that we do see both sides at least talking about how to handle this. but it's difficult and congresswoman, we appreciate your time, we're almost at 9:00 straight up. you cannot believe what happens to us if we go beyond that congresswoman, i really appreciate it. i'll get canceled. we appreciate your time. becky, have a great weekend. make sure you join us. >> you too >> see all of you next week. "squawk on the street" is next good friday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street," i'm scott wapner with jim cramer, carl and david have the morning off. let's take a look at friday futures this morning s&p and dow will open higher, the dow by more than 130 points, the nasdaq well, rates are up so the nasdaq pre-market looks like it's going to be lower our road map today starting with the reopening trade, economic recovery play, rising pre-market and a renewed focus on retail traders as shares of gamestop continue to roar back, is a

broader market shakeout under way? plus, canal chaos. how the suez canal blockage is delaying an estimated $400 million an hour in goods and transportation secretary pete buttigieg joins us first on cnbc calling for greater investment in infrastructure, we'll see him a little bit later, looking very much forward to that. jim, let's kick it off, right? you got the futures mostly higher nasdaq's lower it's been yields yet again because the 10-year is rising this morning. >> absolutely. i mean look this is now cut and dry. oil goes up. rates go up. let's not forget the change in the bank rules will make it so that the banks are more of a focus than even the industrials. i find the bifurcated markets incredible you cannot get younger people interested in the banks or industrials. it's almost like there's some sort of, there's radio and tv and it is, they repel people, they repel the younger people, they do not want deere, deere will go up 7 points, they don't

want it. nucor on infrastructure, we have the secretary of transportation being interviewed, they are not interested in these stocks they would rather be in nft. >> they would rather be in gamestop, right? which had its own wild ride. it will be up again. >> can there be koss, gamestop, amc, i mean is it really, like they got free stocks there is another 6,000 >> no, you know what they have others, but -- >> palantir? >> but the problem is, a lot of those stocks, jim, have come way back down-to-earth. >> you're not allowed to say that. >> i know. >> oh, my god. you are, i'm going to check you on twitter because they have decided, they're targeting you >> you check because i'm not even going to bother looking >> but the ark funds have been crushed lately the momentum stocks have all been hit lately. a lot of the favored small cap stocks have been hit lately. and i'm wondering whether we are in the midst of some sort of retail shakeout. >> i think we are. there is a really good piece by evercor about snowflake which is

a great company, i speak to a lot of younger investors, a lot of them like snowflake but i think they think it's meteorological, and wow, snowflake, a good thing to have in the summer. there is an element that i have not seen in my life, scott, which is there are stocks that are doing really well. the rails. and there's just people not interested in the rails. but the money managers have taken back control of the market, scott. and they don't like to pay 100 times sales. they would rather pay 10 times earnings and nucor at eight times earnings and i don't know how to get nucor to become a motion picture theater or if nucor were to start selling gaming, i mean i don't know how to do it. if nucor would take your collection of sports illustrated covers and give them token, nucor would be at 100. i'm struggling.

>> this shakeout is definitely, they don't want to admit there is a salt lakeout, there are a whole group of people who are den-denial and i would rather trade nfts, tokens, and nonfungible, but they're googling what the word fungible is and trying to figure out what nonfungible is and we have to get some sort of recognition that there are basics and that there are stocks that do very well in this environment. and then there's stocks that don't poorly and that's what we used to do before the revolution of the wall street bet revolution >> you mentioned snowflake let's just throw it out there. it was initiated outperform today, i mean this was a $400 stock. >> i know. >> jim, if you take a look at where it is now, $311 price target, that's on the long term risk/reward. and if you want to take a look at snowflake, you know, the chart tells a pretty good story, jim, a 200 and something dollar stock, a 400 $stock. >> frank shooten is an amazing

executive and we know what he has done with service now, a tough guy, has he been on? he was on the day that actually they went public >> you pit him on? >> i did. >> was he nice to you? >> nice guy. >> i don't think, i think he's, he's a demanding fella and this piece fueling the democratization of data, you read it and midway through it, i think younger investors will say why am i reading this, unique technology architecture, okay, fine, architecture, they don't have the time, the inclination, to do the homework of asking what unique architecture is, and look, i think they're great. but they don't like, as certain things don't just keep the attention span, the attention span is shorter than even congress >> what are you supposed to do now, i'm looking at this year to date, down about 22%. >> i know. >> snowflake is representative of a lot of other stocks >> yes, that's why we're talking. that's the point. >> and some cases 500 times

earnings so - >> snowflake is what 80 times sales. >> right. >> have they come in enough to go and buy them or no? >> you know, these are all two for one splits doordash right? with the great reopening trade doordash stock, this was a very big robinhood name robinhood stock right now, would be a very tough sell i think. >> you know, i'm looking at stocks, jim -- >> this just this month, right the zillows of the world and teladocss, the spotify, the twilios the same sort of conversation as snowflake, simply they're either relatively recent ipos that flew or 60 time valuation or 100 times or more times sales, they have all come down a lot way, way off the 52-week highs >> average 80% for the stocks that i follow in that group. the ones that people love. and when you speak to younger

people, they have had it they've decided that just as they thought that only stocks, that stocks only go up, now they think that stocks only go down and because they're in stocks that are not in keeping with the great reopening trade, and these people always, a lot of these people, i am generalizing and getting a lot of hate tweets, but they don't understand rotation, and stick with these stocks and hope that kathie wood has enough fire power to get them moving again. >> the other ones are not interesting. as you said, the nucor and the other one, pick the name out of the hat from the industrial complex. let's talk about nike and the continued outrage from china we have more from beijing with the latest >> well, nike is just one of more than a dozen international

brands that are currently under attack on social media here in china. h & m has it the worst it has been almost entirely erased from the internet and the way that it actually is on the internet is through pictures, and i don't know whether you guys have this one, it's a meme that says h & m, that's supposed to be suggesting homemade, which in chi mnese, means it's beautil and a list of stocks of international companies and seeing losses in their stock prices because of their stance on xinjiang. so a lot of people are outraged on social media saying companies need to take a stance and not only angry about the statements that companies have made, the concerns about forced labor in the region among muslim minorities and even if they don't come out in favor of the cotton, and the term xinjiang

cotton and support, it it has five billion views right now on chinese social media, so when i say h & m has the worst and is erased, by that i mean can you not only not buy anything for h & m's official store, it's been shut down, you can't find the searches on shopping sites but you can't find h & m on map apps anymore, for searches, for any way in which you might want to locate a physical store. in terms of physical stores though, what's interesting is that their stores are open they don't have a whole lot of customers. but they are still open. and with nike, nike stores are open, there's one actually not too far from the bureau, people are going in and out, but at the same time, a lot of people are careful about where they're shopping these days, because of the furor over the stance of the international brands >> well, eunice, this is great reporting, and i wanted to know whether you felt that the ties between nike and the people's republic, the chinese government, where they have the

sports ministry, nike, which keeps people in shape, is that in danger? because nike has been maybe the brand that has the most universal appeal the sales were incredible. more than 40%. so i mean i have to believe that nike is somehow protected. >> absolutely. >> protected in any way? >> i think it's more protected compared to some of the other brands and you can see that, in that nike, i was checking today, nike products, still sold online, still, like i said, the stores are open, nike is very popular here, they dominate the market, not dominate the market but one of the biggest players in the sportswear industry here, and as you say, they have very close ties with the national team, people love the logo, they love the brand, and so in that way, they are a little bit more sheltered. though i have to say that as of yesterday, there were a lot of calls that the government here, as well as the national teams, should cut their ties with nike. so far, it hasn't happened >> all right, you nice, we will follow it so much.

