major indices posted positives in the first quarter. president biden making his pitch to pay for a $2 trillion infrastructure plan by raising taxes on corporations and a lot of other things. details and reactions straight ahead. johnson & johnson vaccine shipment on hold after a mix up at the production plant contaminated 15 million doses. wait a minute. thursday, april 1st? is that an april fool's day joke "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ ♪ welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm rebecca quick along with joe

kernen and andrew sorkin the first quarter is in the books. check out the returns. the dow was up by 7.75% for the quarter. s&p was up by 5.8% nasdaq up 2.8% sounds good. if you break it down, that shows you what was really happening with the shift out of technology and in industrials dow was up 6.6% averages up four of the last five months. nasdaq up 0.4% it explains the rotation we have been watching over the last month. if you look at the u.s. equity futures, you see glreen arrows n april fool's day green arrows with the dow up 70% for the futures. up by 68 right now s&p up by 17 the nasdaq futures up 135.

the nasdaq had a big day yesterday. gain of 1.4% if you check out the treasury yields this morning, it looks like the ten-year is yielding at 1.716% the idea that the ten-year has reined in, that has been the strength of the nasdaq yesterday and again today. what do you think about the "squawk stack" here, joe >> i didn't. i'm trying to make sure i don't fooled by something now that i've been warned >> i was trying to think of a joke i could pull on you i knew you would be wise to the ways of this something better than the stupid vw joke. >> i read it i'll take everything with a grain of salt.

i like what i said at the top of the show we will talk about the stock futures like we do every stay. this time it will be interesting. i like that. >> you know, i say the same thing every morning. this morning, we get right to the stock futures which we do every morning for the last 15 or 16 years i don't know >> andrew, does "the new york times" think of anything foolishly? did you know it was april 1st? >> i was going to do this later. i don't know if she is watching the show i think you may know this. today is my mother's birthday. always been the case >> happy birthday, mrs. sorkin >> both of you have met my mother happy birthday, mom. we love you. this is not an april fool's joke happy birthday >> andrew, my mom's birthday is

tomorrow >> don't you have a grandmother? >> i do. she turned 103 years old two months ago >> that is awesome >> very lucky duck i am to still have a grandmother >> that is great you will read a story coming up. i was hoping they would come out and president biden say that was an april fool's joke i don't think he has done that >> let me tell you and we can unpack >> tell me ahead of it if they are waiting for the end where you say i'm not serious. this is for real. >> this is not a volkswagen turned voltswagen issue. $621 billion for transportation infrastructure

bridges, roads and transport and electric vehicles. $300 billion to drinking water infrastructure and broadband and electric grids another $300 billion to affordable housing and upgrading schools. $580 billion to manufacturing research and development and job training efforts here is how the president plans to pay for it. >> we will raise the corporate tax. it was 35% which is too high we agreed five years ago it should go down to 28%. they reduced it to 21% we will raise it back to 28% no one should be able to complain about that. it's still lower than the rate between world war ii and 2017. just doing that one thing would generate $1 trillion in additional revenue over 15 years. >> in particular, president

biden singled out amazon for not paying federal taxes >> in 2019, an independent analysis found there were 91 -- let me say it again. 91 fortune 500 companies, including amazon, that use various loopholes so they pay not a single solitary penny in federal income tax that's just wrong. >> in response to that, amazon spokesperson pointing to the r&d tax credit that congress intended in the 2015 law signed by president obama the beginning of the big debate about not just infrastructure unto itself, but the tax implications for corporations and later this year, we expect to see higher taxes on individuals as well. becky. >> i think the problem with that

explanation is, if you think there are loopholes that companies are using, the solution is not to raise the corporate tax rate and punish people who are paying what they are supposed to be paying. the solution is tighten the loopholes. >> the global is higher than any other country -- they talked about 12%. he wants to do 21% >> we have not seen details. i acknoimagine they will try to close, i don't know if we call them loopholes i imagine there may be an amt in the 20 % as part of it. >> tighten the loop holes. times they are things they asked corporations to do for employing people in the united states. do you motivate incenincentives

>> there is an element where you can get to a point with amt of some point maybe you think that is a fair thing to do. for a certain level of company bringing in certain profit you think an amt would work? we talked about it a week ago. i think i watched it i was away a week ago. how much money -- i happen to be watching how much money has been left on sidelines because we don't do audits we don't do audits properly of companies or individuals $1 trillion lying around if you got that $1 trillion -- >> exactly >> you guys were talking about it in the context of avoidance i think the studies, because i looked after i watched

it is evasion. i think if we had an irs that was on the ball -- >> for the avoidance, you change the law to where the avoidances are being abused one thing and let me point this out and the journal has a couple of it. i know it is rupert murdock, blah, blah, blah it has real numbers here dan clifton. we have him on a lot i would like to get him on today, if we can this polls well. infrastructure polls very well because we all think roads, highways, bridges, traditional public works, polls very well. let's do it. do you know how much goes toward that out of the $1.9 trillion $115 billion $115 billion for the $1.9 trillion goes for what everybody is sold as the infrastructure

bill >> i would believe infrastructure also includes broadband at this point. i think it is vitally important. >> it does what you think of traditionally as infrastructure. he talked about it a lot bridges are falling apart. airports, too. another $25 billion for airports ports and waterways is $17 billion for that we are talking about a small part of the $1.9 trillion. jennifer granholm was talking about that, too. at waffle houses maybe we cover that with the white castle for lunch the mess up at johnson & johnson? the fda investigates a contamination at the production line in this country

in baltimore the ones made in europe are fine the baltimore plant was run by emergent bio solutions workers mixed up ingredients this is not an april fool joke contaminating up to 15 million doses. no dose left the plant in that lot. that lot, itself, has been quarantined which is a weird word to use. j&j will strengthen control over the work by the way, that stock, as you can see, down sharply. down 8% on the news. becky. >> the good news is they caught it the controls were in place they caught it before any of it went out it seems crazy the idea you can accidentally mix things up and ruin 15 million doses. this wasn't like the situation

with the oxford astrazeneca when they were real iizing after the fact we made a mistake it turned out to be a beneficial one. how fortunate. the controls were in place and they caught it that should make people feel good >> it didn't work or it was dangerous or both? that's the thing >> right >> messed up vaccines. it wouldn't work and give you immunity or is it harmful? i think the former >> either one is a terrible situation. >> you go out and think you're immune when we come back, stock picks that could benefit from president biden's $2 trillion infrastructure plan. we have names you should consider next. frontier airlines is pricing ipo at $19 a share that's at bottom of the expected range. we talk to the ceo coming up

ahead in the trade that is coming up in the 8:30 half hour. "squawk box" will be right back. >> announcer: this cnbc program is sponsored by baird. visit bairddifference.com. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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the plan aims to try to revitalize u.s. transportation systems and manufacturing. including spending $600 billion on transportation and $200 billion on housing joining us now to give us a couple of stocks to benefit from the plan is mariann montagne mariann, watching these things today, the question is we knew this was coming. a lot of the stocks have run up in advance of that are there still places this hasn't been factored in already? good places to put your money? >> this is two years in the making a lot of them did start to run with the election last fall. so, yeah, there are still a couple that we think are interesting. the union pacific is one they will haul all of the materials and supplies to wherever the project is happening. they would benefit from the

volume and from the fact that with all of the anticipation, they have been working on efficiencies we should see good margin expansion with that. >> i was going to say unp has been on fire it is operating very well aside from the funds that would flow in. >> right it has run there is more room to run. another one along the lines is komatsu. like the larger caterpillar, they are a big manufacturer of heavy equipment. they are benefitting from the expansion in the china mining industry that is one we still like. a third one is one that is not on people's radar. that is essentially utilities. this is not your coal fire utility like duke or coned

this is waste water treatment. there's $60 billion going toward pipes and waste water treatment and there's just a lot of potential left in this name. 60% comes from waste water management >> you said you avoid names like duke energy and coned. why is that? >> they are the coal and old style electric generation. we're just looking toward renewables and the waste water management side of things. >> mariann, in terms of things you might be on the lookout for and things you might be concerned about if you start to see this bill get eaten up a little bit in congress if there is not agreement if the democrats don't stay together in terms of what they plan to push through? >> i think it is more of a timing question than anything. it gives us the opportunity to

go back and work our spread sheets i think the democrats want to put more social aspects into the bill that may delay things for a while. that is my biggest concern that this is going to drag on for a while. >> even if it does get passed, the plan is for the money to dole out over time it is not going to be the flood of money that hits the market and these levels immediately >> yeah. the $2.3 trillion headline is very attractive and exciting, but the timing is really lengthy across many projects it's not something that we have to chase today those are three names i think are solid names to hold. >> mariann, thank you for your time great talking to you. >> thank you, becky. >> andrew. coming up, compass making

its public debut today raises new questions about whether it is a tech company or real estate company. robert frank joins us next to explain. just ahead, look at the oil prices we're back after this. >> announcer: "squawk picks" is sponsored by wisdomtree. we may be in a touchless world, but we can still touch people's lives... by staying in touch... and showing you care... because now, each time you order online or tap in-store with your mastercard at restaurants and grocery stores, mastercard will donate to stand up to cancer, one precious cent at a time, up to 5 million dollars. together, we can start something priceless.

