michael, while we got you here, you know, you just created a partnership in china which should be a real growth engine for the company. what's that look like? >> yeah, we've been asked by all of the sports properties, hundreds of them globally, how can you help us in china certainly, outside of each sport's team or sport's league home market, china is number one or number two most important strategic place to build for us, we saw this as an enormous opportunity but also know we didn't have the experience to do it on our own picked the largest private equity firm in china, did a

50/50 venture with them, with them putting up the capital, we think we can build a multibillion dollar business in china. and helps connect with the fans. we're going to make big announcements in the not too distant future about new partnerships that will propel that business very quickly >> andrew, you've got to let me in for a second. magic, tomorrow night, tomorrow night, tomorrow night, would you normally be headed to ann arbor for this and, you know, michigan just lost, although they're great now, does it not seem like msu is starting to get better? and what -- 11 points? what would you do tomorrow with 11 points? >> normally, i probably would be there at both games because we play them not only tomorrow but also again on sunday in east lansing. so, right now, you've got to give michigan credit, they're,

what, number two -- before they lost last night, number two in the nation this is the first time that michigan state has been somewhat down coach izzo has had us in the top 10 or 15 in the nation but anytime michigan or michigan but izzo right now has michigan state playing the best we have all season long so hopefully we can get into the ncaa tournament and see what we can do there home depot but the big ten is awesome this season. the best conference in america >> i mean i've seen this movie before home depot michigan state late, right, late in the season. >> that's right. >> and i would never say never with michigan state home depot would you? >> never count coach izzo out and his team. >> never say never home depot all right home depot that's it home depot thanks home depot thanks >> i want to ask magic and michael about something else that's going on in the sports

world, and it has to do with collectibles home depot we had a conversation in the last hour with gary vander jagt about the nonrefundable tokens and a sneaker last week, this is not a sneaker, it's an asset clarks and i'm curious how both of you are thinking about that world these days home depot -- these days, magic? >> when you think about trading cards, that's everything when we all grew up and collecting those trading cards, and now as you've seen, the whole game has changed, and now things are going to be a lot different with this new way of collecting sports paraphernalia, as well as cards, jerseys, all of it, sneakers, everything is about to change. >> limited edition jerseys that are now going to be even more

valuable how's that going to work >> i think the whole collectible category is exploding both physically and digitally and i think certainly you saw in 2020 was a complete bracket, e-commerce took a big step up and financials are a big fen fishery of that, but i think people in the collectible space, people staying at home, spending more time at home, the collectibles had a big surge and digitally, this is a big opportunity and the space that gary was talking to you about earlier is one that is very exciting home depot i think it is almost a frenzy happening right now. i'll tell you, i think there is tremendous value created but so many people getting into, it i don't think anybody will be successful, i think it is creating incredible content, incredible product and longevity and the leader in the space and something to pay close attention to and we think it is very exciting >> magic knows this, i told him about a year ago, i have his rookie card, tops, with larry on

it and dr. j, you know what card i'm talking about. >> did you get everybody to sign it yet >> that's my next project home depot i got to see you in person. >> okay. >> michael, sorry to ignore you, sixers, going to beat the nets, the nets, suddenly they're big, they're good, are you going to beat them? >> they're doing a great job, but we will certainly beat them and we wake up number one and incessantly number one and that's our job in the city of philadelphia. >> can i jump in on that one second >> yeah. >> they're the two best teams in the east, and i think it's going to come down to both of them in the eastern conference finals, and if michael and his great sixers can make just one move, and it's a small move, before the trade deadline, i think they're going to be the team that could beat the nets those two teams are the two teams that's better than anybody else in the east by far home

depot and joel embid is playing, he and lebron, one of those two will win the mvp. >> looking forward to you rooting for us, as an eastern conference time. >> come on back, guys, we'll do this again i hope very, very soon, i want to hear more about magic and the cbd sissbune too, see you again. congratulations. "squawk" returns after this home depo

labradoodles, cronuts, skorts. (it's a skirt... and shorts) the world loves a hybrid. so do businesses. so, today they're going hybrid with ibm. a hybrid cloud approach lets them use watson ai to modernize without rebuilding, and bring all their partners and customers together in one place. that's why businesses from retail to banking are going with a smarter hybrid cloud using the tools, platform and expertise of ibm.

let's get to c incnbc headquarters, how infectious is magic, i felt like he was in the same room, quite a thrill. >> i still remember the finals in college, but larry bird. >> wasn't that great, indiana state. >> that's the best >> philly, i forgot, joel, this year, is mvp, mvp worthy, right? >> worthy. >> he just keeps taking it he sits out now and we actually had a good fourth quarter. the nba is just fabulous this year and i know i should adopt brooklyn. >> they have it going on >> i picked them on the wrong night. >> true. >> rocket, perfect name, right >> well, look, we all know jay and we know dan and these guys are first name guy, and they run a really fine company, it's pretty obvious, as becky said, people got behind this one, and took it to a level that i think probably broke some firms maybe,

i'm not sure, is this the next gamestop, it does have a big short position, so becky, put up the numbers, 45%, and what intrigues me here is they had a great quarter, they gave it a special ticket and people were still shorting it and sometimes you have to worn, this doesn't have a ryan cohen behind it on the board and these are very good bankers who did a huge amount of business and had very few bad loans why, was it shorted so heavily i don't know. >> all right, we will see you in a few minutes. >> very good thank you. >> "squawk on the street" coming up becky? a little more than 30 minutes to the opening bell on wall street. dom chu is taking a look at the top stocks in the pre-mark and what you are seeing this morning? >> becky, a mix of things driving the pre-market action, we will start with an earnings report from dollar tree. shares down 3% 57,000 shares of volume. discount retailer, family dollar stores, profits topped analyst estimate, revenues were in line with expectations, but sales

growth at established store locations fell shy dollar tree did increase the stock buyback program and the shares are off 2.5%. next up, las vegas sand, up in the pre-market but off the highs now only 1.5%, nearly 100,000 shares of volume and the casino giant will sell its las vegas acquisitions to apollo global and real staemt investment trust $6.5 billion, and focus on mccowen singapore and those shares up 1.5% you just mentioned it, on the analyst front, a downgrade of high flier rocket companies which is down 12%, over 7 million shares of volume right now, the financial services company behind rocket mortgage are the properties, skyrocketed in recent days, as traders on internet messaging boards have taken a shine to it. after more than a doubling of the stock in three days, analysts at rbc capital are downgrading it to a sector perform and keep the $30 price target and they say the

risk/reward is more balanced if not skewed to the downside becky, those are your movers back to you. >> dom, thank you. great to see you today. >> you bet. final check on markets very quickly, it looks like we are stillin the green for the furs yesterday was a slightly down day for the markets and the s&p and nasdaq have turned a little lower. that was fun what do you say we do this again tomorrow >> i think we have to. >> i think we will. >> see you back here tomorrow. right now, it's time for "squawk on the street" good wednesday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla, with jim cramer and david faber we'll try to recover some of tuesday's losses as the choppy week continues vaccine supply a major focus and the reopening as texas opens restriction, adp was a miss, and raising some eye brews the presiden