we have two big sports stories. we cover the surge in gambling for the ncaa tournament? that's today the new nfl tv contract. i thought i was reading it wrong. worth more than $100 billion it's long-term it's friday, march 19th, 2021. "squawk box" starts now. ♪ good morning welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm becky quick along with joe and andrew joe mentioned the yield on the 10-year picked up. that sent stocks in free fall. the dow was down a little bit.

s&p off 1.5% the nasdaq with a decline of 3%. are you are seeing bounce back this morning. the dow indicated up by 62 the s&p indicated up by 12.5 that is coming as treasury yields are back. at 1.689%. every time the ten-year picks up, they say jay powell, you will not keep rates down on the long end that is what you see with the immediate selloff. let's look at the "squawk stack. is it still gamestop the 10-year note nasdaq futures and dow up 2.3%. what do we replace it with >> fedex nike is a sports story and earnings story i might add both.

>> retail story and the ports. >> draft kings i don't know we have choices. we have three hours. there's going to be some changes. changes are an coming. nike down 2.7% 1.68 >> nike is a dow component >> that's eight basis points in two weeks. it is still -- once it goes back -- what if it ends up at 1.6 three weeks from now or then it is right where it was? we will see. >> never mind. >> this is -- we're right in the middle of the watching it. whether it is a several months long stabilization or not. i don't know whether -- i have my own concerns about the market based on just other stuff. i mentioned them yesterday. >> what's that

>> i just don't -- taxes are going up infrastructure bill and they will do reconciliation to raise taxes on all kinds of stuff. corporate. marginal capital gains. interest rates are eventually headed higher. we were 222,000 once we reopen and it is the roaring '20s and then? i don't see we can do another 20% on the s&p >> i will say mary dillon said that yesterday i asked her what comes after the roaring '20s you get the good news baked in now. the economy he reopening all kinds of good things put in with the spending. you have to pay for it at some point. we'll see. >> yeah. that's the long-term concern is

the size of the deficit this year we can't add $4 trillion every year to what was $21 trillion. we'll be as a percentage of gdp, set new records if we don't do something. you have scaramucci talking taxes. give me tax hikes. i couldn't argue with him. i don't know i don't want to do it in a way that causes negative rates >> he is talking about tax rates that don't necessarily apply to him. >> that's what we all want it's going to. i always said punitive taxes on corporations that's not where we want to do it we complete globally tax the people that work at the corporations or the executives or whomever you want let us complete globally as well as we can because then it seems

like when the corporations do well, our workers do well. whether here or elsewhere. that is my problem it looks like there is a move to go back to 28% which i don't like >> this debate is not going anywhere we can have this debate just about any day. >> i don't want to debate you, andrew it's friday. tournament starts at noon. it started yesterday did you see ucla >> let's talk about something. >> rocky start. a rocky start for the first high level meeting with china and the biden administration at the press event in alaska yesterday. a photo session lasted more than an hour after the frothy exchange as the u.s. and chinese sides call reporters back in the room the u.s. would discuss the deep concerns with actions by china, including human rights and authoritarians in hong kong.

beijing considers those areas to be domestic affairs. officials say the two-day talks are set to conclude today. the big nfl deal. >> big nfl deal. you see putin and biden yesterday? what is happening there? some kind of a wrestling match or debate? biden called putin a killer. you see putin. putin said all i have to say is i wish him good health wink-wink. is he saying -- i don't know what he was trying to say. he said i'm not being ironic the whole thing was a weird day for foreign policy i will say that much. the nfl finalized an 11-year media rights agreement worth more than $100 billion it added amazon prime video as the exclusive partner for

thursday night package a full package of games excle exclusively streaming. starting in 2023 and then things stay status quo. viacom and cbs and fox and our parent company comcast paying more than $2 billion a year for 11-year deals. including super bowls. fox will save $660 million by relinquishing the thursday night rights disney will pay more $2.7 billion per year. that includes two super bowls for it's abc network a new divisional round playoff game remember goodell a couple years ago say why does he make so much money? this is a pretty lucrative deal. ratings were down last year

during the pandemic. down 7%. questions of long term never for me with live sports. that's the greatest thing. how do you walk the fine line with streaming without alienating the people that like to watch it on tv. you try to do both you don't want too much of the product out there. this looks like walking a pretty good compromise players have to be happy robert kraft i think he has something to do with the negotiations. no one is more upset than beli belichick. i guess it wasn't belichick winning all those super bowls. >> not the last one. >> you know, i have seen articles written about it. he is not happy. speaking of sports we have nike on the "squawk stack. >> stocks to watch

nike beating estimates revenue fell short north american revenue dropped 10%. hurt by shipment delays that we have seen with companies caused by growth port congestion. nike said partners like department stores and sporting good outlets did not receive goods on time and will need to discount that merchandise to make shelf space if you don't have it, you can't sell it. check it out nike shares down 2.7% on the news that's a dow component you have nordstrom and peloton among the other businesses reported material impacts from backlog ports. global container shortage and truck drivershortage in the united states which is an issue for furniture companies. it is something that has trickled through we talked to a lot of people about it there are big problems there in the meantime, fedex shares are higher after the company

reported an unprecedented holiday shipping season. thanks to the strong volume growth and domestic residential package delivery the ceo fred smith said demand would remain high because people keep ordering more stuff at home joe, the thing i took away from the rights agreement on the incredible run for fox fox was made by the nfl. that nfl deal that they originally cut and took from cbs. that made the network. now they are giving back on some of those they need to save money right now. it is interesting to watch that arc. >> rupert cashed in. i don't know if there is any buyer's remorse or seller's remorse, i guess, it would be. it slimmed down. trump is one i don't know what they will do, really i wouldn't know how to run fox right now.

that certainly is one way, if you are losing every year. a lot of people lose every year on nfl i think -- >> it is what you call lost leader builds the rest >> yeah. i'm glad we have sunday night. i love our -- is al still there? i think mike is taking over. have you ever seen collinsworth's son jac. he's great and the impact on stocks plus the new call from sri kumar on where yields are headed they went up we will see if they are heading up from there. still to come, taxes with the problem solvers caucus no, that is not a joke they actually are primed to do that we have the ceo of waste

management and the governor of new jersey the chairman of starbucks and music legend john oates. have you heard of him, sorkin? before your time >> what century? >> hall & oates. >> of course i have. >> good. >> '80s. >> we'll be right back. >> okay. i thought you were talking back when you were born ♪ make my dreams come true ♪ >> announcer: this cnbc program is sponsored by baird. visit bairddifference.com. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

we see access to fresh food being the global norm, not the exception. at emerson, our cold chain software and technology keep perishable food at proper temperatures, to assure its safety and quality. emerson. consider it solved.

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

for nearly a decade, comcast has been helping students get ready. we've connected 4 million low-income students to low- cost, high-speed xfinity internet. we're working with hundreds of school districts across the country to sponsor free internet and laptops. and parents are seeing an impact. and now we're turning 1,000 community centers into lift zones - wifi enabled safe spaces to study. so more students can be ready for anything. i'm trying to do some homework here.

hedge fund titan david pepper made a play to call in on the bullish stocks saying rates could be near a pause or stabilized yesterday, rick reiter said we are in the bond market history area joining me now is sru kumar. for years, sri, you came on and talked about rates staying really, really low for an extended basis you held to that every time we got a what seemed to be a move that was going to take us higher it would reverse you finally switched and now

1.75% based on stimulus and other factors. we hit 1.75. we are now down below 1.7. what's next? what's the next move lower or back to2% >> i think the next target, joe, is 2%. i think it is going to be moving up in a step function. you saw that happen. you go up to 1.65% and back off and go to 1.75% and then below 1.70%. we will go two steps up and one step down. as you do that with the immense amount of fiscal deficit that you spoke at the beginning of the program has to be financed you have to borrow the money and you can do that on higher and higher yields. that is the point of my forecast what also concerned me is the statement by chairman powell on wednesday where he talked about

the rates remaining low on the federal funds rate which is almost zero. when you have all of the demand and he is looking for higher growth, higher inflation right, it just doesn't figure, joe, to have the bond stay low it isis mutually inconsistent statement. that's why the bond market reacted the way they did yesterday. >> the bond market danced to its own tune regardless of what jay powell does? they cannot control the ten-year if they don't add other strategies whether twist or i don't know what they may try at this point. is the market going to do what it will do on the longer end >> absolutely. one of the basic tenaets in

economics is markets control the long term yield. what the chairman tried to do is reverse that and pretend the federal reserve can control the short and long term. it is impossible it is an impossible dual combination you cannot achieve especially when he is talking about faster growth and inflation picking up if he said growth will remain low and i don't expect much inflation, you might question his forecasting ability. at least it is nothing wrong with the logic here, the logic itself is flawed that is why the whole thing didn't stick together. >> sri, if everyone was convinced that 2% and we hit 2% and stay there for a while, i think the equity markets would be fine. 2% and beyond is what scares

people when will it get to 2% is that another weigh station or stopping point on the way to 2.5% or 3% >> it moved up again i expected them to move up fast, joe. they moved up faster than i expected i expected 1.75% in one month time it happened yesterday. i will say to you at this stage and if you have another stimulus program inn troduced by june or july because the $1,400 checks get spent and people need assistance and you increase the unemployment assistance and put one more supplemental check in, by the middle of the year, you might see 2% to give myself time, the end of the second quarter or middle of the year that i would look for the 2% figure. you also talked about what's next then the question is does the

government indicate to you that it is the end of the stimulus or as we have heard both from the president and secretary powell and that this amount may only be a flaw the $1.9 trillion is not the end of it. if you tell me out of the $1 trillion is coming in the second half of the year, i would say the bond yields are headed much higher >> all right, sri. rates moving higher. you are becoming popular around here we'll see you. you weren't on for a while now you are on all the time. we'll check back >> thank you. >> we need to gauge your thoughts 2 is next. then to infinity and beyond in the words of buzz. don't think he was canceled. woody will probably get canceled i don't know thank you. you just don't know.

>> thank you >> cowboy? >> maybe >> he won't get canceled >> how did he treat those cows >> he didn't have cows bo peep with the sheep. when we come back, let the madness begin. ncaa tournament means big bucks for schools and television networks and schools one is getting left out with the cash that is the players. we have details on new stuff happening. and later, waste management ceo jim fish is joining us in the 7:30 half hour >> announcer: this cnbc program is sponsored by sentinelone. cybersecurity platform what about me? and me? how about us? yeah, how about us? great question. wait, can i get one in green?

got one for me?! hey, what about me? what about us? is there an ev for me? ev for me? us? what about me? me? for me? ♪ ♪ (dog whimpers)

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.

lately, it's been hard to think about the future. but thinking about the future, is human nature. ♪♪ at edward jones, our 19,000 financial advisors listen and work with you to create personalized investment strategies to help you get back to drafting dreams and building your future. edward jones. it is time for investing to feel individual. and free, and free, and free, and free, and free. not a better and free! free down, free down. hit free here, free where there. down a free free down a free free here. not a better and free. make it at free. hit free here, where a free there. no no no, free, free. make it at free. free! that's right, turbotax free edition is free. free, free free free.

march madness is back. millions of americans are expected to bet on the games as the legal sports gambling business booms but like so many things, contessa brewer, joining us now with more. the pool business is down because no one is in the office. you have the legalized gambling. we took a year off from march madness. now it's back. it will be better than people thought. the talent is amazing with who is in the tournament it should be good, right >> it should be very good. it is all on television which is how people prefer to watch it. the brackets are down. betting expected to be down 8% from the brackets. nevertheless, the same number of americans.