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let posh answer. posh virtual receptionists. welcome back to "squawk box. compass is making the wall street debut it is changing the way real estate is sold we have robert frank with the look into the secret into compass' growth. it is remarkable to watch the ride of robert redfield.

i remember when he first came on the show >> an uncredible rise for refkin now at $18 a share it was expected at $23 to $26. reducing shares sold it is raising half of the $900 millionprojected it could be slightly higher if you include employee options investors starting to question whether compass is a tech company or a more of a traditional real estate firm a focus if it is growing by out spending competitors for agents. look at the operating losses totaling $900 million since 2018 in the s.e.c. filing, we may not achieve or sustain profitability. gives larger commission than

other firms. over 80% bonuses paid of six or seven figures to attract the top brokers. compass has quadruple the number of agents to 19,000 with the revenue growing by the same amount if you look at the lawsuit filed by realogy it is stealing trade information and offering competitive packages that are so inflated, compass is sure to operate at a loss and not a short-term. compass calling the claims and lawsuit part of the war of misinformation andrew, we will see when the shares actually start trading and how investors feel about this. >> robert, you have hit on what has been the big question around compass since its founding a technology company or whether it is a classic real estate

company. the economics of the growth plan as you said spending an enormous amount of money attracting agents across the country. thank you for the report we will ask some of the questions directly to the ceo of compass. robert reffkin will be here at 8:40 a.m. eastern time joe. speaking of ipos i was seeing we were okay with this you know, we both are represented by endeavor. sorkin >> elon musk. >> on the board. >> buy in ufc. it held up the rest of it. it held up really well we'll have more on it coming up. >> yup >> interesting elon musk. where did that come from

we'll talk about it. president biden making his pitch for $2 trillion infrastructure spending and corporate tax hike to pay for it reaction from the republican congress member. jason smith. he may not like all of it. 'lsewel e. >> announcer: executive edge is sponsored by at&t business our people and network will help keep you connected let's take care of business. elp. okay, imagine this... your mover, rob, he's on the scene and needs a plan with a mobile hotspot. we cut to downtown, your sales rep lisa has to send some files, asap! so basically i can pick the right plan for each employee... yeah i should've just led with that... with at&t business... you can pick the best plan for each employee and only pay for the features they need.

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good morning welcome back to "squawk box. look at u.s. equity futures this morning. three hours before the open. dow looking to open 52 points higher nasdaq up 128 points higher. the s&p 500 up about 16 points none of that, at the moment, is an april fool's joke joe. >> no, no. it's early >> it's early. president biden unveiled the $2 trillion infrastructure proposal yesterday calling it a once in a generation investment. >> create millions of jobs good paying jobs grow the economy make as more competitive around the world.

promote our national security interests and put us in the position to win the global competition with china in the upcoming years it's big yes. it's bold. yes. we can get it done >> joining us to talk more about it is representative jason smith of missouri. he is the ranking member of the house budget committee in the show-me state. he showed us the president showed you yesterday. what did you take away from what you were shown, congress member? >> it is great to be here. of the so-called infrastructure bill that he laid out yesterday, less than 6% of the spending in that bill actually goes to roads and bridges. less than 6% less than 5% is actually going to broadband it is similar to the prior bailout bill where less than 9% went to shots and crushing the

virus. republicans would be happy to have a bill that goes towards roads and bridges. that is not what is happening here we are really entering an uncharted territory with this level of spending. if you look at just the $2 trillion the president proposed yesterday, that will be four times what the country spent to build the entire interstate highway system that, i think, should concern anyone >> what is most concerning to you? what it is being spent on or how it is paid for or both >> i think it is all of the above. the fact that we're proposing $2.3 trillion of spending here and that's four times the amount what we spent under today's dollars for the entire interstate highway system. yet only 6% of the $2.3 trillion

is being spent for roads and bridges. that's scary if you take the proposed plans with the prior $6 trillion already spent in the last year, that's more spending than the total combined wages of all american workers that's a huge problem. you go into the tax front. it is the largest proposed tax increase in the history of the united states. if you look at how the taxes will work, you talk about what country will benefit china and other countries like that it will increase our business rate to be higher than that of communist china. i think that is an extreme problem. >> congress member smith, the figures you are citing are hard to get your head around. the idea this is five times as much as what was spent to build the interstate highway system was in the '50s. is that based on inflation related figures or is that just

what they are proposing to spend now? >> it is four times. not five it is four times the amount of what would be the today's value of building the interstate highway system with inflation and everything that tells you how disturbing it is >> wow. >> congress member, a lot of green stuff and the journal has its own take on things that this is senator warren and senator sanders fingerprints all over this a big wish list in this which is something that probably is something you can argue about. that's the point being made. part of the green initiatives, which i think is interesting the journal says the president wants to force feed green on electric grid. that is all well and good, but it will take a lot of new high

voltage power lines to transport solar and wind we cannot get out of the first few pages of the regulatory issues with the environmentalists about doing this the transition of green energy transportation is difficult given it takes infrastructure blocked by the same environmental groups that supposedly would embrace t >> it will be very difficult this is supposed to be an infrastructure packages about roads and bridges. that what's republicans and democrats could work together on in a bipartisan way to make sure we rebuild our nation's highways and make sure we address our locks and dams that is important. if you want to talk about energy, i think it is less than 10% of all of our dams actually generate power why don't we do that that would be a safe and clean

way to generate power to help in a lot of instances that is not what this bill does. if republicans and democrats got together, we could work on that policy of roads and bridges. when you are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars going toward medicaid in this bill is unacceptable whether it is hundreds of billions of dollars going to housing. it should not be in an infrastructure bill. that should be a separate piece of legislation. >> how many terms have you served, congress member? have you been there a while? >> i was elected in 2013 >> elected in 2013 i don't know if you know how things -- you should know how things work. a lot of the tax increases that we're seeing -- are they the high end of where we'll end so maybe manchin or sinema or the

moderate house members will have compromises down from big increases? maybe it is not 28%, but maybe 25%? maybe they don't get everything they want on the other taxes will that give the two senators cover to support this? it will be a 51? the president is not interested in anything bipartisan no matter how many times he says it. that's my opinion. it is reconciliation it will be 51/50 you need every single democrat >> it looks like it will go through reconciliation, just like you said, at the prior bailout bill what i'm actually hearing from the democrats who i serve with whether on the ways and means committee or throughout congress, is instead of it going down from 28%, they actually are talking about it raised higher every 1% that the business rate

is increased, it generates about $100 billion in revenue. even the proposed tax increases that they have in the bill, which are the largest tax hikes in the history in the united states, it still doesn't pay the $2.3 trillion spending that is also proposed. if they try to pay for the bill through revenue enhancements and tax increases, they have to increase taxes in other ways you are seeing a lot of discussion where democrats in the house are threatening to hold up the legislation if they don't eliminate the $10,000 cap on the salt deduction. that is the conversation you are hearing from the other side. i think there will be a lot of conversation taxes are definitely in play at all forms. >> i don't know if this is the biggest tax increase in history, but since 1963 it exceeds the clinton tax

we will talk about it all day long what are you near? st. louis or kansas city >> i represent god's country is what i like to say southeast missouri 20 miles south of the city of st. louis to about 10 miles east of branson the boothill home of rush limbaugh. >> oh, really? cardinal fan opening day. >> huge cardinals fan and chiefs fan. you got to love them both. >> oh, you are spanning the state. that's okay. that's good. congress member, you can't pick a favorite team. it's like kids we appreciate your time. jason smith. congressman. >> great to be with you all. >> bye thanks, joe. when we come back, we will talk much more about the issues we have been following today. watching the markets and watching the futures there's a new report that says

micron and western digital may be bidders for the japan's flash memory micron shares up 3%. western digital down slightly. we'll have more on that in a moment. and later, compass set to debut on the new york stock exchange today we will talk about the company's ceo ahead of the ipo reminder, you can watch or listen live anytime on the cnbc p. >> announcer: currency check is sponsored by interactive brokers. the professional gateway to the world's markets.

welcome back take a look at the u.s. equity futures on the 1st day of april. dow futures up 52. shares of micron are up revenue also beat expectation. the third quarter guidance was better than expected the company switched to 5g and higher demand as people worked from home. shares up 3.75%. micron and western digital

exploring a deal to buy japan's kioxia holdings. kioxia makes flash hol holds chs it canceled plans for an ipo last september it cited the pandemic and market vo volatility you know about the shortage and the need for semiconductors. that is why you see this happening. a desire to get your hands on more of the manufacturing processes for those. we have breaking news just in from pfizer meg tirrell has the news >> reporter: good morning, becky. a couple of pieces of news on the covid vaccine following up on yesterday's results in 12 to 15-year-olds the first is they have data from a trial in south africa of the vaccine. it shows strong protection there. it was a small number of participants 800 people in the trial.

9 cases of covid in south africa they were all in the placebo group. zero cases among the people who got the vaccine. they sequenced the people. 6 of 9 were of the b.1.351 variant. there is so much important about this that the nih is started a trial updating the moderna vaccine tailored to the variant. this data suggests the vaccine is strong enough to cover it the other part of the news from pfizer this morning is they have six-month follow-up data on the phase three trial in the covid vaccine. essentially that is enough data and follow-up for them to file for full approval with the fda now, six months out from the

second dose of the vaccine an more than 46,000 participants, the vaccine he cefficacy is 96%. the vaccine continuing to look good including the variants. guys. >> meg, that is great news across the board especially this is stuff that prevents infection even with the variants out there the idea that the efficacy after six months still looks strong, but maybe not as strong, does that lead you to think that we will end up taking booster shots or getting the vaccine again on the annual basis >> reporter: it is really not clear at this point. i was talking to dr. fauci about this on monday how long do the vaccines look like they will last?

it is six-to-eight months because that is only because they are following them for that long not everybody believes we will get annual covid shots like flu shots. we will see how these vaccines hold up and how the virus changes. we may end up having to get future covid shots and maybe formulated with flu shots. we don't have those answers yet. >> meg, quick. how long would it take to file for full fda approval? how long would it take for the fda to officially declare it approved i ask, in part, because business leaders have been waiting for that because of the conversation of mandating vaccines for return to office and whatnot and the view is that as an emergency authorization, there has been legal advice offered to some that you can't if it was fully approved, you could.

>> reporter: yeah. full approval seems to be very important for that i talked with legal scholars who don't think it means it is illegal to require the vaccination. it is unpopular. that is something we have been hearing. in terms of how long it could take the fda to look at this typically six-to-ten months for a review we heard about pfizer getting close to filing. we haven't heard about moderna and johnson & johnson. however, analysts i have spoken with feel all could be fully approved in the middle of the year preparing us for the fall as universities go back and employers start to bring people back, too. >> okay. the one and only meg tirrell what a job you are doing throughout the whole past year thank you again this morning when we come back, more here on "squawk box." we have nick akins tkialng about voting rights and infrastructure and more we're right back after this.

