>> rupal, thank you for your perspective, contrarian views but a good contrarian, we appreciate you joining us this morning and commenting on this letter and everything else we will see you all tomorrow and make sure you join us tomorrow, "squawk on the street" begins right now good wednesday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla, with jim cramer and david faber futures do indicate a little more grind this morning, after yesterday's action, jamie dimon's annual letter getting much of the attention this morning as he outlines the u.s. economic boom, infrastructure, and a lot more we're going to get to that our road map will begin with that so-called goldilocks moment, the jpmorgan ceo says the boom could last to 2023 and ron goldman sees limited long term damage to the economy. jeff bezos backs corporate

tax hikes, the amazon chair says infrastructure investments will require concessions from all sides. and coming up later this hour, an exclusive video with exxonmobil ceo darren woods. let's dive into this let area little bit more, guys jim i know you were talking about it with andrew, joe and becky, he talks about obviously where he sees macro going but there's a lot more in there on the nature of remote work, and the risks to banks, which he says are coming from every angle. >> there's an amazing moment, actually, there's two moments, where jamie just talks about, using his first name as a person of the month, and talking about the challenge, and he mentions facebook and alphabet and google and he talks about apple and then walmart and one of the things that's amazing about this, he says look, he's not talking about paypal and square which i would have, but he basically says these guys have such an edge over us, we are so heavily

regulated they can do whatever they want and what is interesting is they haven't done it yet i'm still waiting for the facebook bank, and the alpha-bank, but he is preparing for it, and he does say look, we can't do a lot of the things that you want us to do, because we're not allowed to and it was, i don't think it was a plea for less regulation for him, don't we want to regulate those guys, too? it was a great moment. because he's thought about what the future looks like. and these are all cloud-based companies, which he understands have just such an edge over him. so you know, the only one that doesn't have an edge on him, david, is netflix. he didn't talk about netflix but he is a real faang specialist >> listen, the theme of him being scared, so to speak, of fintech is, you know, not one lost on our viewers. you can go back to earlier this

year, i think it was on the earnings conference call, wasn't it, jim, where he talks specifically, as i recall, about plan, remember, of course, once going to be acquired by visa, very happy that deal got opposed by the d.o.j. because the valuation of the company has more than doubled from the value that visa was going to pay to buy it, so this is not, and again, we're going to get back to sort of dimon's comments about the general economy, but you're right, he's been pushing on this for a while. clearly trying to communicate in some fashion that they would like to be freed up to be able to compete more aggressively in this area. >> look, it's one of those things where ifyou're trying t figure out stocks, it's the most poignant stock moment because what it says you should be willing to pay a lot more for those companies because those companies have the edge and it is interesting to see that walmart was included obviously a brick and mortar company like the one he has. carl, there are so many moments in the letter where he talks about what could really hurt our country is inequality. i know we're focussed on the boom of 2023, but i think he's

focused on the fact that unless we get some real equality in this country, we could be doomed to be a second class country the way china currently views us there's a lot of discussion about china. and whether they believe that we really are second rate which they do. and whether we can change and not be second rate he even goes to the point of, look, we have to go back, not to the constitution, but to the federalist papers, to understand what it means to have equality in our country carl, it was around the remarkable note, this is the bank, and the banker means, i'd say five or six things, that his clients really want. and what the 17,000 lobbyists want it's every one of the things, carl, that you would just define as being gordon, and then people are saying, well, look, he makes 31 million okay, he delivered and in corporate america, if you deliver, you do get paid but carl, i just think he kind of lays it out, that just says

we're done if we do not make this country equal, including two references to george floyd's murder, not to what happened to george floyd but murder, horrific murder, on the eve of what i imagine will be judgment day. >> you're talking about a verdict in minneapolis, is that what you mean? >> yes, but jamie has already declared the verdict and twice. this is really a plea to hold people accountable as they give and try to figure out how to make the poor equal, and he doesn't mince terms. it's black and latino. it's fresh air because he's talking about tax breaks for golf courses and horse racing and private jets and he doesn't like them, he doesn't want them and as a private client of jpmorgan, i read that and i say well, he's against my interests but he's saying don't be selfish, i'm with him david, i'm with him when he says that maybe, i know this is going

to hurt, that salt is something that is selfish. it's selfish >> it may be, but it may also result in people continuing to leave new york and other high tax takes as a result of their inability to be able to adopt their state and local income taxes which keep going up and by the way if doesn't mean that mr. dimon will not lose jobs to lower cost places or lower cost jurisdictions if it means it will be better overall for the bank. >> and the first part of the question, i don't want to mince, how great the shareholders do, and how great the people who work there do, so yes, i think that some people can very easily say this is a man filled with contradiction, he says one thing and then he urges another. i think he's wrestling, carl, he's wrestling with the idea literally, this is an existential letter and i'm not kidding. and he's wrestling with the idea that he wants to do what's best

for his shareholders, which is not necessarily what's best for the country. and the last 20 beiges , 20 pags are about the country. if you go with that, his company makes less money, and he makes less money and the poor are able to pull up by their boot strats with the help of government and big business. >> and it is ant thet cal, carl, to what a banker typically wants, certainly what a republican wants and i would each go so far as to say even what the president wants it's that, i don't want to put left wing, i just want to say, if you take him at face value, he is saying this country must change, and we all have to do our part, and doing our part, carl, makes for people like me a lot less money, and look, like i said, it's existential, and i just think that he's made a lot of points that made me soul search and it's a bank letter but the most soul searching thing i've seen from a business person, i don't know, whoo

>> yeah, it's definitely layered on multiple fronts, guys, he talks about the role of the ceo, and the corporation, that you earn your customers' trust by, in his words acting morally and ethically, but on a remote work day, we've been talking about the cost reset that corporates are going to do when it comes to office space and clearly jpm is going to be one of those but he says remote work virtually eliminates spontaneous learning, and creativity, because you don't run into people at the coffee machine heavy reliance on zoom actually slows down decision making, he says, because there's little immediate follow-up. >> yeah, it gets back to this continued debate we're going to have as to how many people are going to fully return to the office i think certainly, you talk to executives like mr. dimon, what you will hear is exactly that, that culture is important, that particularly when it comes to the younger people, who are hired, whether they're the new hires, or simply early in their

career, it's vital that they be in the office, because that is where you learn, that is where you inculcate some of the culture of the company, and that is where, to his point, you know, things that are unexpected can occur. so you're going to continue to hear that, and i think mr. dimon, as we know mr. solomon at goldman sachs, you go on and on, through any of the big bank, certainly the ones in new york and the blackstones of the world, they want people back they want the younger people back in particular because they think it is vital to their franchise, jim the question continues to be, on this larger conversation that we continue to have, what about sort of the middle layer and even upper layers? how many people are not going to feel as though they have to be back all the time? and i think we can certainly agree that you're not going to have people coming in five days a week who previously did because they feel like well, i can essentially do the same job from my home, at least once or twice a week. >> let's take their gigantic

retail conference with matt boss, all of the major retailers, you want to meet them, you want to meet the ceos, but you can't. i mean there's just zoom interaction. and you don't really know what's going on, why gap is up so much, you don't know why, how come we're starting to see a move in american eagle the health care conference, the big health care conference, i mean i was in the hall, i met this guy, he just grabbed me, he said look, i got this great technology and you won't believe it and we're going to be able to do this vaccine and it's really amazing, it was bansell, it was moderna, the stock was at 17, how do you do that, david? you can't meet people. you can't do deals you can't learn. >> right you're right and that's why i think for the most part, many people are going to go back and you're going to have, you're not going to be able to do investment conferences via zoom forever. >> no. >> when there's the ability to actually be back interacting

