components and bring you the ceos of johnson & johnson and p&g. it is tuesday, april 20th, 2021. "squawk box" begins right now. good morning welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. you will see equity futures with a pull back. dow futures are down 135 points. that's about how much the dow dropped yesterday. it was down 124 points only a decline of .4%. s&p was down, too. this is only the second time that the s&p hasn't set a new high in the last 13 trading

sessions again, a rare pull back. the futures there indicated down 15 points. the nasdaq was the big loser down 1%. this morning, it is indicated down another 48 points as joe mentioned, treasury yields 10-year note 1.67%. if you refinanced your mortgage yesterday, you got in just in time we should point out we have three big dow components reporting today. the first is johnson & johnson which is out at 6:45 a.m. eastern to time. 45 minutes from now. travelers in p&g will be reporting which comes out at 7:00 eastern time. we are paying attention to ibm it came out with better than expected results for the quarter with earnings per share and revenue. that up 3% united airlines also going to be reporting. it reported a wider than expected loss of $7.50

we will speak with scott kirby, the ceo, coming up in the 8:00 hour take a look at the "squawk stack" this morning. a lot of things to check out guys, do you remember one year ago today? it was when oil prices actually went negative. a long road we have come since then wti now back at $64 a barrel >> exactly a year? >> a year ago today. >> that's a good one >> a year ago today, we saw with the contract that was expiring at one point oil was given away at $40 the huge drop off. what a long way we have come back $64. >> at least nothing weird happens anymore. a headline, max mentioned to mow, on dogecoin it is in here. you know, the "squawk stack" with gme in there.

we are trying to get our pulse on the wackiness of retail everything in the environment we're in the journal has a great piece. it is up $8,000. dogecoin started as a joke the headline was dogecoin soaring to $8,000 on pot-futured rally. we have marijuana in there because today is 4/20. they are trying to get it to $1 because some elon musk 4/20. things are crazy that is why we should worry about this stuff don't you think, sorkin? you think about soccer i'm worried about soccer, too. this is crazy. >> i heard yesterday there was an analyst on who was talking about, not on our show, but "worldwide exchange. the analyst talked about how bitcoin is right in the market, but dogecoin is everything wrong in the market.

it is being speculation and people are just rushing in and gambling on this it is hard to think that some of that frenzy isn't playing out in bitcoin as well. just confined to the dogecoin world, which started as a joke it was a nickel and now -- >> becky, i would say -- >> what if we give our "squawk" proceeds to wounded warriors i was going to put on -- or one of your things i was going to put on "squawk" coin when issued not a quote, but when issued deal we shouldn't >> buyer beware? >> exactly >> the question that i have about dogecoin and frankly as becky was implying about bitcoin is just how far out this really

extends. in terms of the euphoria and crazy and how far it extends in the market and anything systemic about it or if we believe this is bubblicious and what pops and what comes undone? is it okay these are the things i'm putting my finger on and it is really hard to understand. >> robinhood is part of the story with dogecoin. you saw robinhood had trouble. it is not supported on coinbase. you can't buy dogecoin on coinbase it's part of the robinhood story. is it reddit, too? i bet they are on reddit >> of course a lot of redditers will talk

dogecoin let's get you caught up on news just out from paypal. venmo will allow 70 million customers so buy cryptocurrency. you can choose from bitcoin and bitcoin cash and etheren the app will feature questions about cryptocurrency this could see a huge surge into the space. this is wis what we talked aboun the fall when paypal first got into this and given the graphic on venmo, you could see more action starting today. we will keep our eyes on that. we are watching the price of bitcoin in the stack you are looking at bitcoin trading in the mid $50 at this point.

down to 55 $272,000 joe. thank you. an update on the tesla crash that killed two men over the weekend. local police believed no one was in the driver's seat when the car crashed. data logs recovered so far that auto pilot was not enabled and this car did not purchase full self driving moreover, standard auto pilot would require lane lines to turn on which this street didn't have it would not have been possible to use it on that byway or road. two federal agencies are investigating the crash along with law enforcement i was interested in what a battery fire means, guys how do you put out that fire >> it's hard it took hours and hours and

hours. >> and gallons and gallons how do you do it >> i would imagine that is with any electric vehicle, right? >> battery >> yup increasingly using foam and other things to put the fires out. that's the risk involved with the battery-power cars. >> we all put out a grease fire with water that was dumb if you have hamburgers in the broiler. you try to suffocate it and make it worse if you put water on it. >> right we should talk about tobacco stocks they tumbled after the report from the biden administration is considering ncapping nicotine levels in cigarettes now the administration is trying to determine if they should

reduce nicotine levels in congestc conjunction with the cigarettes. companies fighting back hard tob tobacco companies saying anything that happens from the fda needs to be based on science. british tobacco was down 2%.ris. the tobacco companies fighting back at this point just pushing to say it needs to be based on science. we'll see what the fda has to say. go ahead joe? we'll get out before 6:10. if i were a tobacco company, i would never bring up science science? that would never been my go-to reason to keep smoking

you know -- never mind never mind >> okay. >> science when we come back, we have a huge lineup of guests. including the cfos of johnson & johnson and p&g and the ceos of auto nation. a busy day for earnings. we get you ready for the big reports right after the break. stick around >> announcer: today's big number 3.8 million. that's how many single family homes in the u.s. are needed to meet the current housing demand according to freddie mac that represents a 52% rise in the home shortage compared to 2018 >> announcer: today's big number is sponsored by mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. a choice that requires no explanation.