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. welcome back to squawk, dozens of prominent black business executives in america calling for corporations to fight restrictive voting laws. >> this is a call for action what we have heard from corporations is general statements about their support for voting rights and against voter suppression. but now we're asking, put those words into action. and we're asking corporate america to publicly and directly oppose any discriminatory legislation and all measures designed to limit america's

ability to vote. >> joining us right now to talk about corporate america's power when it comes to social change, climate change and things like esg american electric power, chairman and ceo nick aikens a lot of news made by ken fraser and ken chenault yesterday the governor pushing back at tom cotton on twitter, willing to get in a debate on "squawk box," as it happens, with ed bastian and others what was your reaction yesterday to the call by those leaders, nick >> sure, andrew, i really believe, many ceos of the business round table and others agree it's a fundamental principle to democracy to have access to voting we don't want discriminatory

action related it's important to be flexible in terms of the ability for people to vote because there's so many different ways that the economy is working today, different hours, different conditions. we really do have to work on that principle now, obviously we need to make sure that the person voting is, in fact, that person but we don't have to be so restrictive that we're actually -- down people from being able to really access that right to vote. >> curious if you could give us your initial take on the infrastructure plan. of course this infrastructure plan calls for a big boost in the electric vehicle market and the grid, of course. a lot of money being spent there, $174 billion for the electric vehicle grid, $100 billion towards the electric grid. >> andrew, there's a lot there, obviously, a lot to really focus on the details of what's going to happen going forward. but obviously we're very happy with the focus on electric vehicles i think that's a great thing,

we're actually doing coordination agreements with other utilities to try to put quarters to place to take away the range anxiety when electric vehicles come into play. that's a positive thing. also from a climate change perspective our industry has been focused on the conversion to a clean energy economy for years. aep alone as reduced our carbon emissions by over 70%. we're going to continue that approach and we put out new targets of actually being net zero by 2050. the challenge in the infrastructure bill will be with corporate taxes going up, which for our industry, our customers, there's a direct charge, a direct flow through of those costs to our customers in the midst of that, if you accelerate the clean energy transition so quickly that you're being really not very efficient from a capital perspective we've got to be very

careful to ensure our customers not only have the resilient reliable grid but also remains affordable. >> it doesn't make sense economically without the help. as you point out corporations don't pay taxes, people do. >> right. >> but how hard is it to get regulatory approval given the green lobby right now for all these things that you want to do, the paperwork and everything else isn't that, you know, counterproductive to what we're trying to accomplish by the same people >> certainly there's challenges with that because obviously they're thinking about the affordability relative to customers and when you think about the last time -- when the obama administration was in, we spent -- alone, we spent $9.2 billion on scrubbers and sdrs which eliminated socks, knocks and mercury from the emissions of our coal fired power plants that's the end of depreciated plant balances that still exist that customers are paying for. those kind of long-term capital

decisions being made it's incredibly important for our customers to be able to respond to that ability to make that transition. >> nick, we appreciate you joining us we'll leave the conversation there. we'd love to have you back the quarterly "just" call is at 1:00 p.m. squawk returns with two big hours ahead right after this >> announcer: this cnbc program is spon sporedsy truist financial.

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we started with computers. we didn't stop at computers. we didn't stop at storage or cloud. we kept going. working with our customers to enable the kind of technology that can guide an astronaut back to safety. and help make a hospital come to you, instead of you going to it. so when it comes to your business, you know we'll stop at nothing.

president biden unveils his $2 trillion spending plan, whether your taxes are going higher. the archegos fallout, an investigation into trades the fund made that rattled parts of the market former sec commissioner jay clayton is here to respond. baseball is back red sox chairman tom werner, what tans can expect when coming to the stadium. the opening of america as the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now ♪ good morning, welcome back

to "squawk box" right here on cnbc i'm andrew ross sorkin take a look at u.s. equity features this hour green going on on this april fool's day, they haven't made fools of us just yet but still two hours to go. dow up about 140 points. nasdaq looking to go up about 130 points higher. the s&p 500, 15 points higher. president biden's $2 trillion plan to rebuild the nation's infrastructure will also reshape the nation's economy. steve liesman joins us with a look at whether -- hard for me to get this out. a look at whether big government is back. steve? >> yes, joe, the $2.25 trillion biden spending plan would introduce a profound change to the economy. a four decade long decline in government investment that began in the reagan years, here's the graph. government investment in the

company, fallen from above 1% in the 1980s to .7. president biden highlighted this decline in his speech yesterday. >> we've fallen back the rest of the world is closing in, and closing in fast. we can't allow this to continue. american jobs plan is the biggest increase in our federal nondefense research and development spending on record. >> daniel jurgen whose book chronicles how we swing back and forth from private sector and government the frontier between government and the private sector is never fixed and it's always shifting biden certainly is pushing on top of the stimulus bill and a recovering economy would crowd

out private investment john ryding says we are going to have crowding out, that's what happens with an economy that gets to full capacity and then you demand for many it analysts tell me the spending will raisepy 0.2%, and gdp by 0.3% but reduce capital spending overall by 0.1%. a 2016 study from the congressional budget office estimates a 5% return on productive government investment, returns 5% but the debate's already begun about how much of the spending in this bill, with this expanded definition of infrastructure, will end up being productive joe? >> yeah, exactly what was that phrase, productive -- oh, let's not go there. >> yeah. >> all right thank you, steve. >> no, i think that's the debate, joe, i think we should go there. >> i wasn't going to go there in terms of calling an oxymoron

there are things the government is obviously very necessary for, obviously. but there -- you know, over the years and years and years of just watching things happen, there are things that it's not great at and where -- that's the argument of our time, steve, of what is more efficient with capital, the private sector where you need to, you know, watch your p's and q's to earn a profit versus where no one's really minding the store. and it's just, you know, $5,000 toilet seats and, you know, all this stuff we've seen in the past. >> right i would just argue, you know, you can say 115 for roads and bridges, but you can -- it's fair to have a more expanded view of infrastructure i mean -- >> okay, great. >> the idea of spending money on airports, on schools, on public transportation that's fair. the question becomes when you start putting in a bill like this, no that it's the wrong

priority, $400 billion for senior care and then there's the debate, i know where you stand on it, whether or not green energy ought to be an infrastructure priority. >> it's not economically -- >> no that it's not infrastructure. >> and we're talking about the effective use of capital and right now a lot of the costs associated with that transition are not as economically favorable of the way we do it now so is that the right way to force feed it to the grid, to force feed it to the ev space with all the subsidy doesn't make sense without subsidies. is that the right way to spend this really hard won capital that we have no extra of right now with everything else we're trying to do >> the return depends upon the value you put upon attacking global warming, or repairing those issues. >> there you go. >> if you don't see the return there, and don't see the issues and don't embrace them, then

it's impossible to appreciate the potential return. >> you don't think it's an actual crisis, climate crisis, climate justice. there's a lot of climate things i don't -- i don't know what climate justice is, steve. but anyway, we want it, i know that, it's a good thing. thank you. we'll be with you again. thanks, joe, when we come back, former sec chairman jay clayton on the arc helogos fallout. as we begin financial literacy month, here's his advice on why children should learn good money habits early on all children in america should be connected to our financial system as early as possible they should understand what it means to have a bank account, what it means to save for your retirement the earlier connected, the better off you are the later connected, the more disadvantaged you are. we need to level that playing field.

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the archegos fallout trades made by the fund which rattled parts of the market. one of many topix we within the to discuss this morning with jay clayton. great to see you, jay. i'm curious when you saw this news about archegos what your reaction was and what you think your reaction would have been if you were sitting back in the seat running the s.e.c. >> andrew, thank you for having me on and thank you for your attention and devotion to financial literacy in america. extremely important. and on archegos, i'm not going to jump ahead of the people now in that seat they're very competent they know what's going on. but more generally a situation like this, you have to ask yourself, okay, how did these positions get put on and why did they need to be unwound so

abruptly what was missed? that was what people will be looking at and they're complex, and they're complex when a single institution is involved. what i see is a fair amount of complexity here because from news reports you can tell that there are multiple institutions and unwinding that will be something that the folks at the sec and bank and regulators will want to know and risk managers and risk control systems are asking those questions internally. >> so jay -- >> probably as we speak. >> jay, do you think, though -- there's a couple issues here one is, family offices, should they require more disclosure there's some disclosure that's required that it appears they were not participating in, and that many actually don't so that's one issue on the table. there's the issue of things like total return swaps which again create disclosure problems because nobody seems to know how

large a position is being built and then there's a third issue of multiple prime brokers effectively lending and creating leverage, potentially on the same instruments without knowing what the other one is doing. how do we fix that >> let me speak generally, andrew, about information that's available in the marketplace what i think we've seen over the last three months or so with some of the so-called mean stocks, and this situation is, we do need to look at a modernization of the available information. for example, aggregate short positions, should they really be two weeks delayed? in the case of positions that people are using so-called 13f reports for. those are quite delayed and people are not using those reports for their intended purpose, they're using them for other purposes but are we best serving those other purposes now on swaps, dot frank -- title

7 of dot frank put in place a swap regulatory regime it took a long time for us, all of the regulators to get together and get that into place. that actually comes into effect this november, and there will be much more reporting to the sec and other authorities, the cftc around positions in swaps, how much capital, margining, how assets are segregated and the like but andrew you're right to ask these questions. we should always be looking to modernize our disclosure systems. >> were you surprised that certain banks were able to get out of these positions relatively unscathed and yet others like credit suisse need to be more materially challenged >> look, i don't know enough about what was going on at each of these places to give you insight here but what i did say at the outset, and i think you need to keep your eye on here is, when you have multiple parties involved in a situation

like this it does become more complex. each party is acting in its own interests. they're supposed to do that. but it has an aggregate effect. >> i want to touch on financial literacy in a moment but i want your thoughts on two other issues quickly if i could. one is, you and i have talked about bitcoin for a long time, you have more and more banks offering it either through galaxy digital or gray scale or something else goldman sachs planning to do something similar. none of this yet has been regulated in a meaningful way and it feels like the sec, at least under your watch, had decided not to necessarily take a position on it at what point do you think that regulators will have to take a position if you will >> well, andrew, it depends on the character of the particular instrument you're discussing bitcoin was decided not a

security before the time i got to the sec therefore the sec's jurisdiction over bitcoin was rather indirect its integration into the securities regulatory architecture that does not mean it should not be regulated in fact, where digital assets land at the end of the day, which is very much a wide range in question as you can tell from, well, just the opinions of you, joe and becky and the many guests you have on, will be driven in part by regulation, both domestic and international. and i expect, just speaking as a citizen now, i expect that regulation will come in this area both directly and indirectly, whether it's through how these are held at banks or securities or accounts, taxation and the like i mean, we will see this regulatory environment evolve. but it involves many different regulators, domestic and abroad.

