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 president saying there will

be enough supply for all american adults by the end of may. >> plus a new target for reddit's volatile, shares of rocket are sinking ahead of the open after the massive 70% gain yesterday. and big business, betting on esg, exxonmobil seeks to answer the critics and fed ex committing to carbon neutral operations by 2040 over to you. >> a lot of the esg headlines this morning jim, last 24 hours, has seen a remarkable flurry of headlines regarding the reopening, the president we mentioned, gorski with you on "mad money" last night talking about the partnership with merck and some truly astounding forecasts for how many doses they can make. >> if you pull through 100 million from june, which was the original j&j figure, to may, and you know that moderna is going around the clock, you've got pfizer, and merging bio tonight, and working around the clock, what you get is everyone who wants one does get one

obviously the administration is going to be a little bit different this time as alex gorski told me, the department of defense, it's a national effort, a war time effort as he put it and when do you that, you eliminate this kind of state by state stuff that i think has really plagued us and made it so it is a national situation, and i think a lot of us felt it should have happened a long time ago. david, you know the tone of alex goresky is enough is enough, we're going to solve this, no more bickering, no more state, county, we are going to flood the zone with vaccines and that is very good for the economy. >> it would seem to be you know, i wonder, what is it going to mean for the airline, and the cruises, we've talked about them every day when we had this conversation, i mention it right now, jim, in part because i noticed united airlines is selling 37 million shares at the market, and following the play book that you've outlined to a certain extent it's amazing what has taken place but i feel like

they're selling into a positive, sort of a positive momentum in terms of at least their business and the perception of it given what you're talking about vaccine distribution. >> totally you have this after-market offering remember, david, royal caribbean, really, i think, caught people by surprise, when they did the big $91 offering. this is a different kind of market what's happened is, is that anyone who bought on that deal is making a lot of money carl, the new buyers who come to the market, and we talk about them when it comes to a mortgage company, they genuinely say you know what, let's open america and buy these stocks, even if they have issued a lot of stock. they just don't care about that. that's quite different from a previous generation that would say too much solution, i don't want to touch it. >> and i want to play for our viewers a bit of sound that you were given on "mad money" last night, talking about the historic partnership with merck and the ability now to make doses that would have taken years to make, under a prior framework. take a listen.

>> the real war here is against covid-19 and i couldn't think of a better partner than merck, a partner with an incredibly strong reputation, not only in the bio pharmaceutical industry but specifically in vaccines, the culture, the leadership of the company, starting with fen frazier and now rob, and all the way through their team, we think it's a great partnership, and so we've been working with them, collaborating, and now that we have this opportunity again, we think it's going to add considerably to our capable, both near and in the long term. >> jim, it's an important sound bite, if you look at it from a global perspective, because as jpmorgan points out this morning, the third wave of cases in areas especially in eastern europe, is quite real right now. >> well, just one thing, that's really important, is alex goresky knows this is an international plague, the amount that they're producing is far in excess of what could be used in the united states and there's really very little possibility that it could really open the world until everyone is taken

care of and it is important to point out a lot of people saying should i be buying johnson & johnson in this and alex gorski would say yes, if you think it's something we're giving away, because it is for charity and they're not trying to make money off of it, j&j and merck are rivals and are they rivals to the point where it is odd they're cooperating? yes. it not the american way. except for when it comes to the war time footing where we wouldn't have different companies doing different things the tenor of this combination versus the previous administration is quite different and i think it's important to point out - >> it. >> when i was on the "the apprentice" as a judge, divide and not conquer versus get together and conquer. >> exactly these of course are rivals and as you say and as gorsky so well put it, a great deal of respect between the two of them given their storied histories. >> and it is funny, given the

spot i'm, in i talked a lot in the summer about antiviral, remember that? and merck is still focused on that they did not develop a vaccine the anti--viral in phase three right now, it has a different mechanism and so that perhaps would be more effective against any variant that comes your way, if you were to be unlucky enough, even after most of the world's vaccinated or most of the country, to get the virus, so that's still going to be important, and that's still something in the future from merck, but right now, it's going to be the production of j&j's vaccine certainly as opposed to obviously the production of their own, which some would have thought at the outset, given merck's history would have certainly been a focus for them. >> i thought that they were going to be game one, because they have been unbelievable with vaccines and remember just in terms of the positives here, j&j has found, that they think that the death rate maybe over, maybe done, if you take this, going to the hospital, will be rare, and these are things that, yes, you

want therapeutics so that we really make is to that you go to the drugstore and you take something, and it goes away. but this becomes in this world, it sounds more like flu-like, meaning you get sick, but it's not the end. and we've had so many deaths in this country, what is it 538,000, yesterday, something like that, and that number is going to drop dramatically, does that mean we should reopen states alex gorsky says absolutely not. that is just the height of foolishness, because we're so not there. carl, we have states that they're itching to open, and i have a piece this morning in real money, which is my doctor told me, don't be the last soldier to be killed in a war. this war is about to end because of people like the military, the west point graduate alex gorsky so why not listen to alex, it's about to end, let's play it out let's be good citizens and good soldiers. but there's a previous

administration, pretty much said that there's 50 different ways to do this, and we're still stuck with the 50 different ways not national >> well, jim, although governor abbott did lift the mask mandate, there's some newsthis morning that companies like gm and target and macy's are still going to keep their own either for employees or for customers, mandates in place, so it's going to be an interesting collision in texas at least between statewide government and either municipalities or corporates jim, let's turn to rocket, i know you talked about it with joe a few moments ago, but doubling in three days, where do we stand right now, and a name we've talked about, especially a lot yesterday. >> this was a quandary, unlike gamestop who had a new person who came in and still waiting, a bit of a black box, ryan cohen with a fabulous reputation, what he did with chewy, one of my favorite companies, so clearly a catalyst this is one where the catalyst was a fabulous quarter, a special dividend, an amazing set of, by the way, of loans that

are probably the least failures, and they just don't have a lot of bad loans at rocket because they have great controls, and what happens is, kind of sat there, kind of just like wow, i said hmm, that's pretty good, and then it got the bug, and then it went up a little bit, and then the next thing you know, we talked about it yesterday, and we mentioned it, there was a large short position, others are obviously talking about it, not taking any credit for this, there are whole sites that are deeply devoted to this, and i will mention david, wall street bets, i don't want to single anybody out, but there is a group of people, david, who do see big short positions, and know that those, the shorts are vulnerable, but this time, david, we don't have a face on the shorts, do we? >> no, no, there is no one name that i'm aware of certainly and as we've said many times, since gamestop, there are no hedge funds that are interested in taking very large or outsized positions at all in single name

shorts and certainly not going to advertise. but just in general, that has become sort of a strategy not to pursue at this point, jim, to your point, so there's no name on that side there's no evil hedge fund that people can point to. it's funny, because we spent a lot of time on rocket, it was one of the largest ipos we've seen in a very long time, it came before airbnb and before doordash, and even though we both talked about the quality of the management at the company and obviously dan gilbert and everything they've done there, whether it's with quicken or with rocket, it didn't really get a response in the marketplace, that much, did it, at first >> no, a couple of years ago, i made a statement on air about how i would like to know how rocket loans really do well, because we've got these banks that are unbelievable at it, and jay farner, who is the ceo, and set up with a conference call with me and gave me the data, the raw diet of how they do,