eunice yoon live for us on the ground in beijing. nike is in the news today in and of itself from a stock standpoint baird were on the sidelines jim for 806 days, they're off of it now. they've upgraded the stock and they say all of these issues including the recent supply chain issues are going to be temporary. and this stock is a buy. >> i absolutely love it, my trust owns this for a long time, i love this report, because most of the analysts, and this is a good thing to talk about, most of the analysts had loved nike going in so they didn't really have any fire power to upgrade this baird piece is basically saying this is the time, this is likely temporary, likely transitory, we've got a lot of things that are temporary and transitory, whether it's the suez canal, temporary and transitory the ports, temporary and transitory and at what point are people saying if everything is temporary and transitory, i don't want to own these stocks but i think about what eunice said that the chinese government has been close to nike

did nike poke the bear no there was an old, sara was talking about it, kind of an old stance they had taken but h & m, if everybody gets h & m, if they're coming after american companies, it's pretty devastating. they basically, they air brush you out of the entire world. >> what do you do with these stocks china's obviously such an important market for all of these companies. >> i think if you just lay low, i think china's fine, i think what they didn't want is to see a wave of human rights there is an amazing thing going on think about president trump. what was he concerned about? he was concerned about dumping of goods, here, job, now it's about freedom, minority right, and climate control. and it's proving to be as intractable, scott, as were issues involving tariffs >> jim, i want to show, since we're talking about china and before we were coming on the air, you mentioned how so china stocks and china was down, i want to throw up shares

of baidu if we could because it is literally moving as we speak. john, a guest on the network every now and then, he sends an email that says there is a block of 10 million shares said to be offered via goldman. take a look at shares of baidu in extended hours. down nearly 6% you've been talking about, and focusing on these china stocks specifically this morning, right before we came on the air today. >> these are just being roasted. tencent. these are just, and checking around wall street, people are just saying, for sale, thanks, it doesn't really get us anywhere but these are very popular stocks with, again, and we're talking about that younger cohort, they love tencent and yet tencent is just on very big volume right now is being crushed. >> yes baidu you see there. baba looks like it will open down a couple of bucks we will keep our eye there as well still to come, transportation

secretary pete buttigieg joins us in the next half hour a lot more ahead "squawk on the street," don't go away ♪ if your money is working toward the same goals, why keep it in different places? sofi is a one-stop shop for your finances- designed to work better together. spend with sofi and get cash back rewards that automatically go toward your goals. like investing in stocks, etfs, and crypto. that's better together.

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>> we were approached by boax and other spacs and we looked at our plan, we've seen what we have accomplished in 2020, and we've seen a path to profitability, and we thought it was a good time to raise initial liquidity for the balance sheet and to make sure that we had a path to profitability. so sometime, you know, the path, due take the path. >> oh, boy, this is right for us, jim. $9 billion, including the debt versus the valuation of $47 billion back in '19. brchld oax we should let you know is run by the owner of the sacramento kings this is more interesting than the kings, i guess, lately. >> no kidding. i'll tell you what's really compelling about this. it's barry's quote, you got a bid of a midas touch. >> he's in the fight. >> and he was saying wework is the leader in flexible space what do we need more than anything else? who knows who's coming back and

who's not, and is there a way we can get some flexible space? wework has it. it is kind of like, it just it wasn't the company that we needed a year ago, it is the company we need now. i thought, i have to tell you, i have been cvery critical, we've seen a lot of spacs, i'm not critical of this one and a lot of heavy weights involved. >> fidelity. and making headlinesearlier in the week, when talking about the spac market being out of control. >> bucket shots. >> in some places. >> i know you guys, you and david obviously talked a lot about that this i mean you do need people to return to the office. and i'm thinking on the surface, it sounds perfect, right, the timing is perfect. but what about existing leases that are already in place from some corporations, and big city, and you need people to come back to the big cities for all of this to work still, right >> and look, the occupancy is meager it's below 50%

i agree with you but look, we're facing a world where if everybody gets vaccinated, you're going to go back to work because the overlords of the companies are going to make you come back to work. i mean i keep thinking about david solomon at goldman, and look, if everybody's vaccinated, they're going to need every inch they have in that building and there is need for flexible space for companies that are on the fence. i went to a beautiful, adam, remember, remember him, made a lot of money. >> he made a lot of money. >> i took a tour of adam neumann midday of one of his facilities and it was ha louisiananatoy so speak but one of the most poorly win greatest places on earth spent a fortune. spent a fortune in tequila top line tequila and i say that as someone who has tended bar at a mexican

restaurant. >> you know a thing or two about top line tequila. >> i'm starting to think that the return to cities is going to happen a little more powerfully and quickly than people think. >> i agree with you. with the exception of san francisco where people are a little fearful, and new york city, where people just, there's a lot of public transportation, and people still don't want to take, i think but yes, they were talking about a lot of cities that are just blossoming and i'm seeing so much activity in boston, and houston, dallas, colorado, i mean, i don't know, florida, obviously. >> we still got to talk, we will take a quick break but we got to talk about you guy obj, he's involved in a spac, odell beckham jr >> i will give you the details coming up. i will leave it hanging out there. >> a spac? >> i will give you the details. >> deshawn >> julio rather than beckham wouldn't you pick julio first in

the fantasy? >> i would go julio first. >> this is fantasy, okay. >> i'd go julio first. >> all right okay. >> jim's "mad dashisom" cing up the opening bell next. stick with us. 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. with a bang, energy and change came to every part of our universe. seismic or small, it continues. change is all around us. shaped by technology and human ingenuity,

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time now for cramer's "mad dash" and talk a little l brands. >> there are a lot of gamestops in the same malls as l brands. i just want to keep the younger demographic alive. >> thank you. >> l brands, this is shocking. they had guided up once again to 55, to 65 cents and now guiding up 85 to a dollar. what is going on here? i mean i know that matthew boss has had this one, but look at this and what's the secret here

it's bath and body works and victoria's secret. >> that's a monster chart. >> it is a monster chart there's no shorts anymore because of what happened with gamestop. >> i didn't realize it was up that much over the last year. >> the interesting thing for me is a lot of people that bath and body works was a pandemic play, but now, this is the mall, this is doing great, simon property, i've been saying is a great stock. but we really have to think about the implications of a dead brand that came back to life and that's this one. >> well, maybe dead malls that are coming back to life, because post-pandemic, you want to get out and you want to go shopping and go to the mall. >> there is an unusual burst of spending at the mall and a lot of the mall stocks are going to have to be rethought. i'm working on macy's. macy's, i just feel at a certain point, they've gotten out of a lot of bad malls >> a good one lately. >> yes. >> it's been good. we have to follow it and then you mentioned gamestop, so, you didn't mention it. >> i will mention it >> and obj.

>> and a target for your show. >> the opening bell is just minutes away we'll be right back.