47 million americans expected to bet on march madness this year companies like fan duel and draft kings and penn anticipate it could be bigger than the super bowl in terms of the number of bets and handle. because the volume will would be spread out over three weeks, they also don't anticipate the technical snafus that took betting parlors offline during the super bowl sports books is expected to grow dramatically this year because the sports betting landscape changed from 2019. 74 million americans now able to bet legally in 14 more jurisdictions. one wild card, in the tournament, covid. unlike most ncaa tournaments, the whole kit and kaboodle is

taking place in atlindianapolis there is the possibility the team would be forced to withdrawal fan duel says if that happens, it would void the bets and refund gambles gonzaga and fsu and baylor state are the favorites, guys? >> baylor. you didn't put illinois there. that's a big misstep there that's just me that's my final pick a lot of people are into this. becky quick, i know. football and rutgers in the big ten. there's note oh, my god there is no doubt you belong there basketball wise, becky >> we are good it's the first time in 30 years we have been back here 30 years >> i've got you. taking you over clemson.

i think houston -- >> thank you >> i did i took rutgers did you fill out a bracket, contessa >> one, your chances of filling out a perfect bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillion. i don't know that number if you know something -- i know. if you know something about basketball, which honestly, i don't. it is like 1 in 292 billion. i am like becky. i would have had my syracuse university hat on and shown a little orange love. >> i have syracuse going long. a couple of teams went long. they're hot. i'm focused on the big east and big ten. becky, did you do a bracket or not? >> i didn't because i actually got busy and forgot until 1:00 yesterday. i missed the opportunity

i got left out i would have picked rutgers for farther than you would, joe. >> right your husband thinks houston is a second rate number two i saw what houston did to cincinnati twice it was hideous we got to go i know that we do. i got to go. thanks, contessa >> contescontessa, great to see joe, i want to bring up another angle of this. there is so much in the sports world focused on the ncaa tournament college athletes are using the platform to speak out. there are dozens of players from 15 schools who took to twitter using the #notncaaproperty in fact, rutgers senior guard tweeted. if you don't believe we deserve to create money from our name and image and likeness, you are saying i, a human being, should be owned by something else he was trolled because of the

cbs sports guy said you should be grateful to be playing. gio gave a great response. you can be grateful and understand there is more on the table. players isolated entire year to help make this tournament happen. ncaa rewarded with 9$900 million players rewarded with deodorant. it is the proposal that might run afoul of antanti-trust rules it is a privilege in the game and get the education. gio baker pointed out if you are there on a music scholarship, you can play a concert and get paid for that. if you are on academic scholarship, you can intern and

get paid for that. these athletes bring a huge amount of money and what they are doing for the schools. this year, in particular isolated for the entire year shutdown their lives to do this. the idea they cannot get anything back as a result and you get boxed meals and deodorant? that's a good point. >> i don't know where you strike the right balance. if you have all of the ncaa bureaucrats out there with the pick-up game you may have lower ratings players are important to what happened the revenue is really important to all of the schools, too you need the players. >> gio baker stayed around he is a senior he put in his time on this it is not like he was there a year and takes off and goes to play professional. >> maybe some of them would stay really good players leave right away. >> i always wanted to play players. if you pay the players -- the

gu good news is they stay in college longer >> they want to say we want on own our likeness and image if somebody offers us something to do on the outside we want to get paid. >> they will not get paid from the university per se. that would be one way to do it but paid by the sponsors then the question is does it create craziness inside the school if one kid is a superstar making one amount? it does get complicated. >> there is no great answer. the situation right now is not a great situation. i don't know the right answer. they have made some really good arguments. i wasn't necessarily somebody who came in thinking beforehand they were absolutely right they made good arguments it is hard not to see the logic in what they are saying. >> right i watch more of them than i do -- i have been watching a lot

of the nba these guys are amazing i know who they are. they ought to be able to get some compensation. >> okay. we have more coming up update on the astrazeneca vaccine in europe. dr. scott gottlieb talks to us. and as we go to break, we have s&p's winners and losers from yesterday ♪ never changing who i am ♪ >> announcer: executive edge is sponsored by at&t business our connection will help keep

you connected. let's take care of business. and in an emergency, they need a network that puts them first. that connects them to technology, to each other, and to other agencies. that's why at&t built firstnet with and for first responders the emergency response network authorized by congress. firstnet. because putting them first is our job. ♪♪ in boxing or any other business, one day, you're gonna take a hit you didn't see coming.

do you stay down? or do you get up? [announcer] and this fight is a long way from over, leonard is coming back. ♪♪ ♪♪

welcome back some european countries are resuming the use of the astrazeneca vaccine after the regulator ruled it safe and effective.

many countries paused the vaccine over a handful of blood clots. they have resumed the vaccine program. you have to wonder about the concerns of taking the shvaccins in the meantime, the u.s. will send the astrazeneca vac t cine to mexico and canada. use has been approved in dozens of countries press secretary jen psaki says the u.s. would receive doses back from the country notice future when they get the shipments. andrew, it has been a lot of questions of how do we share and what do we do? scott gottlieb says we should share with mexico first. make sure we help spread some of this out >> we will see what happens. i don't know if you saw this, becky.

next congress yesterday. this is quite something. dr. fauci testifying before the senate committee hearing with the update on the government response to the pandemic he got into a heated exchange with senator rand paul who was getting into the heated exchange with him dr. fauci talking about the importance to wear masks as more people get vaccinated. take a look. >> you want to get rid of vaccine hesitancy, tell them to get rid of mask after getting the vaccine. people don't want to hear it there's no science behind it >> let me state for the record that masks are not theater masks are protective >> they are theater. if you have immunity, you are wearing a mask to give comfort to others. >> i disagree with you >> dr. fauci went on to explain why he disagreed he is particularly concerned that a pull back in protective

measures could trigger another covid surge. joining us now to talk about this is dr. scott gottlieb he serves on the board of alumina and pfizer the issue is variants. that is something senator paul did not want to hear or understand or something. what was your takeaway >> look, i think they both made valid points the reality is we are not through this this is a precarious month people want to be through it and there is light at the end of the tunnel there is a risk we take our foot off the brake too early and see a surge in infection we are seeing that in some parts of the country we are see a plateau in places an uptick in michigan and new york that doesn't mean it will be a fourth wave of infecinfection, i will take longer to get out of it i'm not sure we could have kept our foot on the brakes

inevitably this is a difficult month. april and may, things may look clearer and we may take our masks off. that said, there needs to be light at the end of the tunnel we need to recognize it as the population gets vaccinated we will be able to take more risks. that includes going out without masks and doing things in settings i'm less worried about b.1.1.7 it hasn't caused a surge in places like california and texas and florida. it is well over 50% of the infection. you are not seeing a sharp uptick like we expected. that is the indication that the prior immunity with vaccination is enough to quell b.1.1.7 i'm worried about new york and michigan we may not fully understand. the challenge in michigan is they have not vaccinated a lot of the population. especially the vulnerable. new york does appear to be a

consequences of 1526 maybe 50% or more are 1526 they have the mutation in the south african variant. that is a cause of concern we need to figure out if that variant is more infectious and pat pathogenic and why it's spreading. >> doctor, you are not taking the position that dr. fauci is taking it sounds like you are taking more of the position that senator paul is taking >> no, andrew. what i'm saying is we need to be careful this month i don't think this is the time to start lifting mitigation. the simple mitigation like wearing masks. we need to see what things look like in april and may, we will be in a different ituation i think infection levels will be lower and we will have more

immunity through vaccination at that point, we can take more risks. >> i'm confused. dr. fauci suggesting that we're going to be wearing masks at the office and in other congregate setting for the next year. airplanes and subways and the like you are saying something today and we had conversations in the past two weeks on this show where you said you will have to keep masking and you even talked about not having in-person meetings in the fourth quarter of this year help breakdown what you are thinking here and if your thinking has changed the past two weeks. >> no, i think it hasn't changed. i don't know that tony is saying we wear masks the next year. senator paul said tony said that i think the reality is that if infection levels get low this summer, which i believe they will, and we fully vaccinated

50% or 60% of the adult population, we will not wear masks on the beach on july haha4th. i do think as we get into the fall and winter and this starts to spread, we may reimplement the mitigation i don't know the masks would be mandatory over the next year they may be in certain parts of the country. i think a lot of people will still be wearing masks including me if i travel this winter >> doctor, we know there are variants around that are a problem. if we get to the point, you know about the one in new york. if we were just in a situation where variants arise all the time, you could say you need to wear a mask all the time, essentially, i guess knowing there is a variant, is there a reason to think if you have a vaccine and you are not

immune we don't know the data that's the problem >> well, first of all, i don't think this is variants forever there are a lot of people who have looked at this believe this virus is mutated rapidly and it will reach a steady state where it will not continue to mutate at this level. we are not just going to have these new variants to thwart the vaccine. we don't know it reduces the effectiveness if at all. the reality is we haven't vaccinated enough to create that in a month, things will look different. in terms of your question, we have not seen evidence this an anecdotal. we have not seen evidence on a wholesale basis of people getting infected after fully vaccinated we don't know. the reality is we should know. we should be better at this. this is what cdc should be

doing. not still arbitrating three feet or six feet a year later we should be on top of the variants and evaluating the clinical course. we should not have to wait months to get the information. >> doctor, along those lines with the variants. i know you are on the board of pfizer you may have a dog in this hunt. there are some doctors who say actually a lot of people in the beginning were saying you want to have the moderna or pfizer vaccine, that is others have said given there are more variants, you want the j&j drug that is tested more against the variants what do you think of that? >> vaccine, not drug look, i think they are all good. i would take the vaccine that is offered to me. the j&j vaccine offers a good immunity we will have good data on that

two-dose i think any of the vaccines will be effective j&j had pretty good data against the 1351 and p.1 variant >> do we think from the efficacy perspective, does that mean pfizer and moderna wasn't tested against that and that's why we don't know the answer? >> we have evidence with moderna and pfizer it is experimental evidence. it is strong these all afford a measure of protection against the variants. >> it is a longer conversation dr. gottlieb t, talk to you lat. >> thank you. >> we like dr. gottlieb. i hope we're not wearing the masks forever. i feel like i'm wearing them a lot. hard to take them off. [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito]

[music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] [triumphantly yells] [ding] don't get mad. get e*trade and take charge of your finances today. [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.