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welcome back to "squawk box. ibm shares higher. earnings of $1.77 a share. re revenue beating expectation. the company said it saw a pick up of business of the clients hit hardest by retail and consumer products. joe. >> no small feat, andrew

above a year ago and forecasting that is the holy grail for this company. for the last ten years that's what we all have been talking about. you mentioned the empty calories >> empty calories. >> trying to get rid of those. growth for the year. growth for the year. okay it seems like it's progress. united airlines shares are falling. company lost $7.50 a share in the first quarter. lost $7.50 a share business was not good in the first quarter. on revenue of $3.2 billion both numbers are below estimates. the company said it would fly 52% of its full schedule next month in may compared to 2019. as phil lebeau would tell us that is better than what we have seen for the last ten months

ceo scott kirby will join us in a cnbc exclusive ahead of the conference call today. that interview coming up at 8:00 a.m. eastern beck on that note, let's dig into "what's working" right now the numbers of the first quarter are far better than anticipated. 9% of the s&p companies report so far of those, earnings performance has been up more than 30% versus a year ago also, just about 30% above expectation. if you look at the revenue line. revenue performance up 9.5% from a year ago up 3.5% above expectation. to talk about this with us is valerie grant and katherine rooney vera.

kath katherine, let's start with you. you think this is enough to see the returns in the market? >> this quarter and next quarter, becky, show favorable given last year's first and second quarter which was devastating. the pent-up demand remains looking at household inn in indebtedness and disposable income we should look at all things consumer related spending. >> valerie, one thing you point out is growth stocks have started to pick up again we were looking at the value stocks out performed for a little while over the last month, we have continued to see some of the growth stocks pick up. i think for the month of april, with the dow, apple and

microsoft are the best per performers will that condition last >> i think certainly that condition can last what this really points to is the need to maintain a level of diversification in terms of the exposure you have in your portfolio. certainly we did see a value you rally earlier in the year. that's been a bit more recently. the growth and momentum stocks have continued to perform. it is important to maintain exposure to both you know, if you look at the consumer discretionary sector, there are a lot of stocks there that were beaten up and did not participate in the reopening trade. many of those as we come into this phase of the recovery will probably perform quite well. i think there is opportunity in value and growth in the current environment. >> when you look at semiconductor stocks, they pulled back significantly yesterday. decline of 2.5% for the semiconductor indindex.

we looked at the shortage. when you start looking at the returns for so many of the other areas. areas that depend on it. auto production. what woirries you, valerie >> all of it worries me. so many industries depend on these chips. we will hear as we progress through the earnings season. auto industry with hand sets and cell phones. so many depend on the chips and shortages is more acute and may last longer than expected it is interesting to see which companies get through this with focusing on production and rationing inventory to the most important customers and which ones may have to number a position where they are out of stock. i think we will hear more about that as the earnings season progresses >> anything you tell investors

right now and stocks you would be worried about because they would not weather it so well >> i think it is really difficult to have a lot of visibility you don't know how much inventory companies have on hand it is also very difficult to understand how companies are positioned in terms of the manufacturing processes and how flexible they can be this is a very tough one to for. forecast. there are so many different in markets that are dependent on the chips. >> kathryn, what are your favorite plays >> i think there is opportunity no green energy space which has been beaten up badly early february, the infrastructure and spending bill is devoted to green energy efforts as well as health care those are two sectors that can do well. consumer staples they tend to out perform in what

is going to be inflationary environment. i would say that's the best pick in terms of the embargo strategy in this scenario, we like offsetting any risk. risk being overweight equity offsetting that with inflation protection instruments consumer staples also goals and especially alternatives which tend to have a low correlation to the bond market and commodity as valerie said, diversific diversification. inflation and protection is very important. i think although we have discounted it, we may not have

discounted the proximity of the inflationary effect. >> are you worried about inflation? is that a big issue you are talking about or is that something that is out there or is something further down the horizon? >> it is further down the horizon. it is inevitable velocity of money falling off the cliff. that is the reason double and triple digit moves in m-1 has had no effect. one has to ask if the velocity of money is going to continue the extraordinary downward spiral my suspicion is no the inflation timing is difficult to predict i would say it is on the 12-to-18 month horizon, becky. that is why protection should be incorporated in any portfolio while it is cheap and we can position for that unknowable

future be ready for it. >> kathryn and valerie, thanks for your time. >> thank you coming up, some new data on ceo pay during the pandemic. we'll have those numbers next. here's a clue. it was big as usual right now, the biggest pre-market losers in the s&p 500. we'll be right back. >> announcer: what's working is sponsored by comcast business. bounce forward at com comcastbusiness.com. we kept going. working with our customers to enable the kind of technology that can guide an astronaut back to safety. and help make a hospital come to you, instead of you going to it. so when it comes to your business, you know we'll stop at nothing.

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time now for the executive edge and a look at ceo

compensation leslie picker joins us now with the details. it was a tough year. that is the old expression the worst pay was great for these guys, probably the worst one was still pretty good >> reporter: yeah, it wasn't a tough year for everybody, joe. despite a pyear with layoffs an uncertainty, ceo pay held steady equal compensation data is out with a new report. it shows the median compensation for the top 100 companies by revenue was $15.5 million last year a small decline from 2019 numbers. when looking at the average compensation, it was actually 3% higher year over year. looking below the surface, it is clear that those sectors that saw a tailwind from the pandemic, their ceos benefits. tech companies enjoyed a median of 16% more compensation

and those in the communication services and cyclical sectors were up 14% and 12% respectively the opposite was true for companies that did not do as well with steep declines among energy and financial services sector the report is an early peek at trends halfway through proxy season for those filed by the end of march charter communications tom rutledge saw more than 350%. the excess was due to new options award that the company gave him the biggest decline is bob swan who saw a pay cut of 67% as the stock fell he has since been replaced joe. >> a lot not bad. i think not mahomes money.