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we're back a couple of minutes to the opening belg. the banks are going to be up today. you mentioned them earlier the fed lifting restrictions on dividends and buybacks for some institutions as of june. what do you think of the banks here, given where rates now may be going again >> i had said you got to hold them just because they have had a really big move but this was unexpected what this basically says to me is that this is, you know that jpmorgan is going to be okay you know that bank of america is going to be okay the question is, is citi goldman, i think should be okay. and then the big question mark is wells has wells done enough to appease the regulators this is charlie sharp. he's done so much good but wells is at a tipping point. this has been the rocket ship, and i have to believe that wells is better than it was, but maybe not good enough to appease the

regulators, at least not now. >> there is a belief that maybe that all of these are at the tipping point oar approaching it remember it wasn't that many days ago that can accord tony dwyer downgraded the sector because he felt like it ran a lot and rates are topping out and sure enough rates have ticked down for three days in a row and granted they're up now but bank of america flow show, largest financial outflow since september of 2020. >> wow >> what does that tell you about where sentiment is after a great run? >> well, i mean i kind of thought that tony's piece was great but then you look and you're still struggling to find stocks that are still at 14, 15 times earnings, after the burst that we've had in the industrials. and there you go you've got bank of america very inexpensive jpmorgan but they've had meager yields. look at goldman sachs. still up ten times earnings. ten times earnings and that's still very inexpensive. because you and i both know they're going to have superior numbers.

the number of spacs they have with the number of underwritings, this has been the biggest first quarter for underwritings, since 2000. so how can goldman not make, you know, crush the estimates. >> yes goldman is going to open about 20 bucks or so, 25 bucks or so away from the 52-week high the bells are ringing at the big board celebrating the ipo, and chinese question and answer web site, and on the nasdaq, celebrating its ipo thred up and we will talk to the ceo of the online retail company in squawk alley. we are looking forward to that what we didn't talk about yet, jim, is and i know you have been focused on, it you know, every day is oil the suez is still a situation. the ship is still stuck. and oil is ticking up. what she would do with it? >> the overnight rates for oil for tankers up gigantically.

and the thing that is so strange about this market is the opening trade says you got to go buy the airlines the oil trade says that shoe sell the airlines. -- you should sell the airlines but it doesn't matter, the opening trade takes precedence over everything and i think oil has a very hardtime in the mid 60s because i think the saudis just opened the spigot just enough to drive it back down but this is one market where we're really kind of struggling, betting on both sides of a trade, and you shouldn't, one of them's wrong is what i'm saying. yes, i know and phil's been doing amazing work, the airlines are back, they're adding capacity, and at what point does boeing get better order, the 787 is ready to, the dream liner, remember when they took it off, it was front page, now it's coming back, and nobody really cares. >> you know, boeing hasn't had a great week, jim. >> no. >> boeing's down 8% as of

yesterday and i don't know where the stock is right now, we can throw it up and talk about it but some of those recovery stocks, after having a really nice run, were down, you know, boeing, a lot of the airlines, as you say, this week alone, double digits, some of the cruise lines, the casinos, the resorts, et cetera, and boeing's getting a lift by 1%. >> and focus on the cruise lines for a second i mean the cruise lines have been a neophyte, they will hate that term, a younger investors's fascination but when you speak to the people who run the cruise lines, they're basically telling a tale of the cdc being, hey, listen, we're still in the diamond princess here, so you can do whatever you want and we will let you sail, so the younger people like to buy these stock, and people like to buy them beginning at 4:00 a.m. as i saw this morning 3:30, 4:00 a.m. but the actual guys who run the companies are saying, hey, we can't do anything so the excitement that some of these people have, the younger people, with the cruise lines is not equal to the way that the

ceos feel is that the cdc is basically saying we don't care about you at all there's no imperative that people sail. none >> look, some of these cruise line, everybody's going to have to be vaccinated to get on one of the cruise ships. i'm looking at a couple of other things to talk to you about, jim, and we are waiting by the way for the transportation secretary, pete buttigieg, and we're going to go that to that when we're ready for that, but zoom today, opens a touch lower, the stock was initiated hold today. >> that is a beleaguering stock. owned by a lot of people. >> yes >> and another one of these -- >> the cohort that you wanted to talk about at the wall up there doing "mad dash" they're probably on zoom. >> they do they own zoom. another favorite of them unity software that's cathie wood look at this one unity software it's up big today. when they're up, there's no buying when they're down, there's gigantic volume. >> speaking of viacom, discovery, i know you and david talk a lot about those stocks

but both got downgraded today at wells fargo. viacom to a sell $59 price target discovery gets equal weight. but those stocks, jim, have had the rocket ship. >> that rocket ship is over. the hand yolo, the hand, the diamond hands, where you go with the viacom is just unbelievable. the downgrade is very interesting, because the downgrade basically says the stock has lost its mojo, a new way to downgrade it, a new way to downgrade, and not acting on it, well, okay, that's like saying that the chinese stocks aren't acting on it. we don't really know other than the fact that there were no shorts in the name because the shorts, that whole concept of short selling, if you pick a stock, and it has a big short position, they gun for you they gun for you >> and you see what else, did you see the restaurant weeks this week jim? >> look, it's the end, there was a piece about it, my theory about it, people don't realize 150,000 restaurants went under it's probably even more now.

all right? and the ppp is very hard to get. and lisa worked two hours trying to get some people, but we're the only ones that know. olive garden is one. it's one the italian food at olive garden is king. >> darden has ripped this week the stock is basically at a high it's a couple bucks off. >> because they're thelast man standing your local italian bistro is closed it's closed. and people didn't go look at that chart >> and you go to a bar, and you're not allowed to go to the bar, have you been to a bar? >> no. >> you're not allowed to stand at a bar anymore so is it a bar how do you have a bar where you can't stand at the bar >> hopefully soon you will be able to go to the bar? >> i'm not seeing that. >> blooming, red robin cracker barrel, texas roadhouse, i just wrote down a handful but these stocks have crushed it >> they have been fabulous. >> now, if we, were and i know you guys were talking about this

the other day, the idea of these stimi check, the stimulus checks, is it going to go into people like people thought or into the restaurants because people are getting out and they're going to spend that money there? >> i think they're going out i think they're actually shopping and going out to dinner and no one's done anything in a long time but they're not going out to dinner at the neighborhood place because their neighborhood place didn't make it and that's why texas road house by the way, ted taylor, an amazing guy, had a difficult tendency after covid and killed himself and point out he was a great entepreneur but i see people going out and spending and not spending on stocks they've had. it remember, they would rather be in the covers of sports illustrated. >> right. >> you're a rich man >> the nfts. >> if you offer one of your, people may not know it - >> those are analog, they're not digital, that's the problem. >> it doesn't matter, you call them digital they're digital because they're in your closet. >> right. >> that's true. >> i need to transform them.

>> nfts. >> i tried to buy the cover of, the digital cover of time magazine, is god dead, with this 1966 cover, i bought it with ethereum because whoever would use dollars, i belt a 12 with ethereum which is equivalent at the time of $20 thou thourks winni $$20,000, winning the auction, winning the auction, and last minute someone comes in and offer 100,000 for the cover. what do you get? and mark cuban might do a gallery of the cover you have the rights to but there is nothing in it. $100,000. >> it doesn't do it for you? >> it does do it for me. it doesn't make you sit back and say this is kind of crazy? well, it doesn't matter? >> of course but it doesn't matter. >> dell, another sign that some people are going to say, you know, where's the spac thing going?