welcome back to "squawk" i'm dominic chu. the health care sector look at thecare. we've seen a vast outperformance on the market versus the health care sector. health care has been underperforming versus the s&p 500 up 63% over the last 12 months the health care sector is up a very respectable but under performing 40% that has led traders to see if we could see a valuation gap developing if you take a look at forward priced earnings ratio, that is to say, what you pay today for next year's anticipated earnings, take a look at that yellow line which is the s&p 500. forward priced earnings is 22 for that indicator the green light is the health care indicator this is the last 20 years

according to data from fact set. that means the health care sector is trading at the steepest discount to the market in 20 years. that's leading some to say what valuations are we seeing take a look at megacap and large cap like pfizer. merck is at 12, abb babbvie is. take a look at those they could be a discount play with all of those. quk x"ilbe right back. you'll want to keep it right here

the tech stocks took a hit once again in yesterday's trading as

yields continued to rise tesla was down almost 7% apple, netflix, amazon all losing about 4% and the nasdaq futures at the moment are pointing to a slight rebound this morning the nasdaq overall was down by 3% decline of more than 400 points. this morning you see the nasdaq futures up by 75 the s&p up by 13 joining us to talk it all over is joe teaaranova. just walk us through this for anybody who hasn't been playing close attention. the nasdaq sells off all of the tech high flyer selloffs every time you start to see yields pick up again. yesterday it was up at 1.75% why is that bad news for these growth stocks? >> good morning, becky these tech stocks are what is known as long duration assets. they've been bond proxies for the better part of the last 12

to 18 months what we're doing by seeing the rise in treasury yields is we're normalizing an abnormal environment for society and an abnormal environment as it related to 2020 and the pricing of these growth stocks these are also classified as momentum names there is vulnerability, i suspect, as we see treasury yields normalize further towards 1.9% which is where we introduced 2020. you also have to look at positioning, becky, and understand you're coming towards the end of the quarter at the end of the quarter you're going to have a dramatic rebalance away from momentum, which right now i can define as technology and health care, into more companies that are value oriented like financials and energy and i think markets are getting ahead of that rotation >> i mean, i get the rotation,

but do you think that this is a long-term or a short-term trade? does tech look much more effective again once you get through some of these initial sort of fits and starts? >> i think it's a short-term trade for established growth i heard you mention names like alphabet and apple and microsoft. personally, i own those names. yesterday on the close for the very first time in many, many months i added to those positions. they are established growth. they don't have the rich valuation. there is the short term opportunity as it presents itself for more of the emerging growth companies, whether it be the teledoc. doc docusign, the coupa software or crowd strike, it is going to take a little bit longer for the opportunity and the volatility to smooth itself out >> thank you i really appreciate it i wish we had more time to talk. come back soon, okay

>> sure. >> have a great weekend. andrew. coming up, two big hours ahead. thanks, beck we have a huge lineup coming your way "squawk box" returns right after this our retirement plan with voya, keeps us moving forward. hey, kevin! hey, guys! they have customized solutions to help our family's special needs... hey, graduation selfie! well done! and voya stays by our side, keeping us on track for retirement... ...giving us confidence in our future... ...and in kevin's. you ready for your first day on the job? i was born ready. go get 'em, kev. well planned. well invested. well protected. voya. be confident to and through retirement. ♪ ♪ it's a wishlist on wheels. a choice that requires no explanation. it's where safe and daring seamlessly intersect. it's understated, yet over-delivers.

it is truly the mercedes-benz of sports sedans. lease the 2021 c 300 sedan for just $449 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. ♪ ♪ want to make a name for yourself in gaming? then make a name for yourself. even if your office, and bank balance are... far from glamorous. that means expensing nothing but pizza. your expenses look good, and your books are set for the month! ...going up against this guy... and pitching your idea 100 times. no, no, no! no. i like it. -he likes it! ...and you definitely love that. intuit quickbooks helps small businesses be more successful with payments, payroll, banking and live bookkeeping. we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way

martin's family needs it with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. ♪ usaa ♪

stocks trying to rebound after yesterday's tech tumble. soaring yields keeping growth stocks in check despite assurances from fed chair jay powell that he will keep rates low. the 10-year coming off a 14-month high in yields. we'll tell you what you need to watch in today's trading session. plus, waste management's ceo jim fish. and john oates on his collaboration with feeding america and the battle against hunger in this country the second hour begins right now. ♪ ♪ good morning

watching "squawk box" right here on cnbc. becky quick is here clapping along with the music >> got to clap at that point >> not clapping joe kernen the u. ss. equity futures. the dow looks like it would open 77 points higher, nasdaq up 72 and the s&p 500 looking to open about 13 points higher becks? >> thanks, andrew. now that president biden has signed his covid relief plan into law, the administration is turning its attention to the nation's ailing infrastructure members of the senate and the house are to discuss bipartisan ideas. the question, of course, will all be how it will be paid for and that still remains one idea the president has floated, a wealth tax on those making over $400,000 joining be us with more on this is congressman josh gottheimer of new jersey. also pennsylvania congressman

brian fitzpatrick who is the vice chairman of the problem solvers caucus he serves on the house transportation and infrastructure committee both have met with members of the senate and house gentlemen, welcome to both of you. let me just ask, josh, i'll start with you, is bipartisan a plan that will actually make it when it comes to infrastructure? >> i actually believe this is one of the key areas where you can get bipartisan support after talking to my senate colleagues this week and working with a great congressman like ryan fitzpatrick, what's clear is there's a path forward here and we're working to get it done. >> congressman fitzpatrick, we had congressman patrick mchenry on, a republican, one of your colleagues earlier this week and he said, look, when you start talking about an infrastructure bill, he thinks about roads and infrastrr things that he just

doesn't see things the right way. how do you take those two sides of the parties and bring them together for some sort of bipartisanship what does bipartisanship mean? >> well, number one, how we define it geographically, rural, urban, suburban. substantively, not just roads and bridges, subterrainian piping, electrical grid and it has to be bipartisan meaning the funding mechanisms need to be balanced when it comes to user feesing, carbon pricing proposals, taxing batteries for electric vehicles, but it's got to be a responsible plan what we don't want is a trojan horse vehicle that's masked in the word infrastructure but is actually a trojan horse filled with policies.

it remains to see whether that will happen. i'm hopeful. we have met with president biden and vice president harris. they've said all the right things in the meeting. let's see if they can deliver for us. >> you sound a little more hesitant than congressman gottheimer does. do you have concerns about being able to bring your party to the table on this? >> no, i'm not concerned about bringing our party to the table. i think what we have to do is make sure we are brought to the table and that everybody's priorities are included. what i don't want to see is, you know, single party solutions being advanced that's not sustainable that's not what the american people want. like i said, the meetings have started off on the right foot and that is hopeful. josh who is the leader of our border bipartisan problem solve verse movement we as centrists play a key floel driving that forward i am hopeful

i will say that. >> hey, josh, let me ask this. i can understand how a lot of people on both sides of the aisle get together and say, look, infrastructure is a great thing. we've been hearing this for years and years and years that we need an infrastructure package. we need more spending on roads, bridges, tunnels we need to make sure people get high speed internet. debby stabenow was on talking about bringing jobs and processing and supply chains back to thecountry when it comes to detroit, when it comes to the coal area of the country in virginia. manchin has signed on for her with that. everybody has things they like to spend money on. it gets more complicated when you figure out how to pay for it how will you pay for >> well, first, you're exactly right, becky, about what the need, right? you've got -- where i live in northern new jersey, our roads

and bridges, eighth worth in the country. we have water and sewer issues we've put some down payment in the american rescue plan we just passed and broad band is a huge issue in the rural parts of my district there are needs and across the country there are different needs. the way you pay for it, there are plenty of ways to pay for it without raising taxes. brian talked about things like user fees. there's a huge issue where you close the tax gap worth a trillion dollars public, private partnerships that can be 10 to 15% of this. debt financing you can borrow cheap knowing it's going to create jobs and bring economic growth back to the table infrastructure bank is something that's been around for a long time and is making a resurgence right now. i think there are plenty of ways to pay for this. the key though is, as you said, figuring out where you start in terms of what is included in the package. there are a lot of demands that our country has because we've

ignored this problem for so long you need to make sure it's reasonable, ignore the trojan horses and it's very doable and that's why we're working on it now. >> josh, you brought up the idea that you wouldn't have to raise taxes to do it that's not necessarily what we've been hearing from the democrats. what did the biden administration say when you met with the white house on that >> i talked to the administration about this. unless they're giving s.a.l.t. back, where i live in jersey which is a huge tax increase, you can't raise taxes more on people in new jersey and costs are way too high in the middle of the pandemic. it just doesn't add up there are plenty of other places where you can raise revenue without raising taxes. as i just said, you have a trillion dollars a year of people who cheat and don't pay what they should you have plenty you can raise in public/private partnerships and user fees. there are different ways to approach this.

i think to hit people with more taxes where i live just doesn't work for the economy and certainly not in the middle of a pandemic >> brian, i'd assume that's something you agree with on this is that kind of what the bulk of your -- the people that you've pulled together on this, the problem solvers, they want to see the spending but they don't want to see the taxes raised is that what bipartisanship looks like >> that's a big part of it, but it's got to be fair and equitable. when we talk about user fees, talking about roads, willing to, one applies to gas or with electric vehicles taxing batteries on installation and amortizing it over the electric vehicle. so there's a number of ways to finance it, but we have to make sure we're balanced in our financing. we don't have a money tree here. we see we can spend endlessly. that's a big concern we have to regain our focus. it's very easy to spend money down here without thinking about the long-term consequences

i for one am a believer infrastructure is an investment if done the right way. dollars spent can yield multiple dollars returned so we have to bring the economists to the table, we have to bring both parties to the table to make sure it's a balanced approach, that it is a true infrastructure bill and that's the key if it is infrastructure, that is a bipartisan concept it is perfect to stimulate the economy and create jobs. we don't want to use infrastructure bill as a trojan horse. >> congressman gottheimer very quickly, you said that these taxes couldn't be raised on people in your district unless s.a.l.t. went away, but it sounded like you were sending less and less optimistic that s.a.l.t. is going to get overturned, those limits >> i'm optimistic in the sense that we're going to keep fighting for it and i'm going to

keep fighting for it as part of the package. that's a key ingredient for an overall part of the package in new jersey and how it affects people who live and workthere. in the end if we get s.a.l.t. back fully and people's taxes go back down, that's what i'm looking for and fighting for, but in the end as brian said, the key is to make sure that we do this in a responsible way a tax hike bill in 2017 cost multi-trillions of dollars that they weren't predicting at the time you have to make sure you're smart about this and that we approach this in a reasonable way without ignoring the real challenge of why we're here to get infrastructure done. >> josh, i'm getting messages. people are like, why are you having two republican congressmen on here? why do you not have the other side of this argument being presented, josh? i mean, this isn't the first time this has happened >> joe -- >> you don't want to raise

taxes? when the democrats do decide to do it, are you going to vote no when they do some horrible thing through reconciliation across the board tax increases? are you going to vote no >> i'm going to look, joe, at the impact of my district. bring s.a.l.t. back, they go down. >> i'm kidding i'm kidding. i hear it and i'm like, who's who in this debate >> there are common sense zbleem that's why they're called the problem solvers, meet in the middle on these things >> big problem for the squad, i'll tell you that problem solver problem causer. >> gentlemen, thank you both for joining us today good to see you. >> thanks, becky and joe. >> thank you thank you guys seriously. coming up, stocks to watch ahead of the opening bell plus a half of hall and oates musician and philanthropist john oates is going to join us. ceo of waste management bringing

people back to the office, jim fish will be our guest a check on the markets "squawk box" coming right back before we talk about tax-smart investing, what's new? -well, audrey's expecting... -twins! grandparents! we want to put money aside for them, so...change in plans. alright, let's see what we can adjust. ♪♪ we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans. okay. mom, are you painting again? you could sell these. lemme guess, change in plans? at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan.

