they want to restart the cruise industry that has been m mothballed for more than a year. it is friday, april 9th, 2021. "squawk box" starts right now. ♪ good morning welcome to "squawk box." i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. joe was talking about what we saw yesterday. s&p at a high again. the second day in a row we saw that it was up 17 points yesterday for the gain of .40% the big action came with the tech stocks. nasdaq up by 1%. it was opened by big games with netflix and amazon and alphabet. you see the green arrows this

morning. the dow indicated up 73 points s&p up by 4. those were significant gains we saw with the big tech stocks checking out the treasury markets. the ten-year is about 1.64% this morning. that yield is slightly higher at 1.666% on a friday. why don't we check out the "squawk stack" this morning. many of the things you see there. the ten-year, we have oil in the "stack" because oil is slipping back below $60 a barrel. then there is amazon not a huge mover this morning. there is some news on amazon that is worth watching when it comes to this, too >> okay. let's tell you about the news, becky. we have the developing story amazon holding a commanding lead in the union elections at one of

the alabama warehouses we have been paying attention to this counting stopped last night. there were 1,100 votes against union. 463 in support counting resumes today with 1,000 ballots left to count. the president of the retail and wholesale called for a probe this represents an important moment for working people and voices will be heard a lot of people obviously focused on this effort and whether it would spread throughout the rest of amazon and perhaps others if that happened, what would happen to the business and margins to pay is what so much of this is about at the moment, it appears that this effort, at least as of now, does not seem like a union will be formed in the location.

>> you know what is more interesting -- go ahead, joe. >> i was going to move on. go ahead >> i think what is more interesting in this perspective is the lack of interest. 55% of the he e eligible voters voted. it is drawing national attention. people are playing this up as a huge vote to watch i was surprised when i saw 55% of the voters bothered to cast a vote in either direction >> don't talk about unions much. a slight move back from really low levels historically. we got down to 7%? there was a time back in the 20th century everybody knows the story. it is a long, slow decline a lot of people argue that is the reason for the income gap swelling other people say there is a reason that it has become -- i

don't know i would call it that -- at amazon, they have pretty good benefits pretty good pay. you know, there are times where in the past where union was the only way you could get management to listen to your concerns about so many different things i'm not sure it is like that anymore. amazon the people get to make their own decision maybe it would be different in a different state. alabama. not the greatest testing ground for a union vote for amazon. i don't know if i was going to go east of alabama. florida. am i right on that >> joe, you made the point about the employees having voice i think one of the things that has changed. i argue change over the last

three or four years, given t technology and social media that employees, especially in the white collar world, have more voice than before. almost as powerful as a union. you are seeing goldman sachs employees speaking out against their management in ways you would have never seen years ago. people speaking out on me too issues inside dpoog google and e of google. the power of the voice whether that translates into, you know, greater pay or things of that sort i think you are seeing lots of change in fact, i have heard from senior leaders that the org chart has been inverted because you have so many employees who do now have a say in the

strategy even of a company. >> i want the goldman partners to union you see the crappy bonus of $85,000? i want the signs out marching in front of goldman headquarters. $185,000 who can live on a bonus of $185,000 i don't think it will work maybe not. there has been a negative stigma the teachers union is always a target of criticism and the union is representing. whether it is more about union management or less about students we hear it is a hot button issue. that's why i wanted to talk about florida right away i didn't want to get into the issues we know about the slow and

steady decline which people would like to reverse, obviously in the nlrb. under the republican administration, they put republicans in there you see right to work gets maintained now it looks like we are reversing some of the right to work regulations or make it easier. >> that was my point we're watching this nationally with such close attention. when you look at the numbers early vote this is what as of thursday night, something like 1,100 votes, no. 463 votes, yes 3 3,215 ballots cast 55%. that surprised me the most the apathy that comes in 45% workers did not bother to cast a vote. >> now, interestingly, the union, i don't know how you followed this other part they are arguing one of the

reasons people are not voting is because of the intimidation effort that has taken place at amazon impossible to speak to for me because i have not done reporting on the ground. issues about the ballot box that was located -- >> it wasn't a ballot box. a post office box. i read that story and i don't get it >> that was located there. potentially illegally. clearly lots of effort on both sides about this there's lots of -- a story that is not going away. >> people telling me georgia is east of alabama. i have found that mobile, alabama, is west of florida. you go over and you are in the panhandle. i was basically right. i was going to draw a donald trump map. around georgia and underneath. >> so we can say you're right.

>> i meant overall east. >> south >> anyway. i don't think we teach geography enough to our kids >> agreed. >> why should we with google florida governor ron de santis is going to sue ythe cdc. he says he doesn't believe federal government had the right to mothball the industry for over a year. >> it will be available for everyone regardless of age or occupation within a matter of weeks. if you are saying under that circumstance that you can't let the cruise line sail, you are an an

anti-vaxxer. if the vac ecines work, everythg needs to be back to normal >> the cdc shutdown cruises with several covid outbreaks were tied to ships worldwide. that was at the very beginning with cruise ships off both coasts and at least one point the administration did not know what to do let them back in had to be dealt with >> sat there for weeks >> the cruise ship industry played a role at the beginning of all this, if you recall it has been over a year. >> yeah. >> well over a year. meantime, we have a story for you. this is quite something. update now on the leon black saga if you remember, he stepped down quite abruptly last month as ceo of apollo global management.

he had been planning to step down from the chairman role that was going to be pushed through the summer why? for years, apparently, he kept a consensual affair secret he said accusations over the episode on social media had nothing to do with his departure from apollo. in mid march on twitter, guzel ganieva wrote she was sexually harassed and forced to sign an nda. he denied that saying she had been extorting him for many years. between the jeffrey epstein component and now this, lots of questions about all of this. when he stepped down, he said it was for health reasons now, i think, people are asking again more questions we have more questions on the show and a lot more things

coming up on "squawk." when we come back, markets are pushing higher markets are moving back. later, tiaa ceo roger ferguson will join us with his take on the market and fed and g owng rights in america bish ahead "squawk" returns after this. >> announcer: this cnbc program is sponsored by baird. visit bairddifference.com. so when something happens that could affect your portfolio, you can act quickly. that's decision tech, only from fidelity. we see breakthrough medicines

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welcome back to "squawk. broader markets trending higher. a pull back by retail investors and the next guest says despite the slowdown, among the stocks they are buying is apple the number one buy for the third month in a row let's bring in keith shanahan. b retail investors in the main sa there has not been much activity as there has been. is this the reddit craze, if you will, wasn't there for folks what do you attribute it to? >> a few macro factors, andrew

t it is not just retail, it is overall. number one, vaccines people want to be outside. we're coming to the time of year where weather is improving you live in new york we live in chicago when the weather turning in the spring, people want to be outside. i think people want to be out. you have been reporting over the last couple of weeks in terms of travel and the airline bringing back flight attendants and pilots with that, and you look at the tsa numbers you also have been reporting on, you see they are near pre-pandemic levels people have been cooped up for 14 months and people want to go outside at home or they want to travel there's one other factor there isn't the sexy story, if you will, at the moment. you reported on what clients bought the last month.

what is interesting to me is the stock they sold. gamestop as soon as gamestop hit $200, our clients were heavy sellers of the stock if you look around and say what is attracting retail and you said apple that is the number one held stock. it is a stock that normally attracts people and as it is sold off, attracted more people than normal. >> jj, one of the larger questions about the covid trade, if you will, or the stay-at-home trading frenzy was a phenomena that was sustainable i know you were thinking about that and folks at robinhood growing users and customer base. what does that look like to you

now? >> i don't know that we would continue at those same levels. andrew, those were levels. you look at the fact we were doing up to 50 million options contracts at the occ now that number has come down significantly. i think what you will see is certainly much higher levels than in 2019 i don't know we will sustain those amazing levels from january and february this year we are, if you look where we were last year in overall volumes in the market, we're holding where we were last year when we picked up a ton of new clients. let's not forget 2020 compared to 2019. i think people may not visit frequently with the market, but it is not like they are closing accounts and going away. i think it is incredible we are

able to add so many people to the market over the last year and a half after five years saying how do we get people interested in of the market. >> the question i ask given the kind of audience and customer you have is about the greater rotation what you think that really looks like so many folks are holding on to big tech in retail land and whether you think they end up participate or whether there is an opportunity and you see people quote/unquote, buying this is a dip on high flyers for so long. >> i think it will take greater dip than this to be honest, andrew, to see people really come back in a bigger way to technology the s&p and dow at all-time highs setting up a few days in a

row. and the hesitancy, the s&p has set a record if we set one today, it will be number 20 on the year already which is incredible. it makes people nervous. they don't want to feel they are buying the top i'm not surprised by that. a selloff where people come back and participate more throw something out in terms of the buy dip. walmart hit the six-month low. walmart is very rarely a stock we see as an unusual buy not a sexy story what people are looking for is under performance. >> jj, great to see you. interesting. >> thanks for having me, andrew. >> correlating weather with the business i wonder what will happen in

gambling, joe? >> oh, that joe. jj that's a good question a good question. i thought you were talking to jj a lot of people say joe, what do you think of the markets then you are talking to the guest. you caught me off guard. jj can't decide. which is it? jj is he gone he's gone. we'll decide we report. you decide sorkin, you got it becky, p&g really a new wall street journal report says we were right about the logo that devil logo? p&g is helping test a new technique in china to get around apple privacy tools so they can target ads for us that apple is trying to stop crazy.