they're the best lender in the country, the largest and the best, they have tremendous systems, great controls, and it sat, there and one of the things, i mean i caulked about it in the lightning round a couple of times, look, i don't know what to say, they've given it all she's got, and when rates going higher, remember rates going higher today, you don't own the stock and that's what people must be saying, and then jay came on and said look, we have demonstrated tremendous controls, and done a lot of volume, whether the rate goes up or rate goes down, so carl, i think this stock can go down today, obviously there was some surge, as people were desperate to cover, but we also have to deal with the fact that interest rates just won't cut a break to this market, with the dow up about 200 points, at 4:30, and now it's looking like we're going to have a tough day, because rates moved up, on literally we're all trying to figure it out, carl, because the number wasn't that strong. >> yeah, although, jim, there's a lot of consternation about adp either being perpetually out of

singh with other data, take for example, open table, seated diners, if you saw that number and then looked at adp, you would think they were looking at two different economies. a lot of people out this morning, capital economic, we're going to stick with our view for friday, of half a million jobs friday is going to be really, really interesting >> wow you get half a million job, then i think you have the democrats who have been a voice in some criticism of the gigantic aid package, i think their numbers could grow one of the things that you and i have both seen is the amount of money that is coming into spacs, the amount of money created is incredible and you add the amount of money that is created to the amount of money that could be sent to americans and you can understand why the bond market vigilanty, i haven't used that term in a long time, david, are basically saying come on, you can't just keep printing money and i think that will be quite a reaction if we, a continued reaction, if we do get really big job growth number >> yeah, but it still seems more likely than not that we're going

to get the $1.9 trillion relief plan out of congress, doesn't it i mean it's going to be done via reconciliation, it's no longer going to include a minimum wage adjustment you industrial to say, jim, that's more likely, although i understand your point, and i am sure that we are going to continue to be focused for months and months and months now on the prospect of inflation, and just how much growth this economy really can withstand, or actually handle, to your point, earlier, given all she's got, right? >> jay powell, the fed chief, does he say, you know what, june, i got to make a move, because everyone is going to be vaccinated or does he say let's see the jobs be created first? >> yo don't know >> i think you know the answer he said i'm going to wait. right, carl? >> that's what he said although we are going to find out more later this week, guys we'll get more at 2:00

lots to get to, including an upgrade of roku, a new top pick at citi, and microsoft, katie hueber ty on apple's march quarter, that and a lot more meriwkn e re" stet cos ght back

fed ex announcing its goal is to be carbon neutral by 2040.

the company says it is designating $2 billion of initial investment in three key area, vehicle electrification, sustainable energy, and carbon sequestration. of course, guy, i've said this many times, if not for the pandemic we would probably spend more time this year talking about the incredible focus of so many corporations on sustain ability. on meeting the various metrics that are being developed in terms of esg given the number of assets, the amount of assets that are now directed, based on a strategy that at least involves part of that of course, blackrock, and larry fink in some ways leading the way. so you've got the fed ex announcement this morning, jim, you know, talking about their entire fed ex parcel pickup and delivery fleet the zero emission electric vehicles by 2040, and then let's also talk exxonmobil, which is having an investor meeting this morning, we talked about the changes on the board, on monday, but a lot of the focus in their presentation that i've been looking through is, as well, on

carbon sequestration, on, or carbon capture and storage, and on the needs that they have in terms of developing r&d, to make this something that is going to become cost effective, which obviously is one of the keys and there you see one of the many slides that they have, jim, in this area, they're not there yet. but they're talking about, you see it, there are $2 trillion addressable market, you know, they're not going to play in windmills and solar farms, they're going to play here, is where exxon is saying, because they believe they have the actual ability and the science and the r&d chops to actually get something done here. >> good, i mean i have lindy on a lot, lindy, the big industrial gas company and there is tremendous demand for carbon dioxide, it is always something that i think they should have figured out and why not take advantage of the fact that you're spewing carbon dioxide and put it to work

carbon dioxide is something you can even use for coca-cola, and they felt that that was facetious. i actually think it's not, it's carbon dioxide, it's carbon dioxide, it's a chemical david, fed ex is involved with almost every single one of these companies that i bring on that, are smacks spacs, that have different way, fed ex is one of the most important questions how much of fed ex's move though is about amazon saying to its suppliers you better start being carbon neutral >> without a doubt it's definitely industry-wide. and one company pushing another. and it is the believe and/or the fear among some of the ceos that if they don't get out in front of this, they're going to have trouble, not only the shareholder base or attracting or expanding their shareholder base but with the employees and you hear it time and again, i've been doing this series, evolve series on the web, interviewing a lot of well known ceos, talking about some of these issues, in fact, i recently spoke to mike, somebody you know well, who runs chevron, the

competitor to exxon and we also talked about carbon capture, and when we can actually get to a point where it may become at least more cost effective. take a listen to what he had to say, guys. >> the industry has captured co2 for many years, and used it in recovery, but the at scale capture of carbon and in the permanent storage of it, it is relatively new, but we have a project that we operate in australia that has capacity to over 4 million tons of carbon capture and storage. so these things exist today. they're operating today. but the economics are challenging. >> they're challenging the economics, jim but that may not be the case as more money moves in. >> well, we've seen this time and again, i have seen this green hydrogen, it is still not, it's still too expensive come down dramatically in price. that's one of the reasons why club powers had such an historic run. but david, i got to tell you, i

listened to mike wirth, mike is really conscious there could be a sea change happening and one of the reasons i like sh chevron is they see it coming, volvo, 2030, and gm, and it is happening far sooner than some of these oil people seem to understand and they have to catch up with the times. >> well, take a look at slide 18 and that's the presentation, jim, position to succeed in hydrogen, leveraging position to take a global leader in what they say is a roughly 1 trillion addressable market by 2040 they're also going to play in hydrogen >> did they put that slide in because of me? >> the slide reads with everything presentation i see from these spacs, a trillion total addressable market. >> a spac world after all, david. >> listen, it's a reflection of the times. and i mean this is exxonmobil we're talking about, jim. >> right. >> exxonmobil. >> and you didn't get to the

free money michael's getting in, free money -- >> you're a crafts guy. >> i got nothing to say. >> carl? >> i will go to carl >> michaels. >> almost went out of business holy cow. >> will be aquared by funds managed by apollo, $22 a share in cash. i think we're still halted on that stock take a break more "squawk on the street" in a moment worked like that. well have you tried thinkorswim? this is totally customizable, so you focus only on what you want. okay, it's got screeners and watchlists. and you can even see how your predictions might affect the value of the stocks you're interested in. now this is what i'm talking about. yeah, it'll free up more time for your... uh, true crime shows? british baking competitions. hm. didn't peg you for a crumpet guy. focus on what matters to you with thinkorswim. ♪♪

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taking a look at one of the names that dominated the discussion this week, rocket companies, down 10-plus%

pre-market and doubled over three sessions and jim's talked a lot about the business model, the short interest, and of course, the interest in a certain population of traders. opening bell in about six minutes. don't go anywhere.