he's an adviser. >> if you criticize spacs, there's another whole group that comes after you. >> yeah. >> i think there's some good spacs and bad spacs but there is a group that says there is no such thing as bad spacs. >> let's make mention of, there's odell right there and make mention of what we saw on the screen, deangreen across the screen, and nasdaq opened positive 167. and ticked down even a basis point or two the nasdaq has gone positive i mentioned that because we had the ceos on the hill yesterday, zuckerberg, pichai and dorsey, and talking about the stocks being cheap and apple had come down a lot but not enough. out in put the faangs into perspective for me now and what i'm supposed to do now. >> i know this is going to shock people, but i thought that

zuckerberg did a great job yesterday. i did. i thought he was intelligent honest very good. and i don't think he really, he repped himself well. i think one of the things that i'm seeing, is when you said that interest rate, they ticked back down, just a little bit, that ignited the nasdaq. okay, so facebook, facebook i like amazon, i think it's going to have a great quarter it's going to be terrific. alphabet, i think is going to have a great quarter because of advertising. and netflix is going to have a great quarter because of international sales. and the one that is the most question is apple, apple puts out, as in a story, they have a rugged watch, we, i'm not kidding, service revenue, is the way for apple to go. but apple, i was hoping that you could get apple at 110, that's where i thought it was interesting. >> well, it's 120. >> yes. >> at the same multiple. >> you may still have the chance. >> i wanted to have a procter &

gamble multiple because i think it could happen. i wanted to ask you, just in terms of people being excited about ipos, people being excited about new stock, remember the most ipos ever, actually for 21 years, don't forget, sulfide, talking about how the retail investing, they will allow their members to purchase shares of companies before the publicly traded in the stock market we have robinhood. >> robinhood. >> ipos. these guys are really trying to muscle in. >> robinhood filing for its own ipo. and they want to give their customers pieces, that's what you're referring to. there is anthony noto by the way, coming up a little bit on squawk alley. >> he is >> he is what do you think about, what do you think about what robinhood wants to do for -- >> i think - >> getting access to the action. >> i think this is why they're trying to get, the boardmember trying to get through governance but the thing they're trying to not be is just an app. lately the articles are saying robinhood, the app

and that has no attraction to people you have to be more than the app. so this makes them robinhood, the broker and that's what they need. >> a little bit of everything. >> where's vlad? >> the last time vlad made a splash was in that incredible portnoy interview on twitter. >> i watched that. >> where he showed, and portnoy, was, didn't wish him good luck, kind of was shocked though he was there, and vlad went radio silent. >> well, because you know, they filed confidentially for the ipo. that probably had something to do with it. >> but he was very silent right before that. >> let me get back to this in sec. we have more from kayla with secretary of transportation pete buttigieg. >> thank you very much, scott. we are thrilled to be joined here first on cnbc by the secretary of transportation pete buttigieg following a marathon hearing on capitol hill,

yesterday, secretary, thanks for having me. >> thanks for having me. >> i want to start to talk about expectation force this infrastructure package president biden will be laying out the what of the package next week but how many jobs will it create and at what net cost to the american people? >> well, i think there's certainly no net cost, there will be a net gain, when you think about infrastructure, it's a classic example of the kind of investment that has a return on that investment. that's one of many reasons why we think this is so important. this is a jobs vision, as much as it is an infrastructure vision, a climate vision, and more obviously, the numbers are still being reviewed the president's deciding what will go into what's going to be rolled out next week, but what i will say is that expectations have been high they've been high before we're probably the third administration in a row to arrive with the american people expecting big things on infrastructure and i think we can get it done. >> and partially paid for. and senate democrats are expecting around $3.5 trillion

what part of that will be paid for? >> that is obviously part of what we need to work with congress to establish. i'm hearing a lot of appetite to make sure that there are sustainable funding streams. and again, at the same time, we know there's a great return on investment on infrastructure so some level of deficit financing could make sense we got to make sure that what we come up with is responsible, that it is reliable, and it's going to work for america, not just for this moment, but for a generation. >> we are expecting business taxes and high income individual taxes to go up as part of this package. but there's some other revenue razors under discussion that are squarely in your wheelhouse and i want to go rapid fire through them because you've commented on some of them before. first a gas tax. you called it old fashioned to raise the gas tax. do you still believe that? could that go up >> the gas tax is traditionally how we fund the highway trust fund but we know it can't be the answer forever because we will be using less and less gas we're trying to electrify the vehicle fleet. so if there is a way to do it that doesn't increase the burden on the middle class, we can look

at it, but if we do, we got to recognize, that's still not going to be the long term answer. >> what about a mileage based tamp. >> that shows a lot of promise if we believe in the user pays promise, the idea how we pay for roads is you pay how much you drive, the gas tax used to be the obvious way to do it and not anymore or a miles traveled tax, or mileage tax, whatever you want to call it could be the way to do it. >> build america bonds. >> definitely a lot of promise in the way we leverage that kind of financing and there have been ideas around things like a national infrastructure bank, too i don't mean to try to disrupt the spirit of the rapid fire, but we're hearing a lot of maybe here because all of these things have to be balanced and could be part of it. >> and the tax on carbon emission, the tax foundation has suggested that at the rate that the biden administration has set for the per ton cost of cash than it could be around $2 trillion will you move in that direction? >> carbon pricing is a lot of ways in which a lot of

economists and the business community believe we can have a market driven approach that also deals with greenhouse gases but it's too soon to assign a use for those dollars even if doesn't happen because there are plane different ways and there's version of revenue neutral and the point of carbon pricing is there is less carbon and i wouldn't think of it as just a revenue mechanism. >> would you see that happening in the next year >> again, that requires congress, that requires the president, and congress to be in alignment and these are exactly the conversations we're having right now, with democrats and republicans on the hill, and within the administration. >> you said that you talked to republicans almost every day. >> yes. >> just this week, they've called this package a boondoggle and a ploy the way that it's been reported, the administration is structuring it meanwhile, progressives have suggested it's not big enough and needs to be $10 trillion so how do you thread that needle >> look, given that the package hasn't even been rolled out yet, it feels a bit like politics at the end of the day, there's going to have to be a single answer, that everybody will want

to tug in one direction or another. but what we know is we've got to think big. we've got to have an investment that's going to support the next generation it's got to be transformative. and i think republicans and democrats alike see the need for that. >> one republican in particular, john thune from south dakota says if the ploy is to lure republicans to vote for the easy stuff, and then do all of the controversial stuff through reconciliation, i don't think our guys take the bait how do you respond to that >> to me, this isn't bait. this is desperately needed american infrastructure improvements and i'm a little puzzled by that comment, because to me, we want to make sure that there's the strongest case made for any senator to vote for any provision of what we're doing. now as we saw with the rescue package, sometimes we can convince americans, republicans and democrats alike, and that still doesn't mean we can convince everybody on capitol hill, but if there's one area where we can do it, i believe infrastructure is that area. >> on reopening the economy, the travel industry has asked by may

1st that the administration give it a plan to restore international travel can you deliver on that? >> we take our lead from the centers for disease control and the cdc is looking at conditions on the ground. we've got a race going on right now. it's a race between the vaccines and the variants the more we win that race, the soon we're he can have a safe return for travel. and look, i'm the secretary of transportation, i'm probably the most impatient person to get that safe return to travel under way but it's got to be safe and we're not going to get ahead of what the science is telling us, what the doctors are telling us, what medicine is telling bus what is the right thing to do to keep the american traveling public and workers safe. >> the president has enacted some policies to try to make the government's own operations more green. notably trying to make the fleet of vehicles, electric vehicles, 650,000 of them, where does that effort stand >> yeah, this is a really important thing. first of all, because the federal government ought to lead by example the policy of this administration is to go green. so our vehicles ought to reflect

that secondly, just think about the purchasing power of the federal government just with the cars that we buy so i know that that entails a lot of different bodies, right, you got the postal service, which is a quasi--governmental entity, the department of defense, and even here in the d.o.t., of course we don't own most of the transportation assets in the country but we got a lot of cars and other vehicles that we use, and we got to make sure we're leading the way, too. so the president has challenged us with an executive order to be moving in the direction of more climate-friendly operations. we're run we, running with that and set aggressive targets and hitting them. >> and finally when you think of the size of government programs, conservative economists have drawn parallels to lbj's great society and suggested massive government spending paired with war-time programs, would lead to out of control inflation you're a student of history. why do you believe that is or is not the case >> i believe it's not the case, because it's been shown not to be the case in our time. for the last 40 years, the u.s. has pursued a policy of

