six months after the second dose, the study by the way is based on data involving more than 900 cases of the virus. the gains take on to the 7% gains we saw in yesterday's session. i'll send things back to you, melissa. >> thank you, great to be with you this morning make sure you join us tomorrow "squawk on the street" is up next good wednesday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street," i'm carl quintanilla, david faber and jim cramer, what a morning, jpm and goldman earnings kicks off, coinbase goes public in a landmark day for crypto and that's where our road map will start. bitcoin topped 64,000. the irs points to crypto in closing the massive tax gap and enter earnings with banks in focus, jpmorgan, goldman and wells fargo all releasing their numbers this morning

and shares of moderna, they're rallying sharply ahead of the open, new data showing the covid vaccine still highly effective months after you get that second jab. good news for all of us. carl >> yeah, some pretty good surveys or at least models coming out of the banks on j&j and overall vaccine efforts and let's start with coinbase, you heard brian armstrong on "squawk" earlier this morning and i heard you talking about it a moment ago with joe, the reference price of 250, below where it was trading in the private markets. >> yeah, look, that's a joke, it doesn't help, it doesn't represent anything, and i was listening to andrew's unbelievable interview, and i mean you can tell this is the one, this is the scarcity value one, and i wouldn't be surprised if it only gets to 600, and that's lisa ellis' t, target she has been spot on with everything crypto square is going to go on it has been the way. but the way to play bitcoin, if

you're a mutual fund, will not be square anymore, it's too derivative, it will be coinbase. and a lot of people today i think will be impressed with what armstrong talks about because he sounds like a banker, he looks like a banker, the cfo is a banker, and suddenly you say you know what, let's stop comparing this to the new york stock exchange because it has much more growth, let's stop comparing it to a mid-sized bank because it is the only way to play crypto and i don't think that reference price should go in the equation, it will go much higher from the get-go. >> and institutional growth and the way in which institutional players have come in after retail, here's what he said on "squawk." >> for trading volume, from our institutional customers, and this business is a lot newer for us than our retail business, the institutional business is only about two years old, and we're still earlier in our process of monetizing that customer

segment, but you know, just kind of zooming out from a macro point of view, the majority of the money in the world is actually tied up in institution, it is maybe 80 or 90%, and so we expect that business to be really big over time >> that is in response to a question, david, from andrew, about big players, like bill miller and dan loeb getting into the space and commens from peter thiel about china's early dominance in the space. >> years ago, he detailed in an interesting journal story this morning, he indicated that he believed it could become a trillion dollar market, bitcoin's value about half of that, and jim, i think your point is the important one, for those looking for some sort of exposure to the growing importance of cryptocurrency, they're not going to buy the currencies, they're just going to buy this. >> yeah, you know what's really great about this, david, it's not just bitcoin, i mean you got them all, right.

>> you get ethereum, which i actually think is doing incredibly well, and i want to know where my money is, if i'm doing crypto, and there's a lot of guys who are offering a huge amount of interest and i wonder how they're going to do, david, if you're getting 8% of your money, it's a little frightening, that's not them, it's the other guys. >> it can be but going through, everybody is starting to build their models on wall street, and revenues in terms of what they're expecting, 21, 22, i'm looking at a research report here, 4.6 billion, to.5 billion, adjusted, 6.5 billion, adjusted ebitda, 3.2 to 3.5 are you using anything, jim, in terms of what you expect with ebitda in this company in a number of years and discounted cash flow and it gets you to a number now or you are saying based on what i believe will be enormous demand for exposure in this industry, the stock will go higher. >> it is quarterly trading volume that you can use, david i think when you start doing any

other method, other than maybe sales, and even there, it gets to you 15 times sales, that's what i think is reasonable and what i used on "mad money," that's a $47 a stock that's the base case that's the base case, and frankly, david, if you're a mutual fund, nt you under tremendous pressure to be able to show that you at least know there is such a thing as crypto. >> >> you would probably want some form of exposure to it saying hey, we get it >> carl, we should point out, the experience has been so, for these direct listing, we don't see them actually priced for quite some time, so it could be later today, before we really see where this thing actually opens. >> yeah, as for friction-like impediments to growth, guy, we've been through a lot of them in the past few months, the energy consumption element, obviously there's the suspected

use of illegal activity, and certainly now, it's going to be tax, jim, you talked about the taxable events that consumers will generate as they use, it and that's what the irs commissioner talked about yesterday. take a listen. >> in 2011, folks were generally aware of the term cryptocurrency, bitcoin and all, there's more than 8600 cryptocurrency, virtual currencies in the marketplace. and the market cap worldwide for cryptocurrencies is almost $2 trillion if you add those in, i think it would not be outlandish to believe that the actual tax gap could approve and possibly exceed $1 trillion per year. >> so jim, do you sense the irs sort of rubbing their hands on this >> well, look, they got to very quickly say if you're paid in this, in any way of crypto, it's not capital gain, it is ordinary income, and if you try to stash them somewhere, in one of these outfiats that is not coin base, they will find you and i think that one of the things that

people have to start recognizing is this thing, as much as you want it to be a storehold of value, it is going to be taxable, just because, i think the irs is kind of on to david, you know. there was a sense that 24 this was in the shadows once coinbase, your money is in coinbase, they will generate something, they will generate something that is to the irs, and even though they're nonbank, they won't be able to hide what you make, david. >> it's another revenue source that's important we need it certainly spending plenty of money. so we got that going for us, carl >> speaking of spending money, guy, we do want to get to the banks in a little bit, i guess we could start now, guy, i think we will do this this in the "a" block, jamie dime within the comments about the consumer saying cash hoarding customers are ready to go in his words the economy is primed for an extended run of extreme growth,

something he highlighted in his letter although we're still trying to at least separate out from a sentiment basis what these reserve releases mean to the quarter. 5.2 billion. 2.9 in the prior quarter >> i thought that the number was supposed to be 1.5, and 5.2, and investment banking, i mean it's crazy good investment banking, and i think credit card spending, you got to be careful there and consumers are still paying down credit card, but what is really interesting is that the loan demand is not what i was hoping for i just think that people, frankly the balance sheet is so clean, the american consumer, they don't need loans. and there's also not a lot of expansion going on among what i would describe as the small and mid-sized bank, and small and mid-sized operation, that can change, but oh, my god, 14.3 billion in profit, carl, everybody wants to make that that's a remarkable number so maybe we should focus just on

the fact of the immense profitability of jpmorgan versus pretty much any enterprise in the world so carl, i like that unbelievable profit, and people may want to sell the stock, but they'll come back to it in the end. >> yeah, probably. i mean listen, it is up still 60%, obviously we all know about the run the stock has had, let's call it since early november although they have kind of flat-lined of late 23% return on equity, 29% return on tangible common equity, i mean those kinds of numbers and i want to get to goldman in a minute, because their numbers actually exceeded those of jpmorgan, they did as you pointed out 5.2 billion of net reserve releases, that was anticipated, given all of the reserves that were taken a year ago, this time, by so many of our large financial institution, preparing for the worst, and it didn't come, and so you'll see those releases but to your point, jim, that's an important one and we'll continue to monitor

the call by the way i'm told in terms of loan demand, i'm told jamie dimon traveling, so by the way all of you competitors out there, be aware, he's probably traveling to talk to clients i'm hearing that a lot now people are getting back on planes at least the leadership. to see clients they haven't seen in a long time but here, he was talking about loan demand remains challenged card outstandings remain despite spendrecovering to pre-covid levels you talked about that for both individuals and of course on a larger corporate basis they've got to start to see. that we want to move to goldman guy, because those numbers equally if not even more impressive and if you look through them and say come on, there's got to be something here that is a one-time or that is contributing to this, no, that's not the case 17.7 billion in revenues net earnings at 16.84 billion. earnings per share $18.60. book by the way, it is trading above book remember for a long time, jim and i would talk about how the stock was trading below book,