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let's get into "mad dash" as we countdown to an opening day on what we used to call hump day, dollar tree is the name. >> remember those days >> dollar tree did not deliver and this is going to be the talk of the town. why? because a lot of people thought you know what, this is dollar tree market, in terms of the number of people who are unemployed, and dollar tree has a history of doing pretty well, sporadic, episodic and bla believe it or not family dollar did better than the dollar tree, and this is an interesting battleground and we saw target down, and dollar tree is what we call an essential retailer so year after year, it is going to become mother difficult so i suspect the stock may not be the stock to be in when people want norwegian cruise line and royal caribbean. >> and maybe the airlines, too, i mean i guess i come back to 37

million shares of united airlines. >> i just -- >> man >> well, david, maybe, david, these people who buy these stocks have more capital than we think. i think there's a lot of people who believe that the people who are behind this buying are little people who don't have enough, maybe that's just condescending. david, there's lots of real big people and little people who say when these stocks open, when this country opens, united airlines, just took a huge amount of new boeing planes because united airlines tried to take giant market share and the prices that they're offering to go prices, carl, i am getting, looking at deals that i, they're like one-third, maybe one quarter of what they were a year and a half ago they want, united airlines is making a major bid here. >> i would definitely book early, jim, goldman did a piece yesterday, looking at the degree to which pce, price, basically, mike, overshoot and one of the areas they cited as a risk factor to higher inflation is

definitely going to be in travel with transportation. >> that's why i like airbnb and a lot of people get together and stay in one house because those hotel rates are not going down, they're going up and a cheaper way to travel is airbnb. i still like that stock very, very much. >> yes goldman still sees peaking in april at 2.4 and ending the year at 2 so we will see how the summer progresses a look at the opening bell and the cnbc realtime exchange on the big board, oscar health, celebrating the ipo and we will speak with the ceo later this morning on "squawk alley" and nasdaq, dhc acquisition corp doing the honors jim, speaking of reopening, our own parent company, comcast, has some news this morning, on universal orlando, they're going to resume work on epic universe, big park, it's going to hire an additional 14,000 workers, good

news for florida and the reopening theme in general and peacock numbers that were presented at morgan stanley. >> i got to tell you, florida, which had been actually not that great on some of the numbers that i've seen, there was some weakness in florida, in the last three months, and in terms of retail, but i think that's going to change, and i think that the theme parks are going to lead the charge this is another example, carl, of book early. anyone who's been to universal, it's just a huge amount of fun, but there's some hotels there, and if they fill up, you've missed a great opportunity so i think that it is, carl, i got to tell you, it's going to be a beam year in this country and i don't think people are ready for it when i talk to the pharmaceutical company, they think so, and transportation companies think its is going to be a boon, and one of these things where alex gorsky said, who knows what it is like, and it may be a sky the limit situation and i think people will go everywhere and they will go in a different way, brian chessney, the ceo of airbnb was telling me, daviddavid, he was

saying you know what, this is one where they can have a lot of hosts that are ready and a lot of guests and a good match and have you seen the leverage in that model, david it doesn't cost airbnb to have any more hosts but they still get the bid. i would want to be in that business. >> you pointed that out a few days ago, and it's a very powerful business model and one reason the stock has performed so well. on comcast, our parent company, you know, we forgot, there was an activist in there, just wanted to add a little something, picked up in the last, i don't know, it's been a while, but everybody seems to be on the same page from what i gather, it's not about breaking the company up, that is, talking again about comcast, more about making sure peacock has the resources it has to succeed. we don't talk about it as perhaps some of the other direct to consumer offering, and ad supported largely and although we have seen the proliferation of those kind of tiers as well, on discovery and paramount plus, which launches tomorrow, but we

did want to add that on. by the way, guys, staying in that area, if i might, you know, fox share, i'm sure you saw this yesterday, jim, up 10%, i mean nowhere near of course the move we've seen viacom and discovery that i talked about so much lately and the reason is ftp, talking about the possibility of a go private there and you know, it's something that i heard about a month ago, this idea that well, rupert murdoch, about the next stage, would they ever consider selling a fox network? not fox news fox network, and then taking it less private but when i checked it out with people who would actually be in a position to know, that's not going anywhere. i did not hear anything that led me to believe that there was a real story there which is why i put the pencil down and didn't think about it for a while concerns about leverage, who could actually partner with, in terms of on the private equity side, and there's the frustration perhaps, in terms of valuation gap, between fox and

discovery, and viacom, although again, let's not forget talk' talking sports and news, that's what fox really is, as opposed to, and no direct to consumer play, so to speak, as the others have, and perhaps have captured the imagination of many investors but there was, you knowis, there a continued frustration and disconnect in valuation? sure if that were to continue for a long period of time, will they think about things, there's so much, jim, that maybe coming in media, over the next let's call it couple of years, and a lot of questions we have, whether it's with disney and espn, will they always be together, whether it's comcast and nbc universal, will it always be together, whether it's at&t, and time-warner, will it always be together? but a lot of that is probably going to be a conversation for another time any time i go down those roads nothing going on >> and indeed, they must just feel awful, because roku for instance, got a bit of an upgrade here, i'm going to say a bit, because it's key, i like their work, but they're selling

$1 billion in stock. what happens the stock goes higher. this is again, they're talking about roku is talking about look out, the cord cutting continues. they're talking about platform growth of 50% so if you're roku, the sky is the limit, if you're fox, you say enough is enough, we've got fox news that's crushing it, i don't know if that's the past, it could be the future too and they got to look at roku and they say i've had enough, i got to make more money and get my stock higher. they look at discovery, discovery was an amazing story that you talked about and rok u.s. a gift that keeps going and one is that i was surprised they needed the additional money, they needed the money. >> i know. and they did the deal with nielsen yesterday. $50 billion market value and they were talking about this company a couple of years ago, the amazing creation of value, there and proving that business model has been really something. and by the way, when it comes to fox, it doesn't mean they won't consider acquiring, as well, given all the assets that are

out there. who know, we'll see. but you're right, roku just keeps pushing, man, it just keeps going. that guy anthony wood, he has become a very wealthy man. >> and by the way, no u-verse there when you have him on and i try to get him excited about roku every time he's on and he's like american electric power, con ed, roku carl he plays the game. he works hard. but he's a bit of a belichick figure carl, the guy doesn't like to brag and he has plenty to brag about. >> there's a few of them like that, jim. pinterest, roku. where they are just not interested in hyping the stock at least >> it's so hard with pinterest so hard. he doesn't want me to say he's good. >> don't mention the name of the company, please. >> there's a lot of news this morning in retail. ross stores.

urban. with some blemishes on the print. and jim, a larger discussion about some of the challenges in transportation in terms of goods, a lot of trouble on the pacific routes, shipping, and the worries that that's going to impact inventory and pricing late ner the year. it doesn't seem to have happened yet, but it's happening across sectors in terms of what types of retailers we're talking about. >> it's going to be a tax on the consumer at the same time. we do see some of the inventory numbers a little bit too high and where's the inventory too high, well, yeah, nordstrom, nordstrom did not have the right assortment this time, it was men's apparel that they didn't have right. and they talk about fashion being difficult. well, aren't they in the fashion business nordstrom has become a problem child. and i always mention, david, remember when nordstrom was thinking about going private >> yes, i do. >> that would have been ill advised. >> it would have been ill advised. >> ill advised >> they were not able to actually get to the financial

profile they wanted, even with the ownership by the family, it was a difficult deal to pull off and it was hard to find the appropriate financing for it you're right it would have been ill-advised although interesting, isn't it, that we are seeing retailers taking to it again, and you mentioned apollo, michael's, $3.3 billion equity value. jim, do you remember where the stock was at the beginning of the pandemic it was two bucks >> yeah. >> two, three dollars. >> there was a lot of talk that it wasn't going to make it dy a piece about what happens to these retailers, if people just stop going a lot of the retailers, you know, talk about nonessential, right, i mean now remember, gamestop did say it was essential, which i thought was an essential statement, by an essential company, did you know that gamestop was essential, david? >> i didn't. i guess so i don't know i didn't really know that. i hadn't been to a gamestop in wipe so the time