intentional disinvestment. and as a consequence, we've fallen behind the rest of the developed world. we need to decide whether we are content to permanently remain behind the rest of the developed world or ready to take the lead again. the very era that those economists are referring to are a time when u.s. leadership was unquestioned sadly that's not the case today. you look at the investments china alone is making, in for example their infrastructure, it is a multiple of what we here at home are doing and that's going to have consequences for our competitiveness in the long term >> secretary, hopefully we can continue this conversation as we get more details about the package. we appreciate you joining us, on an extremely windy morning here in washington, secretary pete buttigieg, our thanks to you >> thanks. >> scott, back to you. >> wind, kayla, that i think is heading up the coast this way as well kayla, thanks so much. coming up in the next hour, do not miss the governor of mississippi, tate reeves on the state's reopening strategy first a look at the bond report. let's look at how treasuries are fairing this morning

the 10-year is off the highest levels of today's session. as we said, it was above, well, 1.67 is where it was the week's higher about 1.70 and pulled back by a few basis points in europe, take a look at how markets are fairing there. germany, the bund, the yield is up, as is in i up as in france ten-year and italy as bell. dollar index, dollar strong and it remains that way. one month, up 2 %. it's been a move of late 92.79 for the dollar index back right after this.

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i want to say someone foolishly sold off tencent music. that guy is dumb as bag of hammers. i want to talk about rh, restoration hardware talking about the guest house. they developed houses in aspen

and it's just not even blueprints for them yet, but they're developing and already rich people are trying to buy them without looking at them. rh really does have the pulse of -- >> what's on mad tonight >> okay. gamestop amc, and dr. topol we have to find out what it means. if you have a vaccination, it doesn't seem to mean anything. and kbr is the space play. it's a kathy wood play i kid you not. and wood warner. stock down badly this week even though they told a good story. >> yeah. all right. >> we will be there. this was fun >> unfungible. >> yes >> we'll see you tigonht another hour of "squawk on the street" is up next don't go anywhere. 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.

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happy friday welcome to "squawk on the street." carl and david both have the morning off. we have breaking economic data across the tape. let's get to rick santelli for that >> thanks, morgan. we are looking for march, final

read on university of michigan sentiment. it's crossing the wires and do remember, we have the mid month read they get tossed. so we now replace 83.0 on the headline number for our march final to 84.9. that's really a much-improved reading. as a matter of fact, it really is the best reading since covid affected this number in march of 2020 when it was 89.1 and february of 2020 it was 101.0. so this really takes up some of the slack and puts us at a much more -- a much better footing, especially considering the service sector is probably going to be opening up in a much more aggressive fashion as vaccines get out into the public at large. let's go to the internals. if you look at current conditions, it was 91.5. zoom up, up to 93.0. 77.5 on expectations also runs up to 79.7 on the inflation front, the one-year remains the same at 3

.1, but we did see some movement on the 5 to ten-year inflation 2 .7 to 2 .8 now that it's 2 .8, we were 2 .8 in july of 2015. to find a higher reading than 2 .8, you have to go back all the way to august of 2014 for a 2.9. rick, thanks and have a great weekend. we're going to get a check on the markets to kick off this hour major averages in the green. the russell 2000 is outperforming. up .9% that's after getting hard earlier in the week. poised to finish for the week down about 3.7%. the s&p and the dow are both fractionally higher. each up half a per sent. also poised to end the week in the green. in terms of what's performing the best, sector, it's energy which is up 1 .5% in large part because of the ongoing bottle neck in the suez canal we'll get to in more depth in a moment also financials are up 1% as

well after the federal reserve did say the temporary limits on dividend payments end for the banks after june 30th. and scott, that's a notable development in a week that's already seen so much fed speak including multiple appearances from the fed chair powell as we continue to have this debate about economic growth picking up, picking up faster than expected but monetary policy, sort of staying pat here easy monetary policy staying in place, and of course, this bigger, broader, longer-term debate about inflation >> rates obviously the story every day. and the ten-year got as high as 170 or so this week. it's ticked a little bit lower that's why you're seeing some of the green at least on the screen where you are. including the nasdaq which was in negative territory throughout the premarket and made the turn as yields ticked off of the highs. they're still at 166, but maybe a little some of the concern easing as to where rates are

going, at least in the near-term. >> yes it certainly hasn't done much to help some of the more risk on type of assets in the market we saw some pretty dismal debuted from ipos this week. spacs have also struggled. although, morgan, it's worth noting there is a newsworthy spac that was announced earlier this morning >> sure was. we're going to jump into that right now. that's we work announced it's agreed to go with vow acquisition. valuing the company at $9 billion including debt we worked in 2019 when we saw the company trying to go public, and at least then, the implosion of the plans $9 billion, it's hefty in spacland, but that is a far cry from the $47 billion valuation wework once had by soft bank before it tried to go public in 2019 >> they sure did make it to the

public markets so kudos to them for that. also worth noting, though, this is a company that has raised 20 $.6 billion in debt and equity over the course of its lifetime. valued at $9 billion from today's deal you know, it's interesting the way they're positioning it in terms of -- i do want to get to a sound bite on this front, but looking at wework as a potential catalyst for reopening as people try and figure out what they're going to do with their work force, whether they're going to have them at head quarters or do a hybrid situation where they would use weworks to get people together but not necessarily pay for that huge footprint like they may have previously from a corporate standpoint so let's listen in to the strategy on that front >> it'sleading to a gigantic space. it's the market leader in flex space. it's going to be trillions of dollars in terms of the total

available market wework is the leader in the space. it has an incredible mold built around the business and has a world class ceo, a super star. and if you think about it, covid was a tail wind for flex space so if zoom was the opportunity stock for the covid era, we believe that wework is the opportunity stock for the recovery >> the opportunity stock for the recovery the market seems to be buying in to some extent shares of boax are up 9% they were trading below that $10 nav net asset value level yesterday just yesterday even though there have been reports this deal was in late stage discussions that it was imminent the market certainly didn't believe that it was still worth the $10 that investors and spacs are able to redeem at. kind of surprising turn of events they seem to be excited about what they're saying with regard

to the presentation and the future prospects now >> you know, when we look at the cnbc spac 50, 34 of the 50 are now below $10. >> yeah. >> there's a considerable amount of conversation now as to whether this is all starting to maybe teeter if not tip. so the timing of this one is certainly interesting. you've got more celebrities getting into the spaces as well. jim and i were talking about odell beckham junior, nfl star who is an adviser to one of the spacs. shaq is in a lot of other stars from sports and elsewhere are in this timing is interesting >> it's a curious situation. if you look at any kind of spac below $10, you scratch your heads and say why. you can get your money back at $10. if they're trading below that level, it incorporates time value of money people are concerned a deal won't be consummated any time

soon, and that's a reflection of the massive supply glut that we've been seeing with regard to spacs and concerns over whether they will ultimately find a partner to acquire and what that might mean from a valuation standpoint >> yeah. the pipe here is interesting, too. for a number of reasons. you have fidelity in and abarry sternlicht he was on talking about the spac market being out of control. however, for somebody who does the kind of due diligence you know barry does and who has the commercial real estate accumen he does, you would think that if you're going to be looking at wework and you're trusting a guy like -- >> that was an interesting conclusion that was done at $10 a share we'll find out in a couple years when the proxy the filed how the pipe was structured. what types of terms they had for