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welcome back to "squawk. a new report says p&g developed a new technique to gather iphone ads. it is meant to circumvent the privacy ads. it joined tech firms to use fingerprinting to require app users to choose if they want their activity to be tracked across apps and web sites.

tencent and bytedance were involved in testing this technique. >> not a great situation >> this is an issue where sunlight -- it is a terrible pr story. that will cure this. my guess this is initiative gets tossed overboard based on the reaction that is a stupid idea. apple is saying we protect you and p&g says no, we will heexpli it >> we're working with our friends in china >> you think p&g will stop i don't know >> if everybody is doing it in china, they may not. >> the first thing i thought the next thime we have the cfo on, this is the question we're asking. >> andrew, i might mention,

maybe bhuton is the great place to go. and then on my phone, great rates in bhuton. directed ads >> i think it is getting more. it has happened more in the last two months >> toe fungus? suddenly there it is all of the remedies for toe fungus comes up. >> not your microphone, joe. >> i know. >> it is stuff you google >> 100%. you should go to bhuton. the happiest place in the world. >> i know. you've been. >> it is. >> that is the place where the one monastery is impossibly situated >> yes i did the walk >> oh, my gosh >> i did that hike that was a hike. it was a full day hike worth every second >> who has been?

>> we know so much about each other. >> we do way too much way too much >> get burner phones and i'll send you to china. >> you need that like "the sopranos." a burner phone when we come back. the debate over president biden's $2 trillion infrastructure plan rolls on we'll talk about the price tag and what's included and ways to pay for it or even if we need to figure out how to pay for it because there is debate about that coming up next. as we head to the break. a look at the s&p winners and losers >> announcer: executive edge is sponsored by at&t business our people and network will help

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stock futures right now. dow adding to some of

yesterday's modest gains nasdaq was the big gainer yesterday. down 28 points s&p trading at new highs another new high yesterday above 4,000. becky. thanks, joe. president biden's infrastructure plan in focus all week we have been taking a closer look at whether corporate tax rate hike is the right move to pay for $2 trillion in spending. joining us is the former ceo of cke restaurants. andrew puzder. and stephanie kelter welcome to both of you this morning. i think there are some pretty big differences of opinion here. just in terms of what we call infrastructure, but also how we pay for any infrastructure spending that is a huge issue i don't think there are too many people to argue the projects need to take on and the

government should clearly do these things there is a question of who should pay for it. stephanie, this is not the debate we should even have how to pay for it, right >> clearly, i think, it is congress, if they have the votes, they can move a piece of legislation. they can pass a bill without so call pay for, out offsetting that spending. we got $2.2 trillion last year $900 billion in december and $1.9 trillion last month all passed without the pay for to the extent the low-hanging fruit available in the economy and what i mean is there is enough slack the economy is depressed enough to accommodate the spending without inflation program. if you have low-hanging fruit available, why not use it? you can safely commit to spending more into the economy on infrastructure and build back

better genagenda it comes down to how much capacity do you think we are still going to have available to us by the time the fall rolls around when congress might be passing a piece of legislation like this. >> andy, do you an agree >> no. the spending we have done is to fight the pandemic we spent in world war ii, you have an emergency and the government needs to spend. that is not a justification to continue to spend when the economy has recovered and we have come out of the pandemic. we have so much pent-up demand everybody wants to get out and do something i got vaccinated i want to travel i want to go out and spend some money and go to restaurants and enjoy myself we have supply chain problems which are resulting from the pandemic as well you really don't have supply chains that will be able to satisfy the demanded that's out

there and inflation is really a factor of supply and demand. if you have incredible demand, the supply cannot be met and prices will go up. that's what's going to happen. continued spending doesn't help the economy. it will not help us going forward. it may be a short intake we may have a sugar high out of this you will get improvement we are coming out of the pandemic things are going to get better we don't need to use the pandemic as an excuse for the excessive government spending that we will have to deal with at some point. as larry some summers saying thk of inflation is significant. >> stephanie, come back to that. we never have to pay for anything at the federal government level it does feel like common sense eventually this will catch up if we keep spending at a tear like this >> the point isn't you never

have to offset spending. the point is you begin to run out of the low-hanging fruit that is when pay for is important. i will say this about larry summers. in 2014, larry wrote an article in the financial times why infrastructure is a free lunch. remember, this is a time when larry made this argument he was saying when we invest in infrastructure, it is capacity building, right? that gets around the concern that we just heard about supply constraint. invest in infrastructure it is productivity enhancing supply and capacity building you are creating more space into which to grow that spending safely so you don't get an inflation problem. at the same larry published that, the treasury was 2.35% you do eventually have to offset spending what i'm suggesting is the

investments we're talking about making the economy build capacity they make it safe to spend more as the spending is undertaken and we're addressing decades of negl neglect. not just road and bridges, but broadband and tech we are moving the economy into th the 21st century. >> you only need 50 votes to get it past the senate, they have to find pay fors for it they are going to have to do that if they do, stephanie, what do you think should be at the front of the line? right now, they are eyeing business taxes raising business taxes to fpay for a big chunk. >> i hear they like to do things to rebalance the tax code. they like to try to concentrate

the pain, if you like, where it can best be accommodated the president committed he is not going to increase taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year he understands if there are going to be offsets with the legislation, he would like them to fall on those who are best able to sustain and weather the tax increases. i understand that. on this reconciliation and the need for pay fors or offsets, i don't think i agree that we are going to see con congress necessarily move the piece of legislation 100% fully pay for. there are things they will likely try to do they womenill come to agreementh tax increases. we hear them say dynamic scoring and a case to be made that even if you are not getting the revenue on the front end, that as larry summers argued in the 2014 piece, you can spend more

today and end up with higher revenue on the other side. that is what democrats are likely to argue. >> andy, you are going to see probably them put forward the proposal of the raise of business taxes back to 25% that seems to be the number that's coalesced around. what is the implication of that? >> first of all, if we are talking about infrastructure, which is what summers was talking about, there is not a lot of objection to infrastructure spending. they want to add in as part of infrastructure, paid leave, child care, care giving. things that clearly not infrastructure, but just trying to add to the bill when we are talking about an infrastructure bill here, we are talking about more those may be good things to do, but they are not infrastructure. secondly, estimated about 25% of the any impact from corporate tax increase falls on american workers.

there are other very valid studies show it is 70% to 100% we had incredible job credation and job growth under trump with 21%. mnuchin from the trump administration predicted it would happen he was criticized for that prediction it happened in 2019. the labor market was super hot if you increase corporate taxes like they talking about doing, the workers, american workers and american jobs and american incomes will get hit it will get hit the hardest. it will hit people making less than $400,000 a year we will not get back to full employment we will see the doldrums from the obama administration it will be on steroid because biden has gone beyond the policies that obama made work. if you are talking about infrastructure, let's address it

and find a way to pay for it if you are talking about spending and spending and spending as if there is no end to this, that has to stop or we will have an economic collapse >> andy and stephanie, thank you for being with us today. >> thanks. okay coming up, when we return, breaking news on boeing. telling customers to stop flying 737 max jets phil lebeau has more and we have harvey pitt with the latest message for spacs big news in spac world we'll dive into all of it. back in a moment ♪ ♪

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breaking news on dow component boeing let's get to phil for more >> boeing notifying 16 customers with the 737 max that certain models of the max. models that have gone through production since the plane has been ungrounded. there is a potential electrical issue in the flight deck as a result, they are asking those airlines not to fly those planes until they can check on that particular issue. an electric issue.

boeing is not saying how many airplanes are impacted by this notice it put out to the airlines clearly there will be some impact in terms of likely flight schedules in the next day or two. it is also unclear how long it takes the airlines, a matter of hours or days, to check out the potential issue. again, electrical issue in the flight deck. no incident that prompted this this was discovered during the production process and once they discovered the potential issue, they said they were going to notify their customers 16 airline customers who have certain 737 max are notified to check out the potential issue when it comes to the flight deck guys, back to you. >> phil, you can see it reacted to what you just brought to us

nothing more specific about it >> reporter: nothing in terms of the number of aircraft -- >> or safety >> reporter: obviously a safety. anytime there is an electrical issue, it is safety. boeing never takes the step not flying until you check something out unless it rises to this level. clearly it has again, they discovered it during the production issue check it out by all of the planes that may be impacted here this may be something where it gets worked out in a matter of hours or worked out in a matter of days. boeing is taking the step so customers can check them out >> i wouldn't venture a guess. you think of the electrical. what happens whenever we fly on a jet boggles the mind i can't believe it flies

look a bumble bee. >> reporter: the level of complexity is far beyond you or i. >> even if we put our heads together phil, if we find out more, let us know. thank you, phil. as we head to break, take a look of the shares of credit su suisse morgan stanley downgrading it interesting after morgan stanley was among those who liqu liquidate. and coming up, coinbase could fetch a valuation above $100 billion that is hard to imagine. direct listing is next week should you buy the shares. we are digging in to all that with perianne boring