they closed the one near me. >> they closed it? >> yeah. >> that's a statement in itself. don't let that get you down about gamestop because you know that ryan cohen's got a plan digitize we are just waiting for the plan and carl - >> is v-we gotten anything, any more than the ice cream cone carl has the ice cream cone melted do we have another scoop two frogs? >> i think the general counsel's office is working on the next cone, the next ice cream cone, it has to go through certain protocols before they can disclose the cone, the latest cone. >> those guys are obviously laughing all of the way to the bank if they want to go to the bank but i think, why wait on ryan cohen's plan, he is a brilliant guy, i do absolutely love chewy but i like a bit of a plan, and my bitcoin plan is not accepted yet, sell the nvidia chips, the new ones coming up,

who is laughing? is david laughing? you're laughing? >> yeah. >> i offer a plan. >> not a plan. >> a digital wallet. >> he goes down to his lab in his basement and he comes up with all of these plans. i got a plan for you bitcoin. we're going to put it in the chips, in the games, and we're going to put it in the vcr yeah, we're going to put it in the vcr, and then we're going to - >> let's throw in in the pcr >> pcr. >> one stop shopping how about that >> why not >> and what about krarl, when we're all vaccinated, where do we put them? in the closet? a lot of pcrs. is it going to be like the vcr kwm do you know how to program a pcr? >> you know, jim, it's sort of reminds me of what dimon said about going back to work and, the need for office space, as bloomberg this morning reports that jpmorgan is trying to sublease about 700,000 square feet in the financial district

and hudson yards and i think dimon's quote essentially was, look, if you have 100 employees, you're not going to need 100 desk, you're going to need like 60. >> well, this is the problem with the largest tower in san francisco. salesforce nobody's there other than mark when he announced the quarter. mine people, a lot of people don't really want to go back a lot of people turned out to be, i'd say, inexpensive to keep at home. david, you know, when you keep someone at home, you can close the cafeteria. and you can have them have soup. >> chunky. >> i have a lot of that in the closet, too. >> i have that, right too. >> my wife bought all this stuff. honestly, it's crazy what she bought. >> we did that guys, you know, just before we quickly move on here, on the subject though of remote and flexible working, again, back to the series i've been doing, yesterday, i spoke yesterday, where we'll have that soon,

mondelesi and here to say, and talking about more employees with so-called plexible plans in terms of working from home, or work can in the office and it doesn't appear that we're ever going to go back to the levels, at least at this point, based on all of the conversations i've with this ceos when asking that question that we saw in terms of people in the office in 2019. what that mean for commercial real estate, unclear, but one would imagine not particularly good but that's, jim, that's just a trend that's going to stay not that, of course, people are going to go back, but you're not going, to again, 60%, maybe that's the number, 70, 80% >> you know, he's brought this company, h.u. that i like very much, and the lineup of snacks fits right in. and mondelese is a company that is fabulous if we're staying home their cookies are good

please stop sending us this stuff. you're killing me. i'm putting on too much weight. >> he's sending you stuff? >> alomars. >> those are seasonal. >> i'm looking at snow it's still cold. it's still cold. >> that's because you're not at the office you don't get those if you're not at the office. the cafeteria has them >> well, i was going to say, to the degree that we start going to the office, i don't know if you saw lyft, best ride demand for that company since the pandemic began shares are i think closing in not far from a two-year high, going back to august, i think of '19, dash demand last week was the highest since the pandemic began and then starbucks, j yesterday, some announcements bringing oatley, milk nationwide and vegan options like an avocado protein box so menu innovation will try to keep up with the return of demand that you've been talking about. >> starbucks stock has been

amazing in the last few week, it's become a play on america opening. i love kevin johnson i think you know what, a lot of coffee, a lot of coffee shops went out of business the 150,000 stores that went out of business, a lot of them are coffee stocks so starbucks reigns supreme, carl. >> maybe talking down the line about coffee prices and coffee roasting pricing which are on the rise because of transportation costs, it goes back to that so we're keeping an eye on stocks, and of course, fixed income, and the eco-data that remains on the way, let's get to rick santelli. hey, rick. yes, i will go to the charts before the eco-data shows up, in a few minutes, we'll have the market pmi services, composite, but if you look at a week to date of tens, you can see what happened here. 1.45 was sort of a breaker the minute we popped through, it you can see a bit of a panic most likely, so traders stuck the wrong way with respect to looking for rates to move a bit

lower and indeed they did move higher, we're now up 7 basis points, hovering right at 1.45 and if you look at the 24-hour chart of bond yields you will see indeed influence in europe, many would suggest, as peter bookmire wrote, maybe europeans were tantalizing traders to challenge them on higher rates because basically they were saying over the last several sessions when their rates were higher that it wasn't a big deal the pmis are out the fed final on market, well, the big month read on the headline for services was 58.9 that now changes to 59.8 so a nice jump there and on the composite side, well, the mid-month read was 58.8, and similar to the services, the composite jumped to 59.5 these are definitely very solid numbers and they represent the high water mark post-covid for this series of data points let's get back to the chart. so as you look at the 24-hour

chard, you can clearly see it is not as aggressive but right back to the minus 30 level and if you pair the two together, they're now 177 basis points that separate u.s. 10s from european 10s, the widest in a year, very quickly, there is a lot of talk about an arcane measurement called m-2, real quickly arcane or not, it is going zpoom zoom, zoom, zoom, steady eddie until we get to covid and that will help fuel some inflation carl, jim, david, back to you. >> thank you, rick santelli. we'll take a break here. market behavior at the moment, the top say five or ten gainers on the s&p are going to sound off. the familiar carnival, norwegian, american airlines, boeing, all in the mix we're back in a moment

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we're awaiting the reopening of michael's shares, halted, we think we're going to get a

restart here in a moment, but as we mentioned earlier, apollo buying the company for $22 a share. jim, they point out, it was a premium of 47% before the speculation began a few days ago. but as david alluded to, it was a $1 low on march 18th of last year >> it was one of the one of the that people felt could make it the one that i'm focused on right now is kohls they did better than a lot of other retailerings, but they took down a lot of debt at a very haikuigh coupon i thought michaels, they never really had a great balance sheet or a lot of customers, but people felt like retail got too cheap. >> it is a rocket. >> it's incredible

there is a go shop level here, but a year ago this was $1 there was a lot of question about it's ability to maintain as a going entity. this was already a company that was private. blackstone and bayne i think they just finished their shares around $10. but here we are. at $22 you go back a year, jim, and you make this point on limited on lb, the deal to sell to sycamore fell apart and some of the retailers, from a year ago, what was perception was then and what the reality has been it could not be more different. >> and the retailers doing the worse are the essential retailers. and you see it, i happy to like costco very much

they have been a completely challenged stock even though the company is doing quite well. year over year people don't think that costco could ever measure up because they were crushing it in the pandemic. michaels not so much people like what is bad and they don't like what is good. that's what happened woe is me >> we'll watch the action on rk a, and on retailers, and the maett large as we kick off this wednesday morning don't go away.

we're going to need a new name for some of these very quick lived squeezes rocket is an example this morning. about a week, more than a week, and settling back down around $33. we'll keep our eye on it has squawk on the street continues [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] [triumphantly yells] [ding] don't get mad.