>> right and then before we hit financial regulation just want to ask you quickly about spax we've seen that market become challenged in the past couple weeks after what was such a run. the sec coming out with some guidance and questions about spax just in the past, i think, now 48 hours curious what kinds of rules and regulations you think may be on the calm if you will. >> i commend the sec staff for the time i was there and since i've left jumping on this and trying to communicate to the investing public, and the sophisticated investing public understands how spax are different from traditional apos. you had a great article saying are we really looking at the alignment of interest here, retail investor, buying into the

securities, are the sponsors and the other constitutional investors with you for the long haul or exiting quickly? that's a different dynamic in spacs, but financial lit a, it's an age old financing question. if i'm getting into this, am i getting into it side by side with the people who know more than me, or getting out? those are two very different investments. >> to that point, it goes to financial literacy in some ways. to understand a spac or to understand, for example, the dilution of a spac, most people look at the filings on a spac, it could take you six hours to undo the math between how much the sponsor is getting as a promote, by the time that the $10 people are paying for a spac turn into about $6.41.

but most people, honestly, you know even professionals, this is a very hard thing. the question is why the sec and other regulators don't force, you know, very clear math on the page and just say it in english so that people can understand what's happening otherwise you're looking through the file and can't even find half this information unless you really know what you're looking for. >> andrew, i think, you know, to say that you could simplify each one of these into a few paragraphs, you would be underinclusive in many ways. you are driving at the right issues what is happening as i invest in this to the overall capital structure? this kind of question, to be very simple in financial literacy month, if you don't understand that you shouldn't be investing in this type of vehicle at that time there is going to be dilution, that people may be exiting,

those types of things. now at the end of the day, after you get through all that, you may decide it's a good investment but that happens in many transactions it's why looking at the disclosure and understanding what it means for the long-term investor is so important. >> jay, i want to speak directly about this great op-ed you have today focusing on the importance of financial education for the next generation, and just what we as a country need to do it's not -- you know, the disclosure is part of it but also being able to understand the disclosures is very meaningful. >> well, look, andrew, it is so important for people to understand early that financial decision-making is going to be part of your life. usually it comes in the form of credit rather than in investing out of the box, student loans, car loans and the like, understanding that those decisions are going to be part of your life and to make better decisions, to look at fees, costs and expenses, to minimize

those. and then turning to investing. look, i think we've seen a lot in, you know -- i liked jim cramer's comments on this, with the volatility we've seen with the meme stocks and archegos, i hope that the increase in investing we've seen people don't pull back as a result of this volatility and the losses that it causes because people need to invest for the long term. we've decided that you have individual responsibility for your retirement in america and i just encourage people to learn early, get started early andrew, when we get to town halls, when i was a chairman of the sec, the one thing that everybody said to me was i wish i knew more earlier and i wish i got started investing earlier. >> so how are we going to do that >> look -- >> what's the one thing you would do >> well, my op-ed says, hey, grandparents, pick up so many of the pieces, you do so many

things, i was lucky enough that my grandparents took the time to teach me about savings, credit and eventually the basics of investing, not the complicated stuff, but invest for the long term, watch taxes, watch fees, have a balanced portfolio, think about diversification. that's one thing start at home. you don't want children to be afraid of credit and we should have it in the schools look, investing, understanding your connection to the financial community is such an important part of american life. my own ideas, let's give every kid a bank account, get them started. >> jay, we very much appreciate you joining us this morning and we should encourage everybody to go read jay's piece. note that they're investors in acorns, a backer of this literacy program jay, great to see you, thanks very much. >> thanks, andrew, and happy birthday to your grandmother. >> it's my mother's birthday

today. happy berth day to my mother my grandmother turned 103 back in february. not a joke my mother was born on april 1st. happy birthday to my mom coming up, it's opening day for -- or is it reopening day? maybe a little bit of both for major league baseball. we're going to speak to boston red sox chairman tom werner about the changes the mlb has made, the return of fans and the reopening. up next the ceo of frontier air lines on the company's first day of trading on the nasdaq, "squawk box" coming right back. time for today's aflac trivia question. what dow component was originally known as blue ribbon sports the answer when cnbc "squawk box" continues

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what dow component was originally known as blue ribbon sports the answer, nike. >> duh of course it was nike. still to come on "squawk box," by the way you would know that if you read "shoe dog," so it's all full circle. anyway the ceo of frontier airlines, tom friedman and jennifer granholm talking about the president's infrastructure plan and robert reffkin big lineup still to come this morning. right now as we head to a quick break, let's check on the futures. this morning green arrows across the board. nasdaq up by 135 points. s&p up by 16 the dow up by 53 and "squawk box" will be right back

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box," i'm dominic chu. we want to call your attention to trends developing within the

markets in this first quarter of 2021 if you look at the s&p 500, the dow and nasdaq, the s&p 500 came within just touching distance of 4,000. right now the dow industrial is up 8% on a quarter year to date basis, the s&p up around 6% and the nasdaq lagging about 3% gains there for the nasdaq composite. with regard to the outperformers, it has been deeper cyclical economically sensitive value type trades that have outperformed so far energy is up nearly 30% as a sector the financial is up 15%, interest rate's a key part of that move. and some of the beaten up names outperforming so far in 2021 it's april fool's day but it's no joke if i told you that technology was one of the worst performing sectors so far in this young 2021, consumer staples only up 1% technology up a very modest 3% and utilities up 2% as well. and let's call your attention to four stocks in the pre-market on

the move because of analyst actions, take a look at facebook getting positive commentary from analysts at deutsche bank, uber, jeffries calls it their top reopening play so uber shares up about almost 2%. analysts at barclays think it's cheap relative to tesla, and goldman sachs off about three quarters of one percent. analysts say goldman is already reflecting a strong growth profile so maybe more balanced with regard to risk rewards. down about one-fourth percent. >> great to see you, dom, happy april fool's day. >> likewise, mr. sorkin. coming up, when we return, frontier airlines taking a flight at the nasdaq today speaking to its ceo of the state of the industry and what the low cost carrier expects travel to look like, check out the futures right now, two hours before the big open, we're in the green

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welcome back, everybody, low cost carrier frontier airlines going public today, trading under the ticker ulcc, frontier withdrew plans today but over the summer before filing again in march flightpassenger numbers continue to rebound, the number of passengers going through tsa over a million in 20 days in a row. joining us right now is barry biffle, president and ceo of frontier airlines. thanks for being with us this morning. >> thanks for having us. >> let's talk about this ipo, what it means, and why now what do you think so far >> well, look, you know, people love the story they love the company and we're better positioned than most companies, the leisure recovery comes back and the time is now because america's reopening. and we're best positioned to exploit all that demand that's pent up. >> you are seeing a return we've heard that prices are going to be going up, that more people are flying, and that

people are starting to feel better, especially as the vaccines really roll out across the country. what have you seen most recently, just in terms of passenger bookings, and the travel that's going through on frontier >> well, look, we're seeing the vaccine unlock that demand as everyone has expected. when we look at the month of march we went cash flow positive that's a reflection of the demand picture but it's just getting going. here we are in new york today, the quarantine restriction is gone and by memorial day it's going to be big. >> what can you tell me in terms of the bookings you're seeing, what is it now versus a month ago? >> a month ago we turned, at the beginning of march we turned cash positive but it's up considerably versus a few months ago, you know january and february it was very low, kind of at the height of the pandemic, but we've just seen that vaccine chip away at the fear of flying, if you will. and the fear of travel and people are getting back out. and so the demand is what's

driving us to be cash flow positive now. >> barry, the ipo priced at the low end of the expected range at $19, why do you think that is? >> well, look, i mean, i'm not an expert on this, but, look, there's been a lot of things going on on the market lately but people are excited about this story and excited about the company and our prospects, we're america's greenest airline and positioned a lot differently than a lot of other companies, when you look at the premier green brands like tesla, pat gonia, and frontier, what differentiates us and makes us a better play is we're the lowest cost for the consumer and the best for your wallet people are really excited about the story. >> what do you mean you're the greenest >> we're the greenest. >> based on what metrics. >> based on co 2, but principally 97 miles per gallon, per passenger, per seat, and that compares to industry in the 60s, considerably much more efficient. >> what do you guys do differently? >> all types of things we use the latest technology in modern aircraft, the air bus neo

is over half of our fleet but we fly it more efficiently and just every way that we operate the airline, we're very goshs about how little fuel we can get away with. >> that's a pretty big differential that your average versus the rest of other carriers' averages, what do you do to operate more efficiently i understand you might be flying a larger fleet using these newer jets but how do you fly them more efficiently than other people do? >> well, everything from avoiding congested times, congested airports, we, for example, we don't have as much food and beverage on board as you might normally expect. we have half the galley carts and even last week we introduced new seats that are a thousand pounds less per aircraft that alone saves us $30,000 in fuel each year per airplane so we're just always looking for ways to make the aircraft lighter and then how we actually operate it to burn less fuel

because there's many ways to get you from "a" to "b," but how much fuel you burn is what differentiates us and it really drives home all of the things that we do from an efficiency perspective that not only makes us lowest "x" fuel cost in 2019 but lowest from a fuel cost as well. >> how much of your business is people going on vacation versus business travelers i'd assume it's almost all vacationers, but am i right to think that >> that's right we're almost exclusively leisure, domestic. that's why today so many people are excited about frontier that's the type of travel that's bouncing back. >> are you using this time to expand into any other places part of the reason you're more efficient is because you're flying to less congested airports but we have seen some moves for others like united just said they're going to be flying between jfk and california again that's really tough to get into that they have the opportunity to get some of those slots there they hadn't been able to have for several years at this point. are you looking to expand

anywhere >> look, we're growing 10% to 15% every year and our fleet growth for the next seven years is pretty set. we'll actually potentially maybe add some more but we're always looking to grow. that's one of the things that makes us a great company. >> new routes though, or -- >> oh, of course, of course. >> or planes on the existing routes >> a little bit of both, but a lot more routes than existing flights on existing routes. >> what do you worry about i mean, things are looking good if these vaccines continue to roll out like this what -- are you concerned about a rise in covid again? we heard today about france shutting down for another three weeks and i realize you're not flying internationally, but do you worry about potential -- potentially a fourth wave here in the united states do you worry about oil prices continuing to climb if you don't see something like that? >> look, i mean, you're fortunate here in the united states, we're just way ahead of most of the world from a vaccine perspective. i don't worry about another wave