book's now 250, $251 but the roe was 31%. and everything was performing extraordinarily well and amazingly, you can do that with only 15% of your employees actually coming into the office. imagine what they can all do if they actually showed up. and spacs, guy, we talked so often about it, it certainly is contributing to the profitability of these investment bank, given both on the issuance side for the po, the merger advice side for m&a, but i'm told only about 15% of equity capital markets right now. but year over year, you would expect that will be down, jim. >> well, look, the thing i liked about it, it's not episodic at all. you're absolutely right, david it's not episodic. you can start seeing a $40 number $40 per share. so what multiple do you give it? even though with the book, that's not the way it used to

be, how do you not give it a 10 multiple how can you not arrive at $40? and get a $400 stock poke a hole in that, will you? >> listen, i know, why shouldn't it trade at least 10 times i can't give you an argument there. again, are you going to be able to put up 31% roe? those are numbers of the likes which we may not see and it reminds me, remember when we talked about jeffries and that incredible quarter that smaller investment bank had a few weeks back, similarly incredible roe number, maybe that's not sustainable, but overall, you would anticipate that perhaps this is deserving of a higher multiple, jim. these stocks don't seem to move appreciably on earnings though they just don't. >> no, they don't. no, it's almost as if people just kind of say, well, jpmorgan, goldman sachs, no, they should, they mumble, but david, as you said, clean as can be so therefore, let's just accept the number, and put a multiple on it. i'm getting frustrated with

that and david, do you know what happens, if the fed says you know what, can do what you want? they'll give back 0% of their profits. and then what are you going to see? and yes, they're going to see clients, but geez, why don't they, why don't, david, they could just give a dividend that would be a monster dividend. >> yes, carl, they have 2.7 billion of share repurchases during this last quarter, and 448 million paid in dividends to jim's point. but given what they're generating you could imagine a lot more than that in the future the stock is up a bit, we'll keep a close eye on these share, and jpmorgan, we've also got wells out as well, carl, to keep an eye on as we spoke about. >> you know what wells is, david? >> i got to wrap on wells. >> give it to me. >> it's been up for four quarters not as bad as it used to be. that's what i think charlie sharp should start with. wait, we just reported earnings. not as bad as we used to be. and then go on to the next bank.

[ laughter ] >> good tag line yeah not not as bad as we used to be. >> and by the way, we're not as bad as we used to be, and let's buy the stock on that. >> were you talking about us, we're not as bad as we used to be >> no, they're not as bad as they used to be. charlie sharp, that's what he should say we looked at the numbers and everybody should realize, you know what, we were terrible, and now we're not terrible anymore there you go there's a thesis carl, what can i say when you're really bad, and then you report better number, people like that. when you're really good, like jpmorgan and you report great number, people yawn. they yawn. i don't know, carl, i'm not yawning. i'm impressed when you make that much money per quarter. >> yeah, i mean as we've said before, guys, this is how a lot of earnings seasons starts, the investors are convinced that the capital markets gains can never be sustained, and certainly net

interest income was a more challenging story, but we'll see what happens as we work our way further into the quarter certainly a healthy diet of results to get us started on this wednesday when we come back, lots of calls on google, on facebook, on apple, on lowe's, on exxonmobil, snap, we'll get to all of that as well as a continued look at j&j and coinbase back in a minute

moderna's up in the pre-mark, the company is out with some new data showing 90%

efficacy against the virus, up to 95 against severe disease, up to six months after the second dose meantime, ben sal on "squawk box" this morning talking about the j&j pause. here's what he told our meg terrel. >> this is yet proof to the american people that that we are the best regulatory agency in the world and we care deeply about the scientific and medical safety of a product. and we will not hesitate to be very cautious, to analyze the data, to take the time required to do so to protect the safety of the american people. >> and pfizer of course is going to ramp up production, and deliver 10% more than they said they were going to by the end of may to the u.s and then more feedback from morgan stanley for example, updated simulations suggest u.s. can still vaccinate the entire population, 12 years and up, by midsummer, and question of urse, is will we

>> look, i think we're now starting to get to places that where people may not want to get vaccinated, i agree with david, yesterday we talked about the j&j news, it has ming a lot of people say wait a second, i don't want a blood clot, even though of course, geez, i wish that they would make a point, the cdc, that this is -- >> one in a million. >> highly unusual. unlikely so david, to me, i'm glad i got the moderna. how about that >> i guess me, too but i wouldn't have worried if i got j&j and i think your point is a good one. and i think that's a key question it's one in a million. and the understanding of what happened yesterday really is to give doctors an opportunity to understand how to treat this, if it occurs, because some of what they were doing apparently was actually the typical treatment, which it should not be, if in fact you do see some clotting, in somebody who gets, who has gotten the j&j vaccine again, six cases a million shots.

you wonder, is it going to be more harmful as a result of giving people pause, overall, in terms of getting the vaccine >> look, david, they have four million and change vaccines coming from the netherlands, because the plant in baltimore is not working they've got about 25 million sitting in baltimore at the cdc, if the fda would give them the green light. obviously, i think they're usually in the penalty box i don't know whether any regulators is going to say, you know what, let's just roll here, because they don't have a lot. because this emergent bio screwed up carl, i wish there was a better narrative. how about this narrative emergent bio completely screwed up, j&j had basically outsourced it to emergent bio, they were on "mad money" twice, they were the most confident, they were talking about much more, many more vaccines than we're hearing, and emergent bio has

basically gotten away with, i mean no one is even talking about the fact that they completely screwed up what could have been a very smooth rollout. i wish they were called out, not j&j. >> yeah, some have used it as a way to explain how little reserve manufacturing in general there is in the united states. i'll tell you one thing, goldman had a note last night, i think, where they're basically acknowledging how much is now riding on mrna the biggest risk to our developed market vaccination time line would be safety events for the mrna event so we are now counting on them more than before >> i think bancel is remarkable. this guy, the thing about this guy, and a nobel prize, doesn't he impress you as a guy who should get you the nobel prize >> something should be done here the science, i mean a year ago, to imagine where we are now, it was hard to.

and you know, you have to continue to, carl, wonder, well, okay, we have this new technology, it is the result of so many advances that have taken place in different parts of science, over the last decade, what next? there are other break-throughs that will hopefully come as well. >> yeah, bancel talked about what they think they will be able to do even with very complex proteins which could usher in a completely new era. pretty amazing take a break here and get an opening bell in about gheit minutes. don't go anywhere.