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this is a different market, dave i was talking about the it the other day. they don't buy on the rumor and sell on the news i was giving a talk about about micron raiding numbers they are raising numbers and people are buying it i told you this is what they're going to do. they used to sell it on this but no, it's like it is a whole new day. it is a different kind of market >> i see you tweeting right now

about boeing they could issue some and they would not get dinking. >> in this market people love issuence greg smith, the ceo said you don't have to, but this market loves supply i have not seen that since the beginning of 87 which was a year that didn't as well as -- that's with they did. >> that will be an interesting tell, jim, when that window appears to be closing which we'll keep our mind on >> tonight we have wendy's american electric power, i like having utilities on because i like when they see it in there, and they are furiously making vaccines for j&j >> this is a good week

we'll see you tonight. of course "mad money" with jim cramer welcome to another hour of "squawk on the street. the chop continues here. there was a banner day on monday gave some back yesterday, and now a bit of a holding pattern the eco data rolls on. let's get to scantelli >> yeah, the numbers have been improving but not on this one. services on february were moving the wrong way. expecting a number closer to 55 and it is 55.3 following january which is 38.7. in may it was 45.7 to this is not a high water mark post covid, and it's the service sector that makes it that much more important to monitor.

of course we all know that services are the part of the economy that we're missing and hopefully we'll come back most aggressively morgan, back to you. >> such a key read right there thank you. shares of rocket companies sliding following yesterday's massive run up >> a favorite or a vile tile stock market there was a meteoric 71% rise yesterday, so when is this volatility coming from it appears that rocket, the parent company of rocket mortgage is just the latest to be in the meme trade it is a prime target for sweed obsessed traders concurrent with earnings they announced a special

dividend with special dive idens they will call borrowers to receive the dividend they collect short interest data rocket has been a target of short sellers largely due to it's validation. it has been trading well above peers on a relative basis, and there is a thought that the prospect of rising clers rates could thwart them. it is not clear if they were the driving force from the get o go it had not really been leading up to the pop and it was among the most mentioned names on the wall street bets forum, but the data there is a little murky, david. >> so interesting to draw some

of the cocomparisons and the differences with the game stop situation. we know there is a noted hedge fund shorted a lot of shares that's not the case here, is it? >> no, there is certain floi villain as they like to point to on these forums that they can target and say let's squeeze this one particular person no one came out and said they're short this company so it is hard to find where they can rally against. there was a little confusion as well with people, and we talked about this last week, too, the alternative data that the rocket emoji has been used frequently on the forums indicates a stock that will go to the moon some people are confusing that rocket emoji with rocket the company going to the moon.

so the moderators had to clear that up via tweet today to make it clear to everyone that they can be different as well >> and none of this even involved space and you know how i feel about the space references digging deeply on that and david was asking we think about the we questions and the names that not only in recent months but in the past year or so that have seen huge moves because some of these forums like reddit they were companies that were seen as beleaguered as failing, poised to or going through bankruptcy, and the idea, maybe to some extent saving an american brand rocket is rocketing, right the earnings came out last week and this is a solid company and to your point it is really more about valuation than anything else in terms of that short interest >> that is a great point

pa palintier also fits in that strategy they have a lord of the rings aspect to it that people were really excited about, but you don't have that as much with rocket you have quicken loan that's is a name brand that people recognize from commercials and so forth, but it doesn't have that same early 2000s late 1990s of going to the mall, go to amc, getting a game at statement stop, that feeling we can't pin this directly on the shoulders of retail investors. one. >> it's a good way to start with our next guest let's bring in joseph amato to talk about the economy, markets, always good to have you. thanks for helping us start the

hour. >> good to be here, carl. >> i want to turn to stimulus and a wonder on rocket, gme and small and quick squeezes, is it instructive to your world view on valuation >> i don't know that these isolated events are necessarily instructive in that context. i think it's indicative of more of the excess liquidity, and the speculative froth on the edges of this market is something to be concerned about, not so much so that we're not still constructive on the equity asset class but we watch these things closely. we haven't played in any of these stocks, so it's not something we're that focused on. >> right so here we are we're watching the stimulus bill march its way from the house to the senate, probably this weekend, and we'll see how it does, and whether or not it goes back to the house for more at the same time, adp

disappoints, ism service does that throw a wrinkle to the recovery story >> i think the short-term data points generally have been positive, you're always going to get some that are not necessarily consistent with the reopening theme if you will, but we're very constructive. i think there's lots of signs that the reopening is occurring, the consumer business data, et cetera, are demonstrating that, you know, things are going to be opening up quickly we're very constructive. on top of that, of course, whether it's the stimulus plan that you reference or the stuff that's already in the system, the accommodative policy on the monetary and fiscal side is enormously supportive for risk assets in this environment we're not going to be overly concerned. the thing, frankly we have been watching most is the goings on in the bond market, last week were quite powerful moves. things have calmed down a bit.

you're seeing edge back to 150 we're focused on where inflation is and where rates are going, as a more important issue in terms of affecting the, you know, pace of the reopening >> joseph, i mean, in terms of a possible stimulus package, if we don't get $1.9 trillion or upwards of $1 trillion, if this is whittled down, would that affect the market here what is priced into the market in terms of that piece of the puzzle >> well, i think some of the debate in the market is we ourselves have talked about is how much is too much you're still at a trillion dollars or a trillion and a half that's still a massive amount of stimulus in the context of where, you know, we were in 2020 with the c.a.r.e.s act and then in december. you have powerful forces going on in the fiscal and monetary side, i don't think if it's 1-9 versus 1.5, i don't think it's

going to matter that much to the market if it's completely fallen apart given the expectations that there's additional stimulus coming, that will create some pause. this economy is going to reopen whether you have massive stimulus or modest stimulus. >> and certainly we're already seeing that happen, and you have the news, texas, mississippi, making our announcements in the last 24 hours, certainly an uneven reopening depending on the state and area of the country. it seems to be happening around the moves in the bond market, what is the bond market telling us, the velocity of the change in fields that we have seen, is that a reflection of expectations around economic growth and reopening, recovery, or is it about concerns about inflation or is it both? >> well, i think it's both i think you saw real rates increase and inflation expectations increasing as well. which has driven the bond market higher most worrisome was in that sort of middle part of the curve,

seeing the move in the five-year from 60 basis points to 80 basis points in the blink of an eye was quite remarkable, right, so, you know, we're again watching that closely i think it's a reflection as chair powell said i think it was last week that it's reflecting the improving economic conditions that are in fact occurring, certainly the market's going to be watchful to see if it gets out of control. if you see our fixed income team's expectations, the ten-year will grind higher to the one and 3/4 level as we go forward, and inflation certainly is going to pick up, just the simple annualization effect that we're going to see in march, april, may, is going to, you know, print a number that's probably in the mid, maybe even high 2s that will get people's attention. we don't think that that's initially the sustainable level. that's obviously something we're watching very closely. >> yeah, it was interesting, yesterday, joseph, brainard who's admittedly one of the biggest doves at the fed did say