going the other way, take a look at shares of dow component nike, athletic footwear apparel maker did report better than expected. quarterly reports falling short of wall street forecasts and gave a lower than expected full year revenue outlook milestone in the video streaming. subscriptions to video services like netflix topping the 1 billion mark in 2020 reaching a total of 1.1 billion at the same time movie theater closures resulted, as we all know, in box office revenues plunging this time to $12 billion from more than 42 billion in 2019. coming up when we return, john oates of hall and oates on feeding america. hosting a virtual concert. all proceeds and donations going to charity and helping those facing hunger during the

pandemic time now for today's aflac trivia question. who composed and arranged the sound track for the 1987 film "wall street"? the sw wn bcanerhecn's "squawk box" continues who's got two bros and one unexpected medical bill. i mean look at this guy, he can barely open his bill! aflac! let's look at the re-pain replay. lost the dunk challenge, the use of his arms... and his dignity. aflac? aflac would have been the smart play. they pay cash directly to help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. should we give him a hand? get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. aflac! official partner of march madness. yes! hey ava, how's my bracket looking? this is gary, i invested in invesco qqq. a fund that invests in the innovations of the nasdaq-100. like this artificially intelligent home system. become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq. ♪

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.

it's time to switch to t-mobile. right now, pay zero costs when you do! and increase worker safety. keep your number and keep your phone -- we'll even pay it off! only at t-mobile. the leader in 5g.

♪ ♪ a year in the pandemic many americans are still struggling to put food on their table. according to a new report from feeding america, one in every eight people could face food insecurity in 2021 to help mitigate some of the strain on american families, musical artists are banning together with feeding america to host a benefit concert on saturday night it's called oates songfest joining us are john oates, half of the best selling duo hall and oates. iconic, john growing up in the '70s and especially the '80s with you, iconic those songs. i was wondering when i was

introing you when you hear those, how many times do you think you've heard the song we just played, john? >> not enough. not enough really. >> good answer that's right >> and claire fontenau, ceo of feeting america. john, i'll talk to you how did you meet claire? i know you've heard of claire. we had her on with kenny dichter. this concert came together >> i'm meeting claire virtually for the first time as we speak, which is a pleasure, by the way, claire >> thank you. >> we've been working with her team at feeding america, amazing. my wife amy and i during the pandemic, this is the first time i was actually home for any length of time in my entire professional career. as we watched the news and became more aware of what was happening in america and the issue with food security and how critical it has become and is becoming, we wanted to do more so we thought, well, let's do

what we do best, reach out to our musical friends and family, see if we can engage them in this situation reached out to feeding america, found them to be an amazing partner. it really took on a life of its own. amazing artists have signed on i'm very humbled with the response that we got from the music community, but not surprised. so that's where we're at we'll be streaming it live saturday night march 20th at 8 p.m. eastern. >> a couple of these names, claire bobby weir >> i'm going across. >> sorry >> and darreus rucker, who is just so talented, so great many, many others. how did that happen, claire? >> well, i think what we're seeing with these artists is so similar to what we've seen with the american public at large because of the remarkable

outpouring of support, we were able to provide over 6 billion with a b meals to people facing hunger last year and we know that this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint so we need people like john, amy, all of the remarkable artists who will be participating in this concert and we need your audience to remember that even when the outward signs of this pandemic have gone away, there are going to be a lot of people still struggling out there so we're grateful >> so we -- how are we going to find this? then there will be plenty of opportunity to support it as well, claire >> yes that's right feeding america.org. there's actually a special hashtag for this particular event and i think john can give you some more details on that one more time, but we're excited about this partnership and we hope that your whole audience tunes in there's going to be great music and a great cause.

>> why don't we do it. go ahead, john >> i'm sorry we will have a qr code as well on the lower third of the video as well as a url to take you right to feeding america.org and it's going to be very -- one thing that we were very adamant about, we wanted to make sure that this show was completely free it's not a pay per view. anyone can watch it. go to gs.tv and once again it's saturday night at 8 p.m. nugs.tv. do you guys perform independently from one another now? will there be a -- >> we do everything. we do everything we work together and -- we have a tour that hopefully we're going to go back on the road in august if the world lets us. one thing when i called darryl about being part of this, i said to him, i said, darryl, here's a great opportunity for us to do

something different from our big hits obviously we play our big hits when we're on tour, that's what most people come to see. i said, here's a chance for us to do something. darryl came up with a really amazing version of a great solo song he did a few years ago and i wrote a brand-new song for the show in addition to that, and i will say a little plug here, we're going to unveil an electronic version of man eater that i did with my co-host, saxquach. saxophone player >> claire, we have a minute left what else is your organization dealing with there are so many different aspects to what happened in the last year, you probably can't even -- you probably can't even do all the things you'd like to be doing right now >> we certainly can't do all the things that we'd like to be

doing. i am so proud of the work that our remarkable network, 200 members. we have 60,000 agency partners who have gotten out on the front lines. they have not rested they've gotten out there and served their neighbors and with the help of people like those in your audience, we've been able to do that in ways that we never did before but the need is greater than it's ever been as well so we're trying to meet that need we know that the work that we do is only be apart of what needs to be done, and we hope that there will be policy interventions and that we as a society will make some decisions and we'll just decide that it's just unacceptable that there would be food insecurity here. one quick statistic that is a little bit unfortunate or a lot unfortunate in my estimation is even before the pandemic, there were 35 million people who were food insecure. 35 million people. if the economic downturn of 2008 is any indication, it will take

us ten years to get back to the 35 million so we're going to work hard to cut that number at least in half and get to 35 in 5 and we're going to need help to make that happen i'm confident that we're going to get that help and we're going to really change the face of hunger in this country. >> claire, thanks. john oates great to have you on nugs.tv. i'm not going to try to say who's coming on. bob's going to be there. steve liesman, actually, has a relationship with bob weir they're all amazing. amazing. not leaving anyone out thank you very much and we look forward to it. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. >> thanks so much. thanks, john and amy. still to come on "squawk box" this morning, we have your market minute. plus waste management ceo jim

fish on bringing workers back to the office "squawk box" will be right back. now the answer to today's aflac trivia question. who composed and arranged the sound track for the 1987 film "wall street"? the answer, stewart copeland, best known as the drummer for the british rock band "the police." copeland has worked on over 60 film scores dating back to 1983. ♪♪ in boxing or any other business, one day, you're gonna take a hit you didn't see coming. do you stay down? or do you get up? [announcer] and this fight is a long way from over, leonard is coming back. ♪♪ ♪♪

welcome back to "squawk box. i'm dominic chu. here with your friday market minute the pull back in the nasdaq back below the 50 day average price brings the drop from record highs that we saw to here by down 7%. so keep an eye on that level there. the nasdaq composite showing some signs of a little bit of a bounce so far early in trading some of the biggest focus of investors and traders over the last trading day happen to be in two different sectors. energy, which is up 95% over the last year and technology up 74%. a huge move lower especially in energy related shares yesterday. by far and away the biggest

sector decliner on yesterday's basis. take a look at the bounce we are seeing in the energy names beaten up yesterday. devon energy up 2.5% apa up 3%. marathon oil up 2.5% as well a bigger bounce in some of these overall beaten up energy names take a look at megacap a big driver of the down side yesterday. the advances are there pre-market although a little bit more modest these days take a look at names like apple. take a look at amazon, alphabet, some of those. they are, by the way, bouncing today but not nearly by as much as this. they're up half a percent or so. andrew, i will send things back over to you. >> thanks, dom appreciate it. fascinating to see what's going on in the energy complex we have a couple of big interviews coming up about the reopening of businesses and states first waste management ceo jim fish is going to be bringing workers back to the office we'll talk about what's happening in that world in just

a minute top of the hour, new jersey governor phil murphy on his decision to increase indoor gathering limits and increase capacity limits for restaurants, gyms, other facilities "squawk" returns with all of it in just a moment 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. use a single hr software? nope. we use 11. eleven. why do an expense report from your phone when you can do it from a machine that jams? i just emailed my wife's social security number to the entire company instead of hr, so... please come back. how hard is your business software working for you? with paycom, employees enter and manage their own hr data in one easy-to-use software.

visit paycom.com for a free demo. hon? first off, we love each other... - grammarly business helps my company build higher performing sales teams. since simon's team started using grammarly business to sharpen their writing, we've closed more deals. learn more at grammarly.com/business.

my retirement plan with voya keeps me moving forward. they guide me with achievable steps that give me confidence. this is my granddaughter...she's cute like her grandpa. voya doesn't just help me get to retirement... ...they're with me all the way through it. voya. be confident to and through retirement.