with people which should be ly in the year, one would imagine will be fully in person, and even people not wearing masks, we hope, jim you know, that i think will be an expectation but again, sort of back to okay, all fair, but will things really return to the levels they were in, in 2019, in terms of corporate travel, in terms of people going back to the office? it's very much unclear that it will you know, there is, there has been a significant change that we have all adapted to, over the last 12, 13 months. >> carl, i am searching for something that shows that i'm vaccinated new york state sent me something today, a piece of paper, well, i take it wherever i go, but then the idea that there is a vaccine passport, it has become the, it has become a total hot button and yet i want to put a sign in my restaurant, no shoes, no

socks, no vaccine, no service. i have employees, i have other patrons who want to be sure they're not going to get sick. i have gotten blowback from this sign that i want to put up, as if i, one person said jim, you're a communist, no, i'm a capitalist, i want to get more people in the restaurant. >> reopening when's the open? >> may 5th i think it has to be a private party. >> well, i'm going to be there carl's going to be there i'm fully vaccinated so i'm ready. >> then you're in. >> that's a month away. >> you're in. >> i'm counting down. >> look, i just ordered new chairs i mean you got to give me a break. i mean carl, this is a country that's so influx that i think that there are people in this country who say if you vaccinate me, you are violating my civil liberties. and what, i want to say, you can't come to bar san miguel and somehow that is an issue on twitter. well, there you go you don't have to come to bar

san miguel okay go eat at taco bell. someone recommended yum yesterday with a 118 price target go eat at taco bell. see how it is. i prefer kript going to 15, chipotle going to 1500 right now. >> route gers, brown university, rutgers, brown university will require kids to be vaccinated if you want to go to school there in the fall, i'm not sure how much different than being margarita, getting a margarita at your restaurant. ♪ if i could turn back time ♪ >> if i could turn back time by cher ♪ if coi uld reach the stars. >> short break back in a minute

amazon ceo jeff bezos voicing support for a hike in the corporate tax rate, he issued the statement on tuesday, saying we support the biden administration focus on making bold investments in the american infrastructure and we recognize this investment will require concessions from all sides both on the specifics of what's included as well as how it gets paid for, we're supportive of a raise in the corporate tax rate. bezos did stop short of endorsing the president's tax hike plan. buttigieg was on ms this morning, jim, and said even if

you get to 28 which no one actually believes they're going to get to, you're still talking about the lowest corporate tax rate in at least his lifetime, he argued. >> sometimes you see these comments from corporate executive, and you just say, holy cow, are they ever not united, this bezos comment is directly the opposite of all of the ceos that have come on air and yet who's the most successful i think it would be bezos. david, it's really dawning on people, and most successful banker is saying that there's too much greed, that maybe the most successful user of the internet is saying, i mean - >> i know. >> we'll pay more. david, what's going on here? >> dogs and cats dogs and cats living together. i don't know dimon saying don't get rid of the inability to deduct salt and this guy now, the company that's criticized for trying to avoid taxes wherever we, can we're okay with it it's news. which is why we're talking about it. >> yes. >> and he's, mr. bezos is

nothing but perhaps the most important ceo in the country, i would argue, certainly amazon as a part of so many people's lives is, and as a focus on both sides, politically at least, under pressure in some way from the bernie sanders camp some time ago, but remember, has at least a $15 an hour wage at the same time they're still a question of unionization in alabama, for example where the president has sided with the potential for unionizing there so it's interesting to say the least, that he would come out in that fashion of course, still ceo but not that much longer, jim, taking on the chairman role and perhaps we will start to see bezos participate a little bit more fully in dialogue like this. >> look, we have darren woods coming up, the ceo of exxon, and david, if you asked him higher taxes, what do you think he is going to say >> no. i would assume he would say no >> right he'd say that we need to have enough money to be able to pay

the shareholders a dividend. carl, i think that these executives who are saying things that are contrary to what they would expect to, take a lot of heat and there are a lot of people, carl, who basically say, you are kidding me, now you make so much money and you're so rich and you can say that, and what do i do, if i'm at a company, if they do this, i am not going to get a raise and somehow you being selfless will come off as selfish if the executives make a lot of money. >> we are expecting to hear the president later today, guys, he's going to talk about really what the definition of infrastructure is, they've been trying to broaden that definition versus public perhaps perception jim, he'll say why is it acceptable that 91 of the biggest corporations paid zero in federal taxes in 2019 there's also a growing discussion about which sectors are going to get hurt the most,

faang for example, has the lowest median effective tax rate, and there's some who argue that is going to feed the rotation we've been talking about for several months >> and what would be amazing, as long as we get new money into the s&p, which is what i think it's happening, instead of individual stocks, such a failure in the last three months, that goes right in favor of the largest companies in the s&p, which are the ones that you just mentioned >> yeah, so interesting. amazon, of course, has been one of the most aggressive companies, all within, within completely legal, but in not paying taxes and of course then we come back to the inability to get the headquarters in new york city, because of the various incentives that were being given, that were imposed by the far left politicians let's move on here of course, coming up, lots to talk about with exxonmobil ceo darren woods, that's going to be an exclusive interview we're probably not going to ask him about his taxes but a lot of other things to talk to him 'rrit ckt. wee ghba after this. is alm at e

what a ride! i invested in invesco qqq a fund that invests in the innovators of the nasdaq-100 like you become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq like you hey lily, i need a new wireless plan for my business, but all my employees need something different. oh, we can help with that. 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.

the world of investment will never be the same. the old guard swept aside by tech innovators who can't stop asking “why not?" why not direct indexing? or crypto? fractional shares? or digital clearing? there's a place where all these things come to life. a platform where the biggest names in fintech are changing the world. so, if you've got the guts to dream, we've got the guts to make it real. apex fintech solutions the guts to change everything. we see temperature control software giving everyone a shot at vital vaccines. at emerson, our software is shepherding medicines through every step of the cold chain, helping track conditions to keep each dose safe and effective. emerson. consider it solved.

let's get to "mad dash" counting down to the opening bell in seven minutes, and what we like to call hump day, jim, you've been focused on the shortage of semiconductor chips, an important issue, and you've also been focused on one name in particular, the semiconductor equipment making company amat. >> yes, that is the bellwether i have to think it should be lam research but that's okay. because applied materials is very, very big and what is important is there are many people who were disappointed yesterday that the company didn't raise how much business they'll be able to do given the chip shortage in the out years. i'm telling you, that's a mistake.

you should not take a negative conclusion eight firms, eight for eight, david, raised their price target because amat has so much business and it is a very conserve ive company there is a chip shortage and amat is one of the biggest beneficiaries, they're giving it all they've got to make more machines and every one of them is being bought. i have the ceo on "mad money" tonight and we will tell the story of a company trying to solve the chip shortage without government help and all i can say is the stock went down $3 yesterday, it is emblematic that there are hedge funds around, trigger happy hedge funds blowing out stocks without understanding what the companies do ticker symbols explain it. >> and i know you keep talking to people about the chip shortage overall what is your take right now, in terms of length here, importance, and agency new >> i do believe that the auto

chip problem will be solved. i think by year end. i'm pretty confident about that. i think more complex chips may be a problem but if it's not d-ram, d-ram i think will meet the need i do have to tell you, i think there is data that advanced micro at 81, when they have the chips and they're ready, it is just a sign of how the bashing by intel worked, and i think it's time to wake up wake up to the idea that applied materials is a huge beneficiary because they have the chips but amat, lam research, they're trying too hard and way too much demand and high quality problem, david. >> all right we got to take a quick break of course we'll be back with the opening lln sshafibe ile tn ve minutes.