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bitcoin? literally now the $64,000 question as bitcoin is above 64 k on what many argue is a landmark day for crypto as coinbase has a direct listing at the nasdaq we willing watch that this morning. reference price $250 we're back in a minute

♪ it's been a while since we heard that music jim, kohl's is out with a settlement this morning with the activist investors who owned over 9% of the stock, three new directors, increasing the buyback, and it's news worth discussing with you on "the mad dash." huge win for john, tom kingsbury, the man who really took burlington to the sky, to the moon i guess if you want to do a little yolo action. and margaret jenkins, from citi, citi trends which is marcell

capital, john duskin and christian day from, you're talking about christian day, complete - >> lululemon. >> yes. >> so i think this is remarkable frank, don't know him, 69-year-old, remember bird, safeway, you got real power people coming in, you have a gigantic buyback it's gigantic win for a situation that frankly moved up big the moment that the activist even appeared. activists win. shareholders win and i think the company wins i'm in favor of what happened. if you're long on kohl's, congratulations. >> a significant board refresh as you say and carl, it is interesting to see an activist get involved in the stock that is already up and as you can see has had an incredible year. of course, jim was kind of

negative for a while he got more positive lately. >> i got more positive, david. >> you got more positive >> kohl's? i got more positive, thank you thank you. because, you know, i got more positive >> much more positive. >> for a while though, for a while, i think you were considering michelle for a certain wall of shame but well said, jim. >> well, yeah. >> there's the opening bell. >> 20. >> at the nasdaq, coinbase of course, direct listing, and they're doing this countdown, guys of 21 seconds, symbolizing the 21 million bitcoin that can be mined at the big board, true shares celebrating the launch of a line of etfs and it reminds me of a couple of other headlines in retail, bed bath, 40 cents beats 35 comps up 46789 and stitchfix, katrina lake would move to

executive chair. >> and bed bath was taken out by the reddit with a squeeze, and that was a little ridiculous they're doing a good job i think he's stuck with the stock that was too high versus the turn-around. 4% comps i thought that was terrific. when it comes to stitch fix, what can i say katrina did an amazing job, and i just feel like, well, what's happened here is it went up a lot and again, why short squeeze. remember the period where short squeezes were the principle reason why stocks went up, bed bath and stitch fix were short squeezes and maybe we start thinking that the stocks got too high because of the mob, because of the mob david that came in with pitch forks, that came in with machete, right, david? >> yes, they did although when i think of short squeezes now, i think of archegos which of course does not fit what you're describing, it was an enormous family office, run by a gentleman who had a very strong reputation, at

least for being a good investor, who, i don't know, kind of went crazy, my words, my words. >> well, we're finding out that credit suisse took a position in discover, they must have really liked it because they held on to it. >> listen, for quite a while, it was really working for discover and viacom for archegos and the reason we're mentioning this again is because it does appear that they have finally, finally sold out of everything that was left in terms of liquidating from the swaps and the positions that went bad, credit suisse with a write-down, fired people. one would have thought they were already past it, but late yesterday, we reported, oh, no, 22 million discovery c's for sale, 19% of the a's, and they got done, jim, it got done but again, you had plenty of people in there shorting the stock which finally gave it up as it went up 100% and viacom went up

well over 100% both have come down sharply. though discovery has held up better let me tell you where those got done i think they're written down somewhere. 323 3235 on the c's and 3840 on the a's. so you can see, we're already bouncing where they finally sold but to expect that yesterday, you would see even more, another billion and a half dollars worth of stock, jim, it's quite a story. >> well, i think that also, at this point, textbook, about how not to handle where you get stuck. goldman sachs, remember, when they dumped all theirs that they got from this firm credit suisse, were they playing the market i don't know one of the things that goldman taught me is the dry cleaner, you take itin and you get rid of it as fast as possible. these guys were trying something else and i don't know, david, in the old days i used to be say they were stupid or chatterheads and i used to be be very derogatory,

i have dropped that entirely, because i'm a ambassador of goodwill. >> you are. >> i think it was ill-advised the way they handled it. >> it appears to be. and they are still suffering the ramifications at credit suisse, including the potential for, as you might imagine people leaving the firm, you know, you're talking about a lot of compensation based on their stock, and long-term compensation plan, based on profit ability, again in stock it's a difficult time for them at that firm given what's going on. not just because of the loss but because the loss of potentially significant staff as well, carl. but as for archegos, and that, it does appear that was it although you can never say with complete certainty >> i don't know. >> i don't know exactly but that is what i'm hearing, that those are the last of the discovery shares the last of the viacom shares have been disposed of. and nomura is out. morgan stanley is out. goldman sachs is out before

anybody else and they identified it as a potential issue and knew they had to pull the plug and we will try to answer a lot of unanswered questions involving the overall story as we move along, carl. >> david, is it possible that credit suisse, they were meant to be quarantined? mentally quarantined mentally quarantined. >> i'm trying to understand exactly what that would mean it is certain areas in their mind they weren't allowed to travel to, that would have allowed them to act in a different manner >> at this point, the cerebellum, what is this over here, they didn't have that, maybe. maybe that was on vacation. >> what is that on there >> i don't know, mentally quarantined. mentally quarantined did you just coin that here? >> i coin based it just now. i just coin based it >> well done. >> good for you. >> i will use that one. >> thank you >> some i think are mentally quarantined. >> ill-advised i overused ill-advised

mentally quarantined if you're mentally quarantined, i don't know how you run a firm but it's good to be mentally quarantined if there's a problem, right self-quarantine. self-mentally quarantine. >> if you can compartmentalize like that. we should probably mention, a. p. led with a story a few moments ago that bernie madoff had died in a federal prison a. p. cited sources that he died from natural causes that cnbc has now confirmed. jim, this gives us a moment here to reflect on not just the ponzi scheme he orchestrated and the incredible losses he created for his victims but the black eye that he gave financial services for a very long time >> yeah, i remember those days, i remember first discovering it, it was just shocking, because he had, i don't want say had a great reputation, but i know there were a lot of people who were with him, why because the returns were so incredibly good. and seemed a little bit out of whack with what you could get.

david, i remember when jpmorgan tried to calculate whether you could actually earn what he did and they couldn't get to that. the fallout david was really remarkable you started thinking who do you trust? don't you think? >> yeah, and it came of course, remember, it was what december of '08, right? we were in the midst of the financial crisis already, and it was yet just another blow and of course, let's not forget, it was, it created tragic circumstances for countless people in terms of their finances who had invested with him, for years, and the ramifications went on, the waves of what it caused, were very significant for many people in their live, carl you know, not a lot of love lost, as you might imagine, for mr. maff, a story story, for so many, who suffered as a result of his actions. dead at the age of 82.

>> yeah, jim - >> what happened, david, there was nobody else. he was isolated. >> yeah. yeah, i mean what's interesting, carl, i still hear stories about people who, i heard one last night, i don't think i can share it fully but people were trying to replicate the strategy, who left the business in part because there's this guy down the street who had some option strategy and i just can't beat him. i just can't beat him. i don't know why so i'm out of here and you know, that story has been told many times and of course i guess the inability to see what was right in front of many people in terms of, in terms of his ponzi scheme, and/or his fraud, remember, the scheme, i mean it went on for years but it was only towards the end, as a result of losses suffered in the financial crisis, his inability to bring in new money to continue to pay out people is what finally brought it down but as we all know it, went on

for so many years, and it's still a staggering story to revisit and of course, there are still many people who are suffering from having lost everything, as a result of mr. madoff's deceit. >> yes, david, the, it's hard to fathom the greed and the ability to discount the suffering that he probably knew was coming one day, that this was not going to be sustainable over the long term jim, i remember the morning where the news of his arrest broke, and immediately, we were flooded on "squawk" with comments from people, as you mentioned, saying i knew it, i knew it, because there was no way that the consistency of those returns could have been real >> yeah, i know when jpmorgan calculated it, it was just, well, look, guys, it's too good to be true, but the people who are always so hopeful, people who always just say, you know what, i'm with the genius, this

guy is a legitimate genius, he's been a genius, you get these steady returns, because he has a method that we don't understand, david, you mentioned, with options, we don't understand it, but he's a genius, remember, how many times did you hear that this man was an unbelievable investor, and you are absolutely right there, was a lot of people saying, look, i can't do it, there's a lot of shaudenfraude when he was caught. >> and he kept it so exclusive he was the ultimate, we call it a ponzi skaim scheme, but it was a remake after madoff, because he was the the ultimate scheme and i can remember the early days of understanding or trying to get our hands around about what was going on in terms of the fraud itself, and having frankly, jim, you know, known of this firm, but it had no real profile in the markets, and so it was not, i never dealt with