ceos are trying to figure out when and how to get their employees back to the office the head of waste management recently told "the wall street journal," i don't have a hotline to the governor of california. if i did, i'd be calling him and saying, open the damn state up waste management ceo jim fish joins us right now jim, you're based in texas you operate all over the country. i get the sense you're a little frustrated with how this is working out in some areas versus others >> yeah. that comment was as much about not the business side because our business has been impacted in california and other states that have been closed or shut down more -- had more stringent shutdowns than others, but it was almost as much a personal comment on things like schools and small businesses, mental health that have all been affected by this dramatically. i do worry about the long-term consequences of those, but our business has been impacted and as such a lot of small

businesses so that was where the comment came from. >> but you do operate in a lot of different places and you have seen this play out differently let's just talk about texas versus california versus just all of the other places that you operate. you operate in so many different states why do you think this has rolled out differently and has the impact been worse in some places than others? >> i don't know why it's been handled differently. i assume it's just because it's done on a state-by-state basis what we've seen is that the states that chose to at least attempt to reopen a little sooner are farther ahead in that reopening and so states like florida, states like texas, arizona, tennessee, those are states that chose to try and go to 25, 50% more quickly and so i think as a result the impact on the states economically will show to be less than those states that have chosen to take

a stronger stance. so i don't want to make a political comment on it at all, i just think those states where our business has rebounded, it's directly tied to the reopening a bit sooner. >> how is your business doing overall? obviously with people not in offices, that's a big impact on the amount of waste that would be coming out of those industrial places, out of those office buildings that used to be there. i'd assume it at least picks up to some extent on the residential side >> it does i mean, the business actually is doing amazingly well we reported fourth quarter earnings a couple of weeks ago considering that we were comparing a non-covid period to a covid period, we're up 4% in ebitda year over year which was amazing. so we've taken some costs out of the organization, but we've also really tried to address things like the residential business that has seen a big uptick in

volume the commercial in business is the most important from a margin perspective and it's still down somewhere between 4 and 4 1/2% we're starting to see that bounce back pretty quickly as some of these states reopen, and we think it will parallel the vaccine. >> jim, there's been such a dichotomy of responses from the business community to this places like wall street and the banks would like to see employees get back to the offices as soon as possible. then you have the tech brethren have been a little more open about this saying you can work from home if you want. obviously they have different sorts of needs and they also have different sorts of things they need to do to retain and recruit their employees. where does this come down? because it seems like there may also be a bit of a juxtaposition between blue collar and white collar blue collar have had to go in through this entire situation. >> and ours are part of that essential worker group we've got about 51,000 employees

and about 35,000 of them have been out there since day one doing a great job. we also have 15 or 16,000 that are office workers fortunately we have technology tools that have enabled us to work from home but we do feel like we're missing out on some of the impromptu collaboration, and i think that's why we've chosen to put forth a plan that says we'll bring those 15 or 16,000 folks back to the office in part on the 3rd of may, so we're asking that we come back for at least two days a week effective the 3rd of may and the first of july, and the president said that he felt there was a good -- at least a reasonable chance of us being able to all have access to the vaccine by the end of may, so if we give ourselves an extra month, the first of july is when we would all return to the office >> jim, will you require people to have vaccinations coming back that's kind of a tricky area

>> it is a tricky area we've talked about it. we've decided not to require it. we're going to strongly recommend it i'm going to get it when i'm able to get it i still haven't been called yet, but when i am called, i'm going to go get the vaccine for sure and our other senior leaders are getting it but we're not going to require the vaccine for folks who feel like that might be a bridge too far. we're going to strongly recommend it >> hey, jim, if you're not going to require the vaccine, are you investing in any kind of surveillance testing program for employees? will you require everybody to wear masks >> so we have protocols in place right now. in fact, when i come into the office -- i'm sitting in our office today when i come into that office i have to take a screening and every single office employee has to take that same screening. we've had that in place for probably 10 or 12 months and then we do have mask protocols and social distancing protocols that have been in

place since covid started. we have not made a decision -- once everybody gets a chance to be vaccinated, we have not made a decision what happens with the mask protocols we are paying attention to what the cdc is recommending and what the various states are recommending we haven't changed those protocols. i have to wear a mask when i'm at work outside of my office and we have to maintain social distance. >> just to clarify, you have no testing -- i understand the, quote, testing program when you're coming in, taking temperatures and the like, but you're not doing any kind of pcr testing, rapid testing, anything like that? and the other question becomes if you find out ultimately that 20% of your staff has not been vaccinated, let's say 20, 30% of your group does not get vaccinated, does that change the dynamic in terms of what you decide to do >> it could. to answer your first question, you're right, we're not

requiring any type of testing, but part of the screening that i have to take asks those questions and if i have been exposed or if i know anyone, i have been close to them over a period of 14 days, then i'm required to get a test before i come back to the office, but i don't know if we've discovered that 20% of our work force had not been vaccinated, would we then subsequently require them to get the vaccination we haven't decided that yet. it's certainly one of the options. >> jim, i guess part of the reason it's very difficult for companies right now to require this is because these are vaccines that are approved under emergency use authorization. if they eventually got full authorization, not emergency use authorization from the fda, would that change your stance if you were then allowed to require employees to do it, would you? >> i think there's a number of

factors that go into the decision that's one of the key factors for sure at this point, the vaccine's only been out for, i don't know, three or four months so we don't know a lot about it. >> right >> so that's why we've chosen to -- and i don't know, you know, what various employees' feelings are about it. so we will ask our employees to strongly consider taking the vaccine and then we will go in and survey and see how many of them have taken it and then if it looks like 20% have not taken it, i think that requires me to make a decision from there >> i know it's really hard to predict these things, but what are you seeing right now you mentioned the economy was down or, you know, the -- your business was down in areas that were tied to commercial and it's a high margin part of the business, but what are you anticipating as we get into the summer do you think you'll see a big comeback to the workplace? do you think that happens in the fall >> boy, i really do, actually, becky.

i've been with the company more than 20 years. i've never been more bullish about the industry and the your all economy. i feel like there's a big bounce coming i think it's different than the '08, '09 downturn which was steep but not a cliff, which is what we had in march of last year so when we fall off a cliff, then almost the inverse of that is that we're going to climb back up at a steep rate. so i am really enthusiastically bullish about where this industry and this company go coming out of this it feels like it's already starting i would say that it really accelerates at a pretty fast pace coming into the summer. >> and i guess you're not a market expert, but you watch the market the market seems to agree with you on those points. the market came back for a lot of companies and a lot of stocks well before the business actually came back they're anticipating the same thing. when you hear from the fed that they're going to keep rates low

for a long time but you think business is booming, how do you kind of put those two thoughts together as a ceo? >> well, you're right about the markets. i think the markets typically are going to price things out prospectively and see what the expectation is going forward you know, look, i think the fed is going to be naturally conservative group that is going to be a little bit less on a perspective in the way they're thinking things through. i am by far not an expert on either of those two but when i look at those parts of our business that appear to be kind of forward looking, things like construction and demolition, those look really good our construction and demolition business was way down back in march, april, may, as much as 40% down on a year-over-year basis and it is now in fourth quarter bounce back to up 5% and continues to show real promising

signs. so those things that look like good indicators for us on a much more micro basis are very encouraging right now. hard to say what the overall economy does, but we're a pretty good barometer for it. right now i like what i'm seeing. >> jim, thank you very much for your time today. it's great talking to you. >> great talking to you. thanks very much >> take care joe? coming up, new jersey governor phil murphy on the reopening of the garden state, battle against covid that interview is up the ceo of porsche on going electric and going solo. phil lebeau brings us that interview after the break. >> what are you doing? >> with the song with the song. "squawk box" will be next.

let's meet the defending champs. kim kietz, investor. i invested in invesco qqq

a fund that invests in the innovations of the nasdaq-100. like 3d rendering software. become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq. ♪ so jeff, you need all those screens streaming over beco your xfinity xfi...ation for your meeting? uhh yes. and your lucky jersey? oh, yeah. lauren, a cooler? it's hot. it's march. and jay, what's with all your screens? just checking in with my team... of colleagues. so you're all streaming on every device in the house, what?!! that was a foul. it's march... ...and you're definitely not watching basketball. no, no. i'm definitely not watching basketball. right... ( horn blaring )

i see. okay so rocky start for the first high level meeting between china and the biden administration at a pre-meeting press event in alaska yesterday, a 4-minute photo session lasted more than an hour, and i see now that i think the person meant after a frosty exchange.

i heard frothy it was a very frosty exchange. both the chinese and the u.s. sides kept calling reporters back into the room so that they could add remarks, and this happened more than once. when it looked like it was over, supposed to be 4 minutes it was an hour anthony blinken said the u.s. would discuss its deep concerns with actions by china, including human rights authoritarianism in hong kong, shinzhang and taiwan. officials repeatedly said china is opposed to foreign interference the two-day talks are set to conclude today andrew >> meantime, porsche, which has won of the most loyal brand followings in the auto industry trying to make sure the -- that following stays intact as it faces a slew of competitors

looking to siphon off younger buyers phil lebeau with a special guest. phil >> reporter: thank you very much, andrew i think we're going to try to bring in oliver blooma who is the chairman of porsche joining us from germany. we've been having technical issues let me tell you what porsche announced this morning they basically laid out an aggressive plan for taking what they're already doing when it comes to electric vehicles and then ramping it up over the rest of this decade so where they are right now, they have more than 80% of sales expected to be evs by 2030 they're at 17% in terms of pure electric vehicles right now. they are going to be carbon neutral by 2030 and no porsche 911 evs. at least that's the plan right now. i know that's something joe is going to hear and he's going to say, wait a second

i want a porsche 911 ev. he explained you can't do that at this point because you would have to put the battery in the rear of the vehicle in order for it to be a true porsche 911. they haven't been able to figure that out at this point it's not impossible that it couldn't eventually -- we couldn't see a porsche 911 electric version, but for now they're going to do the rest of the lineup and they're going to go electric aggressively as they are seeing success with ticon, which is their first fully electric vehicle they have some plug-in electric hybrid electric vehicles that they're going to be expanding as well so let's bring in oliver blooma from the porsche headquarters. maybe, joe, did you have something you want to say? >> they told me you wanted to talk to me i always want to talk to you yeah, i like that. >> reporter: joe, this is called tap dancing on live tv. >> i'm here for you. i have other stuff for you you can't get a standard

transmission on the carrera unless you go up to an s, which i had to do. the latest order is not here i had to go to an s which is more than i need in terms of horsepower, probably, or maybe not. just to get the standard transmission >> would you want -- >> no, not yet >> would you want an -- >> i like the ticon. i think that's cool looking. i'm not ready for electric yet, phil >> okay. so you're good with electric and you like the ticon you don't believe the 911 should go electric? >> no, i still want -- i like it the way it is. i mean, it can go electric in the future for people, but i'm happy to still have a -- the way that it's configured right now, i like it. i want the 7 speed transmission. i got a chalk color. what do you think of chalk with the -- you can ask the ceo i think it's -- it's not white i didn't want a white one. chalk, it's kind of cool

>> right you know what's interesting, joe, they have what they call the rens 4 reunion every four years. the next one if there had been no pandemic, they may still try to do it, would be scheduled to be in september of this year they get together with classic porsche owners, those who want to race at laguna seca out in california we were there in 2018. i'll be curious if they have that again i've been told we have not been able to make everything work with our interview with oliver blooma joe, we're going to try to get oliver connected a little bit later on it's a big day for porsche as they are clearly ramping out an aggressive plan for going electric. >> yup those electric teslas are faster than the internal combustion porsches i think, phil >> yeah. >> it does make sense. they have -- it looks like kind

of a station wagon i don't know the name of it. but it's a really cool looking car, too, that i've thought about, porsche does. it's not a pan -- might be a pan -- what's it called? you haven't seen them? i'm going to send you -- i'll send you a shot of one the back seat -- >> yeah, send me a shot. >> the back seat on the carrera is getting tough for -- to get anyone in there. get one on the passenger's side, that's it. >> i wouldn't fit in the back seat, i'll tell you that. >> i wasn't going to say that. i wasn't going to say that, phil, but you definitely wouldn't fit, you're right neither would i. thanks we'll look forward to it hopefully we can work things out. thanks, phil >> absolutely. you bet. when we come back, new jersey governor phil murphy on the reopening of the garden state and the battle against covid. and later, new starbucks chair mellody hobson joins us 'll lkspecial interview.