we made usaa insurance

for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. ♪ usaa ♪

mr. president, have you spoken to the federal reserve chairman jay powell yet. >> i have not. >> can you say why >> i think, look, the federal reserve is an independent operation. and starting off my presidency, i want to be real clear that i'm

not going to do the kind of things that have been done in the last administration. either talking to the attorney general about who he's going to prosecutor or not prosecute and under what circumstances or the fed telling them what they should and shouldn't do. >> that's the president taking a different approach to donald trump about relations to the fed. jim, having not spoken to powell, and clearly not going to harangue him on twitter, either. >> i think it's great. i mean the previous president spent a lot of time talking about how jay powell was too tight fisted, that he was going to kill the economy, and then the economy completely breaks down over covid, and what happens, jay powell just goes out there, with a ba zooka, and any place, anywhere, with the fed, and what is the president saying on twitter, basically calling him a knuckle he, it was very much a street ball by former president trump and jay powell not taking the bait on the "today" show, he was asked directly about being

called, what was the president calling him, what was the kind of, david, i don't know what the president was calling him on twitter, but boy did he ever say, i'm not going to talk about that jay powell is a distinguished guy. >> it was a one-way conversation it wasn't a conversation it was just one way. and powell just kept ignoring him and then just kept moving on but of course, as carl points out and you point out, rates went to basically nothing, just like trump wanted, unfortunately, because of course, a year ago, this time, we were in a pretty desperate situation. >> yeah, by the way, the actual insults were bonehead, and enemy of the people, and no guts, no sense, no vision, but that's in the past there's the opening bell, guys, and the nyse and the nasdaq and breadth this morning, jim, after yesterday, one of the narrowest trading ranges of the year so far, is this spring break at work or is this something else going on >> it could be

yesterday, the stock, roku is a great measure of sentiment yesterday, it was up huge, that meant that, look, we're going back with the stay at homes, and the day before, it was down, and watch roku because it is really the market, it's the market, as much as the market is treasuries, and i just find that there are these tell stocks that are just kind of absurd, caterpillar is the other way, caterpillar goes up, that's the money going into the industrials, i wish i could tell people who have never traded or invested, how stupid this market is and i mean for three days now, the cruise ships have been talking about sailing, and then the cdc puts out some note saying hey, they're going to sail some day and it doesn't matter, carl, they go up again, there's just these themes and the themes just don't stop and the best one is the cruise line, they just don't stop >> yeah, this back and forth with cdc is really getting interesting now. there are suggestions obviously,

as you know, jim, that we could see sailing by midsummer carnival once again is going to lead the s&p along with some media names on some upgrades which we will get to in a second. >> it's amazing. a year ago, carnival was scrambling carnival, a lot of people would say, was saved, literally saved by jay powell. well, there was, i mean there was some really good rhetoric for corporate america by saying that look, companies should be able to use the bond market, but david, do you remember those bond offerings from carnival they were, well, norwegian, 7.5 billion in debt from the period and it doesn't seem to matter that frank del rio wants everybody vaccinated and people are saying that's discrimination, and i don't know if i'm going to go for a cruise, i wish everyone were vaccinated, don't you, david >> well, yeah, if i ever was going to go for a cruise, which is unlikely.

>> electronic music cruise, where it's all - >> not really a big deal. >> my daughter went on one of those. >> did she all right. >> norwegian cruise. >> the younger people, surprisingly like cruises, and i know there's this notion that they're geriatric. that is about as wrong as it can get, carl. what people are doing, they're very savvy with the inside line of the cabins, you spend very little money and one of the cheapest vacations in the world. >> wow you are just a walking promoter for the cruise industry. you really are >> i was going to go on a cruise this time last year. what's the matter? >> i remember. >> what do you think, it's all the diamond princess, it's all about what happened on the hbo special? >> no, i don't i don't. i don't -- >> do you like to be with other people who are not necessarily, who are a little different from you? >> no, not really. >> i do. >> i like to keep it exactly the same i like to look at somebody,

everybody to be identical more or less. >> before i go off on this, carl, if you add them up, per day, and you include this, they are pretty amazing in terms of the value and that's the main reason why younger people are drawn to them. [ laughter ] >> you think that my daughter's cruise - >> can we move, can he would not talk about cruises now it's enough, okay? >> spokesman for the cruise association of america i don't know i don't take money from either, carl, i happen to be a p proponent -- >> you like cruises and having a migraine i don't have a problem with that. >> i see him waving now, off the boat. >> we'll wave goodbye to him when he goes didn't they used to do that. i can't wait, jim. bon voyage, why don't we move on. >> i don't know.

>> well, how about - >> how about viacom. >> how about viacom? >> i was going there. >> how much more do you think they have -- >> i don't think, that's what i was going to say, i'm looking back, they did that 34 million shares at 41.25, jim an upgrade today, right, carl? a couple of positive notes discovery also by the way moving so maybe they bottomed we'll see. but 41.25, jim, seems to be where they managed to bottom. >> and i've heard, we've gone through, morgan stanley, goldman sachs, credit suisse, i've heard on sunday night, ubs was a seller of some viacom, and one other, and bsx, another one of those names, so this archegos situation, here we are, whatever it is, ten, 12 days later, still

going on and we have only begun to understand it. >> what kind of fees were they paying i'm sure they were jammed with a lot of this stuff. jpmorgan didn't play >> no. they didn't. they didn't. they did not participate in that >> so what do you make of that >> they were not there well, it's good risk management on their part. >> that's what i think. >> that's the question it's not as though the guy didn't have something of a checkered past at least in terms of some previous violations. and so there were some firms that wouldn't do business with him. >> jpmorgan wan thrilled with the fact he was convicted of insider trading, right >> there you go. >> i think that was a turnoff for jp morguen >> it may have been. and they chose well, carl, to avoid that relationship. of course we already talked yesterday at length about the $4.7 billion loss that cs suffered and unclear where the

other firms were, whether there were significant losses or not, and certainly not enough at this point to give us any numbers. >> fomc minutes later today. and three speakers will be on the tape let's get to rick santelli hey, rick. >> hi, carl, do you think any of those three speakers will say that the fed may have to raise rates am some point, that the economy, if the economy stays hot? i don't think so but we will also listen closely of course to see if lower for longer continues to be kind of in permanent ink, so to speak. let's look at a chart of the trade balance. this starts in 1992, because that's when the data started and what you'll see is this morning, we had a minus 71.1 billion for february that's even in front of the suez canal and all of those issues, it's the largest, the most negative, the deepest trade deficit ever ever. and of course, the main reason about that is because importing kept importing and exports

definitely slowed a bit. if you look at the intra-dayof 10-year note yields what you will notice is around 2:00 in the morning there, we were at the low yields, that's when europe opens up and the chart shows dropping 10 basis points and if you look at a month to date of the dollar index, it is already down about 1%, just in three trading days, giving up a lot of ground. and finally, let's look at a two-month chart of the dollar index. right in the middle is at 92.30 spike close. that is going to be the key support. we're basically coming right down to meet it as we speak. carl, jim, david, back to you. we're back with an exclusive interview with the ceo of exxon, darren woods

stay restless with the icon that does the same. the rx crafted by lexus. lease the 2021 rx 350 for $439 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. (vo) nobody dreams in conventional thinking. it didn't get us to the moon. lease the 2021 rx 350 for $439 a month for 36 months. it doesn't ring the bell on wall street. or disrupt the status quo. t-mobile for business uses unconventional thinking to help you realize new possibilities. like our new work from anywhere solutions, so your teams

can collaborate almost anywhere. plus customer experience that finds solutions in the moment. ...and first-class benefits, like 5g with every plan. network, support and value without any tradeoffs. that's t-mobile for business.