him, never spoke within him, actually, which i always found a bit odd given his prominence in some ways, and still underestimated the size of the fund remember when we suddenly started to learn, and there were the fund of fund, that were basically feeders for him, but do you remember how stunned we all were when we were, wait a second, i thought this was a $5 billion fund wait, what how big is this thing? >> david, i knew probably ten people in it and some of them had been saying, it's too good to be true, i got to take something off the table and most of them i knew were saying, everyone else is an idiot, this guy has the magic touch or now, they would say the diamond hand, you know what i mean >> yeah, the diamond hands >> yeah. >> diamond hands >> diamond hands >> get with the program, david. >> sorry, i'm mentally quarantined right now. [ laughter ] >> but you're right ponzi had

nothing on madoff. >> from now on it's madoff's scheme. >> nothing. >> it's a madoff. >> it's a madoff >> yeah. >> right it's a madoff. >> carl, both his sons of course have passed away as well i believe his wife is still alive. back to you. >> it's an american tragedy all the way around guys, in general, reopening trade getting a bounceback energy is up almost 2% let's get to bob pisani. good morning, bob. >> yes, sort of a flattish day, energy is the big mover, let's take a look at the sector, but not really the sectors that are important. it's the bank earnings and of course coinbase that matters here, energy up as carl mentioned, material, industrials, tech on the flat side but as i said, the key story here is number one the bank earnings and i'm talking like eye-popping numbers. 80% above estimates for goldman sachs. more than 50, 60% for jpmorgan and wells fargo. these are numbers. and the trading numbers were

astonishing. let me show you goldman sachs' trading numbers here 3.89 billion on fixed income. 3.69 billion on equities those equity numbers, that's 50% higher than the analyst estimates. the fixed income was 30% higher. these are really eye-popping numbers. here's the problem i've got with all of these astonishingly great numbers. it's hard to move the stocks these days you've got peak earnings revisions. they have been estimating the numbers are up and this is obviously a good number but we've got peak monetary stimulus peak fiscal stimulus a lot of people are worried how will you move the stocks forward? and you see a modest move in goldman with amazing numbers what happens when everybody else reports numbers that are good but everybody goes eh. it's hard to move the market that's the big part of earnings season i will have more to say as we get into the heart of earnings season but looking at the volumes on trading, going down, march was lower than february and april so far has been lower than march here, cash equities down about

28%, for the volumes and again, we're only halfwaythrough, but equity options as you can see here, down 13%, you can see these numbers to the down side, so a lot of the retail crescendo has already happened here. and everything else is about coinbase today obviously it is going to take a while to get this thing going, over at the nasdaq but you can see these numbers here, the reference price here, $250 and everyone thinks we will open much, much higher and that value, 65 billion. that's ice that's the new york stock exchange and ice right now amazing valuation here, and a lot of people think it will open close to $100 billion value. and when you're at 100 billion, pretty rarified territory, folks. only 80, 82 companies in the s&p 500 with a valuation above a $100 billion so essentially dealing with target and micron, and goldman sachs is right around there. and general electric is right around there and blackrock. why am i bringing this up? because it's possible coinbase could open right here in a valuation right in the company of these famous companies that

exist. this is a mind boggling valuation. it's hard to kind of get your head around the whole thing. finally, i want to note here, we've been waiting for a long time for gary gensler to be appointed the s.e.c. chair, that's going to happen today, it's pretty pro forma, and the senate will vote on this at 11:45 a.m. and a lot on his plate and a lot is crypto for him, to deal with. he's going to have to deal with the bitcoin etf to approve, it or not, it's been rejected time and again. this may be the year we've talked about that. he is very involved with crypto and fraud protection and he's made that very clear and the gamestop fallout, a lot of discussion around particularly short steal disclosure, short sale disclosure and a lot of people said we should do that and gamestop is a reason for that, and archegos fallout, and there is a lot of look at potentially for family offices because that's what archegos was and of course no registration and a lot of talk about doing something like that and finally

of course, esg, environmental social and governments, a lot of discussion on climate change, that's already been made very clear, under ellison who has been running things while awaiting confirmation and all about corporate actions that may be affecting the climate a lot on gary gensler's plate but as of today, late today, she be the s.e.c. chairman carl, back to you. >> bob, in addition to all of that, a lot of fed speak today, kaplan on the tape, and powell at noon. let's get to rick. >> yes, carl, i'm sure they're all going to be addressing inflation in one way or another. and this morning, well, interest rates are moving up a bit, and one of the reasons, yes, you guessed it, inflation, let's look at some of the charts, export prices, ex-petroleum prices on month over month import, up 0.9%. the same as in january of this year but if you look at the chart,

you're going to find a higher number, you have to go back 13 years. year over year import prices up 6.9 for march. 9.5-year high. year over year export prices up 9.1% almost a 10-year high. call it transient, call it whatever you like, but the reality is, it's starting to hit home, it's hitting on not only shores here but globally and many large countries like china are going to be exporting us a little bit more. but transient or not, it's probably the only way to cure some of the debt issues that plague the world inflate out of it. and that seems to be the uncontested way we're proceeding and if you look at the intra-day i referenced, you can see that the 10-year note yields have started to pop up since 8:30 eastern. and if you go out one week, you can see we're clearly chipping away at lower support, so there was some selling pressure, but the option, especially yesterday, very solid 30-year

bond auction for 24 billion, seemed to change the tide a little bit, along with some of these data points i've referenced and if you look at what's going on with the dollar index, a very similar scenario, as both are moving in the same direction the dollar index closing here, it will be a three and a half week closing low and we know once we close under 92, a lot of position reverses, putting selling pressure in that arena carl, jim, david, back to you. >> thank you very much, rick santelli later this morning on "tech check" do not miss our interview with slack ceo stewart butterfield. obviously so much to talk with him about. in the meantime, the open has the makings of an inside day the s&p is a little positive here, 4145 although we've got 13 straight days of a gain from open to close back in a minute

it's the $64,000 question. >> get ready for a lot of $64,000 question jokes today bitcoin crossed it earlier this morning. obviously it's being asked because of coin base is this the net scape moment for crypto as said on squawk i don't know if you saw the fund manager surge at b of a, they asked is bitcoin a pbubble it came back 74/16 es. >> i don't think it is i think this is short-term i think people want to be in bitcoin because they feel like how could it not go up on a day like when this stock coin base opens up higher than the reference point. david, can you comment on this where are the sellers?

where are they >> no. i got nothing for you there. again, i'm trying. i'm mentally trying to unquarantine >> does anyone ever take profits? >> i don't know. i guess they do. yeah it's a good question i don't know where they are, jim. it's not a market that i have followed over particularly closely. plenty of other things to occupy our time but i am going to be following this offering closely. because to bob's points on market cap, jim, what if this thing has a market value that exceeds that of goldman sachs? 3% of the earnings we talked about earlier. what if it's above a $150 million market value a company that didn't exist in the financial services industry broadly speaking going to surpass one of the great franchises of all time >> david, paypal, $321 billion right? i mean, is that accurate i mean, square, david.