weta about her new role at the company and much more. "squawk box" will be right back. sorry about that. umm... what...its...um... you alright? [sigh] [ding] never settle with power e*trade. it has powerful, easy-to-use tools to help you find opportunities, 24/7 support when you need answers plus some of the lowest options and futures contract prices around. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today.

bond yields retreating and futures pointing to a positive open as we get ready for the final trading day of the week. this all following yesterday's

spike in the 10-year and a 400 point plunge for the nasdaq. new york/new jersey easing limits on restaurant capacity today. we're going to speak with the garden state's governor and shake shack's danny myer on an industry recovery. >> the brand-new chair of starbucks, mellody hobson is going to join us live. we have her first interview and you've got to see it the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now ♪ ♪ good morning and welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc i am joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin rebounding more than would have been expected given the big selloff yesterday. you can see up 71. s&p up 9 and change.

dow up about 40. take a quick look at treasury yields which got into the 1 3/4 area yesterday you can see 1.684. the bank of japan, remember the tepper call said they're not going to widen the ban which is 40 basis points. plus or minus 20 they've widened it by 5 and that is, i guess you would say that is basically not what was feared as a worst case scenario would have been widening it by 20 or maybe even more on both sides. so now instead of being a 40 basis point band it's a 50-basis point band which is -- i don't know whether that's somewhere in between not doing anything at all and doing something significant. i will show you the squawk stack, careful we have fed ex replaced gamestop with fed ex. bitcoin, 59,000. that's been strong after the jay

powell ended the two-day meeting. that was taken very bullishly, at least by some 10-year, which we were talking about and i guess the nasdaq want to highlight yesterday. let's get right to our first big interview of the hour on recoveries from covid. the state of new jersey is easing capacity limits today on indoor dining, gyms, other businesses that will now be open at 50% of normal currently 12% of the garden state's population has received two doses of the coronavirus vaccine. joining us now, new jersey governor phil murphy governor, good to see you. we were, as we do so much, i think you watch and mrs. murphy as well. we had scott gottleib on earlier. he's worried about new york, neighboring state, given that variant, the one that is the more troublesome variant with the south african strain, i

guess. thinking that there are quite a few cases in new york. is the same worry for you in new jersey on that variant, governor >> good to be with you, joe. scott's got some deep jersey roots, i have to say yeah, we have that same concern. we know we've got the new york variant, the u.k. variant, i guess the brazil variant we're part of the same reality that you and i talked about a year ago the densest part of the nation we're the densest state in the nation we are right on top of the new york metro reality and invariably what hits them will hit us and vice versa. we're watching all of that very closely. >> overall what is the latest data point that you can bring us in terms of cases, hospitalizations, icus, everything else. continuing to be positive because you're starting to reopen. >> yeah. positive, joe, without question, but we've definitely plateaued

like a lot of the rest of the country. so we've come down dramatically from hospitalizations and positivity rates we saw a couple of months ago, but still uncomfortably too high we still have almost 2,000 people in hospitals. our weekday positivity rate is typically plus or minus 7% we had gotten that down to under 2% in the summer having said that, vaccine rollout is going not in a straight line but i think we're number 4 in the country in terms of administering shots we're up -- we'll cross 3.3 million today. the weather will get warmer, not today, but it will get warmer. the curves had come down, but we watch all of this like a hawk and particularly the hospitalizations we could speculate over, you know, did we get all -- did everybody get tested who should have gotten tested we know that didn't happen in the spring what we don't speculate over, we know exactly to the bed how many people in our hospitals are there for covid, and that's the

number we probably watch the most closely. >> governor, number one, when will you expand the eligibility and who's next and when is that going to happen for vaccines and what type of changes given that someone has had a vaccine are you going to recommend for things like domestic travel? governor cuomo listed the new york domestic travel quarantine and i don't think you've made that decision yet. have you changed the quarantine guidelines yet >> we have not so on that question, joe, we have not that's something that's clearly under consideration, particularly given what i said a minute ago we have a weekday spot positivity at plus or minus 7% it's not like it was when we beat it down to 2% and you had other states in america that were at 20, 30, 40%. that's no longer the case.

that's something we're reviewing actively the next group up to bat is a week from monday very happily retail workers who have been heroic long shoremen heroic that's a week that the biden administration is pointing to where supplies of vaccine doses are going to begin to go up dramatically that's going to be great news. we'll be in a position in new jersey as the president has laid a marker down that by may 1st if you want to sign up to get vaccinated, we want everybody in our state at that point eligible, and i think we'll have -- we'll meet that with comfort. >> i have a card that says i've got both i don't know whether i would use that anywhere. is something going to change where the guidelines are going to be different?

who's considering that do you have a panel figuring out how to do that >> first of all, don't get rid of the card. that's likely to be valuable keep the card. laminate it and put it in your wallet secondly, the cdc clearly takes the lead, number one number two, we have our own independent process. and in terms of what that card -- what value that card will have, other than your own personal health, to be determined, but that is under consideration and there are lots of different potential uses for that, whether it's going to a sporting event, getting on a plane, et cetera so hold onto it. and, again, we will first and foremost take our guidance from the cdc. >> governor, we've talked about this before but i'm curious if your views have changed or shifted. as more and more people get access to the vaccine, is there going to be a point at which you think the state workers will be required to have the vaccine and perhaps the other question,

because this is coming up in legal circles, is whether if you're not going to require the vaccine, will you require disclosure by the employees of who has taken the vaccine and who hasn't >> so in the first question, andrew, at least not yet and, secondly, that clearly is an option i say not yet because we are encouraged -- and there is clearly vaccine skepticism some of it is completely unfounded. some of it is completely understandable, particularly in our communities of color with the tuskegee history and experiments in our country in that respect we're doing a whole lot of getting the vaccine into communities using role models, et cetera. but overall the acceptance rate of the vaccine is a lot more robust and higher than we would have predicted three or four months ago and so i hope still at the end of the day people get their own

free will. it's particularly striking when you open it up to a community. i mentioned, for instance, long shore men a week from monday we've seen this with health care workers. when you're in a community and folks who are skeptical at first see that one of their colleagues didn't, you know, grow a third eye or collapse or have some other medical challenge as a result, confidence in the vaccine within communities goes up and we've seen that. i suspect that will continue to be the case. we're trying to get to 70% of our adult population by memorial day. god willing, we'll get there >> hey, governor this is the first time we've gotten to talk to you since congress passed the latest bill, additional aid coming to the states to the tune of $350 billion. what will that mean to new jersey and does that change any of your budgeting plans or tax plans for this year? >> it's a game changer, becky, without question and it includes that state and local aid that we have been

desperately asking for allowing us to continue to deliver essential services in our darkest hour of need keep our front line workers employed it's a game changer. and we're gaming right now exactly how we will deploy that money. i had presented a budget a few weeks ago with no new taxes not knowing where the federal piece would come out, so there are no new taxes on the horizon in new jersey either way, but this american rescue plan is an absolute game changer. small businesses, child care, schools, front line workers, folks who are backed up on rent, mortgage, utility payments, restaurants, on and on and on. >> governor, i know you've got to run we appreciate your update on all of these things and progress slow but steady. >> yeah. >> in the garden state fingers crossed that one of these days we'll be here on set

with us again if you come in the city you've got to come across the bridge though. really expensive. >> i will do that. i look forward to that. >> geez, gw -- anyway, kidding thanks appreciate it, governor. >> take care, sir. >> okay. becky. >> got to come across the bridge and you've got to get vaccinated anyway, when we come back, a big interview with mellody hobson who just took over as chair of starbucks board 48 hours ago. a lot we're going to talk to her about. but, next, states are presumably happy about the billions of dollars they'll be getting from president biden's american rescue plan you just heard from governor murphy what he thinks about it a grouchp of officials worried about cutting taxes. we'll be speaking with the attorney general of the state of ghafr a on this developing story rit tethis break "squawk box" will be right back.

it's moving day. and while her friends are doing the heavy lifting, jess is busy moving her xfinity internet and tv services.

it only takes about a minute. wait, a minute? but what have you been doing for the last two hours? ...delegating? oh, good one. move your xfinity services without breaking a sweat. xfinity makes moving easy. go online to transfer your services in about a minute. get started today. welcome back to "squawk box" this morning want to get you caught up on some of the top corporate stories. shares of nike dropping after they beat analyst profits but missing on the top line.

company said north american revenue was hit by coport-relatd issues delaying shipments by three weeks. tell you about other news as well on the flip side, you have fed ex rising beating analyst projections. in the third quarter fed ex saw average revenue in the ground unit rise by 11% as more people order products online. financial services company hartford financial says it is carefully considering a takeover over from insurance company chubb. that offer $65 a share hartford shares more than $23 billion. hartford stocks surging by close to 11% yesterday becky? thanks, andrew a coalition of 21 states attorney general has threatened to sue the biden administration. they say it could deny their

states the ability to cut taxes. ohio actually filed a lawsuit on this wednesday joining us right now is one of the leaders of the attorneys general coalition. georgia attorney general christopher carr ag carr, thanks for being with us today this is a little difficult for people to understand if you haven't been following along to the intricacies of this argument why don't you explain what you think the problem is. >> very simply, becky, thank you for having me on this morning, by the way very simply, this covid bill also going to be known as the biden tax cut ban bill because an 11th hour provision that was put in that says basically you can't use any of these funds directly or indirectly for tax and revenue purposes in the states that means no tax deductions or credits or anything to do with rates. if that was allow to stand, becky, it will be the single greatest come man dearring of

what states are supposed to do, and that's deal with tax and revenue. we wrote a letter to the tax department this week asking them to clarify through a spokesman they said they agreed with us, but as you mentioned, ohio has filed suit we need more than a statement to make sure this isn't going to be a tax cut ban on our states. >> yeah. i mean, this is one of those complicated issues where it was probably unforeseen consequences of things that they put in i understand why they put this in because part of the way that you qualify for the funds in that $350 billion pot is you have to prove that your state lost revenue, came up with a revenue shortage that's because this is supposed to be a rescue bill, something like emergency funds for states that got particularly hit hard, for localities that got hit particularly hard just like you would step in after a hurricane or something i guess the concern was that states would then turn around and give big tax breaks and then say, oh, we need more of the money because our revenue went down i get why they did that, but

your concern is this would stop any tax plans that had even been in the works long before this bill came along. >> that's right. and until 2024 for the next four years we would be prohibited. so, again, i understand that using the funds for the purpose it was intended, completely understand that and don't have a problem with it, but it's so broad andit's so ambiguous for example, in georgia right now our legislature is debating a tax credit for those that are going to adopt from foster care. there's also an increase in the standard deduction for couples -- for married couples those types of things should not be used. and, again, we believe in federalist principles. the federal government has its role state government has its role. we have absolute right to be able to control our own tax and revenue policy, and it's crystal clear that the federal government cannot come in and ambiguously tie conditions to funding such that either they want their preferred way of