exxonmobil laid out a sweeping plan to commercialize low emission strategies at serve day last month and that and of

course a lot of other things, joining us in an exclusive exxonmobil chairman and ceo, darren woods, great to have you. i just want to quickly follow-up if we can from your last appearance on our air which was roughly a month or so again right after investor day, and talking about carbon capture and storage, and specifically you were discussing at the time the early stages of the technologies in terms of the challenge of deploying it and the cost associated with it, because it becomes uneconomic as you get more diluted streams of co2. i guess i want to just follow up on that. you know, it's only been a month, but what are you seeing in terms of your pilot projects? what are you seeing in terms of that economic feasibility for this technology and your hopes for it >> good morning, david it's good to be with you this morning. and you're right, you remember correctly, there is a challenge with carbon capture and storage with diluted streams

fortunately, there are a lot of sources of concentrated streams today that could support economic and financially viable deployment of carbon captured storage. in fact, the national petroleum council put out a study about a year and a half ago that estimated there's an opportunity for about 500 million tons per annum of capture in the u.s. which is about 10% of annual emissions. and in fact, we're working on a project now looking at the gulf coast, where you have concentrated sources of co2 emissions. you have very attractive storage options. and it lends itself to deployment, and we think there's a big opportunity to be had with the current set of technologies today. if you look at the incentives being put out today by the government to support the co2 reduction, take subsidies to electric vehicles, and turn that into a price of carbon, how much is the government paying to reduce carbon through electric vehicles, that price on carbon

effectively more than supports the deployment of ccs. >> well, i guess that, you know, a number of your shareholders certainly wonder, is this simply an opportunity you see to offset the carbon you're putting into the atmosphere or does it really become over time a profit center for this company, not today, but at some point in the future, and is that dependent on their being a true price on carbon, darren? >> well there certainly has to be a financial incentive to make that value proposition for the company and the shareholders but the way we look at it, it's very consistent with what i would say is the history of our corporation, and the fact that we have evolved our production and the products that we offer consistent with the demands and the evolution of demands of society. and today, as we look at this, there's a demand for less carbon-intense energy source, less carbon-intense industrial

processes and we've been working for close to two decades on technologies that help meet that demand and we look at carbon capture and storage as one of the mechanisms to help achieve that demand and help advance the ambitions of the paris agreement, and like any other business opportunity or market opportunity, ultimately, there will have to be a market incentive to support the wide scale deployment of these technologies, not only in carbon capture but i think across the board, all the suites of technology will be required to reduce emissions in the economy. >> all right, so those who say, darren, listen, it's great that exxon is considering doing this but you're only spending about what $3 billion over the next number of year 2025, and that represents less than 5% of the capital budget it's not a real commitment on your part, what do you say to them >> i think you have to keep that in perspective first i think comparing what we try to do in this space with what we do in the oil and gas space, with all projection, the third parties, the u.n., the

project that oil and gas will be needed clear out to 2040 and 2050 and beyond and even in a two degree world or 1.5 degree world, and there's continued need for investment in that space. if you look at the size of the energy system and the oil and gas sector in particular, and our investment in that level, in that industry, is i think proportionate. when you look at the low carbon industry, so to speak, it's a much smaller market today, it's evolving and will grow bigger but if you look at the money that we're spending there $3 billion is a fairly substantial investment the first point i'd make the second point i'd make is that $3 billion is based on the plans that we put together in 2020 and does not comprehend significant advancements in our low carbon solutions business. those opportunities are earl enough in the pipeline that we don't have a good line of sight for the investments that are going to be required that business is working on those investments and developing a plan this year, and as those clients mature, and those

investment opportunities mature, we'll see what the spend required to support that system the third point i'd make is there is a growing pool of investors out there that are looking for projects and investment opportunities to reduce carbon and carbon emissions. and we're looking to tap into that as well so i think what we're going to find going forward is that investment will grow, and part of that will be exxonmobil investment, and i think part of that i would suspect will be third party investments, and what should be some attractive investment opportunities. >> all right, darren, let's play some offense here and i read this point, with strong results and the acquisitions made by scott sheffield from pioneer and i'm wondering, isn't it time right now to get much more positive on the hydrocarbon business itself? >> i think, you know, again, coming backto the fundamental needs, if you look at what the role of oil and gas plays today in the energy systems around the world, how it supports economic growth, how it supports people's standards of living, and look at

the opportunity space for people's standards of living to rise particularly in developing countries there's going to be a continuing demand as society works to transisition to a lower carbon society so that's the first part i'll make the second point i'll make, if you look at the pandemic and what happened in 2020 and the amount of developments in our industry, it wasn't enough to offset the completion curve that we see in the oil and gas. so you've seen h-two things happening, continued rise in demand, as the economies around the world recover from the pandemic, and then a lack of investment in the industry, which is going to reduce the supply available, so i think as we go forward, you're going to see additional need for investment in the oil and gas industry, and a tightening supply and demand balance. so i think as you look forward in the next several years, particularly when you couple with the economic growth that we'll see around the world, and more specifically, here in the u.s., we're going to see i think a fairly healthy environment for our industry in the short term here, or medium term. >> darren, i know in your

letter, you're deeply committed to the dividend, and that has always been a great thing for exxon, i look at your 13 members of the board, i have had the privilege to meet most of them, i would say there is not a climate change denier among them, i would say that there the previous president would tell you that this board is way too worried about what will happen to the paris accords, you have got a board, darren, that is not necessarily traditional for gung ho oil drillers, is it >> we try to strike a balance, if you think about the business that we're in, we got a pretty diversified portfolio that spans the globe, spans a number of different sectors and the complexity of the business and the bred l1thl0 of it and the footprint around the world and is a pretty challenging mix so we look for board members that have a experienced global with running complex businesses at scale, and capital intensive businesses we also look for board members that have experience in

technology, because if you go back and look at the developments in our industry, and how we evolved over the sentries, all of it's -- century, all of its based on developments in technology, so having that perspective is critical for our board members and finally as we look at the new investment opportunities that are coming down the pike, and opportunities to participate in the transition, bringing on folks that have experience in capital allocation and transitions of industry have been a more recent focus, and we feel really good about the mix of the board members that we have i can tell you in the boardroom, lots of debate and discussion. all very constructive. talking about how we strike the balance around meeting today's needs and helping society continue to grow and people's prosperity rise while dealing with the transition. yep. listen, i will say it's an impressive group you've got there. it doesn't mean you aren't facing a challenge from engine one, darren. i think they're still out there. do you consider that proxy fight

effectively over >> well, we've been focussed on making sure investors understand the plans we have in place we go back to 2018 we were very -- put a lot of focus on how we're going to make sure that we have an asset base that supports cash flow growth and is industry leading. so that led to i think a very attractive set of investment opportunities across all three of our sectors, the upstream and downstream in the chemical business we were prosecuting the investments. very high in industry advantage. the pandemic made a big change and reduced the revenues we had to support that. we had to pull the projects back and pause them i'm pleased to say if you look at that investment portfolio, high returns we've paced those and managed to pay the dividend and we've got a plan going forward that will continue to pay the dividend and advance the projects we feel pretty good about the growth potential and our abilities to support the dividend >> well, i want to get a couple

in before we wrap up given the time but to that answer that you just gave, i mean, oil prices obviously have come back strongly, but that doesn't mean you're going to change at this point your business strategy specific to that capital budget you recently laid out. >> you know, one of the pillars of our strategy is to make sure we have a strong balance sheet that allows us to manage through the cycles we know exist in this capital intensive industry we leaned hard on that during the pandemic it was a deep down cycle we have to build that capacity back up. that is the priority if prices are higher than 'anticipated in the plan, we'll use that additional revenue to pay down debt and strengthen the balance sheet. that's the focus of this year. finally, darren, you're perhaps the company most closely associated with the state of texas which is introducing some potential changes in terms of voting that at least some of your compatriots, dell technologies, american airlines,

the ceos have chosen to speak out potentially against. you have stayed quiet on this. why? >> well, we look at this, i think in the context of this bill and the georgia bill as what has been i think a growing divide in the nation and frankly, i think it's incumbent upon our elected officials to spend the time to understand the issues and make sure that they're coming up with solutions that address all sides of the issue it's really i think an opportunity to show some leadership and rise above partisan politics and solve complex issues that impact us all. obviously as a company we're very supportive of making sure there is broad and equitable access for voters and at the same time that our election processes are secure and the integrity of the results are there and are trusted by investors. this is not a win/lose proposition. these objectives secure elections, broad access to

voting are not exclusive we're encouraging our elected officials to work together to find a solution that addresses both of those. >> we appreciate you taking time and hope this is the first of what will be many conversations as we continue to watch closely the transformation of exxon mobile thank you. >> look forward to it, david thank you. thksm.an, ji >> we'll take a quick break. back after this. ll i'm an existr and i'd like your best new smartphone deal. oh do ya? actually it's for both new and existing customers. i feel silly. but i do want nationwide 5g. i want nationwide 5g. are we actually doing this again? it's not complicated. only at&t gives new & existing customers the same great deals. like the samsung galaxy s21 5g for free when you trade in.