how about square in $123 billion. well, i mean, square has a little bit of crypto to it if you're fidelity, you know what you're saying we can't own crypto but we have to show that we understand what crypto is. how about we go by coin base in the meantime, they're not sellers. >> and paypal has a great trajectory it's an enormous market value. do you think either one of those companies is overvalued? is the likes of goldman sachs undervalued? where do we come out in terms of trying to understand i know they're different businesses don't get me wrong but they are still broadly speaking >> i think you concern -- >> they'll be able to return capital once the federal reserve takes the jack off the goldman sachs neck coin base are unregulated. they can do whatever they want when you're unregulated, you

have the edge of regulated i'm glad goldman is up today it was clean i think it's an instance where sky is the limit and the insider i talk to at coin base, they don't want to sell i don't know no sellers we got to find some sellers. okay, david? you and me >> okay. >> we'll find sellers. >> i'll look for it. carl, i'll look for some sellers. i would assume there will be at some point today i don't know how many hours it will be before we get an open. >> we'll be here all day, whenever they want to get to it. jim, let's get to stop trading what are you looking at? >> all right a guy who is a friend of mine, ron shaich, started panera i think par did a got job and they did a good job. no mental quarantine what whoever with these two

companies, carl. just right there with their brains on. it's a delight that's my stop trading today >> we've had a couple upgrades this wake of chipolte and yum. jim, quick, we have about a minute i know you had some interest in debunking the notion that inflation is out of control. jpmorgan yesterday did up their year-end forecast for core c pi. it doesn't sound like you're on board. >> no. the plastic is up big because of super storm murray it's true copper and lumber are up we did a deal with canada. that would come down oils is hanging around 60. that's not exploding i think we all remember in 2015 janet yellen was worried about inflation. inflation broke. i think j is playing it right again. another guy not in mental

quarantine we have a lot of guys out of mental quarantine. they're playing. my prediction, at goldman sachs if you don't come to work, you're going to be mortified they're going back to work >> not until september probably but yes. or you're not going to work there anymore. >> there are comments. >> i have a list of 50 >> he's not alone. there's plenty of frustration at this plenty >> jim, we'll see you at 6:00 p.m more "squawk on the street" a mentin tailor made or one size fits all? made to order or ready to go? with a hybrid, you don't have to choose. that's why insurers are going hybrid with ibm. with watson on a hybrid cloud they can use ai to help predict

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good wednesday morning welcome to another hour of "squawk on the street. i'm carl quintanilla with david faber and morgan brennan b bank earnings. coin base direct listing at the nasdaq fed speak. j&j vaccine as we're looking at record highs this morning for the dow and the s&p. >> that's all? just joking. we're 30 minutes into the trading sessions

jo goldman, jpmorgan and wells all reporting. on goldman higher right now. bitcoin crossing $64,000, hitting another new record high as we await coin base's first trade on the nasdaq. at athereum on focus. and bed bath and beyond. q 4 net sales down about 14% in trade so far this morning. >> we'll look for more information out of the fda regarding the jlk j&j vaccine pause. news out of moderna this morning. meg has it all good morning, meg. >> good morning, carl. could be a pivotal day for johnson & johnson after the fda and cdc paused vaccinations with its vaccine after those reports of six rare but severe blood clots in people who had received the vaccine. the cdc's group of advisers is meeting this afternoon to discuss the events and potentially update their recommendations for use of the vaccine. that begins at 1:30.

they're scheduled to take a vote between 3:30 and 4:30. we'll bring you any news from that and how they might potentially recommend this vaccine be used going forward. you also mentioned moderna we spoke with the ceo this morning who told us about how he is looking at the future of the virus that causes covid-19 that's what they've been going through at the vaccines day they're holding. he told us this morning on how they are looking at what's happening around the world with variants and what it means for booster shots. >> the variants are going to be -- it's going to be everywhere i personally worry deeply about the next six more moving into the fall and winter we'll see a lot of cases in the south. we already see spikes around the world. i want to make sure there are booster vaccines available in the fall so we protect people as we go into the next fall and winter season in the u.s

so as moderna works on the future for covid-19 vaccines, they're laying out the pipeline for a phase 3 in a virus called cmv, expected to start this year they also have a vaccine for rsv that they have early phase one data on. they plan to take vaccines for flu and hiv into human trials this year. all using this mrna technology back over to you you know, meg, my question for you is about pfizer's capacity there was a sense i think that they were going full out on production and yet again, raising their production target or their delivery target for the u.s. and the eu. how are they doing that? >> you know, we've heard from them how they have increased their productivity in terms of their manufacturing capacity speeding it up, figuring out how to make these mrna vaccines. this is a brand new technology never made on this scale before. so figuring out to do that more

productively of course, they also can put more vaccines or get more vaccines out of the vials, they discovered that. that could be helping. really, anything helps, especially in this situation where it's unclear what role j&j will play and hopefully we'll get more clarity on that later today. >> meg, thank you. we are also here awaiting coinbase's first trade this morning. they are making the market debut on the nasdaq. it's a direct listing. leslie picker has more on what to expect, including when it will open. it does take a while for the direct listing to get going. >> and this is the first we've seen i'm told early afternoon is when we should see some of the opening trades take place for this one a water shed moment for the crypto industry. the largest u.s. exchange for trading bitcoin and other digital currency going public today. coinbase is set to debut late this afternoon there's been a reference price

to help guide order flow based largely on the recent private trades came in at $250 that's a fully diluted valuation of about $65 billion now, while that's lower than the average price for where coinbase has traded privately in the first quarter, that would give the company about the same size market price as ice. i heard you saying last hour that you believe it would be crazy if it surpassed that of goldman sachs even coinbase is expected to have far more volatility than your run of the mill publicly traded exchange or large financial services if i were it says so in the s-1s the number one risk factor that it's results-based largely on transaction fees will -- >> one analyst projecting a 260% top line growth this year but 37% declines in 2022 the ceo brian armstrong

addressed the difference >> we're what you might call an index or levered bet on the crypto space more broadly. we're selling picks and shovels. we're helping people access and use this new technology. so i think we're going to grow along with the crypto space, but if we keep growing share, then we'll sort of be an addition of that on top of just the price of crypto >> of course, timing is everything crypto momentum could be a huge tail wind ahead of the listing bitcoin covering around the record highs >> i have to think all the anti-ipos are folks pushing for more reforms of the ipo process are going to watch this one closely given the fact that this is a direct listing, happening on the nasdaq. you're talking about a company that's already profitable and talking about a company that you touched on so much debate, does it receive a discount because of the volatility and it's currently levered to bitcoin and

crypto or does it receive a premium given the fact that right now it's growing so aggressively and could be according to the bulls a bet on the long-term future of the next leg of infrastructure? >> i think valuation is the huge question and one i'm looking forward to getting some sense of how the market sees this company. to your point, there are no publicly traded comps by which to compare this company to, especially given just the unique nature of the role in crypto actually, one of the analyst notes this morning said we're basically not even going to try to make projections because it's so volatile. we'll let you know when we have a better sense of what this company is going to look like in the future how often do you see that kind of language? where they admit it's very difficult to forecast this one so when you look at a company like this, turning to a direct listing mechanism, letting the market decide via a pseudo auction could be one way to

assess the market. >> let the market sort it out. leslie picker, i think you'll have a busy day. thanks for joining us. now to the big banks and big be beats. >> let's start with goldman sachs. a monster quarter. record revenue, up 100% year over year, 50% quarter over quarter. investment banks and asset management comfortable if you were picky, a big portion was from equity investments, but the beats were so big it doesn't matter and impressive operating leverage seeing roes north of 30 %. jpmorgan and wells fargo comfortable also but eps bigger than otherwise due to having a big benefit in the line for provisions for bad loans jpmorgan ceo said we do not consider this core or recurring profit, however, it is a good

thing to have benefits not provisions and that's only possible because of the better economic outlook with the recent rise in yields in mind, interest income disappointed a bit for both jpmorgan and wells fargo clients were able to pay down debt >> if you're going back to -- negative variant that's a different issue than if it's a temporary timing thing. i would tell you we would expect rates to move up over time and expect a rather strong economy >> jpmorgan like goldman sachs had fantastic market activity. wells fargo suffered because they have low exposure in that area corporate and investments bank's client pipeline is stronger then a it's been. lots of positive trends across all areas. in the short-term, it's delivering on the bottom line from the investment banks more than the retail banks as the