investors in the pipe. notable, not included in the pipen, at least according to the price release is soft bank they feel like they've probably put enough money into that company and need not participate any more but you're right it is important with these types of investments to have a partner that can help further your growth that's a strategic benefit to them >> morgan mentioned earlier the other big story, of course, the ongoing saga that massive tanker ship that is still stuck in the suez canal cnbc.com pippa stevens has been following the story and has the latest >> hey this is now day four of one of the world's largest containerer ships bringing traffic in the suez canal to a stand-still. it's hard to imagine the scale and scope of this blockage the ship is almost as long as the empire state building is tall there are crews on the ground. expert salvage crews trying to refloat the ship it's showing no signs of

budging. the economic consequences are mounting about 12% of global trade passes through the suez canal each day of backlog, more than $9 billion worth of goods is struck that translates to $400 million an hour. the economic consequences here are really building. more than 50 ships pass through the canal each day there's an immediate impact in prices of oil. up about 4 % right now interestingly on wednesday when this really started to build, crude prices rallied about 6% for the best day in four month but yesterday they sold off a little bit as traders feared that demand concerns around europe and the lockdowns in europe would continue to weigh on prices. the action today suggests that traders think that maybe this will be a little bit of a longer-term impact than initially thought. there were more than 200 vessels waiting to cross the suez canal. a huge traffic jam >> yeah, and i'm sure people are

watching it saying hmm, that's a lot of containers on that ship i wonder what's inside those do we know do you have any idea on what the impact could be on consumers >> it's basically everything you can think of so clothing, food, exercise equipment, auto parts, you know, wheat. just all of these products passed through the suez canal. it is just a major waterway. and the issue that experts are pointing to is that there's no visibility into company supply chains if you have a good that's held up on one of these ships, you know that now. but bedon't know the knock on effects. as ships decide if they're going to reroute, the ports will have cong congestion they won't be able to unload it's going to have repercussions around the world this is a story we'll continue to talk about in the coming weeks and maybe even month.

>> thank you so much morgue snn. >> yeah. more congestion on top of what we already know is port congestion caterpillar has stuff on that ship and they're considering air lifting. my favorite stat i'm all over this story and i'll move on, i swear it's going to take approximately 8 times the size of an olympic swimming pool's worth of stand being dredged to help get that ship unstuck in the canal. i think that speaks to how vast this situation is. okay, we're going to shift gears here average bonuses on wall street rising the increase will allow new york city to meet or exceed the income tax the new york state comp controller joins us now. >> good morning. >> think back to where we were a year ago coming into from a market perspective, the fastest bear

market on record and then we already started to see that turn in the market even as lockdowns were just starting to take root in some of the hardest hit parts of the country to see bonuses like this, what do you think and when you talk about the fact that the bonuses will help plug the hole, let's get into that a little bit more, too >> yeah. i mean, yeah certainly where we were a year ago, we projected a negative year for wall street we see profits are up significantly. last best year was 2009. that certainly reflected in the bonus numbers. the average bonus is 184,000 up 10% so when you look at planning and the reason for the analysis impact on state and city finances as well certainly for new york city, it's in line with their latest budget projections that's good news for new york state, they are grappling with the budget right now to get it done by april 1st. the numbers are coming in higher than first anticipated

and we have been projecting in recent months higher revenue than the division of budget projected. part of it is that wall street has been doing well. and when wall street does well and people are getting paid well, we get tax revenue 18% of the revenue that pays for all the other services that new york state's budget provides comes from the securities industry in new york city. wall street. so good news for the people working there. but good news for everyone in new york as well, because we benefit from that tax revenue. >> i want to dig more into that bulkt, but to stay with the bonus topic for a minute, cnbc earlier this week reported that you have associates at banks like goldman sachs feeling overworked a special 20$,000 bonus. apollo coming out and saying that -- reports it's going to be paying up to $200,000 to retain some of its associates as well how are you thinking about that money toward filling the budget

and i guess how does it speak to the state of the labor force here in the state? >> well, a couple thoughts first of all, again, in terms of states, a significant part of the revenue that we all depend on i think we also have to put it in another context we're actually losing jobs in the security sector. we're down by about 3600 jobs last year. and the early numbers that we've seen for the beginning of 2021, another 400 jobs have been lost. so part of what we're seeing is that the bonuses that are being paid out are being paid out to a smaller work force and i think that's really the question for us long-term. with what we've gone through with the pandemic, a lot of folks working remotely including outside of the state, a lot of talk about firms deciding perhaps to relocate, i think that's the trend we have to look at with some concern at this point.

will we, in fact, lose even more of the jobs and what will be the impact on our tax base in that regard so there's a lot in transition right now. >> so if you had to send a message to the ceos of some of the largest firms about the corporate culture that's taking place in order to ensure that those workers do not defect to other industries, to other locations, what would you tell them >> well, we want new york to continue to be the global capital for finance. there's no doubt about it. so i think we want to be sure that they understand that we understand how important they are to our economy i think it's why in the context of the state budget discussions that are going on right now, questions about tax policy need to be carefully weighed. we don't want new york state to become in some arguments we're already disadvantaged in terms of tax policy. we can argue that. but we don't want to make the competitive environment worse for us so the hope would be that

government can work with business in ways that we can accommodate their needs. we want wall street to still be a key part of the new york city, new york state economy we have to recognize there are some lessons learned through the pandemic and changes in work patterns, changes in office locations. i mean, there's a lot that folks still have to analyze. but whatever the new normal is, we need to be sure that in new york city the securities industry, the finance industry is a key part of our economic mix. it is what has made new york the strong economy that it is. and we cannot afford to lose that >> we've also heard from some of the big banks that they're engaging in various programs in order to allow diversity to thrive inside their institutions and outside their institutions, and so i'm wondering if any of the data you were able to collect with regard to bonuses looked at equality and parody with regard -- or if it's data

you plan to look at in the future >> we haven't looked at it thus far. that's an interesting suggestion, but we do appreciate the fact that many of the firms have understood the issues of diversity, equality, and inclusion are becoming very key. in our role as investors, you know, with the state pension fund dollars, we certainly have been calling on companies to update their policies on dei so we think this is going to be a very important ongoing concern, or priority hopefully for all of us. and it should be reflected in corporate culture in ways that it hasn't been until now starting with boards of directors to be more diverse but certainly in terms of workplace policies, recruitment, retention, diversity strengthens the bottom line. and that should be a priority for all of us. >> all right we're talking about the positive impact that these bonuses are going to have on the budget, at least for new york city. $12 billion from the federal government in the latest round of stimulus to the state to help plug the budget deficit there as

well does new york actually need to raise taxes? i ask that as we're seeing the migration of wealthy residents to places like florida >> yep and sometimes that's -- that is more anecdotal than hard data. it's something we need to look at as we move forward. you know, the concern always is the obvious one. are we having recurring revenue matched with recurring spending and are we looking to raise taxes when we have a budget? just because new york, certainly new york state has had structural budget gaps over a period of years. new york city over the past year has had to deal with that. there's a lot to weigh a lot to balance but i do think we need to be sure that we're going to continue to stay competitive that we don't want folks to want to move out of the state, and more importantly, from my perspective, we don't want firms to move and take the jobs with them i think we need to be careful with all of this on the flip side, though, let's be clear

wall street doing well, it is good news in terms of tax revenue. but in terms of the broader economy, we have to recognize that many people have been suffering and hurting. have losttheir jobs. many sectors of the city economy continue to be severely damaged. the only way that an economic resurgence is sustainable is if we have across the board prosperity we need to understand the value. we certainly cannot have sustained profitability for our economy if we don't see improvement across the board and we haven't seen that yet >> yeah. so much more we could get to with you given everything that's going on in the state. everything going on with governor cuomo unk unfortunately, we have to leave the conversation there please join us for more discussions. coming up, winning a bidding war for laser supplier coherent breaking up their merger

the ceo joins us on the other side of this break to discuss.