see every delivery... every yikes... and even every awwwwwwww... wait, where was i? introducing self protection from xfinity. designed to put you in control. with real-time notifications and a week of uninterrupted recording. all powered by reliable, secure wifi from xfinity. gotta respect his determination. it's easy and affordable to get started. get self protection for $10 a month.

all right, jim -- well, yeah okay this is a hot one. i've got applied materials gary dickerson todd mckinnon announcing big news on okta and marty mucci, i can't wait for tonight's show david, thank you for letting me be involved with the exxon ceo and carl, take it away >> okay, guys. we'll take a bakre and be back in a minute. don't go anywhere. ♪ when i was younger ♪ you need a financial plan that fits the way you want to live in retirement. a plan that can help grow and protect your money. now or in the future. with an annuity in your plan to help cover essential expenses,

you can live the retirement you want. the right financial professional can show you how. this is what an annuity can do. ♪ ♪

(man) so when in doubt, just say, this is what an annuity can do. "let me talk to my manager." next, carvana's 100% online shopping experience. oh, man. carvana lets people buy a car-- get this-- from their couch. oh, how disruptive. no salesman there to help me pick out the car i need. how does anyone find a car on this site

without someone like us checking in? she's a beauty, huh? oh, golly! (laughter) i can help you find the color you want. that sounds nice. let me talk to my manager. (vo) buy your next car 100% online. with carvana. good wednesday morning welcome to another hour of "squawk on the street. a little more churn continuing this morning on the major averages we opened above the closing high for monday if you want a shot at the all time high you have to get close to 486 jamie diamond releasing his

shareholder letter we have the highlights >> plus cruiselines asking the cdc to get vaccinated passengers set sail >> and we are live in georgia as the corporate backlash over new voting laws in that state continues. but we begin with jamie dimon's letter it's a 66 page letter. that was a lot of reading for you this morning >> it was, indeed. started late last night. i got an early head start. morgan, thank you. jamie dimon is about as optimistic on the short-term economic outlook as i think he's been in years expecting a boom that might last until 2024 this. but also more realistic and dare i say it down beat about the scale of the long-term challenges facing the country with pages which are summed up largely by this quote. we are stymied by self-interest, selfishness and the buildup of bureaucratic plaque and

institutional sclerosis. he wrote about by qe did not lead to growth and inflation over the last decade and the same applies now to the qe part. in this most recent round of qe much of the money simply made a round trip because of the new liquidity rules. it ended up back as deposits at the fed not as loans other factors make this time different. first, fiscal spending he said the fiscal deficit is pure and simple giving various individuals and institutions money to spend which they will send over time this is and always have been inflationary secondly, the size quote, the qe and deficit spending response to the covid-19 pandemic is of a completely different magnitude and without some of the offsetting drags that trailed the great recession, end quote and three, he says that the starting point matters we're not coming into this rebound with banks and companies needing to deleverage. thus, he concludes, quote, not

unreasonable possibility that an increase in inflation will not just be temporary, end quote he's hoping for goldilocks scenario the two dbig risks are the potential risk in inflation and the possibility in new covid variants are resis at that particular time to the vaccine there are so many other topics in the 60 plus pages some of which you talked about last hour. i wanted to throw in one more, on work from home. he talks about only 10% of his employees working from home in full in the long term. but many will work under a hybrid model thus, quote, he says remote work will change how we manage our real estate. we will quickly move to a more open seating arrangement and he says as a result, for every 100 employees we may need seats for only 60 on average this will significantly reduce our need for real estate so much in there, guys as somewhat of a manifesto for america as much as an update for jpmorgan specific shareholders >> those comments regarding the

office, the workplace are going to have big ramification for office real estate as well i would imagine in places like new york the other thing that got my attention in this is -- and especially given the fact that david and carl did do that interview with the ceo of exxon mobile last year, the excellents on climate and the fact a that he said he's a proponent of making our energy system less carbon intensive abonn donning things that produce the fuels is not a solution either. i think that was a different stance, at least publicly, maybe more nuanced than some of the other big financial ceos and the like >> i don't know. i would say it's different, but i think they've all shifted to this position in various speeds over the last decade i'd say that's a similar tone on that topic, and more broadly, the first 25 pages and the final 13 pages of this 60 are on big

picture topics about being a good corporate citizen about the path forward for america. as opposed to banking and jpmorgan specifics and that clearly is one of the big parts of that. the only thing i would just throw in on that, i think two, three, four, five years ago behind the scenes as jamie dimon wrote about the topics was a possibility that he wanted to get into public life in the future i don't think that applies anymore. i think he just wants to be part of the conversation and help where he can from the perspective as one of the biggest ceos in america as opposed to there being this sort of behind the scenes burning desire to be a part of that himself. i think that's been and gone >> yeah. that's interesting and certainly it does speak to worthwhile for everybody to read this letter. thank you. >> cheers, guys. dimon also weighing in on tax. robert frank is with us to tackle that part of the story.

robert >> good morning, david dimon weighing in on a number of f tax proposals. saying 80% of the deductions he said would accrue to people making more than $339,000 a year some democrats from new york and new jersey saying they won't support this tax plan unless those salt caps are repealed meanwhile you have the tech companies and other big multinationals preparing to battle biden's tax hike on overseas profits the focus here is what's known as guilty or the global and tangible low income tax. it's a mouthful. basically this is a minimum tax on overseas earnings it was created as part of the trump tax plan to make american companies more competitive overseas but also prevent them from loading all their earnings through, like, the kaman islands and other low tax jurisdictions. the guilty tax rate right now is

10.5%. biden proposed doubling it to 21%. and because companies can only deduct a portion of the taxes they pay to other governments, the effective tax rate, that's what they would actually pay would be around 26%. critics saying this puts u.s. companies at a big disadvantage to foreign competitors and leads to foreign takeovers supporters say the current tax rate is too low and doesn't generate enough revenue. the tax policy center estimating that biden's rate would cost companies an extra $650 billion over ten years you've got the tech companies, media, big pharma, the big consumer brands like starbucks, nike those are most affected. and then jeff bezos saying he supports the higher corporate tax rate, but he also said he wants the right balance solution that maintains or enhances u.s.

competitiveness. so a hint there that he's okay with the rate that the top rate going from 21 to 28%, but voicing a little caution on messing with the overseas part which, of course, is far more important to amazon, facebook, all the big tech companies david? >> yes so interesting robert, so many different components let's start with bezos i think he is again the wealthiest man in the world. always interesting to hear him come out and talk about taxes but i have a number of emails including from well-known people i won't name names but this is one of them. hasn't paid much or anything close to the total corp. tax rate in 20 years walmart pays taxes he wants their taxes to go up. and a lot of people saying to me he's just talking his book what are you your thoughts >> well, the tax code has a lot of provisions that happen to benefit amazon whether it's the executive compensation they can write off, huge amount of options in stock a lot of which goes to bezos.