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as you probably heard, coin base is expected to be public next year. joining us is perry ann boring founder and president of the digital chamber of commerce. just looking at the numbers, if you were to just look at growth and i guess just extend the growth we saw last year into the future, i guess it makes sense that's the question. these numbers, perry ann, revenue, year over year up 847%. 1.8 billion versus 190 million

net income jumping to roughly 3/4 of a billion dollars from 32 million. then you have assets because of what happened to crypto. does that justify $100 billion market cap for coin base >> absolutely. i think coinbase is under valued for two reasons. fast growing companies enjoy a higher earning base. in the first quarter of this year they did 1.8 billion in revenue. they have a run rate of 7 billion and they're expected to earn anywhere between 8 and 10 billion in revenue in 2021 so their valuation is 10 x of that. for a fast growing company that's growing at 400% year over year, they deserve a higher multiple i think that multiple should be

close to 15 x which would bring it to 150 billion valuation. fast-growing companies deserve higher multiples to revenue. that's only the first reason the second reason i think coinbase is under valued is because bitcoin is under valued. this tracks very closes with bitcoin's performance. bitcoin is under valued based on multiple models. >> multiple models there's a lot of ways to try to value bitcoin. a lot of it is pretty arcane but i think the ceo of coinbase pointed out the four other times bitcoin has gone on a run, kind of implying it may have gotten above a certain level where we may not see the highs and lows of previous years, where we saw 20,000 and then we saw 4,000 so what do you think the low on bitcoin will be?

i don't just mean this year. will it ever pull back below 35,000, below 30,000 when you say it's under valued, what do you think it is valued are you a maximalist do you think it should be $1 million a coin where are you on the high and the low? >> they say bitcoin should be priced at $72,000 today. metcalf's law that was formulated by one of our advisory board members george gilder, it's a formula many use to value a network user squared times the transaction value. that brings you to 72,000 today. another model that we look at is stock to flow. joe, i know you're very familiar with this. >> you're right. >> it says it should be priced at 100,000 to 288,000 this year. we have 12 years of data on stock to flow and bitcoin. if you measure it, stock to flow

is 94% correlated if you use gold, it's 99% correlated they say bitcoin will be $10,000 an ounce one bitcoin will be 10,000 ounces of gold in 2029 that's what people mean when they say bitcoin is eating gold. >> perianne, one question about the value of coinbase that i'm curious about, currently they are virtually the only game in town in the united states but if you are as bullish as i think you are on cryptocurrencies long term, you'd imagine that jpmorgan, morgan stanley, goldman sachs, we just had j.j.kinehan on, the t.d. ameritrades of the world everybody will allow trading how will that impact i would imagine the value of coinbase? >> well, absolutely it's going

to impact the market cap of bitcoin. coinbase isn't the only game in town cracken plans to do a direct listing as well. in 2018 the st. louis fed released a report saying that bitcoin will emerge as its own asset class. what's happening this week is giving a lot of credibility to this asset class bit. >> cory:'s market cap is $1 trillion the entire market cap is $2 trillion bitcoin has emerged. >> perianne, we want to have you back i wanted to ask you about what peter thiel talking about china. china could clearly take the lead and you've got some ideas for what the biden administration needs todo in terms of blockchain. let's get it together. do we want to be left in the dust on just blockchain? we'll have you back to talk about it you have eight or nine things

you think that the biden administration should do >> should be a priority in the united states. absolutely >> okay. thank you. >> thanks much. >> especially with the peter thiel comments crazy. becky. when we come back, don't miss a major interview with the ceo of tiaa, roger ferguson. he's going to weigh in on the annducmo the president's tax pl a mh re we'll be right back. (splash) ♪♪ turn today's dreams into tomorrow's trips... with millions of flexible booking options. all in one place. expedia.

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let my people sail governor of florida will sue the cdc in an attempt to restart his state's cruise industry. we'll speak to dr. scott gottleib about reopening hard-hit businesses safely as covid vaccinations ramp up 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 along

with becky quick and joe kernen. take a look at u.s. equity futures this morning we are up on the dow looks like we'll open up 68 points higher. on the down side, nasdaq looking to open lower, about 13 points lower right now. we've got some breaking news this hour to tell you about. boeing has notified 16 customers who fly its 737 max that a potential electrical issue exists in the flight deck of certain models it's asking those customers not to fly the planes until they can check out that issue these are planes that have gone through production since the max was ungrounded several months ago following the two fatal crashes in '18 and '19 boeing department say explicitly how many planes are impacted by this notice. it's not clear how long it will take the airline to check their aircraft shares of boeing right now are down call it marginally off this news we're going to get a live update in just a little bit from our

own phil lebeau on this story later in the program in some other news, with about half the ballots counted, it appears the workers will reject a unionization effort the votes are running 2 to 1 against a union. more results expected today. we should note 500 ballots are reportedly being challenged. only 55% of the employee base even participated in the vote. meantime, robinhood customers are increasingly embracing cryptocurrencies new figures showing 9.5 million users traded cryptocurrency on the platform during the first quarter. it's an increase of nearly 6 fold from the fourth quarter of 2020 so a lot of excitement, as you can tell, around the world of crypto netflix has signed a five-year streaming deal with sony pictures. it begins with 2022 increases.

"the wall street journal" reporting a deal of $1 billion over a 5-year term of the deal joe? >> andrew, thanks. the s&p 500 posted a record close yesterday. the third time it's done that just this week maybe partly because the markets have finally learned to stop worrying and trust the fed's read on inflation. steve liesman joins us now with more steve, good morning. >> good morning, joe call this story how the markets learned to stop worrying and loved the idea of temporary inflation. over the past several weeks it looks like the markets have embraced the fed as a coming burst of inflation the burst will be temporary. that will be tested again today with the release of wholesale prices at 8:30 and again next tuesday with consumer prices fed chair jay powell in discussion yesterday with cnbc's own sara eisen repeated his it's only temporary mantra. >> we have a situation where the

economy's reopening. there's -- there will be a surge in demand, perhaps, that will be bottlenecks perhaps. it seems unlikely that that will change the underlying inflation psychology that has taken deep roots over the course of many, many years so that's what we think. we think that there will be upward pressure on prices which may be passed along to consumers in the form of price increases we think that that affect will be temporary before that idea, it cooled off since the end of march you can see that little decline there reversing a steady climb upward and coinciding with the latest march higher in stocks. now the headline of the producer price index is expected to rise up to 3% year on year for another strong gain. it comes the day after gm said it would announce car shortage

it had racked supply chains and manufacturers around the globe and threatened to push up prices what's unclear and what's important here, how much of that inds up in consumer prices the fed says it will be, yup, temporary. for now, joe, markets seem to believe them >> i like your question, steve, which we'll get to in a second can i approach it in a different way? it harkens back to -- i'm talking about a question that you're suggesting that i ask you because it's a good one about the fed, you know, doesn't -- they look at how the economy and projections for how that's going to work, they go, we're not worried about that they look at inflationary expectations, yeah, we believe those. we talked, remember, about whether the fed can really orchestrate a 10-year or whether the 10-year, it's such a big market globally that it's going to do what it wants. >> right. >> isn't the easing of worry or what you're seeing in terms of the tips, isn't that the market

sort of giving us that signal? we don't necessarily have to believe the fed. we can believe what the market told us in the last three weeks or four weeks. >> you know, joe, i don't think it's that clear-cut. i think there's this relationship where the market says don't worry about inflation.

>> people are still jumping and trying to say it's good for you. i've had a lot of tweets about that your casual look is getting a lot of thumbs up did your wife put that together? >> joe, it's not my call the bureau chief in this bureau who's a bit of a task master said it's a no tie day >> task master good i think it's working maybe you're going -- >> thanks. >> you're teaching a course at the local college at what, 10 a.m. this morning? that would be a good outfit for that, too, to walk in? >> there's no leather on this. there's no suede on the elbow? >> get that and you're good. when am i going to see the cover

band the dead cover band. i can see it, you're back in business. >> yeah, we have a gig tomorrow night at the bitter end. it's an interesting -- >> no way. >> yeah. cuomo allowed for 1/3 capacity so we sold 50 tickets in one hour, which i think is a good sign of pointent-up demand. they had special software, joe, that allows you to go on there and you can order four or five at the table depending upon -- the band has to be back against the wall there's 12 feet with the audience this is, you know, a sign of things to come who knows? >> i was going to joke, 1/3 capacity would be a new record for your band. yeah, as you said, you sold -- how long was that, in one hour you sold out that's awesome >> like an hour after we announced it. >> we've got to go what will you start with what could i -- could i hear

"eyes of the world"? >> no. we're going to do a lot of songs off the dead's reckoning album the acoustical bum from the city. >> man, did we digress i'm trying to help out i didn't need to >> no, it's a good story >> sold out. >> oh, no, becky, i'm seeing what you're going to read. you're kidding wow. >> no, breaking news from buckingham palace this morning this is sad nice prince philip has died at the age of 99. he passed away peacefully this morning at windsor castle. just last month he was hospitalized he had been given surgery back in february and last month he was hospitalized he had to have a procedure for a pre-existing heart condition that he is obviously the long-time patriarch of the royal family he married then princess elizabeth back in 1947 so more than 70 years and, again, this is after a bout of illness and at the age of 99

but, again, very sorry to report this "squawk box" will be right back labradoodles, cronuts, skorts. (it's a skirt... and shorts) the world is going hybrid. so, why not your cloud? a hybrid cloud with ibm helps bring all your clouds together. that means you can access all your data, modernize without rebuilding, and help keep things both open and secure. that's why businesses from retail to banking are going hybrid with the technology and expertise of ibm.