trends of 2020 are extended for this quarter, the outlook, though, across all areas, pretty positive for the year ahead. >> will, some of the return on equity numbers are stunning. 23 plus%, we didn't talk a lot this morning about wells i don't believe that conference call has begun or maybe it will. what should we expect given the hard times that they encountered for some time now and perhaps starting to see things abate a bit? >> look, as you said, the call hasn't started we'll need to listen in on the top line, they haven't got the exposure to the capital markets the others do which is why they're disappointed it highlights in the high 70s that they don't have that operating leverage that both jpmorgan and goldman sachs are performing they've seen revenue jump and even if you could pick at the tiny points of jpmorgan and goldman sachs, it's coming through on that amazing turns level and wells fargo is

seemingly still. a number of calls, behind delivering that, we have the cfo coming up on closing bell. and their analyst call begins in a moment interesting stuff on the goldman sachs opening comments on junior bankers and going back to work the q and a is just beginning on goldman sachs. >> will, we'll see you this morning. breaking in the last hour, bernie madoff has died at the age of 82. when his giant scheme was unravelled in 2008, the money manager's clients thought they had an estimated $65 billion in their accounts but the money and the profits he said was behind it weren't real. scott has a look back. >> for more than 50 years he was famous only on wall street, a big money manager. founder of his own firm at age 22. >> the basic concept of wall

street which sometimes the regulators lose sight of as do the academics, is it's a for profit enterprise. >> reporter: he came chairman of the nasdaq, an authority on regulation >> no one is going to run a benefit for wall street. so whenever i go down to washington and meet with the sec and complaints the burdens are too great, they start to roll their eyes >> reporter: but in december of 2008 -- >> if you work on a trading desk, stop what you're going >> reporter: bernie madoff became a household name. >> the fbi arrested him this morning after he told senior employees yesterday that his business was a giant scheme. >> reporter: tonight as much as $50 billion is gone, vanished. >> reporter: for may bernie mad, clients around the world, including celebrities, and regular investors like betty who

lost everything. >> i kept saying this can't be this just is not happening >> reporter: he confessed he hadn't made a single trade in years. critics like an investigator earned the ultimate i told you so >> i gift wrapped and delivered the largest ponzi scheme in history to them and somehow they couldn't be bothered for a proper investigation >> reporter: the stain of the scandal forced a total makeover at the sec >> i think there is a need for a refocus here on investor protection >> reporter: the impact went much further bernie madoff may have done more to tear down investor confidence than any individual in history in 2009 he pleaded guilty to 11 criminal counts and received the maximum sentence, 150 years. in court he insisted it was all his idea his family, he claimed, knew nothing. >> are you going to give up your fortune?

>> reporter: how could they not know ruth was his high school sweet heart. for a brief time she kept the books. >> did you see nothing >> nothing >> reporter: their sons mark and andrew ran the trading business. they too insisted they didn't know but for mark, the older son, the suspicion alone was too much >> the body of mark madoff was found two years after his father was arrested in a massive swindle. >> reporter: just 46 years old, he was the third suicide lichked to his father's fraud. four years later in 2014 younger son andrew died after a long battle with cancer maintaining his innocence until the end. having refused to speak a word to his father since he and his brother turned him in. >> my father, what he did was awful, and affected the lives of so many people stole people's dreams and futures, and us among them

and i'll never forgive him for that >> reporter: to the end in letters from prison, he defended his family, even his younger brother, peter, who also went to prison for falsifying records. he said others were complicit in the fraud including his bankers own some of his biggest investors. he claimed he pressured them to give some of their money back. they were well aware of the incriminating evidence i possessed about their complicit activity and wisely came forward with settlements but the authorities say he was never any help and the remorse he claimed in every message is suspect. in his 2009 sentencing he turned to his victims, i'm sorry, he said, i know that doesn't help you. it didn't, and neither does bernie madoff's death. >> quite a piece there from scott who joins us now give us your reflections

we listened to what was a well-put together piece for this moment but you covered so much of this so closely what are your thoughts >> well, this is not an unforeseen moment. bernie madoff told us actually in 2014 that he had kidney disease and then it became terminal a little less than a year and a half ago. he dies just shyf his 83 rd birthday i did have a correspondence with him in prison for several years. it took a long time to get it going and then getting in to see him in 2013. and this is a cultural letter i got from him in march of 2013. so almost eight years ago. more than eight years ago, i should say it was off the record until now. with his death it is not necessary to go into the success the accomplishments of the business that i together

with my family created regardless of the cries and accusations of others, there's enough documentation in history to establish a lasting legacy, a legacy that my family can be proud of in spite of the terrible mistake i made and are solely responsible for you'll have to excuse my emotions, he wrote and this was classic bernie madoff yes, he made a mistake, but he did so much and he did so much for so many. that's being overlooked. the delusion that he may very well have carried with his death. >> terrible mistake as well know given all your reporting and all of us know from all of our reporting affected countless lives and so many terrible ways you know, you said -- you went to prison to see him we never did, though, get that television interview, did we, that many hoped for where he was asked so many of the questions that we all have

>> no. and a lot of that was the prison that wouldn't allow cameras in there, but i spent two hours with him in the ison in 2013 we've reported on that and certainly i'm sure we'll report more about that today. and it was very much you know, he seemed like a very kind of a normal guy as strange as that seems he didn't have necessarily the swagger that he did before he ultimately pleaded guilty, and certainly in his days as a luminary on wall street, but he just wanted to talk about all the things that he did that he claimed he did to try and get the court appointed trustee help in getting people their money back that trustee said that bernie madoff was of no help, and nonetheless, some people have gotten a large share of their money back through the efforts

of others. we also have heard from -- this morning, the lead prosecutor it was a weird prosecution, of cour, because it began with a confession, but the former u.s. attorney said in an email, i think i speak for the team that prosecuted him, when i say this closes a dark chapter of deception and greed that damaged the lives of tens of thousands of victims from start to finish this episode has brought nothing but devastation to everyone he touched. that's from the former u.s. attorney scott -- >> assistant u.s. attorney >> some very strong words there. in terms of the closing of the chapter, just to look at that, the fact that we were seeing clawbacks, profits being taken back from investors around this situation as recently i think as last fall. does this close the chapter on that process as well or are there more legal proceedings and the like tied to this even with his death

>> well, almost certainly the efforts of the trustee will continue, because all the money hasn't been recovered or hasn't been accounted for but, again, the total losses, remember, it's always the $65 billion ponzi scheme that's what everyone said they had. they had $65 billion the actual losses in terms of the principal were more along the lines of $17 billion still a lot of money, but not 65 and those investors have gotten back about $14 billion of that that's a pretty hefty recovery you don't normally see from ponzi schemes, but it also doesn't account for the feeder funds that invested with bernie madoff and those people were not included in that recovery. there's a separate recovery effort going on for them and the whole issue of callbacks are if you took out more than you actually put in, because you

thought you had that money in your account, then theoretically, you owe that money back a lot of those have been forgiven and have not been sought by the trustee, but many of them have you heard a lot about that over the years, and almost certainly those efforts will continue. >> finally, scott, i wonder how you think about legacies outside of the scheme itself for example, the ability to alter documentation. the way in which that's been used since the scheme. also an early practitioner of payment for order flow as some pointed out today. >> that's right. and you know, madoff is -- i guess in his better days, really was responsible for a lot of the systems that are still in use on wall street today. through his businesses is creating -- his business as

opposed to the investment advisory business. that's how he would like to be remembered, but he's changed so much since then. there's so many things that they did to effect if fraud that were old school technology. i mean, it was like paper copies and things like that maybe you couldn't get away with today what we've always said and we've always heard going through all of this that there may never be another bernie madoff, but there is certainly somebody out there doing something similar, and probably on a similar scale. we know the sec and regulators went through as we said a few minutes ago through an existential crisis as a result of all this, but a good cook will find a way around all of that >> that's scott cohn having covered all this from the beginning. scott,e pria wapecte it. >> thank you