they invest a ton into new warehouses and trucks and planes, everything they're doing. that was treated very beneficially under the trump tax cuts so they get immediate expensing under that so unless you start targeting these specific what some would call loopholes and others say are incentives to invest and pay your talent, then amazon's tax rate is not going to change just if it goes up to 28% >> all right finally, robert, something you we talk a lot about offline. i hope our viewers won't mind online a bit as well no salt deduction. apparently jamie dimon not in favor of it coming back. new york state raising tax you have a seminal question about whether or not property taxes are ever going to come back given what he's talking about in terms of how many people will be becack in an offe and landlords, and the unwillingness of politicians to cut budgets. i don't know if it ends up for new york, but it seems as though

wealthier people will consider leaving knowing that they can now work outside the office. >> there's no question and the big paradox for new york right now is that the financial situation has vastly improved just in the last couple months you would think that would have taken the air out of calls to hike taxes on the wealthy. you have the 12 .5 billion in unrestricted funds from d.c. tax resaceipts coming in far better than anyone would have dreamed of and yet, you have a legislature, the assembly, the senate and now cuomo accepting 4.3 billion in tax increases and a $212 billion budget almost has high as california's with twice the population. this does appear more driven by politics and progressive stance rather than economics. that's the part that many of the wealthy taxpayers in new york and the companies find trouble

in >> something we're going to continue to toss around. appreciate that very much. robert frank talking about taxes and as for infrastructure, we've gotten a number of analysis out in the last couple weeks got the latest one from pen wharton and steve has that >> the budget model finds president biden's infrastructure bill would cost 2 $.7 trillion it would also reduce the level of gdp by nearly 1% by 2031 compared to a prior baseline the analysis is one that the outfit is run by former ceo official kent smeters. it finds a range of economic negatives because it boosts deficits and raises corporate taxes that says it will reduce private investment as well here are some of the analysis of the plan relative to the baseline here according to the model. reduced gdp by 0.9% relative to

the baseline hourly wages down 0.7% government debt by that point will be up 1 .7 %. eventually it will come down important to the model shows the plan adds to gdp and productivity before you take out forthis effect they call crowding out in which increase government spending and deficits reduce more efficient private spending some economists don't believe it happens at all or in such magnitude, especially with interest rates as low as they are. now, here's what the report says although the plan's public investments increase the productivity of capital and labor, that productivity boost is not enough to overcome additional crowding out of capital due to increased deficits there's a lot not captured in this model if you think it's good to reduce the carbon in the environment, the green spending, it doesn't change measured gdp.

is it good to help the elderly and others that doesn't show up in gdp. what about the x-factor is when it is much higher? research into mrna that was funded in part by the government jamie dimon talking about the need this morning for the u.s. to boost the infrastructure, especially in context of keeping pace with china. folks? >> yes steve, it almost gets at a bigger sort of longer-term discussion i know one i've been having on the national security and defense side of things decades ago it was a situation where government basically fuelled the rnd and that in turn created innovations that then went out to the private sector and helped americans and spurred i guess more innovations among consumers and now that's shifted to the private sector being the driver of rnd. i'm curious with the infrastructure bill, if it makes its way however it does, what

that ultimately looks like, whether that changes that dynamic again. >> yeah. you know, morgan, it helps to be what you are, a student of history here and people should go back and read the book about this issue which talks about the shifting nature of sometimes we put the private sector in charge, and that goes on for a while, and then when we have other needs, we put the government in charge. government spending as a percent of gdp has fallen consistently for about four decades now and i think there's pretty good agreement among all economists that there's a need to shift things back the other way. that there are desperate infrastructure needs in the country. the debate is what we call infrastructure do the green initiatives, do both sides agree there's some need to reduce carbon, spend money on that. there's no measure gdp increase from reducing carbon unless you say maybe we avoid worse

outcomes to civilization as a result >> steve, thank you. still to come this hour, cruiselines calling on the cdc to let vaccinated passengers sail plus we'll have more as well from our exclusive interview last hour with the exxon mobile ceo. that's coming up stay with us 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 a major cruiselines are looking to rebound from the

pandemic, smaller cruiselines in the u.s. are already thriving. one of them is citi experience by horn empblower they sold out with reduced capacity we have the ceo with us. >> good morning. thank you for having me. >> i want to get into the experiences but given the fact that there is at least from an investor standpoint and the fact that we got a business update from carnival this morning, a lot of focus on the overnight cruise market. i know you operate in that, specifically with american queen steam boat and specifically river cruises. you haven't been beholden to the same cdc guidelines as those big i guess more international operators. what have you been seeing on those cruises in terms of consumer demand? and how have you kept them safe? >> sure. so our two brands in the overnight business are american queen steam boat company and victory queen steam lines.

high end luxury, amazing experiences on the water across the rivers, great lakes and into alaska. and we've been operating already on the american queen and the mississippi. we've seen strong demand we have a safe cruise program. it includes testing, screening and ongoing cleaning and we've seen great demand. our clientele, many of them are very vaccinated. we're able to spell out the cruises. starting july 1st, all crew members and all guests have to be vaccinated and that was met with great enthusiasm. >> that's interesting. it sounds like you made that decision and it's been welcomed by the consumers that are signing up for your cruises. how are you going to keep track of that? we're having so many conversations about things like vaccine passports. what does that mean for you? >> yeah. we certainly will require proof of vaccine but don't take a position on whether or not we should have an electronic version of it, but

we'll make sure there's proof of a vaccine and make sure all our crew are vaccinated as well. >> let's talk about the citi experience this is another piece of the horn blower experiences. you operate in new york, around alcatraz you have some -- have had some ships doing some sailings. what does that look like and perhaps just as importantly, how does it speak to whether or when we're going to see a rebound in tourists >> yeah. it's anchored by horn blowers, a brand new brand. we rolled it out yesterday you can think of it as a diverse portfolio of water and land-based experience. overnight cruises to dining and sightseeing to iconic places to land based excursions and off cruise ships we are open a number of places beyond the american queen ships that are on the mississippi. we've recently reopened alcatraz statue of liberty has been

opened we've opened up in boston, d.c. on the cherry blossom dining cruises, a number of whale watching tours in boston and san diego. and across all these we've seen strong demand. over easter we sold out the brunch cruises on capacity restr restr restrictions, but we sold out and folks want to be out doing things again there's a pent up demand as the vaccinations continue to take hold in the u.s. folks want to be out they want to feel the freedom of doing things and having amazing experiences and we see ourselves in a great position to provide those for them. >> as people get more comfortable being out and potentially begin to travel further distances and take on bigger trips, can you sustain this level of demand or are you even competing with some of those, for example, big cruise operators >> yes i think -- well, first, rising tides lifts all ships. we want to see all ships on the water. we not only operate in the overnight business but also a

numb of shore excursion businesses globally that take care of passengers coming off the ships. our guests are local guests like we're servicing right now, but we also service a number of tourists to iconic destinations in new york and san francisco and niagra falls as long hall travel picks up and orders reopen, that's positive for the business we see this demand going for many years to come >> we were talking about infrastructure a few minutes ago. the river systems are a big part of that equation as well your expectations that we see an infrastructure plan passed and what would it mean for a business such as yours >> well, i don't have any sense of whether an infrastructure plan will be passed or not there are other folks that are politicians that will figure that out infrastructure in terms of what we do, in terms of running ferry systems and operating cruise ships on rivers and great lakes, all of those are -- all those are positive for us.

and allow us to create even better experiences for our guests >> all right kef yrng thank you for joining us today >> thank you it is now time for etf spotlight. this morning a look at the newly formed arc space exploration, ticker arkx. investors putting $445 million into the fund in the first four days of trading. that would put the etf on pace to eclipse $1 billion in holdings within just days. the fund coming under some scrutiny as the top five holdings, many of the holdings are not exactly in the space sector trimb and 3-d printing making up nearly 50 % of the fund. and coming up, the corporate backlash to restrictive voting laws continues president biden tells states like dgeorgia to, quote, smarten

up >> it is reassuring to see that for-profit operations and businesses are speaking up about how these new jim crow laws are just an thettithetical to who we the other side is when they, in fact, move out of georgia the people who need the help the most, the people who are makin hourly wages, sometimes could hurt the most. i think it's a very tough decision for a corporation to make or group to make but i respect them when they make that judgment, and i support whatever judgment they make, but it's the best way to deal with this, for georgia and other at tsteso smarten up stop it. stop it.