nobody's going to out think bell and textron. 85 years of history. a lot of military history and again wheels up, our partnership with textron, this just double clicks on it. >> shawn, we're showing video of a concept that bell introduced

or showed just a couple of years ago regarding the potential for the ev tall market what's your perspective in terms of how quickly that technology may develop? are we looking at five years down the road, ten years down the road what's your sense? >> i think it's probably more than the 5-year window what we're doing today, announcing with wheels up and belly think is a first step into the urban air mobility world clearly as you've seen in the past, we've done work around nexus. our team at bell has been doing a fair bit of work this past few years. the critical thing around the ev toll, it's a huge enabler as to what can grow in terms of the size of the market, getting rid of the noise issues and a much more friendly solution is around the propulsion systems we have teams in navigation systems. we know how to do -- bell knows

how to design copters, it looks an awful lot like how do we go from aircraft to vertical. i know we have the technology to go do this there's no doubt around that we have to work on the propulsion systems it will be a useful vehicle, it will get the kind of legs and distance that are going to be critical in that marketplace clearly that's evolving very quickly. i think we'll get there. >> sure. scott donnelley, the ceo of textron and kenny dick ter, the founder and ceo of wheels up guys, as you announce this new deal where we will see helicopter service as part of the wheels up program. it's not surprising that wheels up and bell are making this decision or textron bell making this decision increasingly you are seeing the focus being in terms of urban air mobility that

last mile or 10 or 15 miles, how can people move from point a to point b whether it's an airport to a destination or a destination to an airport. that's at the end of the day what's driving this deal and this announcement from wheels up and textron. >> textron is one stop shopping from wheels up a lot of the cessna, they've had nice little jets that most of us will never have. >> a long relationship there. >> long relationship. >> it makes sense they're extending it this way to move into urban air mobility. >> i don't even want a g4 or 5. a citation 10. >> just a simple citation. a man who wants a simple citation. >> right fly at like 50,000 feet. they're just awesome coming up, just as we watch the spac boom this past year,

the sec says it's also been watching now that agency is out with a new statement that can help us figure out the focus of future regulations. we'll get into that after a break and ask what -- stupid song -- and ask what investors need to know about putting money in a blank check company. you're watching "squawk box. it must be friday and cnbc time now for today's aflac trivia question. what electronics company recently announced it will be exiting the smartphone business by the end of july wn bc "uahecn'ssqwk box" continues 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.

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now the answer to today's aflac question what electronics company recently announced it will be exiting the smartphone business by the end of july the answer, lg the company is currently the third biggest smartphone brand behind apple and samsung welcome back to "squawk" this morning the sec has a message for wall street spacs are not a way around

security laws. in a statement acting director john coats addressed the recent black check frenzy company and signaled spacs can get the same scrutiny as other companies. with this year already exceeding 2020's record. joining us to break down what the sec may have in store for the future of spacs is the partner ceo and former chairman harvey pitt. >> good to see you. >> reading this paper, it gives you the sense that i don't want to say spacs are coming to an end, but spacs are going to be maybe changing their shape, form and substance going forward. how surprised were you by that paper? >> i was not very surprised because i think there's been a building concern about the avoidance of some of the more

rigorous aspects of initial public offerings it was likely that the sec staff was willing to take action to bring this back into the mainstream. >> so to me, and i don't know if you agree with this, the biggest piece of caution in that note yesterday was the idea that spacs historically have provided forward looking forecasts. people come on our program, they talk about what's going to happen three, four, five years out from now they give you lots of different projections. this is something that historically has not happened in the ipo world. investors have been much more dependent on past numbers not forward numbers because of the way safe harbor laws exist which effectively don't or the interpretation has been they don't protect the ipo but do

protect the, quote, despac because it's really just a merger how do you think that's going to change things now? >> i think it's going to change things by requiring companies to be -- that use the spac approach to be far more circumspect about their projections. this has been a recurrent theme, particularly with some of the electronic vehicle spac companies. >> you're talking about lucid motors and others? >> yes that the sec has effectively -- staff has effectively said we're going to treat all of these transactions as if they are the equivalent of initial public offerings so you cannot rely on the safe harbor exemption for forward looking statements and

that should bring to a halt tomorrow of the more aggressive predictions and projections we have seen in recent months. >> do you expect the sec to retroactively go after companies that provided let's say pie in the sky projections without providing -- this was interesting to me, in the paper it effectively said a lot of folks put out these projections. if there are other projections you have, if during the course of this transaction you were shown the high side, the low side, the middle, what different options could have happened, you only showed the high side, that's going to be a problem with any projections at all, you're going to have to show the full gamut of them in the future my question is whether you think they're going to go back

and actually look at some of the projects from the past. >> i think the enforcement will look at some of the more recent spac transactions, look at the projections and then do an investigation. i think they'll be circumspect about what cases they might choose to bring forward but they will look for cases that are egregious. we can expect to see some enforcement action as a result >> hey, harvey, i just wonder what you think of archagos and the extreme leverage used there, 500% in some cases is this something you think deserves regulatory scrutiny >> i do. i think the sec has announced that it's taking a look at this. there are several problems because you have somebody who pled guilty to a felony who

should have been out of the securities business and he was making use of the family office exemption that the sec had e ena enacted. that's a valuable exemption, but it really was used here to mask very over leveraged trading and it was used to hide from the banks that funded him the fact that they were funding the same transaction multiple times that simply can't go on. >> so what happens what would the sec crack down on in this case, family offices >> well, i think in this particular case there may well be grounds depending on what the ultimate facts show about an enforcement action under existing rules

but i also think there needs to be far more disclosure because what happened here is arche ears used swap transactions to hide his -- the full extent of his equity position. i would expect to see greater disclosure requirements coming out of the sec going forward >> hey, harvey i want to go back to spacs for a second to understand this. given so many spacs are dependent on these projections, meaning a lot of these companies are losing money right now in some cases they have no revenue and so they're dependent on the projections for investors to buy into the story, does this mean the end of that >> i think that is really not the way to get investors to invest in classic ipos the companies explain all of the risks, all of

the difficulties and the notion here that there's some exemption and that you can make wild projections that have no basis in fact and that don't turn out to be realized is something that the sec has traditionally taken a very dim view of and i think it will here >> so but just to be clear, if you were a lawyer -- if i was thinking of doing a spac and i call you up, harvey, and i say, should we do this, and by the way the only way this is going to work is if i can actually put out some real meaningful projections of what the next five years i think look like otherwise it doesn't work, you're going to tell me to do what >> i'm going to tell you that you're probably not yet ready to be a public company and i would

tell you to wait until you have more of a track record or else you'll have to come up with some excruciatingly painful disclosures that suggest that these may be projections but there is absolutely no assurance that those projections can be met or even come close to being met. >> harvey, appreciate it great to see you thanks for helping us break down this news. >> thank you. >> you bet becks? >> thanks, andrew. when we come back, some top stocks on the move in the pre-market here's one to get you started. fu fubotv it got 10 south american teams matches. ay t up 9.4% stuned, you're watching "squawk box" and this is cnbc.

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stock market volatility hats d has disappeared for the time being. that's going all the way back to february of last year well before the pandemic issues started. approaching some of the lowest levels we've seen over the past couple of years. now one of the biggest moves behind that is the at least catch up trade that many of the smaller members of the s&p 500 have done over the course of the past several months and then the last year. the etf that tracks the s&p 500 is up 47% over the last year now it's 56% for the equal weighted measure of the same stocks so more emphasis on the smaller members. you can see they track pretty closely together for the first part of the last year and then they start to kind of diverge here and here. now that we've seen some of that movement, there's a question about whether or not there's a mean reversion, whether or not some of those bigger cap technology stocks start to take some leadership since they've been under performing as of late we've seen that play out in the

last week or so. check out the moves we've seen in apple up 6%, microsoft up 4% and paypal 7.5%. that's helped propel the s&p 500 sector to a record high in yesterday's trading. apple and microsoft, those two together, make up 42% of the tech sector in the s&p watch big cap technology it might be due for a little bit ve an up turn in the next seral months stay tuned keep it right here we have more "squawk box" coming up after this quick break.