now looking at the consumers good etf, ticker iyk up about 60% from the lows of the year. the fifth largest holding is nike the analyst is upping the stock to outperform $150 is the price target the pressure out of china, the

underperformance cited as an opportunity to buy it now. a lot more "squawk on the street" still ahead. ♪ ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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after two months and ten wac and forth bids there's an agreement to buy coherent in a deal valued at nearly $7 billion. joining us now is the ceo chuck mattera. thank you for joining us we were just talking in the break about how this is neither a spac deal or a private equity deal it's a good old fashioned three-way takeover so i'm curious you know, this kind of back and forth bidding war ultimately beat out mks instruments momentum here. what made you fight so hard for it and why do you think they ultimately chose your offer despite the fact that on paper it may look like it's actually a lower bid? >> leslie, i'm pleased to be here to discuss this transaction. really excited about our

industry we are underpinning megatrends and offers multiple to diversification and value. we are excited about this opportunity. and we believe that the process resulted in both a fair and fully valued deal. and we are really excited about the possibility of moving forward with coherent. >> how would you characterize the regulatory likelihood of approval here? >> high. >> a high likelihood of regulatory approval? >> yes >> i'm told this deal increases your exposure to electric vehicles, 3-d printing, life sciences defense and aero space what's kind of the evolving use of lasers in the areas what's the opportunity that you

see here >> well, vi is addressing data centers, and 3-d sensing, electric vehicles and batteries. energy storage and increasing deployments of laser technology both for high energy wages and the aero space defense. coherent is addressing industry 4.0 with the processing and smart factories. they are in the display eco system and semi conductor capital equipment. and through laser technology and systems, they have really over the last 50 years become the gold standard. >> chuck, it is morgan i'm curious, when you laid out the different industries and the different applications for the technologies, which among those is the fastest growing what offers the greatest

opportunity? >> all of the megatrends in the megamarkets are all growing above double digit percentages and we're expecting them to continue to grow and outpace the growth by a substantial amount of worldwide gdp we're excited about each and every one of them. and the technology and talent that coherent will bring to the table as we move forward with the largest and most significant investment in research and development that we believe will continue to provide a strong road map and foundation for breakthrough solutions to come >> chuck, it's scott i have a quick question. if this deal was worth $130 a share to you on february 12th, why is it worth $220 a share a month later? >> thank you for the question. it was a good process and

efficient process in which three public companies in this industry gainedaccess to information. a lot of us, to be able to value the transaction. and we did as part of a step by step process along the way >> great well, we will keep an eye on it as you work through the process. chuck, thank you very much for joining us today >> thank you now it's time for a covid update >> hi. good morning 16 or older in minnesota can get the covid vaccine starting next tuesday. it's the 12th state to make all adults eligible. regulators have approved new manufacturing sites in the netherlands, germany and switzerland. the decline of daily covid cases has slowed and they may be heading higher the two-day average of around 77,000 cases is a one-month

high we'll see if it's a blip or the start of a new trend and in prague, a civic group put 25,000 white crosses on a square it marks the 25,000 covid deaths in the czech repubic e adle started leaving names of thde and leaving flowers you're now up to date. more "squawk on the street" after this ut me? an ev for me? what about me? can i get one too? an ev for this princess? what's an ev? and there better be one for me. and what about michelle from michigan? me? what about me? us? will there be an ev for me? me? me? me? ♪♪ i'm searching for info on options trading, and look, it feels like i'm just wasting time. that's why td ameritrade designed a first-of-its-kind, personalized education center. oh. their award-winning content is tailored to fit

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mississippi opening eligibility to all last week the mississippi governor is joining us today >> thank you for having me >> i read an article that state mississippi is behindmost states in terms of administering the vaccine. 47 out of 50 states. >> i don't think the numbers are accurate in a state like mississippi where the federal government has four different channels they are

administering vaccines in addition to what we're doing as a state, you find the department of defense, for instance, is administering volcx to the mississippi national guard we have the highest number of national guard members per capita in the country. using the va hospitals, mississippi has the highest percentage of veterans than any state in the country so our numbers are actually -- we've done 1,114,000 shots in arms as of wednesday afternoon and so i think the difference between being 20th and 40th is just a couple percentage points, and once we get accurate data in the system, which is something we've been working with cdc to do, what you'll find is we're going to be middle of the pack in terms of total vaccines distributed, and we are seeing significant opportunities for all mississippians if you're a mississippian and you want a shot, you can get a shot today

>> i didn't pull that number out of thin air. that's from a publication in your own state it's called "mississippi today". you only have 14% fully vaccinated >> mississippi today is a liberal rag. that's a website it's not even a real news source we've done 1,114,000 shots in arms we have gotten approximately 750,000 mississippians have gotten their first shot. approximately 450,000 mississippians are fully vaccinated our total number of cases are plummeting our total hospitalizations have gone from 1,444 down to about 250. our total number of icu patients has gone from 370 at our peak down to approximately 70 today and so we're seeing significant improvement in the situation on the ground >> yeah. we got our numbers from the state's vaccine tracker as well. those are the ones we put on the screen you said three days ago, quote,

we're not out of this fight yet. so imcurious to know why you've lifted everything in the manner that you have if you yourself don't believe we're out of the fight. it's against what the health officials have suggested and cases nationally are at the very least plateauing if not rising again >> well, we don't spend a lot of time looking at cases nationally we focus on the data that exists in mississippi at our peak, mississippi had 2,40 0 cases per day over a 7-day period for the last seven days we've had 1800 cases total in fact, our 7-day average is 260 cases which is the absolute lowest it's been since april or may of last year the vaccine is a game-changer. everybody in our state has the opportunity to get it. there will be some who choose not to that's certainly their prerogative, but the fact is we have to move on with our lives

we have to recognize that we are not completely out of the woods yet, but we are seeing significant progress that's something that at least in our state gives us the ability to recognize that the fact is the so-called experts have been wrong time and time again during this pandemic, and i'm not mad at them about it a lot of us went into this not knowing what was going to happen from day today and we immediate made the best decisions we could based on the information we had at that time >> governor, just to dig into that a little bit more, i realize it's only been a couple weeks since you did lift the capacity limits. you did make that decision to lift the mask mandate as well. we just went through some of the case data, the vaccine data. what are you seeing on the economic side now that reopenings are happening on the ground in a more meaningful way? >> yeah. it was 25 days ago when i lifted all of the restrictions in our state. and what we're seeing from an economic standpoint is our economy continues to boom.