that the fed was monitoring the action in yields she also said, though, that in terms of employment recovery that she would be looking for what she called realized progress on employment that would be broad-basiseed and inclusive, referencing what she talked about in the past, you're not doubting the fed's commitment to that area of the population right now . >> not at all. not at all i think it's a focus for the fed, and there are still, you know, labor market that needs a lot of healing so i think the fed is very focused on the labor market, and the expectation that we have, and i think many have is that the short end of the curve is going to stay an chored where it has atis as the fed mos the improvement in the labor market the long end of the curve is impacted by the acceleration that we do expect inflation and

economic activity, the short end can stay anchored due to the fed's focus on the labor market. >> joseph, great discussion, we love chatting with you about what's on the way. thank you so much. we'll see you next time. >> thank you very having me. take care. >> joseph amato. we're keeping an eye on shares of michael's stores this morning. the arts and craft chain agreeing to a deal in which it will be acquired by apollo private equity firm, 22 bucks a share is the price there is a go shop, unclear whether it's banker ubs will be entertaining other efforts as we have made the point in the last hour, this was a stock that little more than a year ago is trading right around a buck. obviously there was concern about the company's future heading into the teeth of the pandemic but it proved itself, and its business model as you might imagine, and this deal at 22 is a significant premium over at

least the unaffected stock price. there was some reporting on the possibility of this outcome a couple of days ago, so you got what they're calling a 47% premium to the close on february 26th and as much as a 78% premium to the 90-day volume weighted average price of 15. the question of course becomes what is a policy here that is going to enable it to potentially ring more efficiencies out of it or improve the business model in some way digitization an important component of this overall. also, it just goes to cheap capital that is available right now. $3.3 billion equity check or a deal for the equity. there's debt on this they're going to add more as that's the leveraged buyouts, it does speak to the conversation you were just having, joe amato which is cheap money can fuel a lot of things. >> there is no doubt about that.

and it crops up, david, in all sorts of interesting ways, whether it's gamestop or in this case, michael's or rocket, sorry, as i'm looking at a word here about michaels. amato put it well. >> absolutely. my goodness. what a difference a year makes it sort of highlights, i mean, target said yesterday that it was a year when it increased revenue by more than it had in the previous 11 years combined that it gained 9 billion in sales from competitors, and it just sort of speaks to what we saw last year in terms of lock downs, the idea of what's essential, what isn't, retail winners and losers, and i think it just all gets to that conversation and what that now means in terms of a shakeout in the retail sector. we've got an ipo, oscar health going public at the nyse don't miss the ceo first on

cnbc, next on "squawk alley. in the meantime, we have so much more "squawk on the street" as ov continue to monitor the mes in rocket companies. we're going to be back in two. oh yeah! honey, you still in bed? yep! bye! that's why we love skechers max cushioning footwear. they've maxed out the cushion for extreme comfort. it's like walking on clouds! big, comfy ones! oh yeah! - [narrator] at southern new hampshire university, we're committed to making college more accessible by making it more affordable, that's why we're keeping our tuition the same through the year 2021. - i knew snhu was the place for me when i saw how affordable it was. i ran to my husband with my computer and i said, "look, we can do this." - [narrator] take advantage of some of the lowest

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even as the ev sector rolls on, the future depends on the availability of batteries. elon musk tweeting about it saying quote nickel is our biggest concern for scaling lithium ion cell production, he

went on from there. a new company hoping to solve this problem by recycling lithium ion batteries. joining us is aj cochar, the ceo of life cycle which announced plans to go public via spac. i have to start there. i'll start on the financials i know my colleagues will ask a lot about the technology has the money you've raised from doing the spac transaction, does it enable you to fully fund your capx needs until you get to cash flow positive. >> yeah, pleasure to be here, and the answer is yes, this fully funds our business we are a commercial lithium ion battery recycler, the largest in north america today. we have 41 battery supply customers, these are the largest ev, and battery manufacturers gloe globally so what this transaction does for us, you know, and you've touched on a few key topics there in the opening, it allows

us to get to cash flow positive, fully fund the business plan on an equity because, but we are a real business doing this today, taking a variety, you know, thousands of tons of batteries per year in, making product, and returning that back to the supply chain, really is the urban mining, critical materials, nickel, lithium, cobalt, and much more to be the largest domestic producer of materials from a secondary source in fact, one of the largest in the united states of the united states after the plan is seen through. this is transformative to the business, and gives us the platform to step out and move ahead. >> explain to me your ability here to scale. we imagine elon musk's tweet and everything else that the needs here are going to be quite significant if this ev future really is what many believe. how do you scale to the level of getting the lithium carbonate to the extent you need it and are

you already there? >> yes, we're on that track. i think what really is underpinning this is the technology and the operations, that is begetted by that irp. take a step back, the way the batteries have been dealt with has been thrown. other companies, even though they're really treating them as a waste, and burning off what they don't want and only after a small portion of the materials from a sustainability standpoint, esg substantiate po point, that's not a good impact on the environment you leave a lot of value on the table and it's a high cost method what we're doing is a two-stage model. it's a spoken of model at a high level, spokes are regional mechanical plants where we take in lithium batteries, go to intermediate products. we have two operating plants doing that today 20 of those over the next five years. that's really in copy and paste mode, we have the second stage technology to your point, where we go back to the lithium and cobalt that's the plan we're building

in rochester and this transaction fully funds us to that level, and we have the off take, through to 2030 for those materials. this isn't really commodities, they're specialties, they're the urban mining source of these critical materials that's how we feel. >> got you and that is exactly where i'm going with my question on this that is the fact that when you do talk about commodities, you talk about these materials and the producers that are actually pulling them out of the ground there's all the capital, intensive capital deployment that's involved with that. there's geopolitics depending on what part of the world you're in it's the regulatory situation, environmental situation as well. the fact that you are basically recycling here, i got to think your margins are looking pretty good and i'm wondering what that means in terms of profitability. and just what, then, that will mean in terms of maybe looking at in the future other areas of recycling and clean energy tech,

she says >> yeah. so to answer your question, we're going to track now with the plan being fully funded, commercial technology, on that track to get to over 50 plus% ebita margins. we're going to, urban mining source, a rich source of material coming in, producing those materials cheaper than mining to be frank, take a step back, per elon's tweet, we need as much lithium, nickel and cobalt for this battery revolution that's going to take mining and secondary sources and what's important is a clean, green and sustainable source, number one, and two, to help elucidate the scale and what's happening in the industry, why our customers are pushing to grow with them. there's a common topic, which how many people know about, battery, manufacturing, and scrap. in the world today, there's 192 battery megafactories that are in the pipeline.

these are producing cells, the north american landscape needs to keep up here, but each of those facilities before we even get to the end of life of batteries generates scrap. even the best manufacturing facilities generate manufacturing scrap. 5 to 10% of their output, that equates to hundreds of thousands of tons of batteries, available for recycling today, which translates into significant quantities of lithium, nickel cobalt that's why we're scaling now, to keep up with our customers, grow in lock step with them, multibillion dollar opportunity and that will prepare us for the future, in what inevalitably wi come, the end of life batteries, and closing the loop and getting back the critical battery materials to new bart ris again. >> -- batteries. >> the tsunami of end of life batteries. appreciate you taking the time with us. we'll be watching closely. it's now time for our etf

spotlight, and speaking of battery, we're taking a look at the i shares, up 45% over the last 12 months, down slightly today. fedex saying it is designating more than $2 billion initially to help combat climate change with the goal of the shipping giant being carbon neutral by 2040 vehicle electrification, sustainable energy, and as you can see, stock today under a little bit of pressure down about 1 1/2% right now. up more than 90% over the past year "squawk on the street" wilbe ghbackl folks the world's first fully autonomous vehicle is almost at the finish line today we're going to fine tune the dynamic braking system whoo, what a ride! i invested in invesco qqq