it will be available literally for everyone regardless of age, regardless of occupation, all of that within a matter of weeks. so if you're saying under that circumstance you can't let the cruise lines sail. if you're saying that, you're an

antivaxxer joining us to talk more about the reopening, dr. scott gottleib he serves on the boards of pfizer and illumina. scott, it's good to see you. we had -- jim cramer had on the ceo of wynn. if you are going to come into my casino, show me you've got the v vaxx or show me you've had it. if you do it, it's tough to catch it in that casino. i'm going to laminate my thing i got both shots it says it right there i'm ready to whip that baby out any time anyone asks, needs to see it i'm ready. >> yeah, look, hopefully there's going to be better applications available that you can use to demonstrate that you've been vaccinated i think we're going to see those coming to the marketplace. third parties help you aggregate that data. i've been advising the cruise lines and i came up with a set

of recommendations on how the cruise lines can get back into business safely, the kinds of public health measures they should adopt to create a safe environment. these are two cruise lines in part particular they have committed to things like mandatory testing of passengers norwegian cruise lines said they are going to require vaccination of all of your passengers. as you start to implement all of these in our report, you start to create an environment that could be quite safe, where you can create a protective bubble around the experience where you are testing people into the cruise environment you require everyone to be vaccinated you implement these and they are not going to implement at full capacity you create a safe bubble around that experience, especially when you compare it to other vacation experiences where you can't control the environment. if you are going to cancun, you can't control what happens on

the plane. you can't control what happens in your hotel or on the vacation site in a crews experience you can control the environment quite well. >> we saw at the height of the pandemic when the nba or other organizations created basically a bubble, it worked pretty well. you could kind of replicate that as long as there's still variants or background level of covid, it seems like a pretty good idea to create basically a de facto bubble. >> i think it's going to be attractive to people an environment where everyone's been tested or the vast majority of people have been vaccinated that can be a low-risk environment especially in a low-prevalence environment i think what the cruise industry is trying to ascertain and get is a pathway forward it's an objective set of measures that cdc is willing to

accept that they're going to recognize that creates a lower prevalence environment something like that experience can go forward for a lot of americans, a cruise is an afford ablg vacation certainly vacationing overseas the cruise can look like a lower risk endeavor. it can excert control. >> i want to ask you about the j&j vaccine. >> scott. >> we may have time at the end i don't know, scott. >> scott, but square this circle for me, which i don't understand, which is you have desantis out there saying he wants to sue the cdc at the same time he is trying to block and prevent businesses from requiring the vaccine and then you have the cruise lines who want to have the equivalent of a vaccine passport

requirement. i mean, the hypocrisy is beyond -- >> right well, i can't square that for you. what i would say is i think the debate around vaccine passports has been swept up in sort of an unfortunate level of concern around what that means for people's privacy the reality is right now the only people who own the information that you've been vaccinated in a reliable fashion are the 64 vaccine jurisdictions that the states have to report to these are cdc jurisdictions primarily set up to gather information about childhood vaccinations if your pediatrician wants to pull down information on whether your child has been vaccinated, there are 64 jurisdictions that states have to report to that's where information was reported to. you don't own that information in some jurisdictions it's accessible to you but in a lot it's not i think creating these intermediaries, these apps that can verify whether you've been vaccinated is empowering consumers. i think the place where these

vaccine passports are becoming operated is can you visit a nursing home can you visit a loved one in a hospital next winter, that's where they're useful. >> the j&j situations, very low percentage but a significant number out of a couple of,000 people had 20 or 30. they shut down a couple of the vaccination sites. do you have any concerns about the j&j vaccine? what do you think it means >> look, i think it's too early to tell. from the public reporting on it, it looks like allergic reactions. you sometimes see vaccine related reactions that aren't necessarily allergic reactions people will faint, they'll have a syncopal episode it's hard to tell what actually occurred i'm sure fda is looking into that. >> right great. all right, doctor. we'll keep it short. got to run this morning. >> thanks a lot. if you are just waking up.

we had sad news from buckingham palace prince philip died at the age of 99 he passed away peacefully at windsor castle we've actually talked about the prince and what a -- 99. great life he had a heart condition i made the point, i -- you know, he lived to 99 you do have a heart condition. pretty darn good heart to get you to 99. i might sign on to that, becky he had a great life. sad news >> it is sad news. life well lived and just looking back at his service today. more than 22,000 solo engagements as a member of the royal family 637 visits over sea sz he delivered almost 5500 speeches around was patron to almost 800 different organizations. of course he married who was then princess elizabeth back in 1947 more than 70 years ago and then became consort to the sovereign

in 18972 when queen elizabeth's father george passed away. when we come back, we'll get back to the markets. we'll be watching to see what's going on with the s&p 500 which set another record yesterday you can see this morning, the s&p up another 6 points, the dow up another 83 and nasdaq up 1% giving back a little i. down by 15 points. our next guest says there is no appetite to sell. we'll talk autbo strategy. stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" and this is cnbc

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futures are mixed this morning as we get set to wrap up a week when the s&p 500 closed at a record high three times already and the week is not over yet. our next guest says there just isn't an appetite to sell this market or to stay out of it. joining us to talk about what she thinks right now is anastasia ammo rosa. maybe that is the best sort of situ situation, the way to describe t. nobody can say forget it with the momentum what do you do >> yeah. it's just really hard to say i am going to stay out of this market a, it's continuing to make big highs. b, how can you sell the market when you have a confluence of positive events unlike nothing

we've ever seen. you have the economy clearly reopening. you have the consumer appetite, industrial appetite rebounding across different sectors on top of that, we've heard from jay powell we continue to hear from him that they're not about to raise rates any time soon. the market thinks they're going to do it until late 2022 we don't think it will be until late 2023. on top of that, you have the massive fiscal infrastructure and you put all of those facts together and it's really hard for investors, whether that's institutional, hedge funds or investors to stay out of this market this brings me to another point which is it's not sure we should be blindly investing, we should be aware that positioning everyone has gotten extended we know hedge funds are bullish on this market they're in it. we know retail investors have

added to equity holdings there is definitely a relty dose of risk taking what is going to be the catalyst to sell. until one comes along, i say you stay with that trend and the trend is up. any dip you get i think it is a viable dip at this point. >> people who have been waiting for a dip, good luck with that every time you think there's even a slight pull back, it's half a percent and people rush back into the markets. >> that's right. >> you're right. i can't think of reasons it's hard to think of reasons to sayah but what about this. i'll give it a try to make things interesting the federal reserve says it's not going to raise rates any time soon. probably what the market is waiting for is any hint they're going to start tapering. would that spook the market? >> yeah, becky, there's one of

them one you rightfully mentioned, we have a disorderly interest rate. the market starts to sniff that out. that's one risk we could see more of. we could see a spike in interest rates. we could see rates move higher to 2%. we don't expect them to significantly spike there. if they do, you have pockets of high valuation in some of the software names or some of the spacs and some of the evs. i think you do have some conditions that would be ripe for a further pull back. the other big risk for me really is on this infrastructure side the investors are rather bullish on the chances of infrastructure getting done what if this gets dragged out? what if this

if the infrastructure doesn't extend it. i'm going to take the other side of that. i think it does extend what's been a great recovery. any pull back you get i would be looking to add some of those infrastructure names even parts of software have been quite investable and big tech. >> do you have a favorite name >> can't give you the name but i will tell you that the big tech complex is starting to look very interesting. not often do you find stocks that are growing their earnings at 20% plus like some of the big tech companies are doing and at the same time they're trading as 17 or 18 times multiples compare that to the s&p which is

20 or 21 this is actually -- parts of tech are becoming growth at a reasonable price. >> anastasia, great to see you. >> you, too. >> coming up, an exclusive interview you don't want to miss with tia president and ceo roger ferguson one of the most prominent black executives who signed a letter talking about affirmative action about georgia's controversial voting law we'll speak to him straight ahead when "squawk" continues after this [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. ♪ ♪ (upbeat music) don't get mad. ♪ ♪

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good morning stocks poised for weekly gains as we kick off the final trading day of the week. tiaa ceo roger ferguson joins us on the markets and the economy straight ahead. boeing notifying some customers to stop flying the 737 max over a potential electrical issue. southwest airlines grounding part of the fleet as a result. phil lebeau will have an update. plus, amazon taking a heavy lead in the closely watched union vote in alabama. we'll tell you what the results could mean for the company, its workers and amazon investors the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now

♪ ♪ good morning and welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm joe kernen with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin almost 100 points towards momentum for the dow and the nasdaq continues to trade in the red slightly after a big gain, 1% gain yesterday. and then the s&p is indicating that it would open a new high territory. all time high territory if it were to open right now we'll see what happens between now and 9:30 treasuries have been well behaved for people that were worried about a big spike higher developing story this morning, amazon holds a commanding lead in the union election at one of its alabama

warehouses when counting stopped last night there were 1100 votes that had been cast against unionization and 463 votes in support that counting will resume today with more than 1,000 ballots left to tally. the president of the retail wholesale and department store union struck a pessimistic tone last night he said this still represents an important moment for working people and their voices will be heard. we've got much more on the story coming up at the bottom of the hour. meantime, corporate america taking a stand over the week on georgia's new voting law this next guest is tiaa ceo roger ferguson we're thrilled to have him here about so many different issues great to see you we appreciate you being with us. i know you're set to retire soon maybe the shackles will be off and you can say what you like.