so much. i think the biggest challenge we have on a near term basis, becky, when you travel around the u.s. i've experienced this the last six to eight weeks, you go to check into a hotel, get service at a restaurant, everyone's understaffed so i think the recovery is has really caught people off guard at how fast it's coming back as far as oil prices, back to being america's greenest airline, we drink less fuel so we're much less immune to the shocks of oil and so forth. >> hey, barry, congratulations, it's great to see your success at the same time i have to ask, just because it's been an issue for the past year, taxpayers effectively helped bail you out. and i'm curious how you think about that, whether it was necessary in retrospect given the fact that here you are today going public and frankly whether the taxpayers should have gotten more for the support that they provided for you and clearly the wealth that will be created by

executives at the company and investors in the company. >> look, thanks, andrew, and i kind of expected this. i saw your article the other day and it was a great article but look great news here is the american taxpayer is winning we're back growing, we're back hiring every airplane that we bring in we have over 100 team frontier members that come in so great news, cares act worked. we're here the industry's here and we're here to support the economy coming back. but more importantly we'll pay every penny of that loan back plus interest. and you've got to remember, the u.s. taxpayer got stock warrants in frontier, and so today by ipo-ing, we're optimizing that return for an investment on the taxpayer and we couldn't be more excited about it. >> barry, want to thank you for your time today, and congratulations, once again. >> thanks for having us on. >> when we return, it is opening day for major league baseball,

boston red sox chairman tom werner, is discussing reopening of states, skbt business of baseball the economic markets will be closed for good friday's holiday. but "squawk box" will be open for business it is jobs friday and we have a great lineup leading up to the big number that's going to happen at 8:30 a.m. eastern time tomorrow we want you to join us for our regularly scheduled show from 00 t6:o 9:00 a.m. eastern time squawk returns right after this.

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welcome back, everybody, elon musk has been invited to join the board of directors at the company that owns the ufc, miami open, the new york fashion week and the miss universe pageant and all of the people that company represents. the company began as a talent agency, it's now planning to go public and it wants musk to be one of its 11 directors. musk will still need to be elected to the board investors in endeavor include elliott management and silver lake partners confirm the nomination of musk is not an april fools prank. so there you go. >> we started to talk about this earlier, beck. yeah, because andrew and -- i don't think that's not your agent, beck, but wme endeavor is our agent. >> no. >> and ari is like -- remember

johnny carson -- well, that's a long time ago. bombastic bushkin. >> entourage. >> yeah, from entourage, obviously. but some of the stuff we didn't mention, they're buying all of ufc, and ufc, i guess we didn't understand what a cash generator that was and how well it would do during the pandemic because it did and it really helped endeavor, which i don't know if you'd say it went through a difficult period but they made a lot of acquisitions, remember, andrew planned to go public and it was before the pandemic and the ipo market dried up. it dried up very quickly, and endeavor did not -- you know, the environment wasn't conducive to going public so they pulled that offering and they did have some debt then -- a lot of the partners were promised stock in a way of monetizing some of the holdings in the company and it was a bit of a setback because of market conditions more than anything so now able to go back

and much better times. >> it's so fascinating that the ufc piece of it has actually been the outperformer. if you remember what happened when covid first hit, and all of a sudden there were questions about what was happening or what would happen to endeavor part of it was this view that nobody would ever come back to events the ufc doubled down on ufc and that actually that was going to hurt other parts of the business of course other parts of the business hit by the fact that movies, you know, weren't being made and the like. >> right. >> so it's so interesting how all these things come full circle and almost counter intuitively so, given where people's heads were at the beginning of this and where they are now. that's almost happened across the board in the business world. >> i just like that they had to verify that this was not an april fools joke, that elon musk would be joining didn't occur to me, that's probably a good question to ask. >> not the ipo, the elon musk was a big headline they had other stuff too

rodeos and all that stuff. i actually rented one of those, the connor mcgregor fund, i lost money on that one, it's pretty compelling. >> but here is the question. if you are a shareholder of tesla, or a shareholder of spacex, or a shareholder of -- are you happy he's joining another board? he's a busy man. >> he's multitalented. >> even just tweeting is a job unto itself. >> yup well, i'm told we need to move on because it's -- maybe we'll return to this it's opening day, reopening day for the mlb this season shaping up to be a step towards a return to normal fenway park opens this afternoon at 12% capacity, but at least it's 12%, joining us now is tom werner, chairman of the boston red sox and fenway sports group tom, i was laughing a bit because these last couple days nothing going on, the ncaa,

that's not happening i looked at today. i had like 15 things i looked at and i know you're -- the red sox are starting out with the orioles. the over/under is 9 1/2, tom, we're expecting big things offensively from the red sox this year. will we see that >> well, we had a great spring training we're coming off of a somewhat mediocre season last year but i think we've upgraded our staff and our squad. and, you know, baseball in spring is always an exciting combination. i'm really excited we're having fans at fenway park. i know you mentioned that we only have 12% capacity but we haven't had fans at fenway park in 18 months i'm excited about opening day. >> yeah, you know trending, lot of people say they couldn't sleep last night it's always a great thing. and, you know, the baseball season was played last year but it will be great to get back to hopefully 162 games, and -- are

there still seven-inning double headers, tom is that still going to happen? >> that was a great idea putting someone on second base is that not a great idea in an extra innings game >> i think we've made some improvements to the content of the game and i think we're going to continue to make more improvements but i'm a big fan of seven inning double headers, and obviously i'm concerned about pace of play, and i think that that's a good step forward. >> when do you expect comps to be similar to what whe're used to by the end of the year, where do you think we'll be in terms of the stadium? >> i'm optimistic. i'm hopeful that by august that there will be a return to normal at fenway park and other venues. you know, i certainly don't have a crystal ball but we're hoping

that as you said the vaccine rollout continues to be expeditious, and i would certainly hope that by the end of the season stadiums will be at full capacity. >> you saw the nfl's streaming news and just the overall news of what sports content is worth. baseball's a little bit different. there's a lot more, obviously. but i think baseball might even be better in terms of local markets. are you going to be able to cash in on the sport itself, on just the voracious appetite for live events >> i do think that the bond that fans have with their local sports team is so strong in an era of disruption, sports really is must carry, whether it's the nfl or the nba, or mlb. and i'm looking forward to return to normal because the relationship that people have with their local sports team is

so strong that i'm excited about, you know, seeing those returns. >> tom, are you cautiously optimistic about the safety protocols that are put in will not cause the big long quarantines and, you know, rescheduling games, cancelling games, are we beyond that yet in terms of the pandemic, do you think, or will we see that scattered cancellations and players being in quarantine, things like that >> well, i certainly think that we've gone beyond where we were six months ago the protocols in baseball are very strong. the players are heeding them, they're quite extensive. but sure, i think there might be an occasional outbreak but i do think that it will be a rare event if some games are cancelled. >> how's the labor situation do we have years and years not to worry about things like that? is it a lot of harmony between

owners and players and salary caps and everything else what has been your experience with the red sox this year >> i think it's in everybody's best interest to come to an agreement with the players i know that there are conversations already starting between the commissioner and tony clark and i expect that we'll come to a resolution it's no nobody's best interest to have the business of baseball be on the front pages. you know, baseball is a thriving business before the pandemic i think revenues in baseball were above $10 billion. and it's going to continue to grow and it's in everybody's interest to resolve any of their disputes quickly, and quietly. >> do you guys sit around, and gals sit around talking about digital, and how to maximize in the new media world that we're in, and even, i don't know, gaming don't want to bring up pete

rose, but i like -- i think it's fun to try and figure out baseball i never win, but i think it's fun to try and figure out how to bet on baseball. that's going to be incrementally better, i think, as that expands, right >> well, we're certainly interested in finding the fan, the consumer, wherever he is, whether he's watching baseball on satellite or cable or his mobile phone and, you know, i know that there are going to be a lot of direct to consumer initiatives. but, you know, wherever the fan is at, hopefully we'll find he or she there. >> yeah, we -- who's pitching today? because i did look at the red sox, and i'm planning on, you know, i don't know, baltimore, are they any better this year? i should recuse myself because i do -- did put $3 on the red sox and i actually did take the under. do you think -- go ahead. >> as you know i can't bet on baseball but i think valdi will

pitch a great game today and we'll be off to a great start. >> and offensively there were some short falls last year i used to think -- i think of the red sox, and i think of -- i don't know, i think of a lot of runs and that didn't happen as much as i hoped last year. it's going to happen this year >> we're going to be strong offensively and hopefully better defensively. >> okay. any opinion on whether the reds are going to be any good this year we've got to go? >> reds are going to be good and the red sox will be good. >> all right, all right, wish we had more time. got some other teams to ask you about. the yankees have a lot of offense. anyway, thank you, tom werner, we'll be watching fenway i like saying fenway. >> come up and see us soon green monster. when we come back "the new york times," tom friedman will join us to talk president biden's infrastructure plan.