our total revenues as a state through the first nine months of this fiscal year are over a half a billion dollars above the original estimates that's only $5.6 billion budget. we have seen the first nine months, our total revenues at the state level and to the extent you consider that a pretty good gauge of economic activity and i would argue in mississippi it is, and the reason for that is we collect about 40% of total taxes from sales taxes and about 40 % from income taxes the fact is that it's a pretty good indicator of economic activity we're about 12% above where we were a year ago. and that just shows you our economy is moving forward while many other states that's not the case >> so governor, i want to shift gears a little bit the situation after those historic snow storms, winter storms last month that left the city of jackson, the water situation there, people without clean and running water for the better part of a month at a time where we're having this national discussion about

infrastructure and the possibility of more money, trillions of dollars going toward infrastructure spending how are you thinking about infrastructure in your state and what are you doing specifically to address the jackson situation? >> well, first of all, when it comes to the city of jackson, obviously, that was a scenario in which we had temperatures below freezing for 96 straight hours. now, those of you in the northeast and other parts of our country might be used to that and have weatherized systems to deal with it that's a very uncommon thing in our state. so we did find ourselves where the city-run water system in the city of jackson, but it wasn't unique to jackson. we had 78 different water systems under boil water notices at some point during that winter storm. but what we're looking at, we know we've got to invest more money in infrastructure across our state and across our country. we would be supportive of a plan for the federal government to

step up and do that. we're mindful of the deficit and we're mindful of the national debt when we're approaching $30 trillion in debt, i'm concerned about that i know a lot of people around the country are. used to when i first started in the financial business, we used to talk about leaving more and more debt responsibility to our kids my kids are now 16, 14, and 9. we no longer talk about leaving this debt burden to our kids it's our kid's grand kids we're leaving the debt burden there. there has to be a balance and i'm hopeful the republicans will convince the democrats to have a reasonable, responsible plan that doesn't put us trillions and trillions dollars more in debt >> governor, appreciate your time be well. we'll talk to you again soon >> thank you casual dining a bright spot among restaurants this year. those stocks seeing tremendous 12 -month gains. kate rogers joins us with some of the trends to watch in the sector as we see more of the

reopenings take root kate >> morgan, good morning. casual dining seems to be getting a boost on the notion of pent up consumer demand and extra spending money that boost is also moving stocks higher if you look at this chart, some of the best pm performers are not -- it's all casual dining. darden, texas road house, and blooming brands, the biggest gainers year to date their one-year moves up over 100% in some cases projecting overall same store sales down 1.2%. this compares to down 13.2 % the same quarter last year same store sales up 45%. the firm is citing several factors including covid cases declining, vaccines and springtime weather same strengths in texas road house and darden

we heard from darden yesterday, the parent of olive garden out with a better than expected report across the board with sales above 2019 levels so far in march at some of the locations. it's announced it would spend $17 million on one-time bonuses and pay raises for workers getting to $12 an hour including tips by 2023 analysts said we could be in a new golden age for casual dining which is not what you'd expect hearing this time last year. scott, a big turn around >> as we head to break, we are teaching an eye on the two worst performers in the s&p today, and they were both paired in a downgrade. viacom and discovery both down viacom down nearly 40 %. nonetheless, both still up around 60% so far in 2021. they've had a nice run before that there's more ahead stay witush

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> a take on trading nation more "squawk on the street" straight ahead

it was initially a bold move by the nasdaq. a recommended objective for each of the listed companies to have at least two diverse directors on their boards. if not, the companies had to explain why. now, the roposed rule garnered support from facebook coo, carlisle ceo, a group of senate democrats and more they argued that corporate boards should be more representative of america. and that diversity improves governance but there were a fair share of detractors as well it included republican senators on the senate banking committee who argued the nasdaq was operating out of its scope and the rule would interfere with a board's fiduciary duties

in response to the criticism, nasdaq last month watered down the rule a bit, but the ongoing controversy means the proposal won't sail through the sec with the agency deciding to take a few more months to review the implications this is noteworthy as we look at some of the big hurdles and challenges that can come up with some of these proposals to improve diversity. >> yeah. one to watch i know you're all over it. still ahead, vertical farming company is going to go public, arrow farms via spac the ceo will join us after the break. four, five, turn, kick. we got chased by these wild coyotes! they were following her because she had beef jerky in her pocket. (laughing) (trumpet playing)

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welcome back aerofarms announcing plans to go public on the nasdaq through the spac merger. spring valley values them at over $1 billion. with us right now is the ceo, david rosenberg. congrats on the deal. >> yeah. thanks, great to be with you. >> so we actually spoke about six years ago in newark at your vertical farm there. just to get everybody up to speed when we're talking about vertical farming what are we talking about in terms of not only what you grow, but how you grow it.

>> yeah. that's right, morgan that was in a converted nightclub and then we went to the converted paint ball facility, the facility behind me is a converted steel facility. it's layer upon layer of plant growth, the plants don't need sun or soil, but they need micronutrients instead of sun, we give them spectrum at different frequencies to optimize plant growth and the result is local food production sat scale so everyone can enjoy the leafy greens without pesticides >> why leafy greens and not other agriculture? >> so we have grown over 550 different varieties of plants so we sell leafy greens under the brand dream greens under amazon fresh, shoprite but they're

highly perishable. there's a tremendous amount of product that goes to waste so 60% of the farm doesn't get eat and that's inefficiency in the supply chain additionally, there's lot of pesticides and herbicides and here we're able not able to grow without the pesticides but we're competing on taste and texture it's fully controlled science that allows us to experiment, understand what a plant wants. it's humidity, ph, nutrients to optimize plant growth to get great taste textures and that's where we're winning on the quality of the plant but understanding what it wants and how to deliver it. >> david, i took a look at your investor dec and it shows you have been doing vertical farming

for 15 years and it's clear there's a lot of science and experimentation that goes into that in the dec it says you're expecting $4 million in ref you in year. projecting $13 million next year and yet you're valued a over $1 billion as part of this transaction. i'm curious what are the catalysts that get you to half a billion dollars by 2026 that you haven't been able to do so far >> so it's been a long journey to really optimize quality and reduce capital costs and operating costs so the economics work so today the economics work and then we say where do we need to improve to have scale so we're in over 200 supermarkets in shoprite and whole foods and online like fresh direct, amazon direct and now we have proven the business model, proven the economics so now we have been putting money. we have raised over $200 million to date before this and reducing

operating costs and utilizing the platform to grow other plants like tomatoes, like strawberries we have grown 550 different plants so now we're utilizing this platform. when we say a platform, controlling light, nutrient, spectrum that's a lot of software and programming of controlling the pumps, valves and using it to make other applications to have greater impact so investors are betting on the good economics today this is model 4 and the next farm is model 5 and breaking ground on two projects in april and we have already built the prototype of model 6 all better economics and then we're using the platform for other problems so berries, for example, people have -- here we have great tasting berries to deliver to the customer 365 days a year. >> got it. >> when i say great tasting it's

like they're red through and through. a measurement of berries is brics, it's a sugar content and they have a brics content of 11 because the sugar comes into the leaves during the diurnal cycle and if you change the humidity, change the temperature, you can force more sugars from the leaf to the berry. >> we haven't been able to do virtual taste testing yet. you get $300 million from the spac trust and the pipe that coincides with it. how are you bog to pay for it, is that the fifth or the sixth iteration? >> yeah, it's rolling out new farms. we're rolling out a farm like in virginia and another one in abu dhabi. there's a lot of interest in the middle east and there's not a lot of farmland. not a whole lot of water there's water insecurity issues so building it there, rolling out geographically growing more plants to produce

capex and opex in our pro forma it's leafy greens but the opportunity is so much bigger. for example, we're growing a plant as a therapeutic to treat highly symptomatic people of covid and the proteins is used to treat the receptors in the heart. if you have heard of brick house 9, the nobel prize winning - >> david, unfortunately we're at the end of the hour. i have to cut you off there. fascinating. come back, tell us more about that at a future date. that does it for "squawk on the street." coming up on "squawk alley," the sofi ceo plus the ceo of threadup as they go public on nasdaq. stay with us where you learn, work, and fly we help make them healthier.

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