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seema mody has a market flash. hey. >> no sailings for nearly a year in the u.s that is not stopping cruise lines from issues $12 billion in debt since the pandemic began. they're pricing the bonds at

favorable rates. carnival, the $4 billion it raised last april at 7.5%, versus the latest deal at half that yield at 5.7% even though its credit rating has worsened all cruise lines have been issues equity to the tune of $10 billion, further diluting existing shareholders, despite the additional interest payments and debt that the cruise lines are going to owe the lenders the market is working off the thesis that suggests when the industry can get back to sea, demand will be strong, and that's reflected in the stock prices, cruise lines up 250% are last year's low. royal caribbean up 400% from the low it hit last year, as it plans for its first fully vaccinated cruise in israel in may, and carl, that seems to be a big part of this rally and these stocks, just this idea that one part of the industry within travel that really is going to work off of this

vaccine. that will need to -- will work off to havhis vaccine. >> it's been amazing price action, and as you say, equity issuance, just amazing to see the names performed, thanks. we'll take a break keep your eye on bitcoin, shooting higher, having its best day at almost a month here up about 7 1/2%. nasdaq for a moment had its worst two-day loss in six months that's no longer true, but it is still lower for the week

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welcome back, i'm rahel solomon and here is your cnbc covid update at this hour. new covid cases continue to plateau in the u.s for just over two weeks, they have hovered between roughly 50,080,000 a day that's after falling from a high of 300,000 at the beginning of january. the daily death count, that's edging higher from its mid february lows with almost 2,000 recorded yesterday and fewer cases is one of

the reasons that texas governor greg abbott cited as he lifted the state's mask mandate and allowed all businesses to operate at full capacity public health officials are opposed but fort worth restaurant owner john manel says he's glad to see the beginning of the end. >> i'll never forget march 18th, the day that they said that you -- the day that you got to close. it's been one of the hardest things ever. we're still going to encourage our customers to wear masks because i think it is probably safer. our staff is still going to wear masks. we're still going to have sanitizer. we're still going to practice the safest thing we can. >> and have you seen this video, it's been making the rounds on social media, 3 million views now, and counting for dolly parton's tweet, showing her getting the moderna vaccine last year she donated $1 million to covid research, and some of that money then went toward development of the shot she wants everyone to get

vaccinated when they're eligible ♪ vaccine vaccine vaccine i'm begging of you please don't hesitate ♪ ♪ vaccine vaccine vaccine vaccine cuz once you're dead then that's a bit too late ♪ >> quite popular on social media. morgan, she also said i want to make sure i get this correct don't be such a chicken squat, get out there and get your shot. got to love dolly parton, m morgan. >> yes, i will always love you, dolly parton. >> no one like her. >> for more on vaccine candidates, let's bring in lieu louise chen. good morning to you both, and vamo, i will start with you, the fact that we now have tens of millions of vaccines rolling out and starting to make it into people's arms right now, is

there still, from a stock perspective, an investor perspective, whether it's pfizer, which i know you cover, even some of the other names in this universe, is there still an opportunity to be had in terms of buying into these names >> thank you so much for having me i think it's interesting, specifically pfizer you mentioned, they have a lot of credit for what they have done, the stock is actually below where it was when all the vaccine news started, around where it was, pre-covid, even so, yes, i think there's room to be had i think their guidance for this career is fairly conservative in terms of what their sales will be from the vaccine. i think they will likely go up as you go through the year there's a longer tail to the vaccine that people realize. i think just on the vaccine alone, there is room for more up side, and i'd say probably with the other stocks as well. >> we're going to get into that as well. louise, i'm going to put the same question to you, and add on

to that, now that we have the j&j shot, we have this manufacturing deal that was struck yesterday, how unprecedented is that deal, and what does it mean in terms of not only the supply chain around that vaccine specifically, and how it all compared to other names that have been on the market but also what it means potentially to future vaccinate programs maybe even unrelated to covid. >> yeah, i think there's nothing unprecedented in covid because it's all new, but i think it's a great example of companies working together in the industry for the betterment of humanity, and to get this pandemic behind us so yes, i think it was not fully expected, but that being said, i think it's very optimistic and promising for us in general. and then in terms of where i think this tail of the vaccine will go, i think it depends on virus rates, variants, the utility of these booster vaccines, that some of the companies have started to worken -- work on such as pfizer and

moderna, manufacturing capacity, i think we have a long way to go before we see the virus behind us and there is the debate whether or not this is endemic, and some of the companies that cover the different vaccines, they may continue to see a tail for years to come, and i think that might actually be the case. >> doctor, interesting discussion going on right now regarding global trade, and intellectual property rights behind the vaccines, how much do you waive them if you're trying to get vaccine distribution into far corners of the developing world. i just wondered to what degree is that relevant to the shares and the prospects of future profitability? >> it's a good question. i think everything is sort of unprecedented the way companies are working and the way they're investing at risk. i would like to see the i.d. be protected on what they've developed. i think there may be some room by these companies to ease some of those issues to get these

vaccines to countries that maybe otherwise couldn't afford it so i think we have to commend the industry for what they have done, how much they have invested in this already, and all the steps they're taking to try and go outside of the normal business model to help get the pandemic behind us >> louise, i would love to come back to you on, you know, you mentioned the tail wind here pfizer, i know you focus on, although we can also make inf inferences to j&j or moderna, but what is the profitability of this vaccine over time for pfizer, assuming you're going to need booster shots, assuming that you want every single person in the world to potentially get vaccinated is this going to be a new line of revenue and profit that you're going to be discounting for years to come? >> i actually think that it will be, and one of the things that we have seen is these mutations and variants have continued to expand, and you'll see more of this going forward this will depend on some of the recommendations and the guidance they give to doctors on whether

or not people will have to continue to come back every 12 months, and maybe something around the time frame to get this done, and also we haven't had anything for children and infants yet. that is still being worked on, and you do adults first, and the other thing here to remember is j&j and pfizer, they have both done pandemic pricing here, so if you look at pfizer vaccine, it's 19.50 per dose. for a regular vaccine, usually between 150 and 175. i think if it persists beyond the pandemic, we may not have a 100% of vaccination rate we might see a higher price per dose going forward. >> all the talk around vaccinations for covid, what does it do for the treatment picture for a company like, say, eli lilly. >> i think the treatment side is going to be there as well. i think it's probably not as long as the vaccine side many people still getting

infect, 2,000 or so deaths there's still a lot of room for better treatment lily and others are working on that side, and as we get the pandemic under control, and it becomes more of an endemic, maybe there's less need for those monoclonal antibodies, there's still a long way to go still on the treatment and vaccine side. >> we're going to leave the conversation there we've got the major vaccine makers, those stocks are all under pressure today thank you both very much for joining us >> thanks. getting some news out of walmart this morning let's get to our courtney reagan. >> good morning, so walmart is out with a new commitment to made in the usa. and the details of this is that the retailer is pledging to buy $350 billion worth of goods that are grown, made or assembled in the u.s. over the next decade. if this sounds a little familiar, it's because in 2013,