let's start with this issue of voting i'm curious what the reaction has been over this past week, what you're hearing from companies, many of whom are now speaking out but at the same time there has been a remarkable backlash, you've seen it from mitch mcconnell and the governor of georgia and others and how do you think this plays out >> thank you for having me on. i'm pleased to talk to you about this important topic what you've seen is more and more companies speaking out and the most important thing is recognizing those voices as my voice are middle of the road folks only speaking and we do not see this i do not see this as a partisan issue. this is an american issue. millions of people have died in

various wars to perfect our way of life. voting is a constitutional right. as an african-american knowing that the civil rights act of '65 was the place that cemented the rights of blacks to vote, it's important for all of us to stand up for the american constitution and the right to vote. >> i appreciate you saying this is not a partisan issue except this in georgia and around the country are coming from one side of the aisle >> i notice they're coming from one side of the aisle. i'm saying all-americans want free and fair elections. the united states out of the 35 major economies, we're number 30 in terms of voter participation, have been according to recent statistics from my standpoint this is a broader issue about the kind of democracy we want to have and

the way we want to protect all-american institutions that have been the bedrock to the backb dls backbone of the capital system. >> speak to the republican viewer who's watching and has red the op eds and say these are about securing and making elections fairer and mother secure that's what those editorials say. >> i say it's important to have fair, free, secure elections i support that there were drop boxes in the atlanta area there are roughly about 40 of them in the last election. under this law it will go down to merely about 8. those 8 boxes, by the way, will be put into office buildings that are only available certain hours. working class folks who can't

get to an office building between 9 and 5 may have a much more difficult time voting this makes mobile voting booths a thing of the past. take a look at the absentee voting which becomes much more difficult. i would argue, does this look on the ballots as though we're going to have more people voting or fewer people voting and then as african-american, knowing that so many of the african-american voters in georgia in and around the atlanta area, the fact that those drop boxes have been decreased by 80%, it might have a bit of a disproportionate impact on black voters in the atlanta area. >> roger, complicated question

maybe you have advice for them there's a question as to whether you can publicly decry these laws on one side and support the politicians who are supporting them either financially or otherwise because perhaps you believe in some of the other issues that they are supporting. how do you square it up? >> so my view is first you speak out clearly about things that matter and then, frankly, use your ability to talk to these politicians to explain to them why it is that in some areas you agree with what they may stand for and in some you don't. most importantly, when it comes to voting rights, let's elevate that up. let's not make that a right versus left, democrat versus republican question. that is an american question there is no one that i have heard of on either side of the aisle that thinks we should have fe

fewer. if you aren't careful, we have fewer than 50% of the qualified electorate voting. if we aren't careful, we're down to fewer than half of the eligible voters vote and decide major issues 1.2 million americans have died in the course of various wars to protect the american way of life and say this is not partisan this is about the society we want to run that is fair, that's equitable and that, frankly, is safe from corporate america. >> here's a hard question for you by i think it must be asked. do you look at somebody like governor kemp or governor abbott or others proposing those rules and believe that they ar fundamentally racist >> i am cautious about calling names. fundamentally racist is a strong statement. what i believe is all of these politicians that we need to engage them on the kind of

democracy that we as corporate leaders want to see. i would argue it's the democracy that helps us move up the rank table from being number 30 in terms of voting to a much higher level. i'm cautious about using words like racist. that is not a word that comes out of my mouth easily i don't know the individuals directly the way to engage is talk about the policy issues we see and the way we want to protect the constitution. >> i want to pivot the conversation, get your sense of where we are in the economy right now. i want to show you a quick shot of federal reserve jay powell speaking about the recovery yesterday at an imf panel with sara eisen take a look at this. >> at the higher end the labor market has virtually recovered but not for people in the bottom 20%. we've been very concerned about this from the beginning.

it amounts to 9 or 10 million people depending how you count it who are working in february 2020 and are now unemployed. they clearly want to be working but they are not we will not forget them and will provide the support until the job is done. >> when you look at where things are, what is your sense and what is your answer of the next couple of years here >> my sense of kwr things are in the next couple of years, first, we are clearly coming out of a very turbulent time but it feels to me though the economy is in recovery and will continue to be in recovery. i think we're doing something very interesting which is having very loose fiscal policy we have a 1.9 trillion support package and we're running a relatively easy monetary policy as well. i expect the next couple of

years to be very good growth marking up our growth expectations both for the u.s. and globally i also expect that we may see some frictions here and there that might lead to some temporary increases in inflation but not necessarily sort of a permanent pickup in inflation and i've heard very clearly from the federal reserve, you heard from chairman powell just then, that they intend to be relatively patient in terms of starting to raise rates as they've got a new framework that says, you know, they want to really see inflation run a bit above 2% for a period of time before they start to tighten monetary conditions, even a little bit so i think we're in for a period of continued growth. >> in terms then of the asset mix that you're thinking about at tiaa, has it shifted as a result of this >> no. we've taken a view that, you know, across asset classes there are probably some serious

opportunities. i would expect equity valuations to hold up now depending how corporate earnings go, those valuations can go higher but we'll see. certainly we've always been a believer in alternative asset classes that i think will perform reasonably well. depending on how things turn up in the infrastructure bill, we've already seen a number of investors focusing on industrial economy and company. so i think there will be a broad range of asset classes that are likely to do well as the economy, both in the u.s. and around the world, continue to improve. >> you've named from jpmorgan to take your job when you retire next month what's next for you? >> thanks for asking well, i'm retiring from the ceo position of tiaa but i'm not retiring from the labor force. chairman powell doesn't need to

worry about that i'm going to be on several corporate boards hope to engage with a number of people who are half my age in fintech activities helping to drive more inclusion there and then i'll also be doing some think tank type work i'm going to be fully engaged, maybe working merely 35 hours a week, not the 60 a plus i've been working over the last several years. >> roger, just on that note. by the way, thanks for being here it's good to see you. >> thanks, becky. >> on the note of fin tech, good to see you, we did hear from jamie dimon. he thinks fintech needs to be closely monitored. they are not regulated the same way the banks are. that's a mistake what would you say to somebody about to embark on a career of fintech? >> i would say fintech needs to be thought of as part of the financial services industry. one of the pieces of advice i give entrepreneurs is if you are getting into financial technology, you are getting into

finance and the rules that apply to banks and others are or will be applying to you i also remind them that if they become vendors or suppliers to the large, more established financial services firms, the federal reserve requires big firms to understand what's going on with their vendors and suppliers. so i think the notion of being regulated as part of the financial services industry is probably going to occur in pockets within the world of fintech. >> okay. roger ferguson, always good to see you. i hope you come on back. maybe a lot more you'll have a little extra time. >> thank you so much always a pleasure. >> thanks. talk to you soon becky? >> when we come back, some news breaking earlier this morning. boeing says that some 737 max planes should be grounded while it addresses a potential electrical issue no more news on this, but southwest airlines now pulling planes from its schedule

phil lebeau will join us with an update on what's happening next. stay tuned, you're watching "squawk box" and this is cnbc. labradoodles, cronuts, skorts. (it's a skirt... and shorts) the world is going hybrid. so, why not your cloud? a hybrid cloud with ibm helps bring all your clouds together. that means you can access all your data, modernize without rebuilding, and help keep things both open and secure. that's why businesses from retail to banking are going hybrid with the technology and expertise of ibm.

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some news breaking earlier from boeing. phil lebeau joining us that stock down over 2%. >> yeah. feeling the impact of boeing telling 16 of its customers, we're talking about airlines, aircraft leasing companies, 16 of those companies that have 737 maxes that they should temporarily ground some of those 737 maxes. let's be clear here. they are not telling airlines to not fly any maxes, it's only a certain number and boeing's not telling us how many. here is the issue. boeing says there may be a potential electrical issue in theflight deck this was discovered during the production process and as a result boeing is telling its customers, look, with a certain number of 737 maxes we want you to check this out before you put this back into operation again, it is a potential issue not discovered during a flight there was no incident that prompted this. this was boeing discovering it

during the production issue. southwest is already out this morning saying that it will pull 30 of its 737 max 8 planes from the schedule they'll be able to replace those planes in the schedule with spare aircraft so it's going to have a limited impact on southwest's schedule today southwest has 58 737 maxes this may be a case, becky, where the customers, the airlines and leasing companies, take anywhere from a fewhours to a couple of days to check out this potential electrical issue with the flight deck but the important thing to keep in mind here is when you talk about the 737 max and when you talk about a temporary grounding, even if it's for a few hours, it immediately makes people say, okay, do we have another issue with the max we should also point out that this is a specific situation here with a specific number of planes not all 737 maxes. boeing believes it will take anywhere from a couple of hours

to a couple of days for these airlines to check out these maxes. becky, back to you phil, my air, stock down 1% not 2% second of all, when you say the flight deck, what does that mean how broadly of a situation are we talking about >> that's pretty broad they're not giving us more specifics than that, becky, at this point it is an electrical issue within the flight deck and they want the customers to check it out and it may be a case where they can get in there they know specifically what they're looking for. they may get in there and they may say not an issue, good to go they may get in there and say it's a potential issue, we have to remedy the situation. that may take, again, a couple of hours or a couple of days >> i guess the good news though, a couple of days being on the outside and that's got to at least give some breathing room >> yeah, i do not get a sense from talking with people that this is major.