♪ ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

when it comes to autism, finding the right words can be tough. finding understanding doesn't have to be. together, we can create a kinder, more inclusive world for the millions of people on the autism spectrum. go to autismspeaks.org. we see increased efficiency connected to more comfortable homes. emerson's energy star™ certified sensi™ smart thermostat uses geofencing to simplify how homeowners manage comfort and costs. emerson. consider it solved.

more corporations are speaking out on -- georgia's voting law we spoke earlier with exxon mobile's ceo texas another state considering changes in the voting laws here's what he had to say. >> well, we look at this, i think, in the context of this bill and the georgia bill as what has been, i think, a growing divide in the nation i think an opportunity to show some leadership and rise above partisan politics and solve complex issues that impact us all. obviously as a company, we're supportive of making sure that there is broad and equitable access for voters and at the same time that our election processes are secure and the integrity of the results are there, and we're encouraging our elected officials to work together to find a solution that addresses both of those. >> yeah. morgan, interesting, of course american airlines and del technologies two large corporations in the state of texas have chosen to be more

outspoken than mr. woods on this subject, but interesting as we sort of get a sense for how corporations are choosing to approach this. and, of course, exxon mobile has become much more aggressive when it comes through, and this was the bulk of our interview we were discussing when it comes to things like climate, another issue of great concern to many consumers, to its own shareholders and to the customers as well. >> yeah. it was a wide ranging interview, david. and i thought the comments were interesting. regarding the voting law discussion we're having. it's much more complicated nuanced and living in shades of gray than i think the political -- public discourse sometimes enables a discussion for. so just interesting to see how different ceos and different companies are weighing in or not weighing in on that. i also thought his comments to you about capital expenditures, about plans to eventually at some point ramp up some of those investments in places like texas

versus balancing the dividend, and paying down debt were voteable giving the fact that so many investors in this name are invested because of things like the dividend >> yeah. i mean, frankly, not too much different than what, of course, we were told roughly a month ago when they had their investor day. they are indicating they're sticking with the dividend and the current capital plan despite an appreciable move higher in the oil -- in the price of oil, but they're going to stick with where it is and any additional cash flows that come in as a result, they're going to basically use to delever and secure the dividend in a more significant fashion. >> yeah also speaks to a number of analysts signaling a rotation in favorable in the stock of exxon versus chevron which outperformed more recently sticking with the georgia voting law, let's go to seema on the

ground in atlanta. she has more for us. >> reporter: a boycott that was set to go into effect today targeting some of the major brands in atlanta, coca-cola, home depot, delta, has been postponed. a prominent religious leader here in georgia who has been spearheading a number of the talks says the chairman of coca-cola has reached out and is now putting together a meeting with other corporate leaders including those of home depot and delta among others that closed door meeting set for tuesday, april 13th. this as republican opposition of companies speaking out against georgia's controversial voting law continues to grow. you have governor kemp of atlanta of georgia speaking out today and yesterday senate minority leader mitch mcconnell saying companies should not intervene in politics. now, we've been speaking to a number of georgians on the ground today and yesterday in favor and rejecting the voting law that was passed last week, but none of them say that a boycott is the answer. >> coca-cola is too massive of a

company for any temporary boycott to hurt. >> i don't agree with the boycott. people have the freedom and right to boycott whatever they want, but it feels like the commerce that these businesses are doing has nothing to do with voter rights >> reporter: from companies to sporting events, one week after the mlb pulled out of atlanta to denver, now growing calls for the pga and masters to do the same right now the masters is set to go live tomorrow back to you. >> seema, great to see you in atlanta, and reporting i just think it's fascinating. i wonder what the on the ground response is to something like the mlb moving that game to colorado i mean, you can say what you want about the state's laws and what's on the books there, but the impact of small businesses, i think it's an estimate of $100

million that's essentially being taken out of the economy atlanta is a city with a 55% black population it's the largest black majority population in a metropolitan region i wonder how people in the community see the move >> a lot of frustration, opposition to the mlb decision to move out of atlanta morgan, to your point, a lot of fans here saying that they had a lot of pride in being based here now a lot of focus on what mlb in denver will mean and seeing if professional golf and the institution here will do the same >> huge corporate story, obviously. and one we're going to continue to cover with your help. let's get a covid update >> good morning, everyone. here is your cnbc covid update at this hour this thursday disney world will start allowing magic kingdom visitors to take off their masks

for outdoor photos guests will have to remain in a mask while other times except for eating or swimming according to theme park rules. argentina's health fin tri reporting nearly 21,000 cases. that's the highest daily case since the pandemic began the news comes as the president of the country who is in isolation evaluates measures to combat the surge in cases. the uk launched the rollout of the moderna vaccine a 24-year-old woman received the first dose of the vaccine. the olympic torch region is being held in a park without spectators as a record numb of infections prompted the government to declare a medical emergency today. all eyes continue to be on the olympics it's interesting to see how it will develop back to you. >> yeah. i'm thinking a couple cycles

ahead now. thank you. big tech bouncing back over the last week after a selloff to start the year the faang names are up better than 3% since last thursday. and alphabet leading the way all time highs along with facebook more "squawk on the street" is straight ahead

about an hour into the trading session. s&p 4081 is shy of an all-time high let's bring in arthur cashin it's always great to check in with you >> thank you good morning >> let's talk about the month of april and this creeping narrative that at least some technicians have been looking at that is because it's so seasonally strong, we're already talking about overbought conditions, that there's the possibility of maybe topping out in the near-term you buy that >> well, i think you want to be a little bit careful

social media has been alive with reports about how april is one of the strongest months, and april has a great look to it and that was aided and abetted by the fact that new money for the new month, and i think helped us out in the first three trading days of the month. and i think most of that is kind of dissipated now. april is a very strong month ironically the second half of the month tends to be a little bit stronger so i think you want to be a little weary and one other thing that's got my check engine light on is the fact that the vix did not really drop smartly as we had that 2.5 day rally going, and when we've seen those comparisons, particularly when the vix get down to a level like this,

sometimes you do see choppy trading for a week or two after. the check engine light is on with the cashin barometer her. >> yeah. you write, and i'm quoting here, we old fogies recall when the vix moves to recent low levels and down, it indicates it sputtering for weeks or months you get the ism over 60 as it is, returns over three to six months are not always good >> yeah. that's it. we've got very high multiples here, too, carl. so next week earnings season is going to start to kick in. and what we're going to need to see is really solid earnings reports. and maybe even some good guidance we've been lacking in guidance for a while. the economists are going to have to raise their earnings

estimates. which they may well do, but if they don't do that, then these multiples will look stretched, and you know, we'll look like the market is going to need some support. you know as i said in the beginning, the new money for the new month, i think has been dispensed so they're going to need something else we've got a small room full of fed speakers today everybody is going to be watching that and the minutes of the march meeting which was when they said we're going to keep rates down until 2023. so there's a lot of things to look at. the ten-year is behaving itself. that's been helping the bulls rightly. i think it's less about what the fed says and does and more about what the bond vpeople believe we'll look for signs of inflation popping up the viewers should pay a little

bit more attention to something called the velocity of money it's hard to get inflation when money is dormant if i drop a million dollars on your lawn from the helicopter and you were frightened enough to just put it in the garage, that's not inflationary. you have to lend it or spend it to make inflation work we'll check on that. >> yeah. a key point, art especially as we keep hearing about the possibility of pent up demand and what that's going to look like as consumers start to go out whether they spend the money and how voraciously. we've had a number of folks on air who have made the argument that a higher corporate tax rate given the fact that we're seeing this situation play out with this infrastructure proposal that a higher corporate tax rate is already priced into this market what do you think? >> well, i think there's some of that i don't think the thing that you