not even close, i don't think. what does tom cruise or "the rock" make per movie i think they make that at least per movie. it is all relative >> reporter: that's a good point. as a native kansas city resident, i'm bias >> if you had 100,000 -- it is a weird argument one is a pure market where mahomes is bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars obviously. think about what he is worth

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earnings just released from johnson & johnson. the company reporting adjusted profit of $2.59 a share. above expectation of $2.40 a share. revenue came in above forecasts. the company got a boost from the strong pharmaceutical business and recovery in the medical devices unit that is, wetalked about a lot, with elective procedures which were put off in the pandemic

a lot of devicemakers had a lull you think there is pent-up demand for procedures. we will have more on the j&j quarter when cfo joseph wolk will join us in a few minutes. he's wolk. apple stock has soared in 2020 ending the year up more than 80%. so far in 2021, it is barely up 1%vestors hope today's event will put the sails back in the event. i'll be glued to this as a consumer i'm always floodglued to the ape stuff. we have dan ives with us dan, i will watch. i have to admit, i have broken an ipad. i'm looking forward to the next one. the new magic keyboard, maybe. tell us what you are expecting

and what you think investors should be expecting. >> this is all about the refresh across the ipad line with the new chips and especially on the mini l.e.d. with the 11 inch and 12.9 this, to me, it is just another lynchpin to the products from apple in the really last decade. if you look at it, it is roughly 10% of revenue you have seen growth in the trend about 40% year over year growth i think that continues this is just another piece as they continue to build out and really what is the next product innovation and cupertino with the web cycle of the iphone 12 expected. >> is there anything you are anticipating today that will surprise the markets >> yeah, i think a few potential surprises. one, i think there will be hints

about the airpod 3 coming out. that is significant if terms of what that does for overall wearables. i think there could be hints under the ar and vr technology we think apple glass gets released next year we think this is a $3 trillion market cap the innovation continues in cupertino. the skeptics continue to be there. just like the products and innovation shows the power base. >> on the screen, we have a list of reveals we have not talked about it yet. it is something i'm excited about because i lose everything. my family knows this, unfortunately. apple tiles. the idea you can attach a beacon to everything.

how big a market do you think that is? >> i think it is significant this is long awaited that could combine with other products be another 1% to 2% revenue boost as they go to the next 12-to-18 months they are putting that iron fence around the apple install base. that is what is happening not just on the product cycle side, but services and the ancillary releases you will see the new apple pen release and potentially podcast subsc subscription it is about services along with the hardware over the last year. >> we will be getting a hearing coming up that apple will be heavily involved in around, fr frankly, what a walled guard looks like and if regulators take down the walls. how concerned are you about that >> they will continue to be in

the regulatory scrutiny. a little different from the data privacy perspective where they put themselves with facebook and others this is a risk it continues to be a general thing. i think the bark is worse than the bite with apple. i think fines more than any major business model change. right now, if you look, cook and cupertino are looking to strengthen the tech peers that are in a more regulatory scrutiny period especially on data privacy. >> dan, give me the downside on how you think the regulatory legal component pays out we have the epic case. you know my view i think apple will likely win that case. i think it is a dress rehearsal in many ways for a larger case likely brought by somebody else. spotify in europe or maybe a

government and it gets more complicated. >> you hit the nail on the head. when it comes to the app store, they hold the keys to the kingdom. 30% dominance. what is happening in europe is the biggest risk with spotify. if you have to lower fees there and you see the focus in brussels that is the biggest regulatory threat with the app store. as you have seen with epic, apple flexed muscles and came out looking stronger here in terms of what could have been. so far, apple has been able to defend that move successfully. >> all right should we be surprised or disappointed if we hear nothing about a car today? >> i wouldn't expect anything on the car. i think that is a summer reveal. we've talked about that. >> hold on hold on. stop the presses we can stop the whole show you think we're going to hear

about this the summer of 2021? this summer? >> i think the release late summer some data in terms of laying the ground work for the apple car. we believe it doesn't come out until 2024 we believe the data game in the next four-to-six months of the apple car. >> is this pure speculation or informed speculation give us some ground here why do you have this view in terms of the timing piece? >> the timing is to get a car out by 2024 which is what we believe is the expectation with cupertino. they need to find the partners and layout the vision for what it will be the two years plus ahead to get this out. i think if you start to go into 2022, this starts to get late to the game especially in a green tidal wave we believe by summertime, we will have more on the ev car

we believe it is when, not if, apple comes out with a car >> next time you have the outrageous speculation, we should start the segment with that dan, thank you we will watch the live stream. i'll be glued to it all day. i'm sure you will be, too. we'll talk more about it when we return, a lot on "squawk" today the plans to go public for a company backed by oprah. the queen. later, don't miss the interview with ceo mike jackson. you are watch and listen to us live on the cnbc app we're back after this. >> announcer: this cnbc program is sponsored by baird. visit bairddifference.com.

welcome back let's look at the u.s. equity futures at this hour the dow futures have worsened performa performance. down almost 200 points despite johnson & johnson coming in with better than expected numbers ibm was out last night better than expected p&g will be hitting in a few minutes. we will wait to see what it has

to say the nasdaq is off 75 in the meantime, oatly is filing for an ipo it entered the u.s. market in 2017 investors include blackstone and oprah winfrey, natalie portman and jay-z's entertainment company. it was valued at $2 billion and it plans to list on the nasdaq joe. coming up, johnson & johnson. we brought you the numbers, as you know, and i don't know if we mentioned. 5% dividend increase the company also raising its adjusted operational sales forecast from 8.5% to 9.9% the stock not responding at this point. the first interview with the company's cfo. that's next.