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sure it's secure. and even if the power goes down, your connection doesn't. so how do i do this? you don't do this. we do this, together. bounce forward, with comcast business. following a painful four years for many value investors value has outperformed for two consecutive quarters we have a portfolio manager joining us now up 8 7%. an incredible year and strong first quarter with the fund. you talk in your letter about frequently rethinking one's assumptions. tell me how you rethought your assumptions from where we were a year ago and how you're rethinking them even right now

in terms of what stocks you're actually picking >> sure. thanks, dafd thanks for having me it's true we had a very good trailing one-year period that was after an awful first quarter last year in 2020. so i do want to put a little of that into perspective. when we went into 2020, our thought was that the economic level of activity was roughly at a normal level that even though the economy, economic recovery was getting kind of long in the tooth, the magnitude hadn't been that large, so we felt it was safe to project a continued strong economy, and obviously that all got turned upside down in march with the lockdowns. what i'm really proud of from our analyst team is how rapidly we were able to change our models to reflect a recession consistent with the fed's severely adverse scenario, and that we tracked pretty well to that over the next year. and i think the other thing that

really helped us at oakmark have such a good year in the trailing four quarters is our very long-term time horizon in times of crisis, i think a lot of investors get very myopic you had a lot of discussion about how bad 2020 might be. at our firm the discussion was more about what do we think the world will look like in 2025 a and that forecast kind of looking past the economic recession is what allowed us to buy companies that have performed very, very well over the past 12 months as we look forward to a world that's reopening. >> right >> a year ago we thought maybe we were a quarter away from reopening. i'd still say that today that we think with the number of people that are getting vaccinated, there's a good chance that in the second or third quarter, we are getting back to something we used to

think of in 2019 as normal a year ago we could have been off by years today if we're wrong, i think we're only off by quarters so the window is narrowing and i think that's a huge positive >> all right bill, let's fast forward to the current moment here. when i look at the portfolio, i think financials at least currently represent as much as 34%. bank of america, capital one, citi group, schwab none of them reporting today we've been talking about goldman, wells fargo and j.p. mo morgan give me your sense as to why you like financials here >> well, i think the biggest reason we like financials generally is they have typically traded at about three quarters of the s&p 500 multiple. the s&p on next year's estimates is 20 times earnings and most of the financials today are barely double digit

our largest holding, ally financial is expected to make around $6 a share next year and the stock trades in the upper 40s. so a pe of not quite eight times earnings we think there's a pe move increase in pe that's likely for this whole industry. two of the names that did report today, goldman and wells, are both in our portfolio. and i think they -- this quarter serves as a really good reminder, especially with the company like goldman sachs, that financials don't just report normal and bad quarters. they also report quarters that are well above average if goldman could annualize the quarter they just reported, they'd be making 7 $0 plus a share. that's clearly not our forecast. but with a book value in the mid 200s and an expectation that they could earn 15% on that, we think 15% and 15 times earnings are a little over two times book value is a very reasonable level

for a high quality financial >> all right bill, i'm curious. i want to go back to this shift we've seen around value. this focus on value. you just talked about the economy reopening and the opportunities that that has created. i wonder if you think longer term this shift, this rotation to value is something that will be sustained, and also, perhaps just as importantly, given what we're seeing in the big tech names and how they've traded in recent months whether the definition around value is worth rethinking as well >> well, yeah, two separate questions there that we could talk a really long time about. but i'll try to be brief on the first question of can this continue for value, one of my favorite statistics is what the ratio of the 75 fastest growth companies, pe, has been relative to the 100 cheapest pe stocks typically that's bounced around between two to three times if a cheap stock was at ten

times earnings, high growth stock would be at 30 times earnings last year we hit a ratio of ten times. the cheap stocks were about 11 times earnings and the growth stocks were over 100 times that's the highest we'd seen since the internet bubble in 1999 and clearly, appeared be an unsustainable level. that's fallen now to about five times. so part of that excess opportunity for value has been reclaimed in the past six months but it's still very elevated to where we've been historically. and yes, i do think value investors need to rethink the definition of value. when i started in the business over 30 years ago, value just meant low pe or low price to book and i think gap accounting just doesn't do a very good job with intangible assets. it was built for plants where investments were things you could touch and feel it wasn't built so much for a

technology business that intellectual capital, global platforms that don't show up on the balance sheet are big assets and i think value investors need to make adjustments for that and you can't be a successful value investor today and just buy cheap price to book companies. >> bill, always good to have you with us. thank you. >> thanks, david we're getting some numbers now on coinbase. now indicated to open at 340 a share. well above the $250 reference price. remember, this is a direct listing rather than an ipo reference price, keeping an eye, though, and we'll be right back in the meantime. esg is responsible investing. who's responsible for building esg into your investments?

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welcome back here's your cnbc covid update. denmark decided to permanently stop using the astrazeneca vaccine entirely due to concerns about rare blood clots appearing in a small number of recipients. france says it's confident in the shot the european union is putting its money on the pfizer shot it's negotiating a large

contract extension ahead of the eu says, quote, we need to focus on the technologies that have proven their worth. and south africa's drug regulator says it's looked again at the local study for j&j's vaccine. and found no major safety concerns it is, however, still holding off an giving j&j shots while the u.s. looks at rare blood clots in a normal of recipients. you're up to date. back to you. >> thank you very much time for our etf spotlight looking at the ticker ibuy. one name to watch today, stitch fix. announcing the founder will give up the ceo reigns and become executive chair. current president elizabeth spalding will succeed her as ceo effective august 1st all right. well, meantime jeff bezos blue origin expected to launch the

latest test flight today the company putting a hold on the timing of that test. it's being referred to as an astronaut rehearsal as the company is moving closer to sending people past the edge of space. meantime, speaking of billionaire-backed private space companies. sierra space an independent company under the s and c umbrella sy -- sierra space can land on an airport runway it has contracted with nasa and a commercial space station comprised of inflatable habitats the vision, space transportation, destinations and infrastructure including in an increasingly commercialized low-earth orbit. the president erin osmond writing, quote, what started as a 40 million acquisition has grown the revenue by ten times to $400 million today and will

reach $4 billion within 5 to 10 years. the move is intended to accelerate the move and perhaps make it easier to bring on outside investment they are 100% owned by a husband and wife team as the commercial space economy lifts off, and as investors get more involved with other space startups that are coming public, and, of course, kathy woods, bringing more attention to the sector overall. for more on this story, go to cnbc.com >> i will. i want more. thank you, morgan. april is financial literacy month. and we are committed to sharing messages from business and thought leaders about the importance of financial education. here is the fubu founder, damon john 12k3w4r6r7b8g9s when i was growing up, i knew nothing about money, how it works. i just knew you needed it. that's why i believe in school they should teach you financial intelligence the same they they

teach shop i will need to balance a checkbook at home or in my company. they need to know what taxes are. they need to know how compound interest works and need to know how money works. ♪♪ ♪♪