folks have been talking about this morning which is the competitive international tax rates are fully priced in. i think they're assuming that rates will have to go up to some degree if we're going to be stimulating the economy with all this spending and the deficits we're building up. and of course, you've got the jeff bezos who has more than two nickels to rub together, so he doesn't mind seeing somewhat of an increase in taxes i'm not sure that isn't subtly a competitive move, putting some pressure on the other executives who might not have the flexibility on taxes, so yeah, i think the short answer, morgan, i think some of it's priced in i'd say about 25% of the fear is priced in. but i think part of that is also that nobody thinks it's going to

happen quickly they think it may be clearly the third quarter of maybe toward the end of the year before any of that could be implemented and it would highly -- be highly unlikely that it would be made retroactive, because that would be a shock to the economy. so the other pricing -- they're pricing it in, but they don't see it as an immediate threat so far. >> and finally, art, longer term, everybody is reacting this morning to the dimon letter and his description of the goldilocks moment. he talks about the euphoria post pandemic, successful vaccines, stimulus, somewhat stable rates. when he says equity rates are high historically but a multi-year booming economy could justify the current prices, what do you think >> that's what i was talking about about the multiples being high you can grow into those multiples. you know it doesn't mean -- if the multiples are high, two a ways

to get at it you can pull the multiples back or you can have the earnings estimates grow, and i think that's what he's talking about he's saying the economy, if it booms and if all that money gets shovelled into the economy, which will help shovel it into the market, the earnings will move up to meet the multiples rather than having to pull the market down to get the multiples in order so i tend to agree with him. so far on the face of it it looks like with all this government stimulus coming in, it looks like the economy will grow at a 6% or 7 % rate in the second and third quarter that's phenomenal. we're back into the post eisenhower era >> yeah. and some numbers, goldman has double digits for q-2. it's going to be remarkable, art. great to check in. look forward to talking again soon thanks, art. >> my pleasure

thank you. as we head to break, take a look at that snap shares as you can see up another almost 7 % today after it got some -- well, it got some high marks, let's call it that in a survey. the stock up 15 % over the last week still off its highs. but up 400% in the last year we've got a lot more "squawk on the street" for you straight ahead. obsession has many names. this is ours.

the lexus is. all in on the sports sedan. lease the 2021 is 300 for $369 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. this is how you become the best! [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] [triumphantly yells] [ding] don't get mad. get e*trade and take charge of your finances today. ♪ ♪ don't get mad. - [narrator] if you're thinking about going to school online, southern new hampshire university is where you belong. we've been online for more than 25 years and have helped thousands of students reach their goals. as a nonprofit university, we believe access to high quality education should be available to everyone. that's why we offer some of the lowest tuition rates

in the nation, and haven't raised tuition in nearly a decade. so no matter where you want to go, snhu can help you get there. visit snhu.edu today. with a bang, energy and change came to every part of our universe. seismic or small, it continues. change is all around us. shaped by technology and human ingenuity, we can make it work for you and your business.

welcome back to "squawk on the street." stocks are slightly higher today. but at session highs right now from a sector perspective, things are mixed as you can see behind me. tech one of the relative outperformers trading so far today. within that sector in particular there are notable games in the payment related fin tech stocks including paypal, mastercard and global payments as well. also keep an eye on chip and

storage stocks along the leaders extending strong year today gains. look at western digital. intel. all some of the top gainers in the technology sector. the biggest one out there in the s&p 500. i'll send things back to you >> dom, thank you. after the break, ast space mobile building a first-based cellular broad band network. the company is going public today via a spac the ceo is going to join us right after this break zero-commission trades for online u.s. stocks and etfs. and a commitment to get you the best price on every trade, which saved investors over $1.5 billion last year. that's decision tech.

only from fidelity. the aflac post-pain show! aflac! what a day of upsets. ha ha. jill is certainly upset with that unexpected bill from her back surgery. aflac! let's see that one more time. ♪ ♪ (bleep) (wincing) oooh, right in the wallet! ouch! aflac! aflac would have paid jill cash directly to help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. hold on, i think she's trying to give us a side-eye... because she can't turn her head! (laugh) get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. get to know us at aflac.com the world of investment will never be the same. the old guard swept aside by tech innovators who can't stop asking “why not?" why not direct indexing? or crypto? fractional shares? or digital clearing? there's a place where all these things come to life. a platform where the biggest names in fintech are changing the world. so, if you've got the guts to dream, we've got the guts to make it real. apex fintech solutions the guts to change everything.

so you're a small business, or a big one. you were thriving, but then... oh. ah. okay. plan, pivot. how do you bounce back? you don't, you bounce forward, with serious and reliable internet. powered by the largest gig speed network in america. but is it secure? sure it's secure. and even if the power goes down, your connection doesn't. so how do i do this? you don't do this. we do this, together. bounce forward, with comcast business.

welcome back satellite smartphone broadband company ast space mobile making its debut today. shares are up 6% right now joining now is ast space mobile founder, abel avellan. congratulations today. i don't know if we have the sound. can you hear me? >> yes, i can. >> perfect got to love these remote interviews >> yes >> the technical situations.

so you describe yourself, the company describes itself as the first space satellite broadband network. we talk about these low-earth satellite constellations focused on broadband how is your different? >> this is the first and only one that has a hand set. we don't require any special hardware, software, app and all you need is your phone >> yeah. i know you have vodafone as investors and customers with board seats as well. i'm curious, you're pretty early in many ways still in this process. you have one satellite on orbit right now. it's a test satellite. you're putting a second one up or expected to put a second one up later this year your first one, to begin commercial operations in 2023. in term of that timeline a lot

needs to happen to get there why should investors invest with you and bet on this company now? >> i mean it's a long term opportunity. i mean it's a very large market. 5 billion phones activity every day people are moving over air, land and sea. also opportunity that we can put here in the united states, half of the world population now have internet on phone. that opportunity we tap, we tap it, we have proprietary technology we make this right here in america. we marv with our satellites in midland, texas there's opportunities in long term >> who will launch the satellites for you >> we have plenty of partners. we are in discussion with

primary launch providers we want our satellites be multi-launch, multi-provider and disclosing our next partners soon >> who do you see at your chief competitors then is it the starlings of the world or the wireless providers >> we partner with wireless provider we extend their coverage we help them to basically be able to provide continuity every where, air, land and sea to standard smartphones so we have extended networks on a global basis we don't see the older satellite vehicles today as a competitor actually we think it's a great thing that they are happening and they make the space more

affordable, basically to the masses so i always want to explain it, this is a cellular system. that's what those systems are. our system is similar plan, cellular works every where >> you just raised some money. do you have enough money on the books god forbid things don't happen on the timeline you laid out? >> we have been in this for a while. the money that we have raised is enough to launch our first 20 satellites that will give us an opportunity to cover 1.6 billion people in 49 countries we already announced together we have vodafone which is an investor with 600 million

subscribers on a global basis. yes, i think we're fully funded to do the first phase and to launch the first phase >> thanks for joining us today, and we look forward to, i guess, speaking to you as more of these satellites get launched to orbit. >> absolutely. be my pleasure in meantime apple has a major privacy announcement this morning. we'll get some details on "squawk alley" which starts in a couple of minutes. we help make them healthier. we are the people of abm. for more than 100 years, we've been a leader in making spaces cleaner, from the things you touch to the air you breathe. today, more than 100,000 of us are innovating to ensure spaces are more efficient, healthier and safer. abm. making spaces healthier for you. we see breakthrough medicines getting to patients in record time.

at emerson, our automation software is empowering pharmaceutical companies to accelerate their production of critical vaccinations for the world. emerson. consider it solved. ♪♪

of critical vaccinations for the world. ♪♪ ♪♪

it is 8:00 a.m. at amazon headquarter in seattle, washington 11:00 a.m. on wall street and "squawk alley" is live ♪ ♪ if it's all right ♪ ♪ talk to you all night ♪ ♪ all night ♪ ♪ have a good time ♪ ♪ don't worry it's all right ♪ ♪ all right ♪ ♪ all night all night all night baby ♪ ♪ don't be shy baby ♪ ♪ don't