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johnson & johnson releasing the quarterly results a couple minutes ago. let's get to meg tirrell >> reporter: we bring in the cfo of johnson & johnson joe, great to see you. thanks for joining us. the quarterly earnings tell a picture a year out consumer numbers down with the medical devices seeing a recovery what story is j&j is telling us about the recovery >> good morning, meg it is great to be here it is one of strength if you look at where we were a year

ago. we were issuing guidance here we are a year later the investment has gotten stronger the pharmaceutical unit is leading the market with growth and medical devices coming back. yet, not all the way back. still growing about 9% consumer did have some of those, i'll say, choppy comparisons we grew 11% this time last year as people were loading up on the iconic brands such as tylenol >> reporter: of course, one of the things helping us get out of the pandemic is the vaccine that j&j has. the one vaccine on the market. it is going through some news. the blood clot risks

6 cases out of 7 million in the u.s. some problems with your manufacturing partners let's start on the blood clot question how does j&j view the risk with the vaccine?

hess both here in the u.s. and

around the world where it is desperately needed. >> yeah, that's certainly an understandable position, meg what i hope the public would take a step back and say that the process is working here, right? we brought the issue to the fda, to the european regulators' attention. we want to make sure we're thorough in terms of our analysis tounder stand what caused some of these issues. i think part of that will be diagnosis and appropriateness to understand i hope the population in general will feel more confident about taking a vaccine >> and you also have been working through some issues with your u.s. manufacturing partner, emergent biosolutions. now the fda is inspecting that facility in baltimore which j&j has now had to take over control of after cross contamination at the plant with the other vaccine they were making there they have been told to stop making product there while this inspection goes on in your statement yesterday j&j

said you're still committed to delivering 100 million doses to the u.s. government and helping stop this pandemic that didn't have your usual by the end of may time frame. are you still planning to be able to deliver 100 million doses by the end of may? >> just as i mentioned with safety, quality is of utmost importance we want to make sure we remediate what we need to remediate. we are in very good position to do our part to make sure we have a favorable outcome there. should that go well, we will be in a position to meet our contractual positions not just in the u.s. but across the globe. >> merck is coming on board to help you manufacture as well i know that first it will be the fill finish, which is essentially bottling the vaccine. they could help with drug substance. is that getting expedited at all in light of what's been going on with the merger biosolutions >> they're moving as fast as they can

they have been prior to us being on site at emergent. again here, too, meg, this is where quality control works. none of the viles that were potentially contaminated got out into the public. we stopped that. we alerted the fda we made sure they were satisfied that the product met the high quality standards that they and us require. >> in other areas where j&j is working right now, of course other news that you're in an opioid trial in california this was an issue that was a huge deal before the pandemic and these trials kind of got pushed off a little bit in the last year but now back in court in california. you of course had that decision in oklahoma. how does johnson & johnson weigh the risk of all of this litigation over opioids right now? >> with respect to opioids, meg, as you may recall, we reserved significant amount last year we reserved that with the intention of that being a final

settled amount we're working collaboratively with the state attorney generals and they are determining how that -- those funds will be allocated but we're optimistic that we'll have some resolution on that in short order here. >> all right joe, my last question for you is j&j is doing the covid vaccine on a non-profit basis. >> that's right. >> this, of course, has been the main topic of conversation around your company and around your stock how does johnson & johnson look at this as a business consideration? >> meg, you know, i've got to be honest with you. i scratch my head. when i see the stock move up or down on the vaccine news, it's a little puzzling to me, to be quite honest with you. i certainly don't mean to downplay the humanitarian investment and the impact we want to have on society, if you want to look at our results today, the strength of our business, we are moving forward. again, i think we're better positioned than we were entering the pandemic

we continue to invest disproportionately in r&d. 600 million more this quarter than last quarter. we think that position is extremely well for the future. if you look at our pharmaceutical pipeline, we have potentially ten new indications, new products filed this year 13 in 2022 and 26 in 2023 we're working today and securing the future with how we're managing the business. >> joe wolk, thanks for being with us this morning we'll continue the conversation. >> thank you, meg. >> joe, back over to you thanks, meg. thank you, mr. wolk. a bidding battle is underway for rail operator kansas city southern canadian national, as you know probably, we've been reporting on it, offering more than 30 billion in cash for kansas city southern or $325 a share kansas city southern had agreed

to be taken over by canadian pacific railway for $275 a share in cash and stock. the canadian national offer includes $200 per share in cash compared to $90 for the canadian pacific bid. >> wow okay game on. anyway, when we come back. earnings season rolls on travelers just reporting its earnings and it looks like the company beat expectations by a pretty big margin in terms of earnings per share we'll dig through and have more for you in just a moment procter & gamble set to report we'll bring you those numbers and a first on cnbc interview with the company's vice chairman "squawk box" will be right back.

earnings in focus. auto all reporting results the latest numbers and we'll be hearing from mike jackson. venmo, paypal and wework no stopping dogcoin. we'll talk to mike novogratz it is 4:20 the future of the industry and how investors can get high on profits as the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now.

good morning welcome to "squawk box" here i'm andrew ross sorkin take a look at u.s. equity futures. 20 points off the futures the company we have sales and guidance netflix reports its numbers after the closing bell netflix shares are up but 90% since disney launched the rival

disney+ streaming service. we'll see what those numbers look like. today apple will be holding a product event which new ipads and imac computers will be introduced they may unveil something called air tags. >> earnings are just out the numbers on this. >> 2.37.

>> low interest rates. partnerships catastrophic losses. record cat astrophic losses the numbers and they also announced. a 4% they're up .4 of a percent.