walmart made a similar decade long commitment for $250 billion worth of products made in the united states. i'm told wal-mart was about 84% of the way to that $250 billion goal at the end of this most recently fiscal year just reported so the new goal stops the clock and then resets with this new bigger goal walmart estimates this $350 billion of this buying goal will support 750,000 new american jobs in six categories of focus textiles, plastics, small electrical appliances, food processing, pharmaceutical, and medical supplies, and goods not for resale or goods the retailer itself uses to run and operate its own business though, already, we should note that about 2/3 of the goods that walmart sells are from the u.s. because of its large grocery business more than half of walmarts sales are, in fact, food another part of walmart's

announcement is lowering barriers to manufacturers in the united states. retailer is working on ways to bring together, suppliers, government, and economic development groups for instance to figure out how to bring back and keep manufacturing in the united states in a sustainable way for many years to come now, the closer the goods are to the final customers, the more efficient transportation of those items, so there's also a hope that it lowers co 2 emissions as well, as we speak about things like sustainability we should note that labeling a product made in the u.s. can be murky when parts come from elsewhere in the world walmart did face a probe in 2015 that was later dropped it's often hard to determine how much of a product has to be made, assembled or grown in the united states to call it made in the usa. carl, back over to you. >> yeah, court, i know last year when we were in vietnam, they called it laundering the label

trying to get the most credit for a process that often involves multiple countries. fascinating stuff. our k the last couple of days, down about 20%, and the nasdaq flirting with its biggest two-day loss in about six months ♪ 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. ♪ ♪

down but not out, some are doubling down on their bullish thesis for the stock market. we'll tell you why on trading nation on cnbc.com more "squawk on the street" coming up.

- [narrator] grubhub perks give you deals on all the food that makes you boogie. (upbeat music) get the food you love with perks from- - [crowd] grubhub. senator elizabeth warren, well, she says it's only $0.02 that wealth tax, but for investors, it's a whole lot more robert frank joins us now with the true cost of the proposed wealth tax robert >> good morning, it's as you said, a catchy slogan, all

senator warren is asking from america's billionaires is $0.02, or billionaires pay 3% many of the 100,000 households who would actually pay the tax are investors or private company owners and 2% can actually turn into an effective income tax rate of over 60% when it comes to investments here's an example. say you invested $100,000 in a bond yielding 3%, your return would be $300,000, but your tax would be $2,000, that creates an effective tax rate of about 67%. for billionaire, the effective rate could be over 100%, especially when you roll in the state and capital gains taxes. billionaire lee cooperman saying on cnbc this morning that aside from possibly being unconstitutional, a wealth tax would just be impossible for the

government to actually value people's personal wealth and property every year. >> if the wealth tax passes, go out and by yourself gold, because people are going to rush to find ways to hide their wealth it fluctuates every day the idea of having an appraiser come in to evaluate my assets for one day of the year, it makes no sense. >> warren counters that criticism saying the government values wealth with property taxes and the estate tax, so the wealth tax would be no different. guys >> we'll see robert prfrank, thank you. as we head to break, take a look at shares of peloton under pressure this morning. one of the darlings of 2020 has had a rough start in 2021. it's down 25% this year, down about 5% right now we're going to keep an eye on that pullback. meanwhile, there's more "squawk on the street" straight ahead. stay with us

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as we continue to monitor the adoption of evs, one city in california, sonoma county, is the first to outlaw the construction of new gas stations as well as new pumps at existing stations the mayor of petaluma, teresa

barrett, joins thus morning. her city setting its sights on zero emissions by 030, well ahead of the state's trajectory. madam mayor, good to have you. thanks for joining us. >> thank you >> i guess somebody's got to be first, so walk me through the calculus and how you came to this decision. >> well, it certainly had nothing to do with being first what it had to do with was declaring a climate emergency in may of 2019, and then recently in january take thing that clime emergency into our city to move forward to get to being carbon neutral in 2030. so one of the things that we had started in 2019 was to put a moratorium on new gas stations, and as we looked through that we saw banning new gas stations and expansions of the existing gas stations would be a feasible

thing to do because we have 16 gas stations in our city of roughly over 60,000 people none of which is more than five miles away from anybody who is driving at 25 miles an hour. >> walk me through how this has been received by the public so far, and i imagine that the concentration of evs in the area is probably already higher than, say, the national average, right? >> i think you're right about that i don't know the exact number, but i have heard nothing negative from anybody in our community either by phone call, email, text, anything. >> so, mayor -- >> do you think the states -- >> go ahead, carl. >> i'm sorry, mayor, do you think the state's plan so far as we know it is reasonable, at least on the time frame? >> do i think the state's plan i'm not sure -- >> yes, california

>> california is moving in the same direction i think they have shifted to 2030 as well >> mayor, i'm just curious, how much is a gallon of gas in petaluma and i would imagine you probably took that into account, this idea of limiting or banning new gas stations, what that's actually going to do to the price of gas in the meantime given the fact we are still early stages of ev adoption. >> the price has gone up, i think, statewide probably even nationally, i've been reading. but it's in the high $3, maybe even up to $4 a gallon >> mayor, how many of these stations over time do you see transitioning to places where people can charge their electric vehicles, and do you have a plan or is this part of some sort of a plan of making that transition >> oh, yeah, absolutely. that is one of the paths we have

given our gas stations they can expand by including ev chargers and with the conditional use permit, hydrogen chargers so we have a number of ev chargers in our town and in our county in general, but level three, which are the fast chargers, are something we need more of, and there's absolutely a demand for that and we hope these stations do make that transition it would be good for their business and our community >> even as we were coming to air with this segment, mayor, we get weekly gasoline inventories and the one as of today showed, i believe, the largest -- i'm looking here -- the biggest fall week on week since 1990 as the demand for gasoline and driving goes up. do you worry in the near term about a crunch on gasoline as the country as a whole focuses

even more on the long-term story about electric vehicles? >> no, i actually think that number is a bit out of whack while i think it's correct, i think it reflects what happened recently in texas rather than a spike in demand in that same period so, no, i think that we're going to see that people are going to be shifting away from using cars they're going to be using more efficient cars as we have seen the demand for that has increased and even the car manufacturers are walking back their trump-era changes to make their cars more efficient. and then they are also making -- starting to talk about phasing out cars in the short run, i think people will adjust. we're very flexible and, you

know, we've seen people have adjusted to working from home. and i wonder how many people are going to get back on the freeway and look at themselves thinking why am i sitting here for two hours when i could be working? >> yeah, i guess to that point, mayor, if this is a societal shift that's under way and it's already a business shift, a market shift that's under way, why not let the market decide. why does the town, why does the city actually need to step in and implement a moratorium >> because i don't think we just have to have one leader. i think that the market takes care of the market it's like affordable housing the market doesn't really take care of affordable housing, so that's why you have to have to have leadership in terms of your elected. we have a community that wants to have better air, that wants to have carbon neutral going forward for ourselves and our children, and so they have elected us to take this leadership and i'm happy to do

that i think we all need to do what we can, and i think we need to make it easy for business to make those shifts and see that there's a willing group of buyers out there, that there is a market for those shifts. >> that's a great point and we talk about it almost every day, the degree to which american business has made this pivot and it's well under way. thank you very much. great to talk to you >> american business isn't in on the leadership of this they have a lot more of this leadership >> i'm not saying we're first -- yeah, i'm not discounting any work by the chinese or the europeans, but we're in the game thanks so much for the time. >> absolutely. thanks for having me >> teresa barrett, mayor of petaluma keim your eye on the oscar health making its market debut today. "squawk alley" will cover that in about two and a half minutes.

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