>> okay. great. good to see you. thanks, phil >> you bet coming up, robinhood revealing a surge in crypto trading by its users in the first quarter. kate rooney joining us to break down the numbers next. new read on inflation. the wholesale price numbers at 8:30 a.m. eastern. that's a good way of saying it ati. th's at 8:30 even. "squawk box" will be right back. with a bang, energy and change came to every part of our universe. seismic or small, it continues. change is all around us. shaped by technology and human ingenuity,

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crypto trading is taking off. that's good news for robinhood kate rooney joins us now with more >> in march the stock shot up 3.5 million clients trade cryptocurrencies, with new and existing investors robinhood has seen 3 million new crypto traders per month to start this year. for comparison the monthly averages last year were around the low 100,000s robinhood has 9.5 trading bitcoin, aethereum and dogcoins.

the main profit engine came under fire during the gamestop saga trading and crypto trading could help diversify that revenue. for other companies, crypto trading has proven to be profitable coin base reported an estimated $1.8 billion in revenue for the first quarter, almost entirely from trading fees. that was more than it made in all of last year square in its fourth quarter reported about the same revenue level. 1.8 billion just from bitcoin trading. square stock is up more than 12% this week. analysts do expect to see a similar boost as bitcoin prices doubled in the first quarter joe, back to you. >> a lot of ripples. uh-oh. is ripple a cryptocurrency. >> xrp it's xrp >> oh, no. >> take it back. >> that move from 5,000 to 60,000, i mean, it did

look at all -- i mean, the tentacles are everywhere not just bitcoin even when we talk nfts we tie it to that move as well so we better -- we've got to hire some people, kate we've got to hire some people to get on this beat, right? >> i know. they call them alt coins the whole market cap has reached $2 trillion and people are saying that in the meantime you've seen bitcoin stay pretty stable there's more people moving into those other cryptocurrencies and bitcoin isn't as popular as it was even a couple of months ago. >> a whole new way of thinking, kate, in terms of what is a network. i mean, you think about what the amazon network is worth. sometimes you hear people say that comparison to amazon for crypto and what is that worth those questions, no one knows

the answer but we're going to continue to discuss. good to see you, kate rooney. >> great to see you, thanks, joe. >> andrew. coming up when we return, breaking economic data we're going to get the latest read on nsercoum prices and the instant market reaction when "squawk" returns after this.

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welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc we are just a few seconds away from some new data on producer prices, but we've been watching the futures this morning and it is a little bit of a mixed picture. futures are a little bit weaker down 36 points the dow is indicated up by 72. the s&p 500 is indicated up 3 points after closing up another record yesterday that's the third time this week. rick santelli standing by at the cme. rick, take it away >> thank you, becky. we are expecting, of course, our march read on pro tuesdayer prices do remember these market caps have changed a lot of the year over year numbers were altered a bit in 2010 i'm awaiting the data. before we get there, i want to point out we're at 167 yield in tens why is that interesting? we closed at a one-week low

yesterday. two-week low i take that back at 162. then around 3 in the morning eastern when europe opens we saw yields pop up a little bit, really in a way led by boom yields which dropped 5 basis points from minus 34 to minus 29 i don't see the data points showing up yet let's give them another few seconds. we know this stuff takes a little bit more time in this covid world even if we are in the last few chapters. another issue we'd like to talk about and that is of course what's going on with regard to the competition for the low interest rates many stories about how the hunt for yield is going on out there. in many ways whether it's asset backed as "the wall street journal" talked about the other day or some of the competition with the corporate yields or as spreads get low. why is that important? many are taking on risk. i will toss it back to you folks, if you want i don't see the numbers showing up on any of the wire services yet.

we can keep talking about 10 year anything you'd like to discuss >> why don't you and i chat a little bit about this while we're waiting because it is interesting. you were hitting at that point at people taking on more risk. i heard discussion earlier this morning just while we watched the 10-year yield going up and wondering if that's going to have an impact on stocks, you need to look at the spread and the corporate bonds. with corporate bonds being the issue, maybe it's not as concerning for equities as it might be under normal circumstances because of the spread that you just mentioned >> yeah. i don't think it's cause for concern until it becomes cause for concern. that is the problem with many of these issues the plan is to make investors take on a bit more risk. that really is what's going on with interest rates this low and savers paying the penalty that you could argue going all the way back to 2008, 2009 credit crisis, that what we see is a hunt for yield at a time where

equities seem to be the only game in town to some extent. whether it's, you know, some of those questionable investment grade that we were worried about a while back, all these things haven't disappeared but what has disappeared, becky, are some of the signals we get when we're supposed to pay attention and start to worry i think that is the biggest issue the federal reserve has robbed investors of in my opinion. that is the signals that the marketplace would give if things get a little out of hand the reason we don't get those signals anymore. we've covered them up with various stimulus, money, policies, programs and artificial low rates still don't see that march ppi real quickly just to point something out. if we do look at last time, last time we had 2.8 on the year-over-year headline number, but year over year that was a very strong number. >> exactly. >> that was one of the higher numbers going back to 2018 the reason i bring that up is

because, boy, we're ready. we're expecting numbers on year over year that may challenge going all the way back to when some of these algorithms were changed like in 2010 still don't see any data points, becky, and i certainly don't want to take up the whole stage here >> woops we'll wait and see what happens. we'll give it a little bit of time we will slip in a quick break. rick, we'll get back to you. you keep on the lookout for that >> excellent he did have a good higher in there. given enough time, you'll hear higher the closely watched unionization vote at amazon warehouse in alabama. so far amazon has a commanding lead in that tally we'll tell you what the vote could mean for the company, workers and investors. as we head to break, here's a look at the biggest pre-market gainers specifically in the s&p 500. we're comi rhtacngig bk.

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welcome back to "squawk box" this morning we are still awaiting the producer price data due at 8:30 a.m. the ballots are being counted at the historic amazon union vote amazon has a commanding lead, the final tally due soon deidre bosa joins us this morning with more on all of it deidre >> reporter: andrew, indeed. half the more than 3200 ballots have been counted and the tally

continues later today at 9:30 a.m. eastern as you mentioned, so far votes against unionization have a 2-1 advantage over those in favor. that's based on an unofficial count of the live broadcast which we have been monitoring and will continue to do so on zoom if amazon can stay ahead, it will be a major step in defeating the most big challenge in labor hundreds of challenge votes could be in the balance. the outcome could be decided in a federal hearing. the losing side is also expected to appeal. meantime, the union has criticized behavior by amazon that they say has discouraged attempts by employees at the b bessemer warehouse they pressed the postal service for a mailbox outside the

facility amazon says the mailbox was a simple, secure, completely optional way for employees to vote no more and no less. the latest back and forth. this is a reminder, even as we get the final vote count today, the drama is likely far from over this is going to continue to play out over the weeks and potentially months ahead >> deidre, when you talked to amazon about that mailbox, which seems to have become sort of a -- not just a box unto itself but a symbol given its location and all of the writing on it, is there a real sense why they wanted to put that up? especially given, by the way, that the other side desperately didn't want them to. it was confusing to me to see what the advantage for them could have been. >> so the idea is that if workers were to vote and put their ballots in that mailbox, they might think that amazon has

some hand in counting them they might be intimidating by a vote to unionize handing that over to their employer who is against unionization that is the argument there amazon says they wanted to make it easy for people to vote in the first place this idea of mail-in ballots was controversial. amazon wanted to see workers vote in person the union argued for mail-in it goes back there was another incident, andrew, where amazon had the traffic lights changed around the facility so that -- >> right. >> -- it would be harder for unionizer to canvass lots of little things like that. we're likely to hear more as we get more challenges once we have the outcome. >> deidre, thank you. we'll be watching the debut of deidre's show, tech check. it begins on monday. you don't want to miss it. it begins at 11 a.m.

julia boorstin is going to join the gak and carl our own -- jon fortt is going t be part of the gang too. it's going to be something to watch. >> thanks, andrew. with amazon stock, what's at stake for shareholders he's senior managing director at evercori si. what do you think this vote means for amazon >> i guess if you look at it in terms of the numbers, this is almost immaterial. you're talking about one of maybe 200 distribution centers, one of hundreds of fulfillment centers. if you add up all of the facilities that amazon has, this is the second time in a decade there's been an attempt to unionize one of the facilities it looks like it's not going to happen maybe doing it in a state where amazon is paying 2 x the minimum wage may not have been one of

the most effective ways to unionize a facility. i'm not sure if this facility had unionized, maybe it still will, it still is a tiny fraction for amazon whether that happens to other facilities or not, i think it's a reasonable bet that in the next decade, one amazon center, fulfillment center is going to unionize i don't think it will dramatically change the cost structure. the question is will it change the working practices of the company. i don't think so i think there's been more made of this vote than matters to most investors. >> folks, we want to give you an update the ppi, producer price index numbers are unavailable still at this point it's about 12 minutes past the time we were expecting them. there's a website outage for the bls, bureau of labor statistics. that's what's keeping us from getting the numbers. we will continue to keep an eye on this. the ppi numbers were hotter than

anticipated last month when we got the read mark, in terms of what you expect for amazon stock, you've been bullish for a very long time stocks trading near highs. does that concern you at all or do you think there's just more to tell with the story >> yeah, so let me give you a different take on it i think the stock has been range bound for the last six to nine months it was one of the covid winters. i don't mean that in a crass way. business saw a surge in demand and surge in profits we're now going into the first comp quarter june quarter will be the first time they'll be going up against those elevated growth rates they experienced last year. that's some of the nervousness in the market. if they can show on a tough comp quarter that they can sustain premium growth 20% plus revenue growth, i think there's an enormous up side it's the single best winner. you had a permanent pull forward in retail, advertising and cloud