>> it's a pleasure to see you. >> it's the currents quarter 4% it's above >> we only provide fiscal year guidance it's up 7% year to date and both our top line and our bottom line

progress keep us right on track to deliver against our bottom line guidance which we've raised twice this fiscal year so far. >> admittedly a difficult environment. >> the cost or the price increases announced today.

>> are they proving you're able to do that >> we feel pretty good about the environment overall. a lot of volatility and a lot of operational challenge. you know, if you go back pre-covid, we had established strong momentum. we were growing at about 6% of the top line that momentum has strengthened during covid fiscal year to date 3/4 we've grown the top line 7% and quarterly earnings per share 3%. we feel we're very well positioned for a new normal. if you look at two countries, the united states and china which are two largest countries both from a sales and profit standpoint, arguably the u.s. is beginning a transition to a new normal and the quarter we just completed we grew 7% and china is probably furthest along in terms of a transition to a new

normal and there we grew sales in the quarter 22% albeit against a weak base. >> hey, john, you would be a great guy to talk about this because you know all about operating company, chief financial officer for a while. you bought back $3 billion of stock in the third quarter you're raising the amount that you're going to buy back.

>> the index funds. >> we've had this discussion >> the ceos. >> they issue stock. buy back stock and interest rates? depending on whether

acquisitions make sense, depending on valuations of your target, there are myriad reasons. >> we stay true to our objective. they turned $83 billion.

>> we are very front foot forward in terms of our investment and superiority of our products products packaged, go to market. that's what's been generating the growth that we've delivere over the last number of years. it's necessary to continue that growth we fund that investment which will be ongoing through a productivity mindset and culture we've built over the last decade that has generated significant financial flexibility to make those investments and still progress on both the top end and bottom line. i don't see any reason to change this is a time both for

shareholder's interest not to step back. >> thank you i think that makes a lot of sense, john. i wanted to ask you quickly about a story in the wall street journal about a week and a half ago. it said procter & gamble, you mentioned china as one of your biggest markets. procter & gamble was working with a china trade group to side step apple privacy groups. what can you tell us on that front? >> we have been, are, and will be committed to transparency with regard to the use of consumer's data, to opt in, to turn on and turn off the landscape is changing pretty significantly across the text base, rightly so, and we're working with advertising associations around the world, including in china, and with tech companies around the world, including in china, to ensure that we can together move to a

standardized better place in terms of protecting the privacy of consumers' data while offering them information that they find valuable >> we're going to let you go we'll let you go, john i'm just wondering whether watching the -- some actual runs being scored by the reds, i mean, do you -- do people in cincinnati, are they fainting in the streets that there's actually some offense on the team this year do you know what i'm saying? can you believe it my fingers are crossed. i think they're suddenly not going to score a run for the next three weeks it's been going pretty well. >> it's great. absolutely >> yeah? >> that was the grand total. >> it's gotten me through the last two weeks of the pandemic. >> good luck.

>>. >> kansas city >> we'll be right back check that out kansas city up by 20% this kansas city up by 20% this morning. so what do you love about your always pan?

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>> the transportation safety board are now investigating tesla following a failure we have seen involving the 2019 model s last weekend >> police at the scene said

there was nobody behind the steering wheel nobody in the driver's seat which raises the question, who was driving this vehicle at the time of the crash. yesterday after much speculation in the media that perhaps the auto pilot was engaged and may have malfunctioned, elon musk tweeted out the following saying data loss recovered so far show auto pilot it would not have had the latest require lane lines to turn on which this street did not have nonetheless, investigators have a number of other questions regarding this crash they want to see those data logs they plan to serve a search warrant to tesla today in order to receive those data logs so they can get perhaps a little better understanding of what happened before this accident where the model s. veered off the road, hit a tree and then burst into flames as the battery

pack was punctured by the way, that was a fiery crash that it took the fire teams a long time to put out this fire, with i is not a surprising situation given the fact that lithium ion battery packs can burn so hot. keep in mind that knits nhtsa he more probes. have you seen anything dramatic. >> it wasn't the software. it wasn't auto pilots fault. it was the fault of incorrectly operating the vehicle. >> making it hard to argue

>> that's not a strange thing to say. >> with the vehicle with tesla on auto pilot. >> i guess the question becomes. they try and crack down on it. people aren't using it properly. >> well, that's what bob summault, he tells the ntsb, the plan over the last week saying ultimately nhtsa regulates

automakers >> nhtsa needs to do more to make sure tesla does not allow public drivers to test out software for auto pilot. we have reached out, by the way, to bob summault, we'd love to hear your concerns about auto pilot, how it's being developed. so far at the ntsb >> thank you we look forward to hearing more as the story continues >> thanks. many places don't have them. sticky green stuff maybe dogcohn. we'll tell you at the break. >> "squawk box" returns after this

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mary jane?

is that -- >> it's an official holiday. snickers jumping off the weed wagon. >> that's pretty good. what was your candy of choice for those moments, andrew? >> what kind of moments are you referring to

>> you know i like carbs chips would have been it over candy. >> meantime, marijuana legalization trying to figure out the difference between canadian and u.s. pot stocks. frank holland joins us with more on that. frank. >> hey, good morning, andrew very interesting introduction to this story u.s. legal cannabis sales forecast to top $24 billion. making pot one of the u.s. industries and multi--state operators. recreational cannabis. the only way to invest in those trends the ceo of cresco labs believes

they're heading for a super cycle. >> you're seeing an incredible growth opportunity that's not just transition, that's trying cannabis for the first time. what you're going to see here in the coming 12 to 24 months is the convergence. >> so what are you getting when you invest in u.s. cannabis stocks the top u.s. cannabis stocks more than double the revenue of the top canadian stocks next quarter. also, much higher year over year growth the pandemic boosted recreational use 2/3 of the u.s. market is recreational marijuana also right now, cannabis flower, a.k.a. weed or pot is still the most popular way to use. the president and senate majority leader both voice support but covid is widely seen as the biggest catalyst for more state and federal legalization. >> this kind of tax revenue, this kind of job creation and this kind of organic economic