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it is a big day for crypto coinbase makes the direct listing the nasdaq. it's the nasdaq's first significant listing to date. after slack, spotify and roblox went public. great to see you both. >> great to be here. >> thanks, carl. >> tom, i don't know if you want to talk big picture, what it means in the ongoing evolution

of the space, or specifically the reference price and to what degree that was a bargain at $250 what are your thoughts >> you know, look, i'll take the first half of the question look, this is a water shed moment for this industry, and you can pick your analogous reference point. was it the netscape ipo in 1995? could be i think what it really reflects is it's a mark to mark industry in terms of the work going onto develop the new financial technology and all the benefits since the first block of the bitcoin block mined 12 years ago. it's brought a huge amount of attention to the industry. it's giving equity investors and others insight into the asset class and the long-term implications for the industry. it's also driving a lot more venture investment into the space as well as interest from larger institutions that are suddenly waking up to this notion that there is a new

digital asset class here merging. and clients of all stripes want access to. i think it's a tremendous historic milestone for the industry, and an industry we're proud to be a part of. >> yeah. i want to get to jill in a second but quick, one more question to you. for those who are looking at it as a portal for large institutions like fidelity, how would you describe fidelity's interest and long-term strategy around this in the years to come >> yeah. i mean, put simply, we see block chain technology as a new operating system for financial services there will be existing types of value and trading that will be made more efficient because of block chain. there will be new types of assets that will be transacted as a result of the technology. we've made a long-term investment or are making a long-term investment in space first starting with providing institutions with trade exservices but watching things closely and

want to bring this asset class to the broader range we serve. >> it's interesting to see initiations by analysts so far it almost seems like head scratching or uncertainty in terms of how to value this company right now. what are the key metrics to hone in on and i ask that given the fact that it does seem to be at least right now in the near-term levered to the price of bitcoin and also athereyum i think the long-term is the strong growth we're seeing at least right now and this idea of a change to a key part of the internet infrastructure, if you will >> yeah. i think that's exactly right the name of the game is absolutely growth, growth, growth here. and i think on top of that, you also have to look at just the dynamics around the stock. you know, it has sort of meme stock potential on the retail side and then for a lot of institutions, this is going to be their first ability to have a real foray into the crypto space. for a lot of institutions that

have been blocked out of buying bitcoin. i think it comes back to growth. i think that the metrics that i looked at when they announced their quarter one earnings a few weeks back came down to their mtus, monthly transacting users and also the transaction volumes. and talk about a block buster quarter. you know, i know we've spent a lot of time on goldman sachs this morning and their outstanding quarter, but coinbase, you look at what they've done just in the last few months alone and with coinbase, coming back to improet, you can start to make a trajectly out from that it's not a one off that's the exciting thing. that's why i set my buy order for higher than $250 >> how high did you set it >> closer to $400. >> closer to $400. when tom compared to the importance of the net scape ipo in '95, which i remember, i'm curious about your thoughts.

does this unleash a wave of more capital moving into this industry, not just in the currencies themselves but in the companies that may be behind them yet to come >> oh, without a doubt i mean, one dynamic that you have to consider around this is this ipo is minting a whole new generation of angel investors, venture capital funds in silicone valley. you have to believe a lot of that money is going to pour into innovation in this industry. that's one of the dynamics i'm most excited about here. >> guys, we're going to watch it today and in the quarters and years to come with your help tom, jill, good to see you both. thanks >> thank you >> thank you as we go to break, check out shares of discovery. both the c and the a, you know, you may have thought the fallout from archegos was over late yesterday we learned 22 million of the c shares, 19

million of the a shares were share. this does apparently clean it up it's an awful lot of stock, and it is weighing on shares of discovery. off the lows, one trade was one, one of the blocks at 3235 and 'se other at 3840. it up from there we'll be right back. stay with us

more "squawk on the street" coming up.

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5.9 million barrels, a bigger draw than expected of the individual stocks gaining, ox accidental help from an upgrade from mkm partners i will send it back to you folks on "squawk on the street." >> all right we are awaiting the first trade for coinbase, ticker coin. here's a look at jay heller, ipo excuse at nasdaq normally pre-covid we would with be checking in with him for indications on big listing days like this. we will watch that closely dow and s&p record high. - [announcer] if you've tried college but never finished, snhu let's you transfer up to 90 credits toward your bachelor's degree.

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welcome back as we await the first trades in coinbase as a public company, getting a check, the indication price is now $350. that is up from the reference price set by the nasdaq of $250 last night remember, this is a direct listing. we're going to continue to keep an eye on that as this first major crypto currency exchange begins to trade as a public company. a federal advisory panel will meet to debate whether and how

jon najarian's covid-19 vaccine should continue to be used in the u.s., so how does the pause impact hospital systems and distribution going forward key question and joining us now is the ceo of the university of iowa hospitals and clinics, as well as dr. lloyd minor, stanford medical school dean welcome to you both. i realize there's still a lot of questions around this and in many ways in early stages as federal regulators take a closer look at j&j. i want to start with you, given the pause that's been put in place, how is this going to affect supplies in vaccine distribution within your network right now? >> it's certain a setback, but we still have significant supply of pfizer and moderna that we continue to be able to vaccinate the community with this is a critical moment and certainly we're very eager to understand how long this pause

is going to last, but for right now, it's not affecting our ability to vaccinate in our community at this time because we have significant supplies of the other vaccines still coming in as we look forward over the next month or two this could have significant ramifications. >> dr. minor, the same question to you in regards to stanford and i'll also layer on top of that, what would you say to folks, especially maybe women that are in that age range that 18 to 48 age range, who have been vaccinated by j&j in recents days and weeks, what are doctors within the networks saying to those folks right now? >> first, we at stanford, have received comparatively fewer doses of johnson & johnson than we have of pfizer and moderna, but in general, we have the capacity to vaccinate far more people than doses of vaccine we're receiving. so we are concerned about this

pause. certainly safety has to come first. but we want to be able to administer vaccines as quickly and effectively as we can to a larger population and we're set up to do that as soon as we can get the doses. in terms of recommendations, for anyone who has received the vaccine, but in particular women, who have received the vaccine who develop headaches, who develop bleeding beneath the skin, these are symptoms that should prompt a health care professional to be contacted and investigated to see if the it -- if those symptoms might indicate something more severe. >> saresh, i'm curious, do you think that the fda and cdc's action will help those who fear getting vaccinated already to do so, or actually in general more fear on the part of those who had perhaps been hesitant to get the vaccine? >> that's the million dollar question i think that overall, this is a critical moment. each part of the country is in a

different place. i mean, dr. minor is reflecting on the experience in northern california and we're at the university of iowa health care here in iowa city, and i think that supply here continues to be strong, but as dr. minor says, there's still a lot more vaccination that we would like to do than we have supply. i will tell you here in iowa, we're beginning to reach the first populations where we're beginning to see significant vaccine hesitancy, and i hope that we can continue to get two messages out one is that millions and millions of americans have been vaccinated and that the rate of side effects have been very, very low, just as we anticipated. but it's good to be in a country that does take safety very, very seriously and the first sign of any challenge, there's a pause it's really important to talk about this as a pause, not necessarily as a final decision

to cease emergency use authorization. i think it's really important to get that message to the public. >> one minute dr. minor, but i'm just curious, if federal regulators, this pause only lasts a couple days while they investigate, is that enough time to instill confidence in the public, given the fact that there is likely a fair amount of hesitancy among folks that have not received shots >> these vaccines as a groupar among the most safe and effective vabs ever developed, and i think we have to get that message out. i think the pause was a rationale thing for the fda to do, but i have confidence in our regulatory bodies to look carefully at the evidence and make recommendations accordingly. people need to be vaccinated >> yeah. all right. well, thank you both for joining us today to break all of this down and i'm sure more will be revealed in the coming days and weeks. we appreciate it david, just getting a check on the markets right now, the

nasdaq is slightly lower but the other major averages are in the green. that is going to do it for "squawk on the street. "techcheck" is going to begin right now ♪ good wednesday morning and welcome to "techcheck. our new show about tech here at cnbc i'm deirdre bosa with carl quintanilla and jon fortt as always a huge show today. history for crypto as coinbase goes public, we are awaiting the first trade and a monster valuation that is only getting bigger plus, slack ceo stewart butterfield will join us on how we work and communicate and some new numbers from tiktok reveal just what is underneath the hood at this company.