computing. so i think it's still extremely good asset it's one you want to own for the long term. the question is how heavy you want to be into the stock. this is one of our top three picks right here right now >> what do you mean a question of how heavy you want to be into it you want to limit your exposure? buy it heavily, not too heavily? >> i would say the stock isn't dislocated to make it a topic, i would like to see it dislocated this is not a back up the truck price. i'm sorry, becky fundamentally it's a good asset. i think the market largely appreciates that there's a technical breakout that's happening fundamentally it's an extremely strong asset and the market correctly acknowledges that. >> i looked through your notes there is one thing you think the market is not acknowledging and that's the margins when it comes to aws, the cloud computing. nkts yeah. yeah so i think there's a couple of really key points here cloud computing, the demand did

get accelerated. something like 90% of i.t. managers think, believe covid forced, moved ahead, quickened the pace of cloud computing. amazon has a competitive space, ultra competitive space. this is one of the higher margin businesses amazon has. i've referred to amazon as one of the best mixed ship stories advertising aws, higher margins than their core retail businesses except for last year. as they mix shift during the advertising revenue, structurally the margins are going to continue to rise. knowing amazon, they're going to invest in new growth numbers they'll find new growth areas. so far they've been very successful in doing that. >> hey, mark, the one thing we haven't really talked about is the potential threat of a regulatory overhang. >> yeah. >> you can talk about that in terms of somebody wanting to break up the company, somebody wanting topay more attention t

what they're doing with all of these issues with the nlrb, i mean, that's another one, too you had senator bernie sanders who was traveling down to alabama for this labor movement. how does that just wrap in how do you discount that, any potential threats from washington, d.c. >> yeah, becky, that's one of those black swan risks they were ahead of the curve it's clearly a very strong asset. it doesn't have the monopoly strength that a google has in search, but they're getting more and more market share. that's probably the best defense for investors on amazon, the fact that they count for still a single digit percentage of total retail sales it's hard to say amazon is truly

dominant in a world that is growing omni channel they don't buy on the on or offline, they buy on both. it's relatively interested it's going to be the single largest employer in the u.s. within about a matter of three years. there will be more and more scrutiny it should be crutinized. near term it will have a negative impact. i think the idea that it will be split up, broken up, it's very hard to see that happening in practice >> mark, thank you >> thank you, becky.

it's something worth sticking around for. >> thanks, becks. stocks to see at the opening bell dom chu has those next a programming note program tech check debuts at 11 a.m. eastern time starting on monday they're going to kick things off with uber's ceo dara khosrwshahi. "squawk box" continues right after this an existing customer 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.

welcome back futures right now, moderated, but i don't know if it has to do with the lost ppi numbers or, i mean they didn't look at everything and say oh, my god, hopefully that's not what is going on, just obviously a technical problem, although it was pretty high last month when it came out so it will be interesting. nasdaq has now turned south. it has been off fractionally but it's down about 85 points now. and the s&p, which has been up for most of the pre-market session is now indicating that it will open down about 3.5 points let's talk more about the day ahead for the market with

brenda, chief investment officer of sandhill global advisers. brenda, i was looking at it, it looks like a ben franklin close and i counted up the reasons to own the market versus the risks and i think it's like eight to two, in your view. have i got that right? what are the reasons to own it right now? >> that's right. i think we have to look at kind of the big picture and look at what's happened over the last several months and we have an environment where vaccine rollout got off to a shake ji start and now the u.s. is a leader globally in vaccine distribution and we have an environment where the u.s. is a leader in terms of overall stimulus and we've seen it coming through in terms of economic data, where we just had a recent string of very strong ism numbers both on the manufacturing and services side, that were at or near all time highs. we also got confirmation that the employment market is starting to broaden with a nice pickup that we saw in leisure and hospitality industries, so

by many measures, things are looking brighter, so i think, against the backdrop i'll say of an environment where we did see long-term interest rates step up pretty meaningfully, earlier, in the year, but things have stabilized over the last month so i think when we look at reasons to own the equity market, a, it's because of the brighter outlook that we see going forward, and secondly, because when we look at bonds, stocks are still an attractive place to be relative to bonds for those who are really looking to earn a return in excess of inflation. it stale makes sense in our view to have exposure to the equity market and we could also argue, too, that if we look at forward earnings projection, while we're expected to see really nice growth year over year, you could also argue that we're really not expecting to see a significant pickup in the second half of the year, to the tune that we could really see it transpire. so i think those are all reasons to be positive

although i think at the same time, we have to be cognizant of the fact that there is good news baked into the market here, so staying disciplined is certainly an important part of our view, and by that, i mean you know, scaling back some equity exposure when it makes sense, but really broadly, we continue to be very comfortable being overweight equity for our clients. >> two risks you highlight, we still don't know, and it's been on everybody's list for the past year and that is the path that covid takes and the variants, and even though the vaccine rollout is going much better, that's one of your positives, but there's still a question mark there, and even though bonds are, or stocks are attractive versus bonds, inflation is a potential issue, you think, down the road, maybe. >> absolutely. i think it's something to monitor. i mean we have never been through an environment where there's been this much stimulus, so i think there is an argument to be made, for why inflation

could absolutely begin to increase, and you know, aside from the potential covid risks that nobody really knows, you know, if we were to see a strain development that garnered the current vaccines, you know, not effective, but outside of that, you know, what really keeps me up at night sometimes is thinking about what would happen if we did have an environment where interest rates started to rise, significantly. and inflation is out of control. >> brenda, talking inflation and i got to cut you off because i think steve liesman is out there and he has the numbers so we'll go to him for that. thank you. steve? >> yes, we're managing to get these two a secondary story, we have haiber analytics which gets it directly from a computer system inside and we have up 1%. i'm looking at a table here. i saw energy up 0.9% and i'm just trying to see here from action economics, they have another cable here

sorry. energy 0.7%. both higher than expectations. no revisions from february i'm reading here 1.3% jump in january that's another thing so that's what i got, joe. 1%, let's see, year over year, i don't have it in front of me here overall year on year, it looks like, wow, 4.2% year over year so some pretty hot numbers there, joe >> when we were saying, well, the market has turned south, we don't have it, but some people had it, obviously, the same people that you had access to and i think that probably does account for some weakening, not really big but the dow and the s&p and the nasdaq have worsened so that's a continuation of what was a fairly hot number last month, steve, you would say? >> yes, almost certainly we had a surprise last month, up

0.5 and now up 1%, and i don't, let's see food up 0.5, energy up -- i don't love this table i'm looking at here. it looked like pretty broad-based here what were you saying, joe? >> becky wants to talk and rick wants to come in, too, i guess. >> i would ask both steve and rick, and maybe start with rick, do you guys ever recall the government not having numbers out or not having numbers out publicly so that only a few places get it, the people who have a different line, a different connection in? obviously this is just a mistake but i don't recall this ever happening. >> 42 years i've been covering marks and never seen anything like this in 42 years. and the issue always was that it wouldn't get disseminated at all if it couldn't get disseminated to everybody at the same time and i know that covid affects this i'm getting trickle-in, too. on the year over year headline, it's up 4.2%

and just to let people know. >> that's right. >> that is the second largest level ever, now this series was tweaked in 2010, so my database goes back to 2010, and september 2011, we were up 4.5, this is now the second largest, 4.2, so it counts back to september 2011, but that's the only year over year data that i have at this point, folks. so it continues to trickle in. these are hot numbers. >> i have more numbers here. >> okay, go. >> rick, i have a little bit more here, energy, on the month, up 5.9%. trade services, that's the middleman number there of 1% 1.5% rise in transportation and warehousing services and that's after a 1.1 in february. and 0.4 for other services yes, so it looks like it was pretty broad-based so it didn't necessarily go down as much into the core as we might have expected. that remains to be seen. and joe, again, of course on

tuesday, we'll see how much the wholesale prices end up into consumer prices. >> yes what an interesting report given that everybody is talking about inflation, talking about it for the entire show, in fact, about whether we're underestimating it at least, and we knew this number was coming but you have to say, and rick is still here as well, you have to say, would you say the worst expectations were realized or still transitory i mean how do we look at it now? rick >> real quick, i have an issue with transitory. >> go ahead. >> transitory is a problem and steve understands why because when inflation is on the move it shows up in the fed number, the fed pays attention, but let's say the price of your car goes up 50% and then sticks, after it sticks there's zero inflation. see, this is the issue, that the fed has a certain view of inflation, and consumers have a different view, and they really

don't get together. >> steve, five seconds, steve. >> let's all think about it and come back and have an inflation debate on monday what else is going on? >> you're right. on everybody's list. whether there is any risk to this market, inflation this is something we will be talking about. >> cool. >> andrew and becky, bye thanks, rick and steve make sure you join us next week. "squawk on the street" is next good friday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street," i'm carl quintanilla with david faber and mike santoli cramer has the morning off dow and s&p looking for the third straight weekly gain futures are a bit mixed this morning. nasdaq looking, lagging as yields take a step higher. ppi runs hot, up 4.2 year on year after you heard rick talk about after the weird delay in the data this morning. the road map begins with boeing's max headache an