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good morning, welcome today one of q2. futures pointing higher as we get set to kick off the second quarter of trading president biden laying out a wide ranging $2 trillion

infrastructure package, we're going to dive deep into the potential pros and cons this hour, an interview with u.s. energy secretary, jennifer granholm is on the way, a conversation you don't want to miss. and then real estate tech firm compass pricing at an already reduced range, the obstacles the company faces with the company's ceo ahead of his first day of trading publicly. the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ good morning, and welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm joe kerner, along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin if you're just joining us, it's april fool's day, don't be the fool, do not have something happen to you where you realize it's april fools day

letting you know it's april fools day. i think we need to do that at the top of every hour. we have new viewers on the west coast and we're all susceptible to really looking silly if we believe something. >> this is news you can use. >> i feel like we're going to get gotten somehow over the next hour it hasn't happened yet. >> the producer just said in my ear, we've got to get moving and that had to be -- that was april fools, wasn't it i mean, really >> good luck with that. >> you kill me anyway, u.s. equity features -- >> i pity the fool. >> haven't you learned yet u.s. equity futures at this hour up about 20 points on the s&p, up 89 on the dow, up 150 on the nasdaq becky? >> see, we think we control things, that they can't make us say anything, that they can't shut us up i love it when they roll a break right over our heads. >> and they show us. >> exactly

we do have some breaking news from cvs health, the company says it has now administered more than 10 million covid-19 vaccine shots, including doses given at long-term care facilities 2,000 of its stores are giving out shots in 44 states, puerto rico and washington, d.c and it says that it now has the capacity to administer 25 million doses a month, of course that would be reliant on if they had the supply and the permission to operate in all 50 states they do say that vaccine appointments from black, hispanic and native american customers currently make up more than a third of all in store appointments, which cvs says is 12% above those groups baseline community representations, that stock is trading at 75.51, but it is good glimpse into how things are really rolling out and how they're ramping up it's the supercenters where you're getting the vaccines, it's the hospitals, but it's also all of these big box

retailers, from cvs, walgreens, walmart, rite-aid where they've been doing vaccinations and making things ready in people's communities. president biden unveiling a highly anticipated infrastructure plan saying that now is the time to do something big for an even bigger payoff in the future. >> if we act now, in 50 years people are going to look back and say this was the moment that america won the future what i'm proposing is a one-time capital investment of roughly $2 trillion in america's future, spread largely over eight years. we'll generate historic job growth, historic economic growth. >> joining us now to talk about the president's plan, the economy, and american competitiveness is "new york times" columnist tom friedman. tom's latest piece is the biden boom, the president has a chance

to supercharge the economy and tom, welcome it's good to see you. >> good to be with you guys. >> so i think the headline, and what we just read about your latest piece is enough to kind of see where you come down on this biden says that this is an investment in the future and it sounds like you agree with that. >> yeah, i think if it's done right, becky, it can absolutely be a great and necessary investment in the future you know, in particular if we keep it tightly focused in two ways the first is, let's focus on roads, rural broad band, ports, airports, the things that are actually the enabling tools of the economy. that would be the first thing. you know, the second is on making sure that we use the government in the right way here, which is that the government enable the private sector especially in the energy area. and where basically the government uses its buying power to buy power, to basically bring

technologies down the cost volume curve and then you let the private sector develop these technologies with the right performance standards. it's that combination that works best we've got to get each side doing the right thing. my one concern in the plan, and this was what my column was about yesterday, it's got to be a plan to enable capitalism. if you want to have a green economy, there's only one way you can have a truly green economy and that's if you have scale. and the only thing that gives you scale is the market, the private sector driving these things forward so if each side plays their right role i think this has great potential. >> tom, i think what you just laid out is something that most people would agree with, particularly the idea that we have got to spend on bridges, on roads, on ports, on airports, and on broad band. we've been talking about that since the show started at 6:00 a.m. this is a long overdue investment, something that we've been hearing about for years and

years, something that has never happened but i think people would take issue with whether this bill does everything that you just described, whether this bill lays it out the right way and whether you really need north of $2 trillion to make this investment happen. >> and i think that's all -- i see this, you know, biden's opening bid, i think it will be whittled down and reshaped, both by republicans and, i think, by conservative democrats as it's debated more publicly. so he's asked for the moon but i think there will be and should be and needs to be a real debate about how we focus this, and make sure we get the absolute bang for our buck becky, we're not going to get another chance to do another $2 trillion or $3 trillion plan we really have to get this right. >> you just said we're not going to get another chance to do a $2

trillion to $3 trillion. how is this whittled down? this is the downpayment on infrastructure, another one waiting in the wings that's going to do all kinds of things, propose things for child care and far beyond. >> yeah, for my money that should be down the road, right now. because to me, you really want to focus on the truly enabling infrastructure that can launch the private sector, that this has got to be about smart capitalism, you know, not democratic socialism, nothing else that's my approach, what i will be arguing for i'm not the author of the bill but that's what my column was trying to advocate you do that right, beck, i think this moment has great potential because think about it, never have more people had access to cheap high powered computing through the cloud than they have today. never have more things been digitized. we digitize like ten years worth of things in the last year

never have more people had access to capital and never have there been more problems to solve? so, you know, the raw material is there for a real explosion of creative destruction if we make sure the government doesn't overwhelm it, or doesn't shortchange it it's got to be done right. and that's what the debate's going to be about. you guys will be out there i'm going to be out there. the lawmakers are going to be out there. many people are going to weigh in and i think we all have to to make sure we get this as absolutely right as possible. >> the way things usually get done in congress is you keep putting more things in to scratch somebody else's back to convince them to vote for a bill, even though there are things in it that they don't like i don't think i've ever seen a real process legislatively succeed where you say, okay, what you just laid out is a very sound foundation for things, but when you do that you lose the elizabeth warrens, you lose the

bernie sanders, if you strip out some of those things honestly we've all watched this process take place the way it usually works to make sure that manchin is going to vote for this, a bunch of things he wants for manufacturing in his areas, for places that are coal manufacturing areas that we've already seen it, some of the proposals thathave been brought up to make sure that there's made in america and more manufacturing that's taking place there to ensure that he will vote for things that he has said he won't vote for i can see that playing out dozens of times as this bill kind of works its way through. >> yeah, look, we're going to see the full messiness of fork leyden democracy we always have i wasn't around in the 50s when we did the interstate highway system but i'm sure there was plenty of that going on at the time too but it did give us the kind of transportation infrastructure that we have today so you just hope the waste can be kept down to a minimum but this is really important

you know, china is hurdling ahead on these same kind of technologies if we want to be competitive we have to take this very, very seriously. there are ways of funding it too, which i would be looking at no gasoline tax, no carbon tax, only tax on basically corporate earnings we haven't raised the gasoline tax, becky, since 1993 it wasn't even indexed i just think -- i look at this as the opening of the discussion, and the president's asking for the moon, great but i'm going to do what i can to help it be an intelligent discussion, and not some pie in the sky thing. >> we're going to razise zero gs taxes when everybody's driving in ev, tom. >> it's going to be wild, joe, i wish everyone were driving ev. >> the richest tesla -- the tict

richest tesla drivers use all our roads and opponent pay anything in gas tax. >> ways to get around it, one is a carbon tax it's going to be a long time before we're all driving evs. >> do you think it's a good idea that we still force -- that's the journal's piece today, tom, i'm going to ask jennifer granholm about that too, that we force feed consumers evs, even when they're not still not really affordable for most people, and they're -- they don't make economic sense, or a lot of times if you're not in an urban area it's tough to envision if you have a long commute that you could use one. >> yeah, here's what i think, joe, this is a case where you use, again, the buying power of the government to drive down that technology, the cost volume curve. we've done that before in the past maybe a mandate that every government vehicle is going to be an ev you get the costs down where it can scale.

chevy, the volt, gm has announced they're going deep into evs, i don't think they're doing that as some green goopy charity measure, i think they really see the future there. the key is use the government's balance sheet to drive costs down and then let the private sector take over. >> and -- >> tom, i think we need you to keep shining a spotlight on this, the things that make sense and the things that don't. it's going to get complicated, it's going to get ugly thanks for your time talk to you soon about it. >> always, anytime, beck, thanks. as advertised, we're going to talk more about president biden's $2 trillion infrastructure package with u.s. secretary of energy jennifer granholm, who wha would the president's plan mean for a vulnerable electric grid and the key players in the industry. stay tuned

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the energy front, making sizable investments in the electric vehicle industry, also in jupgrading the u.s. electric grid and here to talk with us about that is energy secretary jennifer granholm. great to see you. >> thank you, great to be on.

>> we were talking to tom friedman about -- i think one of the things he wants us to do is make sure that we spend this as effectively and efficiently as we can, because that's the environment that we're in right now. so just a couple of ideas in terms of the grid and trying to improve it one of the initiatives, and i'm sure you had something to do with it, is to decarbonize the grid by 2035 which means you're going to need a lot of clean energy loaded onto the grid, which the journal points out, 20 gigawatts of high capacity power lines need to be built between california and texas, and that's a similar initiative was blocked by environmentalists from canada to the northeast for hydropower. is there going to be an issue trying to -- the same people that want to go green, there's a lot of regulations in trying to actually affect it how will you handle it >> you're right about the

regulations, there is a huge patchwork across the country how you get grid transmission to begin with it shares responsibility between state, locals, there's a lot of not in my backyardism, et cetera honestly we need to add capacity to the grid. we need to make it more resilient, and we need to make it cyberattack proof we need to make it secure. we need the investment in the transmission grid for a whole voert of reasons, including that there are increased climate events that are knocking power out more repeatedly every single year we pay $70 billion a year just in the costs of the power outages alone. so we need a better grid and we're going to make -- you know, we're going to do what we need to do to incentivize coordination to ensure we can get the siding if we get this through the congress, we will have the means to be able to bring our grid up

to speed for both capacity and for resilience. >> madam secretary, where were you on easing the national environmental policy act reviews? did you argue to do that it's been highlighted again and again how difficult, costly and how long it takes for these reviews to try and get anything done and -- democrats refuse to allow that, and, i mean, are you okay with how cumbersome it is -- these things you want to do. >> no. >> didn't you argue maybe they were going to -- >> i hate democracy. i hate it. it's really important, the government is nimble, the government is flexible that government is efficient and quick. that's true all the way through. so i think we need to do, and we are doing internally from a value stream mapping process, where are the areas of redundancy what is taking us so long. can we collapse permitting times, can we have reciprocity

yeah, we need to speed things up and that's part of what can be incentivized, both at the state and local level as well as the federal level. as i say, we have a patchwork. this is what america is, it's the beautiful part of america. but it's also means that there are overlapping jurisdictions that need to coordinate better, to streamline more, so that it's more efficient. >> it's been pointed out that trying to transition our economy to electric vehicles, at this point, they're not as economically -- you know, it's not as easy to run one as it is to do the existing structure that we have. >> i don't know, you obviously do not have an ev. i have had an electric vehicle now for six years. now, i lease it, and i lease solar panels on my roof. and it is -- i drive a chevy volt it is the best car i have ever had. >> but it still needs subsidies from the government to make it

economically feasible. >> here's what i would say, honest this is a great question because of the investments we've made in research and development. i mean the department of energy is oversees 17 national labs and a lot of them are working on bringing down costs, right, and the private sector obviously teamed on this the cost of the battery, which is the biggest expense in an electric vehicle, has dropped 90% since 2010 and it's going to continue to drop so you're going to see a point where the actual up front cost of the ev, of the electric vehicle is the same price as a traditional vehicle, you're seeing it now. you're seeing obviously much lower entrance into the market, it's gm, ford, tesla is working on and on top of that, the savings that you have from plugging in versus gassing up is enormous it's $600 a year for your average citizen. so it is a much better alternative, and people will start to see that more and more. you're right in that, the uptake

hasn't been as great because the infrastructure across the country hasn't been there and that's part of what this american jobs plan is seeking to resolve. >> seems like a gas tax, always d you know, that's worked in the past those are the people that, you know, a usage tax. but you, you've got -- you'll get around that. i don't know, maybe you need to contribute some money because you won't be paying the gas tax. is that why you got that volt, madam secretary? >> i got the volt because i wanted to do my part and i love them, i'm telling you, it's such a great car. but, you know, this whole point about paying for the infrastructure is an important point, right, and the president put forward a plan to be able to do that. that does not include a gas tax. but going down the road, we have to figure out how do we fund this infrastructure on an ongoing basis? it's a very good point. >> madam secretary, thank you, great to have you on, hope to see a lot of you as we move forward because it's -- >> thanks so much.