engine, we think it's too strong to say no to too many positive externalities. we think this is the great american growth story. this is what it's about. new industry, new job creation >> if federal legalization happens they are expected to have an advantagebecause they have dispensaries and growing licenses in place here in the united states. there are questions about valuation in such a new industry many analysts scienter price value to sales is the best way to assess the companies because there are still so many questions remaining about profitability and the eventual need for cap ex investment >> thank you, frank. would have welcomed your input in the beginning we had some fun there, frank that's an interesting story and -- >> good time. >> joe, you need a snickers. you're not you when you're hungry >> i like some of those. those are pretty clever. you know what, i'm usually okay

even though -- i don't know. mondays are bad. mondays. i could use a snickers on a monday morning >> don't indulge before work >> whoa. more to come on "squawk box. autonation ceo mike jackson. it's far out later, united airlines reporting the fifth consecutive quarterly loss y up tick in demand. more of an exclusive it's financial literacy month. the importance of financial excavation entrepreneur natalie mol molina nino. when this country set its sites on traveling to the moon,

the education system was shifted to focus on science and technology this country today is facing a wealth and an income gap unlike anything that we have seen in almost a century it's time that we shift the educational system to include the financial education that will get us to that moon shot.

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lockheed martin out with results, representing 16.2 billion. 16.26 per share. weapons manufacturer raising sarls were flat. we're flush with cash. last month's broad jericho individual relief package. they're more likely to hear

about it in general this earnings season on the proposed biden defense time line. it's clear the intention is to focus on the concept of deterrence lastly on proposed corporate tax changes, many moving parts including the r a&d and foreign derived intangible deduction warning that these changes could have an impact in lockheed's investment in the future and something to watch in the industry more broadly. later today i will note iwill be sitting down with jim taiclet for his first broadcast interview since taking the helm at lockheed last summer. in the meantime, let's get to dom chu who has other movers this morning. >> we're going to keep a focus on your market minute. we have three coming out this morning that are going to influence some of the trading so far today in this morning's pre-market session on the dow futures. you can see first of all up

about 1/4 and expected results there. johnson & johnson and p&g. the premarket having an impact what i want to keep an eye on is one that came out after the closing bell that's ibm we'll take a look at this one here ibm is up 3% in the pre-market trade. slightly maybe underperforming up about 14% however, the first time they've seen revenue growth in 11 quarters, powering a little bit of the optimism. keep an eye on those one other etf to keep an eye on is the ark innovation. ticker arkk. it was down 3% in regular trading yesterday. key holdings include tesla, square, twitter, some of the other big names here that etf fell about 30% from the record highs down from where it was a couple of months ago it's topped out right around 130

mark keep an eye on that level. we'll watch that ark tech innovation. >> a lot more coming up. autonation's ceo mike jackson will join us right back in just a moment you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/promo

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the country's largest auto retailer, autonation out with quarterly numbers. it's $1.87 autonation has done better than all of them, including tesla the chairman and ceo, you are backing it up with the numbers you're putting out tonight the area of the pandemic wanted to buy cars rather than be on public transportation and share rides. you had the ability to see prices up not only for new but used automobiles talk about what really fueled this past quarter sales.

>> becky, good morning it's a delight to see you. yes, this is our fourth all-time record in a row. first and foremost, i have to thank the employees of autonation imagine through this entire pandemic 95% of our employees put on their mask in the morning and came to work and took care of customers that's a phenomenal performance on their part and i'm forever grateful as you recall, a year ago i said i felt a seismic shift towards personal transportation, towards personal space in the home and i was asked is this temporary or momentary? i said, no, i think this is a scarring event that has created significant demand for personal transportation and you see that number's here now in our record first quarter. revenue is up 27% year over year gross profit is also up 27% and we took down costs with our

digital capabilities by 1,000 basis points going through 73% sg&a as a percent of growth to 63 resulting in a tripling of our eps this quarter over the prior year so incredible performance. >> just in terms of prices for used and new automobiles, there seems to be so much more demand out there than there is supply right now. what are you seeing? what's the very latest >> so there's no question that the headline, becky, is more demand than supply you combine that with that the manufacturer of new vehicle supply chain is very fragile, very disruptive and we thought we were well on our way to working our way through the pandemic and now we've been hit with this chip crisis which, again, is not going to get

solved in the near term. we're well into the rest of this year and into next year with the supply chain on new vehicles disrupted. what we've done at autonation considering that challenge is that we've significantly increased our purchases of p pre-owned vehicle and we've increased pre-owned volume by 28%. and we have this acquisition ability where we're taking vehicles not only on trades but buying them off lease from manufacturers and buying them directly from consumers that we source 90% of what we present at retail internally. so it's a core capability of autonation then on the new vehicle side we also adjusted our front end growth slightly from 4% to 6% considering the restraints on new vehicle supply and then of course our crawl spaces.