doing it or, as i mentioned before, you take over what is essentially a state function that's the role of state attorneys general. you've seen it also with governors and speakers of the house. our governor and our speaker has written on this as well, but we've got to be a backstop because this literally could be one of the most egregious examples of federal overreach in american history. >> federal authorities have long tied all kinds of restrictions to taking the funds. you don't have to take the funds if you want to do whatever you want is there a way of working this out peacefully do you think this is going to be a full-on war? >> no, that's why we wrote the letter you can create conditions, but they have to be specific they can't be ambiguous. the courts have said that, and to say you can't use any of the money directly or indirect whether i, that's where the piece of this that's incredibly troubling, it's indirectly again, those tax credits that i mentioned, the tax treatment that we're dealing with in

georgia could be impacted and those from around the country for the next four years. again, if you have specific conditions to use those funds for the purposes that it's in int intended, completely understandable the problem is it's so broad and ambiguous, it could impact state policy for the next four years. >> do you think there will be a peaceful solution for this is it as simple as saying indirectly get rid of that word? or is that a situation where all money is fungible and who knows what happens to it what do the talks feel like between the state ags bringing this up and the biden administration >> well, i'm optimistic because the spokesperson for treasury yesterday said that they agreed with our position, that it should be only related to those funds that are directly related to this bill, but as ronald regan once said, trust but verify we're going to need something more concrete from treasury. we've asked them to get back with us in writing to make sure

that they are on the same page as we are. i commend my colleague from ohio he filed a lawsuit to make sure. this is that important of an issue, and it can be solved and, again, yesterday's signal from treasury i think is positive >> how much does georgia need these funds? we just heard from the governor of new jersey that they desperately need these funds what happened to georgia's tax revenue over the last year what happened in areas like atlanta? >> well, it's certainly helpful. i want to say this we've been the number one state in the nation for business for seven or eight years our governor did an outstanding job. governor kent did an outstanding job of doing two things, protecting the people of georgia but also protecting our economic interests. the state of georgia never closed down, and because of the planning and the fiscal policies of our state, i believe we were impacted less than others, but what happens in this bill is we got penalized for that

so you actually get penalized for having been more fiscally responsible. i'm not criticizing any other state, but i am complimenting our state. our governor and our legislature did it the right way the funding formula put in this bill punishes states like georgia that protected the people from covid and protected our economic interests that's really unfortunate. >> attorney general carr, i want to thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you great to be on >> take care coming up, big pair of interviews or a pair of big interviews that you don't want to miss on the business of eating and drinking post pandemic shake shack chairman danny myer will join us as will mellody hobson brand-new chair of starbucks stay tuned, you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc

just over a year ago, i was drowning in credit card debt. sofi helped me pay off twenty-three thousand dollars of credit card debt. they helped me consolidate all of that into one low monthly payment. they make you feel like it's an honor for them to help you out. i went from sleepless nights to getting my money right. so thank you. ♪

some say this is my greatest challenge ever. so thank you. but i've seen centuries of this. with a companion that powers a digital world, traded with a touch. the gold standard, so to speak ;)

and free, and free, and free, and free, free, and free, and free. free, free. and free, and free, and free, and free, free, that's right, turbotax free edition is free. free, free free free.

this american rescue plan is an absolute game changer small businesses, child care, schools, front line workers, folks horsebacked up on rent, mortgage, utility payments, on restaurants, on and on and on.

>> that was new jersey governor phil murphy on the $1.9 trillion american rescue plan and the effects he thinks it will have on all kinds of businesses on wall street they're heading to restaurant industries to make a comeback garden, shake shack, cheesecake factory soaring over the past year now trading near new highs the challenges remain especially for independent restaurants. joining us is danny meyer. of course, he is the founder, chairman of shake shack. danny, great to see you on what is a -- feels like a hopeful moment tell us about your hope but also tell us about what you're doing to bring people back >> andrew, good morning. tons and tons of reasons for hope, not least of which is that spring is coming and that always makes people feel hopeful, but this year in particular with outdoor dining, which we believe is going to be a mainstay, not just in new york but in cities around the country, what that's going to do is to create a sense of life

and just like the stock market really is fueled by hope, so, too, is our industry when people in new york city and not going to work every single day in their office or maybe move away from town come back and all of a sudden the city looks like it's open for business, that then generates more people wanting to do it our vaccination rates are incredibly high. i heard yesterday was yet another record and a day for vaccinations what we're doing is finding members of our team were excited to come back that was not the case over the course of the summer finally we just learned that within the next couple of days restaurants will be able to serve indoors at 50% capacity. so if you take nice weather so you can serve outdoors plus 50% indoor capacity, it starts to get close to where we should be in terms of our capacity for revenue. >> well, that's what i was going to ask you, danny. in terms of the numbers.

a couple of things first of all, are you requiring your workers to get vaccines many of them i understand actually do have access to vaccination at this point. >> so that was one of the best things that happened in new york state about two months ago restaurant workers were moved up in line and, no, we did not require people to do it, but we have gotten on our bully pulpit like you can't believe furthermore, really tried to lead by paying eight hours shift pay per vaccination that you got. so we basically said we're going to give you two days off to get two shots. i guess if you get the j&j you get one day pay, but that's not bad, 8 hours per shot. >> and so do you know, do you have people who haven't been vaccinated how do you think about that? >> i don't know people who have not been vaccinated. i do know that there is a certain part of the population that is still very concerned about it, but i feel like our job as business leaders is to set an example and make it as

clear as possible that this is very, very important we're going to continue to have our staff have ultra, ultrasafe hygiene, double masks in the kitchen. we've been piloting a program for the last several months with clear and we have something called health pass where every single one of our employees goes through the clear health pass using their app. it asks them several questions if they have been vaccinated, that information becomes part of their health pass as well. >> in terms of the economics of your restaurants, you were talking about the capacity issue, both getting the piece outdoors, getting the indoors. how much, by the way, does the bar piece, the alcohol piece of it, which has always been a very high margin piece that's often subsidized other parts of restaurants matter in all of this how do you see that playing out? >> well, it'll play out eventually people are still having cocktails and wine at their

table. in fact, maybe more than ever. i think what you're probably driving at is that it's still not legal in new york state to serve liquor over the bar. so if you're looking to come to your favorite restaurant and seeing people cheek to jowl lined up three deep at the bar, that's still going to be a while, but that's okay with us just -- we feel like what is happening right now provides so much hope that we just haven't had. just understand this, yesterday we opened union square cafe and grammar city tavern for the first time since about two weeks before thanksgiving. the goose bumps and the good feeling that that generated amongst both our staff members and our guests was palpable. that will build especially as you see sidewalks heaving with people it's going to be a massive difference in new york >> hey, danny, that's really exciting to think of restaurants

reopening, people getting back out there. i know all of you business leaders have been so amazing about trying to pivot and change as things have forced you to change what's the point at which you're profitable what sort of level of business do you need? is it 50%? is it 75%? have you done things to make the business more profitable even with fewer people there? >> yeah, that's a great question one of the things that we're actually all excited about is that over this past year we either went from no cake at all to at best some birthday cake and no icing now what we have is the possibility to have it all, and here's why so many of the things that we all learned how to do, digital ordering with takeout, delivery, pickup, selling wine out the door, shipping food across the country on gold belly, so many of those things that we've learned to do during the pandemic are going to stick. how about outdoor dining

most of us never had outdoor dining when we get to the point where we're 100% indoors plus outdoor dining, shipout, takeout, delivery, it's going to be better than it's ever been i'm not -- i'm not polyanna about our business i understand how challenged the restaurant industry has been, but i believe this has actually taught us the icing that we've always needed on top of the cake now to answer your question specifically, we found a way during one short month, this was the month of september, september and october when we could serve just 25% indoors at grammar city tavern plus outdoors we had our first profitable month. now mind you we probably made $65, but we had a positive ebitda for the first month with just 25% indoors so we're really, really excited that that combination is going to get us whole pretty quickly >> and that's what i was going

to ask you, danny, in terms of what it takes to just even be flat so that -- taking the profit piece out what does that look like to you over the next six months >> here's the big issue, andrew. the big issue is what happens with the rent? and i believe that there is a handful of landlords who have been left holding the bag for an entire year. there's another handful of landlords who have said, here's the bag, pay it or you're out. we had that experience at a couple of our restaurants. it doesn't feel good when that happens. the real x factor in this whole thing is what landlords, developers, maybe even government is going to do in terms of evictions because now that the government wisely has created this relief package for restaurants, which are real grants for restaurants, if restaurants have to pay rent based on the realities of three years ago when they signed their

rent when many, many more people are going to their office, many more people are coming as tourists or for business travel, those realities don't exist anymore. so the real question is not just how can we restore our business but can we actually pay the underlying nut of what the rent is so i think you're going to see a lot of restaurants and landlords that are constructive saying, okay, we're in this for the long haul together. we need each other and i think they'll be working out new deals. >> hey, danny, one more thing on that you said you're able to do it because you can do inside and outside. the city allowed you to go outside under theseextreme conditions and i've driven through the city and seen. it's hard to get through on some streets, especially down in the village because the businesses are spilling out over into the streets. as more and more new yorkers come back. as more and more people get out there do you worry the city will sayok we're taking out the outdoor dining or we need it for

parking, congestion on the sidewalks? how does that change the business model again >> so far everyone we've spoken to in government has said this is going to stick. i'll take it a step further. at last count there were 12 people running for mayor i haven't spoken to 12 of them, this is always my first question and they all say they love it and this is going to stick >> well, we hope it sticks, danny. wish you a lot of luck, as we do all of the small businesses and restauranteurs out there we're help follow for you. >> thank you both so much. >> becky. when we come back this morning, another big interview that's coming up as well we're going to be talking to mellody hobson this is her first interview since she was appointed the chair of starbucks just 48 hours ago. a lot to talk about with her "squawk box" will be right back. tasha, did you know geico could save you hundreds on car insurance and a whole lot more?

hmm. so what are you waiting for? hip hop group tag team to help you plan dessert? ♪ french vanilla! rocky road! ♪ ♪ chocolate, peanut butter, cookie dough! ♪ ♪ scoop! there it is! ♪ ♪ scoop! there it is! ♪ ♪ scoop! there it is! ♪ ♪ scoop! there it is! scoop! ♪ ♪ shaka-laka! shaka-laka! ♪ ♪ shaka-laka! shaka! scoop!. ♪ ♪ choco-laka! choco-laka!...♪ geico. switch today and see all the ways you could save. ♪ sprinkles! ♪

these days, we want sophisticated but simple. cutting edge made user friendly. in other words, we want a hybrid. and so do retailers. which is why they're going hybrid, with ibm. a hybrid cloud approach with watson ai helps manage supply chains while predicting demands with ease. from retail to healthcare, businesses are going with a smarter hybrid cloud, using the tools, platform and expertise of ibm.

let's get this to cnbc headquarters jim cramer joins us now. where to start, jim? a lot going on with fedex, then you've got nike, the football. 100 billion? 100 billion? then you've got march madness and contessa didn't even mention illinois for -- >> unforgivable. >> it is.