>> we've got a lot of money to spend and spend it right. >> exactly. >> okay, great, thanks. let's now welcome another voice on infrastructure and on the plant itself, dan clifton. you want to spend time talking about what we're spending it on or how we're raising the money to spend it, dan, i think both issues, you wrote about recently. >> yeah, we can do both and good morning, joe you know, i think in a post covid world we've had an unlimited credit card of government spending to make sure we dealt with the pandemic we've done $5 trillion of stimulus and we haven't paid for any of it. now we're at a new turning point here we've put forward a new spending plan yesterday and it's going to have a lot of spinach. the way i like to talk about it is we were doing a lot of candy, no spinach, now we're getting some candy, and we're starting to get some real spinach here with these tax increases we have to say to ourselves, what is the net effect of not

just this plan, but you know there's another one coming on april 12th or april 19th that's going to be another series of spending in tax increases, and what does that mean for the u.s. economy moving forward and i would argue that we're going to see more tax increases than government spending best on that plan that we saw yesterday, the infrastructure spending, the secretary was just talking about, has a very long lag time to be spent. it takes years for that money to come out, we learned that with obama in 2009. but that's really been true for the last 50 or 60 years in the united states. and the tax increases are immediate. and some of these tax increases, while they may look manageable, you're talking about a trillion dollars on u.s. multinational foreign income, you're talking about almost $2 trillion of tax increases over 15 years, and that's going to impact earnings per share on s&p 500 companies, that's going to impact competitiveness, and overall i

think it's going to be annette drag to the u.s. economy, both in 2022 and 2023 all else being equal there could be a situation where members of congress delay some of those tax increases from coming into effect because they're worried about those tax increases in the midterm election year but even if those tax increases don't come into effect we're probably still going to see a fiscal drag just because we did almost $3 trillion of stimulus this year and that's going to be very hard to replace next year look at the actual spending, where is that spending focused well, 115 billion is on highways of the $2 trillion that's the traditional infrastructure in washington, and there may be some good reasons to do grid modernization, and have a utility capex cycle which is probably going to come and benefit industrial stocks, i think there's a continued push for renewable energy, talking about almost $200 billion for charging stations of evs it's going to have an impact and it's going to benefit the

companies that are in that area, but there will be fewer companies that get that money than companies that get tax increases, and overall this is going to be annette drag to the u.s. economy, least in the short run, joe. >> in the short run, that's the question because that's not the way it's being sold. >> exactly, yup. >> so for how long -- how many years will it be a drag before it starts paying off, if it ever does >> you know, we'll know more once we see the biden budget and the way they latha spending out. but rule of thumb, know, is that for every dollar allocated on infrastructure, only 20% come out in the first year. so they're arguing they want to do about, you know, i don't know, $200 billion per year in infrastructure, somewhere in that range and so you take 20% of that, that means you get about $40 billion in the first year, you'll get $80 billion in the second year. it takes a couple years for it to really ramp up and get to the level that's being authorized. the reason that happens is, you've got a plan, you've got to get permits, you've got to do

the site designs, the architecture all that stuff takes a lot of time and it may increase productivity don't think you'll see this money immediately in 2022, and even in 2023. >> i don't know if we have time to go into your calculation of the taxes on corporate income, and what it goes up to but that's a disturbing number, 62.7, the highest in the oecd. >> that's correct. >> that can't help, can it >> it doesn't help at all. i mean, look, it's one thing to say, okay, we're going to raise the rate to 28% but you're also raising the dividend rate to 40%. that means the effective tax rate on profits is almost 70%, and it makes the u.s. totally uncompetitive. and i think the point is that after we improved our international tax laws to bring us in line with the rest of the world we had over $1.6 trillion

of company repinvesting in america. i think you're going to see less of this if those international tax increases on u.s. companies. >> you're saying terrible things way too partisan for us, all these numbers and stuff. but anyway, thanks no, i know these are actual numbers but i know -- >> actual numbers, joe. >> that's what i'm going to get on twitter. coming up, we'll have you back breaking initial jobless -- we'll try to fix it. dave doesn't need a posh virtual receptionist, because he cloned himself. while his clone watches the phones,

dave can work on his code. and lead his team. dave trusts his clone like he trusts himself. so, in summary, we're going to sell the company. who's in favor?... perfect. but if cloning isn't an option for you, just get posh. virtual receptionists who can answer and transfer your calls, because you can't be in two places at once.

welcome back to "squawk box. we're live on the cmehx, most recent read on continuing claims, 719,000 on initial claims, a move in the wrong direction. our last look was 684,000. we popped back above that 700,000 mark and 795,000 was the previous record high before covid hit if we look at continuing claims,

well, it's pretty much a push. 3,794,000 is a bit higher than last look, but it's darn close these are pretty good numbers, especially on continuing claims. there's the emergency programs that we don't get in the same fashion that have been stubbornly high and arguably we're still 9 million jobs shy. but various parts of the country have not been allowed to reopen. they are reopening things will continue to get better, of course. and just to give everyone an idea of the last time we were roughly at these levels, you know the second week in march is when we saw some of these levels really pick up, especially on continuing claims. that's when they popped over 3 million. the week prior to that they were under 1.8 million. so that was the week it all seemed to happen we still have ism national nushl an -- number, and we have the big infrastructure plan coming we could debate that

i found it interesting that the gasoline tax, of course, wasn't raised, even though many states seem to want to get rid of gasoline entirely. andrew, back to you. >> rick, thank you for that. meantime, get over to our good friend steve liesman as well to get his analysis of all this steve? >> yeah, another area of agreement between me and rick right there, the idea that gas tax should be raised if you're going to pay for infrastructure. makes a lot of sense let's get to the claims data again, there's two tracks of numbers here in time we have the current data, which rick just gave you let me give you some of the detailed data we only get with a week or two lag. that shows some improvement in the extra plans relative to the pandemic the pandemic unemployment assistance, that's for gig workers, that went down for -- call it 400,000. pandemic emergency assistance, those are extended benefits, that went down total number on getting some form of benefit is for the week of march 13th. so you notice how i have to talk

in the past here down 18.2 million from 19.7. so making some progress on the total. we'll see if that continues with perhaps, guys, this little rise we've had, or i don't know, people have called it the shoulder of the second wave or the third wave here. that maybe you have some stalling in the rebound but we certainly see these numbers come down in the past, though, the total number is coming down, and that's a positive sign there becky? >> steve, i'm not allowed to do any cross talk answer really, really quickly, you think we'll get a million jobs -- >> seven. >> for the month tomorrow, based on -- what's that? >> i think there's some high frequency data, yes, that points to that, several economists pointing to it the average is 675,000 but quite a few people at a million. >> okay, thanks, steve, we'll see you later. >> thanks. when we return the ceo of real estate tech firm compass will join us ahead of the company's expected first public

trade today. compass pricing its ipo at the low end of an already downsized nge. state-of-the-art but dependable. in other words, you want a hybrid. so do telcos. that's why they're going hybrid with ibm. a hybrid cloud approach with watson ai helps them roll out new innovations anywhere without losing speed. from telco to transportation, businesses are going with a smarter hybrid cloud, using the tools, platform and expertise of ibm. good work little buddy. ♪ ♪ ♪ 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.

as more americans get vaccinated employers are trying to figure out how to bring their workers back to the office meg terrell spoke to public health experts about when and how it will be safe. meg, what did you learn? >> well, becky, we've been hearing from a lot of companies, even this week, starting to think about bringing workers back fairly soon, mainly in the tech pace. google is planning to reopen offices on a limited basis in april. we also heard about microsoft, uber and facebook this week. all in a very limited way but over the coming months going into the spring, summer and fall, we're really going to see employers start to do this i talked with dr. fauci earlier this week about what level he'd like to see cases at before offices really start to bring employees back in a big way. he said 10,000 cases a day would be the threshold he'd be looking for, and i spoke with dr. jha at the nbc at work conference this week putting covid around the

same level as a normal flu season we talked about the importance of vaccinations in this entire picture. here's what he said. >> if everybody was vaccinated it makes the work environment dramatically safer if 20% of your employees are not vaccinated it's going to be much, much harder to bring people back in person. that's an issue that employers are going to have to deal with and a cost that they're going to have to manage. >> most employers are very reluctant to mandate vaccines. only 3% plan to mandate them whereas 57% said they're going to strongly encourage them and in our conversations with companies, that really seems to be the goal, strongly encourage employees to get vaccinated. but as of now, not require it. dr. jha did say, even though we're at 60,000 cases per day now in the u.s. he does think by the summer that 10,000 case a day threshold is possible, if vaccination rates keep going the way they are

becky? >> meg, it's tough to consider mandating a vaccine that still has the emergency use authorization. we heard from pfizer that they're going to be potentially pushing forward, and asking for that full authorization quickly. will that change the game? because employers may be reluctant right now, but if you have, let's say, 20% of your work force, as you were just mentioning who says they don't want to get vaccinated which is what i hear from several ceos, that's roughly what they hear back is 20% say no thanks. would that change their minds, do you think, or what do any of those public health officials that you talk to say, should that change their mind >> we'll have to see if it actually changes their mind. we hear a lot of talk about emergency use authorization being a reason not to mandate the vaccines, even though it could be legal to do so but we talked with lockheed martin's head of h.r. yesterday and he was saying vaccines can be a tough topic, you know, mandating them is not something that they feel like doing right nowand h