autonation has this combination we build a brand coast to coast with a great customer experience, tremendous customer satisfaction combined with a digital platform that we built that we went through an investment period in '14, '15, '16 that we all discussed. when the inflection point came on digital, it was just at the time that all of our tools, proprietary tools came online which gave us the oo l ability to perform. >> the semiconductor issues, if this continues like i think it will into next year, is there a point where it actually becomes a negative >> so let's try to put some things in perspective here if i look at the shipments that we're going to receive from the manufacturers in the second qua quarter, of course it's double what we went through a year ago

with the shutdown so we're in a very different place so on the margin there's this gap between demand, which is very high, and the manufacturer's ability to meet that demand. the headline is more demand and supply but it's entirely manageable we have a very resilient, adaptable business model that we've demonstrated time after time and in this case we're managing it by significantly increasing our pre-opened business that when the customers come in, we have attractive vehicles to offer them because this demand that we're talking about is across the entire price spectrum from $5,000 to $500,000 there is a significant demand for personal people want their good old american independence that they decide when they go where and how and who is with

them and i think this pandemic is a scarring event for america and the demand is there. >> mike, the news has come to you. you're right i'm with you i have to go back all the way to when i used to needle you about it mike gas tax jackson there should be a gas tax to do this infrastructure. we should. there should be a usage fee instead of raising corporate taxes. we should do a usage fee and make it so that it's not regressive but now is the time unless we mess up and guess which -- >> joe, you want to put those words in my mouth again. it is such a rational, logical conclusion and it hasn't been inflation adjusted in 40 years. >> i'm telling you you're right. >> yeah, you're telling me you're right i have given up on that journey. >> oh, no.

now it's time. >> there's just no -- yeah, i know, joe. i know no, it's not time, is it there is no rational discourse out there around gas tax, okay it's just -- it just makes too much sense >> all right i was trying to tell you you were right better than going to 28% thank you, mike jackson. >> all right wework and paypal the latest companies to embrace crypto. we'll talk to galaxy digital's mike novogratz d dogecoin, the dog, that's the symbol as we head to break. you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home.

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how big a deal do you think

the ven know piece is today? >> listen, it's a big deal it's another company in the long line of adoption, adoption, adoption so good for bitcoin, good for aethereum, good for the entire ecosystem. crypto is not an asset, it's an asset class. >> explain this to me. you're talking about bitcoin being that what does dogcoin say? i put money into dogecoin, i went to dinner, came back, it was up a couple hundred percent. what -- it seems crazy >> dogecoin speaks to a lot of the same movement that gamestop did, right there is a kind of crazy excitement around very young investors around meme coins and

meme eideas. it's shocking gamestop holds any value. dogecoin is even more bizarre in that respect >> but, mike, i don't mean to get too philosophical about it, but make the distinction, the differentiation in your mind between dogecoin and bitcoin i know they're different it's supposed to be a joke, all of that, but there is something about what this is doing to the larger market. no >> listen, all of this is happening because interest rates are zero, but you have to differentiate. like there is tens of billions of dollars of capex and op ex put into the ecosystem it's well thought out, well distributed store of value that's lasted for 12 years and is growing in adoption dogecoin literally has two guys that own 30% of the entire

supply i'm not saying there aren't people that are passionate about it, there obviously are. i've been wrong about doge i think you should take your money and kiss your girlfriend but it's that same energy. retail has the bit between its teeth in lots of ways. they're not giving up on gamestop they're not giving up on dogecoin right now dangerous to be short. >> what about bitcoin at this point? we're hovering in the mid 50s off of the highs after that coin-base ipo which brought a lot of more intention, a lot more interest. then you saw a real pull back over the weekend in part because of some tweets and some speculation about what the treasury department or the u.s. government might do. perhaps some other governments might do as well but it remains steady or at least it's remaining at this point. technically what do you see

happening right now? >> listen, i think we're going to consolidate for a while there was a lot of great news all got behind up at once. you have to remember, while bitcoin is becoming an institutional asset, it's still driven people got excited and it's leveraged. friday night we saw a couple of stories and we wiped out 1 million separate accounts of leveraged buyers of crypto got taken out, right they got shut down that took 8, $9 billion of market cap right out of the system of leverage in the long run, that's a good thing when you take leverage out. it was like 1 million little bill long's getting wiped out the same day people were leading way too long you wipe them out. the market will consolidate and it will go higher. bitcoin is an 80 vol asset it's supposed to expect 10 to 15% corrections.

>> if you are thinking about bitcoin do you buy this, quote, dip or do you think there's more dip to come? >> listen, i think bitcoin will consolidate somewhere, you know, in this zone, 50 to 65,000 until it takes out the build and starts going higher again. i'm still very bullish medium term and long term bitcoin same thing with ethereum. >> speaking about just how long you are, you have your own announcement today about an etf. tell us about it. >> yeah, listen, we are kicking off an etf with our partners the ci group it's the first ethereum etf. no fees until the middle of june it's a really important day because you're starting to get more and more access for people to be able to participate in the crypto system. this is the first ethereum etf

we're hoping it goes great. >> for the individual investor out there, maybe for the institutional investor out there, why buy the etf as opposed to buy ethereum directly >> it's the same thing with ac access some people set up a wallet, coinbase account the 50 to 80-year-olds they call their stock broker or fund manager. that's why the etfs work in the long run, probably everyone has a wallet and people get more sophisticated as young guys get old, but right now etfs are filling a really important niche, 50 to 80-year-old wealth saying this is the easy way to participate. >> you said fees are free until june what are the fees after that one of the things so interesting, a lot of the different etfs and other instruments that give you access have some pretty hefty fees on a

relative basis to mutual funds and classic etfs. >> the ethos of all of crypto is to take out the rent takers. that's why people got into crypto originally. i think what you're going to see with the etfs in canada and the u.s. is big fee compression. my guess is in the long run most of these fees are going to be minuscule people sometimes ask me, why are you in the business? we're in the business because our job is to promote the crypto ecosystem and you're not going to make money on every piece of business you do but as you pull more people in the ecosystem, the overall pie grows and it's great for businesses like ours. >> final question, we've got to run. right now if you could own ethereum and bitcoin, which one do you own >> i own both. >> if you trade in it. six-month trade. that's a very hard call. i'm probably marginally longer

ethereum. >> if you make that a five-year trade, ten-year trade, which has more value >> it's so hard to say they both have unbelievable tams bitcoin gets to $500,000 because it is gold ethereum has a lot more competitors and more water to cross to get to the other side of the river bitcoin is probably the safer beth but ethereum has probably just as big of an opportunity. >> okay. cheers good luck. thanks >> thanks, guys. >> becky another big hour of "squawk box" still ahead united airlines ceo scott kirby will join us in an exclusive interview. rob rtpoman gives us his take on the proposed infrastructure and tax plan ther can we. because the things we make, help make the world go round. they make it cleaner, healthier, and more connected.