>> yeah. >> and you knew hall and oates, too? >> yes when they were struggling, they made their comeback album, they had "rich girl" on it. they were camped out next to my dad at 140 north 3rd in philadelphia my dad had no idea who they were they kept playing this one song over and over and over again finally mr. oates came over and apologized to my dad i know you're probably sick of rich girl. my dad said, no, no my son said you went to temple university my father wished him well he said, they could not have been greater people and that's what everybody knows about them. they're just great this charity sounds fantastic. >> saturday night, yeah. i mean, did you see who's the -- darius rucker, dave weir, great

organization all for feeding people >> when you see these guys do this, you realize not only do they have a heart, they're willing to go out and come on a lot of different shows to promote. i thought that was a great interview. we have to talk about the nasdaq and stuff, but that was fantastic. >> definitely iconic just their last names and you say hall and oates now, it's not two last names. >> i remember my dad saying, i don't know who these guys are. i think this is going to be a big thing. when the song came out it exploded it was in '77. people forget the ups and downs they have. they are so iconic now we don't remember they had down moments but they never stopped. >> jim -- >> is that andrew? >> it is as a former goldman man who probably slept under your desk given you only sleep three hours to begin with. >> true. >> what do you make of the debate of the analysts who say they are working so hard.

>> i used to teach classes at 11:00 on friday night and i did that because i really didn't think sleep was that important so now montpelier they're grousing about five hours? i mean, that is like why don't they just take naps during the day. this is ridiculous these people, they should be working four hours -- i know it's all the spacs, they do all the work they claim everybody is in west palm give me a break, you go to goldman sachs because of the deal you make. you can make the money and go do something great. five hours, that's all they get to sleep, that was pathetic. they should not be sleeping pfeiffer hours i used to go to the office at 4:00 every day for the first three years i took -- i took a half hour, moved my clock back until i was coming in at 4:00 every morning. any associate that came in after me i was very disappointed i mean, they weren't hitters they weren't hitters. >> this is the -- jim, this is

the great debate happening on wall street because you have a whole younger generation saying, you know, we're being hazed by an older generation. >> hazed. >> one saying they're enlightened. the others something else. this is it in two minutes we just did the debate. >> friday night, 11:00, and i only posted the names of the bottom five on the exam i gave i gave the exam around quarter of 12. anyone who finished last their names were on the door monday morning. you know what? shame is what makes a good goldman sachs associate. >> it's funny, jim i made a deal. i know a lot of people are going deal with who and what did you have to sell for that deal >> for a partner. >> you still have your soul at least. that's good. thanks, jim. we'll see you in a couple minutes. coming up, starbucks chair mellody hobson that eluxcsive interview is just ahead. stay tuned, "squawk box" coming right back

all the things, all around you where you learn, work, and fly we help make them healthier. we are the people of abm. for more than 100 years, we've been a leader in making spaces cleaner, from the things you touch to the air you breathe. today, more than 100,000 of us are innovating to ensure spaces are more efficient, healthier and safer. abm. making spaces healthier for you.

welcome back to "squawk box. just two days ago our next guest mellody hobson became the new chair at starbucks she was previously vice chair and been on the board in 16

years. her new role makes her the only black woman chair of an s&p 500 company. she's the co-ceo and president of ariel investments we are thrilled to have you with us today, mellody, on what has been a milestone of a week for you, for starbucks, and frankly for corporate america. you've been on the board for quite some time. how does this change things? >> i'm not sure it changes things maybe slightly i've been vice chair over the last couple of years, and i guess the difference is now in a great room of great leaders i'm the band leader, but i'm one of many voices in that room >> and in terms of what you're going to be doing with kevin, kevin johnson of course, the ceo of the company, does that change at all >> i think we have a great working relationship we certainly in the last couple of years have worked a lot more

closely together we have a standing call every monday morning to go over what's on his mind, and i mean that when i say what's on his mind and really think through any issues that are affecting the company. i love the collaboration with kevin, and i love the work so i think we both are enjoyingg this period, and i hope we continue to do great things together >> as a value investor, on one side of your life, and now the chair woman of this company on the other, we're looking at the stock price by the way of starbucks on the screen which you may or may not be able to see, but of course it's been on quite a run, how do you think about those two things, and what kind of advice are you giving kevin these days about the future of a company, again, relative to what investors seem to be wanting right now? >> so let's start off with the value versus growth story. i've always seen value in starbucks. i remember years ago, i made a big investment, personally, in

starbucks and people were saying you're investing here, the stock has done so well and i was looking way out into the future and i thought that the company had so much more upside. i still feel the same way. i think that despite the fact that we are 50 years old now, i still think we're in early innings of the life psycheful the company, so i'm very, very excited about the future when i talk to kevin, it is really a conversation about playing long ball. i remember getting advice early in my board tenure, where someone said, ask a question that is very specific in the board room when it comes to big decisions, would you make that decision if you were private it says a lot about how you work with the street and how you think about the long game in terms of the company and i still filter a lot of the decisions and the thought process that we, have the strategic plans that we have, against that backdrop. >> how are you looking at the broader economy right now, and also the markets i think we're all trying to make

sense of what is happening, given where interest rates have been going, the 10-year, and what's that dos to, doing to so growth stock, and you could argue maybe starbucks is a little bit different but it has been a growth stock recently and how investors have been rotating >> we have been talking about this for a long time, this very, very, very strong long run that growth has had and how that would ultimately change, especially in the higher rate environment, which we just couldn't imagine that the fed would ultimately be able to prevent, because we do expect this economy to be very strong coming out of covid. we've been calling it the roaring '20s like many other, and at starbucks, we also think this will be a very robust period for growth. so i can hold those two thoughts at the same time i think that the starbucks business will benefit from the reopening of the world, and specifically, america, and i think that will pay dividends for the long term.

but i also think that value has, its day has come, and it started in the fall, and i think it will continue >> you just said you're expecting the rouring '20s and there used to be a debate about what the roaring 20s we're talking about here and some are thinking about the roaring 20s from now, maybe literally to 2029, 2030, and others think it could be till 2022 or maybe '23, that once some of the stimulus money rolls off, if interest rates continue to go higher, that we might go back to a slower growth phase. where do you land on that? >> well, i think the short and intermediate term will be strong i really do believe that, when you just look at the conditions. they're very, very ripe for a strong market. and certainly the stimulus is like rocket fuel there's just no question about that so on the one hand, i do believe that when you look out longer, and we don't do macroeconomic

prognostications, we try to think about just the long, long term investment returns, and we borrow many things from the great warren buffett, that it's a market of stock, not a stock market there's always going to be value in the market and that's what we think about on a day-to-day basis. >> question of maybe social, a social question about minimum wage in this country, i know starbucks has been talking about $15 across the country, but there's lots of companies that have been pushing back what do you think ultimately happens? >> i think the states and the municipalities have been deciding this issue. i think it's less without a federal decision at this point, when you look about the, when you look at the referendums that have occurred across the country, the country is moving towards $15, i think it's very, very clear but i have been more concerned about the living wage issue, versus this, i think, unnuanced

discussion about the minimum wage because i think a living wage issue is really the one that really does attack the problem in this country. when you get to just a flat number, i think you lose the nuance that is so important, and i said this publicly, $15 in san francisco is different than $15 in selma we need to understand that difference >> and the other question is, how do you think that starbucks should use its voice in the future, under howard schultz, there were, you know, he would put the company front and center, into big moral debates, as you know, and the question i would ask you, is you know, whether you think that shifts, or has changed under kevin, and how you think it may shift or not under you, as the chair woman? >> we will continue to be bold and brave. howard taught us well. he always talked about leading through the lens of humanity that is in the dna of the

company. it is why i've loved starbucks it is why i've loved being in that room and i cannot imagine we will shrink from that responsibility and i mean it when i say responsibility we have a responsibility to speak truth, our truth, and to speak to the issues that are very, very hard, sometimes they're controversial, but i think at the end of the day, that has really allowed us to connect with the partners behind the counter inside a starbucks, but also connect with the customer and that has added shareholder value. so i believe in our path and i think it will be very much a part of our future >> and given your role now, and i know we've made a lot of it, but i think we should, and deservedly so, to say that you are the first black chair woman of an s&p 500 company, when you look at what's happening, even over the past year, in terms of hiring, recruiting, bringing people both into the board room,

but into top levels of management, how would you grade things, and if we were to have this conversation two or three years from now, what do you think it looks like? >> well, first of all, i'm not the first, i'm the only right now, ursula burns was the first, when she headed up xerox, i guess technically the first nonexecutive chair because she was affiliated with the company at the time, so we're splitting hairs. today, i'm the only one. and as i've said many times, math has no opinion. that's a stats statement, about where we are as a society. looking out over the next few years, i would hope that we would see some meaningful change, because i think it's going to be very hard to be a publicly-traded company in this country and not have diversity on your board. now, there are a lot of companies that still are in that state, and there's a lot of work that has to be done, and i think the needle is moving in the right direction for the right reasons, which is the public is not going to have this and the world is watching.

and we all have to understand, in the board room, corporate america, we have to understand how accountable we are to this society. >> we're going to leave the conversation there congratulations again, we look forward to seeing you, hopefully in person, sooner or later, now that more and more people are getting vaccinated, and thank you again. >> thank you. joe? >> final check, now, on the markets, which have been stable for most of the morning, and you can see the dow is indicated up, about 46 points or so. and there's bitcoin, we don't need to look at the "squawk" stack necessarily, the nasdaq indicated up about 70 points or so the s&p is indicated up 9 1/2. and we should point out, not for everybody, but march madness is back, i actually just, have never retweeted dave portnoy before and i just did and i didn't really read everything he said

they're not endorsements but he only said two things christmas morning. and i kind of feel the same way. in addition to so many of the final four games, there's also the n.i.t. is still going on, too, so if you like this stuff, and you like, you know, put a couple of dollars on a few of these, it's really fun 47 million people expected to bet on this today, and we didn't have it last year. so maybe it's a classic example of what we're going to see across the board when things open up. good luck, becky >> thank you >> clemson >> that's, you know, that's, i it was a little conflicted, you didn't sway me, it wasn't the hat. >> they're a seven, we're a ten. a strong ten. >> a very strong ten you beat indiana you finally lost to illinois, right? that's who i have as the eventual winner. but i don't really have, i never have a lot of confidence i have a bet that a 12 will be a

five because i got some better odds >> which one >> which one >> i don't know which one. i would say maybe georgetown no, any, if it happens with any, but i think georgetown might be my best. something is going on now with liesman, lie-mania, some breaking news. >> joe, thank you very much. the federal reserve is announcing it will not renew the capital relief it had provided for the largest banks that came with the treasury market disruption from the pandemic a year ago the relief from the so-called supplementary leverage ratio is going to expire as planned on march 31st, that is as scheduled. now, the board is saying, the federal reserve board that is, saying it will seek comment to adjust the supplementary leverage ratio over time but not immediately and it is saying maybe through design and calibration of it over time, and fed official