didn't say anything about the fact that it was only cleared under an eua it was really more about sort of the sensitive nature of mandating a vaccine and he even cited flu vaccines that can be difficult. it might be an uphill battle to do that, and employers really seem to be counting on encouraging their employees to get vaccinated instead of requiring it >> meg, thank you. good to see you. coming up, when we return, we're going to talk about the tight housing market an ipo coming to market today with the ceo of real estate tech firm compass stay tuned, an interview you don't want to miss you're watching squawk on cnbc

welcome back, real estate tech firm compass is set to begin trading on the new york stock exchange today, selling shares at $18 a piece. the low end of the range, already downsized. joining us to talk about all this, robert reffkin, the compass founder and ceo. dprachlation dprachlation -- congratulations to you on this milestone we've been following the creation of this since the beginning. it's great to see you on this day. when we introduced you, robert, we called this a tech real estate firm. the biggest question, whether they should be valuing this company as a tech firm or real estate firm. >> let me start, andrew, by

saying, thank you. you brought us on the show eight years ago after our first fund raise, a small group of entrepreneurs with big dreams in a tiny office in new york city and now eight years later we are the largest independent real estate brokerage firm in the country, serving over 20,000 agents, we're helping hundreds of thousands of buyers and sellers every year in hundreds of cities across the country so i couldn't be more grateful to you, thank you. now, on your question -- >> we love a great success story. it's great to see you succeeding but as now public investors have the opportunity to make a bet on that success, i think there are other questions that we'd love to try to get your sense about in terms of the future of this business and, again, this issue of how to value the company. >> so we're valued today at $9 billion, which is more of a tech valuation than a brokerage firm valuation. that said i'm excited to earn a higher valuation over time and the way we're going to earn that is by creating value for agents. when we create value for agents,

our customers, that creates value for shareholders agents are the largest group, 2 million strong, ceos, business owners, third party designers, extensive marketing plans, working with multiple buyers and sellers at the same time facilitating this transaction end to end and they need an end to end platform to operate their business and realize their potential. in the current environment there are 86,000 brokeeak raj firms a 700 software providers they have to use nine different software providers to execute their business compass is building the modern one stop shop to help them grow their business and the results speak for themselves the average agent that comes to compass grows their business 90% after their first year we have better outcomes for clients with our agents selling homes 21% fewer days on market, and because of these outcomes we have industry leading agent retention. we retain our agents at meaningfully above 90% every

year that we've existed across every cohort. >> robert, speak to this, because one of the questions that people have is you've spent enormous amount of money over the years and lost money in the process, of course, bringing on agents effectively buying agents, bringing them on from other places and the question is, how long did those agents, "a," stay with you you've talked about the agents staying with us, some of them are paid to stay what that looks like long term and your ability to grow without necessarily offer egg those incentives in the future. >> anyone that thinks agents move for money doesn't know agents they don't move for economics, they move for opportunity. these are business owners that want to grow their business, and better serve their clients they love their clients. they care more about their clients than anything else and they want to get a company that gives them the tools to succeed and serve their clients the best of their potential. the vast majority of our agents are free agents, they can move anywhere anytime they want if there's a stat to look at

it's agent retention where it's meaningfully above 90% across every year we've existed and across every cohort. >> but as you've grown you have continued to offer those incentives do you anticipate continuing to offer those incentives that's what clearly, at least it appears to me, to be -- eats into the opportunity for profit. >> so the splits that we offer are just incentive split of 1% to 2% on average for on average, one to two years, they're free agents and there's a transition budget because the former companies hold onto certain economics that they have in a move and so you have to offset some of those economics but, again, it's more of a transition budget to rebrand and remarket them. there are 20 signs in the street that had a different company now they need 20 signs in a street to say compass. to rebrand them. those incentives have gone down

20% in the last few years. >> what is the path to profitability and what kind of timeline do you put on that? >> we have a clear path to profitability in this capital raise gives us everything we need to succeed there. we're still going to grow but we're going to grow more efficiently, and you can see from our s1 that losses are narrowing. we have a very clear path to profitability. >> if we had this conversation two years would we be in the black? >> i think in 2023 you will see a profitable company. >> and just so we understand in terms of the tech piece of this, because i've read a lot about it and talked to various people about it, what is different between your platform, for example, and what a realigy, which ratrades like a brokerage firm, in terms of multiple what's the difference between your technology, their

technology and what others in the same space are trying to do from a technological perspective? >> glad you asked, andrew. there's 86,000 brokerage firms across the country the vast majority of them are boutiques. and so they're taking third party software providers, and trying to integrate them into their internet and giving it to their agents to the best of their ability but they don't have proprietary code. we are building a proprietary one stop solution to meet all of the agent needs. the brokerage firm 30 years ago did the job very well, all the agent work flow was going through the company but over the last 30 years technology has empowered every profession to accomplish more. in that technology has taken much of the agent work flow outside of the brokerage firm, you have crms, digital ads, digital news letters, digital marketing, you have external search, you have home valuation tools. that didn't exist 30 years ago the agent now, in a traditional

brokerage firm is forced to use nine different software providers on average 13 open house apps 11 search apps 35 real estate crms. they deserve a one stop shop to meet all their needs in one pla. if you're a merchant, you can meet all of your needs on shopify a vertically integrated solution to help you manage and grow your business agents deserve the same. >> question, as a former banker, would you say you were the former chief of staff to gary cohen at goldman sachs many years ago, what is a successful ipo today? there is always a gaetdebate ab. if a stock goes up 10 or 20%, you leave money on the table and if the stock goes down, you hurt the investor, and what is the right answer >> a successful ipo has two objective, the capital we ned to grow and meet our goals. >> from that perspective we are

very successful. and two, it allows the investors that came in to have success every investor that ever invested in compass, that took a bet to believe in compass, with this ipo, they're realizing success, and i'm confident that these investors are going to realize the same success in their investment over time as well. >> robert redkin, thanks for joining us i will tell you when i first met you, i won't say who, but there was somebody who stood next to me and whispered in my ear and they said that guy is going some place, that was about ten years ago, and good to see you today, we wish you lots of luck. >> thank you very much. >> you bet >> joe >> andrew, figure that out, why can't you disclose that information? >> let's get to cnbc headquarters jim cramer joins us now. you don't whisper in andrew's ear, you tell everyone on national tv what's going on. >> what's going on, it is his mother's birthday. >> thanks, jim

>> andrew is going to be happy to hear that. >> i love that stuff what can i say i love that. these are real life things >> 103 >> 103 good genes >> another 83 years of andrew. >> thanks. >> well, yes, i got to be right there with him both of us do, as a matter of fact >> that's true >> you've been quiet today, tweeting, i think, you've been jimmy chill? >> well chill is trying to do, we have an interview at 9:00 that i think could be a significant one with adam aaron and so i'm trying to do a little work on the motion picture business and how many people are going to the theaters i've not gone yet. candidly, i've eaten dinner once inside i've got the moderna but i don't know, i don't know if you guys are going out yet. i'm still a little reluctant >> i have been pretty consistent, i mean i never stopped, basically, but this is

in different states and stuff. until new jersey got, you know, you know, we couldn't, for a long time in new jersey, but once we could, once we could, and you went the route outside. >> and then inside >> roots inside? >> fantastic. >> gallagher's here, three, four, five months ago and there was no one, it was very pleasurable. their waiter was totally masked up, we go in masked and no one near us, ceilings are high, so you know, it has been -- i have not been to a movie either but i need more content at home, jim so that's been a problem, because it's hard to make content right now. >> true. >> mlb content today. >> you know, my wife and i go out for date night, we want to go to the movie, it's just so much fun because we're popcorn and raisinette people and sit there and kind of a vacation and our movie theater closed, but i think we'll go out to route 22,

jim. >> yes >> goobers and raisinettes, jim or just raisinetts. >> that's kind of like hydrogen power versus pure power and i got to go with battery power. >> okay. >> i have a weakness for dots. >> do you have a dentist in your family >> i know. does it look like there's a dentist in my family i get a lot of that. people call me michael strahan who got his gap fixed. >> that was distinguishing >> there are many distinguishing characteristics and his hands are three times the size of my hands. that's part of his shtick. >> what should i do? >> i've been debating the align technology product frankly. >> i'm aligned >> you have those ones that you put in

>> strahan is the best >> isn't he? >> thanks, jim. >> thank you >> off track we will come back in a couple of minutes, stocks to watch on the first day of the second quarter.

well, here we go it's just about a half hour away until the opening bell on wall street dom chu is here checking out some of the top pre-market movers dom, what is catching your fancy this morning >> so here's what we've got. we've got some analyst calls out this morning that are driving some of the stuff in the pre-market you've got goldman sachs shares just falling fractionally right now, around 25,000 shares of volume so the team at ubs is now downgrading goldman to a neutral rating it was a buy and raised the price target at the same time to 340

it was 320 they say the ralliment shares already reflects a strong outlook for the investment banking giant and there is the possibility for more regulatory risk down the line so those shares off three quarters of 1%. another big call to watch is on disney which is up fractionally pre-market, roughly 90,000 shares of volume the media giant is called a top idea by analysts at bank of america, buy rated, $223 price target and more traffic coming to theme parks as expected and a defensive play given the strength to direct to consumer and streaming video, the shares up one quarter of 1% and move on nio, up 6% nearly three million shares of volume nio basically said it delivered 7,257 vehicles in march. that's 373% higher than the same time last year but let's remember, becky, that stock has already lost over 40% of its value from its peak earlier this year because of some of the concerns partly about production and deliveries as well.

so a few green ones out there for the day. >> dom, when you cut your rating but raise your price target, that's kind of an admission that we missed the run to this point? >> right >> it's a mia call.a little bit. but still a buy rated stock so we'll see what happens there. >> by the way, folks, make sure you join us tomorrow, the big jobs report that is happening on "squawk box. we will be here. we hope you are, too right now, time for "squawk on the street." good thursday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla, with jim cramer david faber has the morning off. first day of april, and q2, as markets process news on infrastructure, tax policy, some mixed news on vaccines, jobless claims, run a bit hot, ahead of jobs friday tomorrow, when stocks are closed. our road map begins with the new month. stocks are set for a higher open plus pfizer says its vaccine lasts at