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good morning opening bell on the dow. we have results from johnson & johnson and we'll have all of the highlights >> there are signs

>> i'm joe kernen. i did notice it. >> at some point we're there do you believe we're talking about 4 basis points things go off. you know what, we've got a big hour

>> no one calling us back. >> not the case today. >> please watch us, even though we really haven't done much of a booking job. we don't have a lot coming up. of course we have a big hour. >> we're never in that position, especially today >> yeah, exactly, we're never in that position. i swear. but today we have united airlines ceo scott kirby ohio senator rob portman we have to appreciate rob while we still have him. former acting comptroller of the currency, brian brooks interesting. weigh in on the crypto craze it seems to be getting crazier by the day okay that's pretty big. beck >> not only big bookings, we have big news to go along with that let's get you caught up on some stories that investors are going to be talking about today.

johnson & johnson, the dow component reporting a beat on the top and bottom line. they were helped by a rebound in the medical devices. strong pharmaceutical sales too. we spoke with johnson & johnson cfo joe wolk earlier in the show he weighed in on the uncertainty of the company's coronavirus vaccine after a small number of blood clots will reported in people to get the shot here's what he had to say. >> we are working with regulators to ensure that they have all the information they need to make their assessments you've probably seen the pause in south africa has been lifted. we expect very shortly from europe as well as the usfda perhaps as early as the end of this week to have some resolution with respect to how we're going to proceed we remain very confident we're hopeful that the benefit/risk profile will play out. >> we're also watching shares of procter & gamble which beat the street's estimates on both the top and bottom line for the latest quarter a among the positive factors,

you saw continued strength and demand for cleaning products the company's vice chairman joined us earlier in the show. >> if you look at two countries, the united states and china, which are our two largest countries, both from a sales and profit standpoint, arguably the u.s. is beginning a transition to a new normal and the quarter we completed we grew 7%. china is probably furthest along in terms of a transition to a new normal there we grew sales in the quarter 22% albeit against a weak base if you look at it on a two-year basis it was about 12% growth. we see a pretty healthy environment. >> procter & gamble also announced this morning that it would increase prices by mid to high single digit prices for some stocks in september that stock is indicated down by 61 cents this morning. travelers was the third dow component to report this morning. that stock is indicated higher then there's paypal's venmo app

saying they can buy, hold, sell cryptocurrency that rollout begins today and will be available to all customers in the next few weeks. customers they say can choose from bitcoin, ethereum, light coin and it's up by half a percentage point. things are improving and ceo scott kirby says he sees a clear path back to profitability phil lebeau joins us with a very special guest who i might have just quoted. phil >> reporter: you did you did, andrew. let's bring in scott kirby, the ceo of united airlines joining us from the united club at dfw scott, we talked about the fact it was another quarterly loss. $1.4 billion everybody knows what happened in the first quarter and last year. you've talked about the path to profitability. when do you expect you will achieve profitability?

will it happen later this year or potentially further out >> well, yeah, it was really nice during this quarter to really hit an inflection point on demand in march as vaccinations are going up across the country and people are feeling more confident and start to see that return to travel business demand and long haul have not returned yet. the big question is when did those two things come back we're not certain of when that is what we know is as long as those two are down about 35%, amazingly we can get back to profitability. all of the structural changes we've made at united means we can get back to net income zero with business and long haul international down as much as 35%. so we hope that happens later this year but we know that virus isn't over yet we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. we're not through it yet we're not certain on the timing. when we get down 35 we expect to be basically a break even again. >> just for a point of clarification, where are they at

right now? are they down 80 to 90%? it fluctuates on the market. where are international and corporate travel right now >> those two are each down about 80%, but we've started to see as you start to open up countries, yed yesterday we announced travel to greece, iceland and croatia. we took over 3200 bookings yesterday. one step in our -- each step to open up the world, there is huge demand so those two are down about 80% right now but we expect them to both start recovering over the summer. >> scott, let's talk about leisure demand domestically. i'm thinking about florida, the southwest, arizona, maybe southern california. have they returned to pre-pandemic levels in terms of demand >> they have, actually actually, i think overall leisure demand is probably

domestically more than 100% right now. places flieklike florida, i don know how people are finding hotels thank goodness for airbnb. we have so many people flying to those areas. demand is over 100% in those locations. still down in the business market but in those places we're indexing at over 100% now. >> you still have your capacity. it will be down 45% in the second quarter i'm already starting to hear from people who are saying, hey, look, i'm planning a trip, whether it's for this fall, even for the holidays in november and december, and i'm seeing these air fooirs move higher should people be worried it's first

the first of the quarter air travel remains at united. it's depressed levels. getting completely vaccinated again. >> post the end of the grounding in november of last year

and repair them, what's the status what's the status of those planes >> we have a pretty. yesterday working on this. >> i expect by the end of the month we'll have that issue likely addressed and the planes back in service. >> i hear from people the planes are crowded. when they're looking for flights as well. you announced the pilot a kads my you are facing an interesting situation here where you have a number of pilots who took early retirement you have the continued problem of pilots aging out, forced

retirement age are you worried that we might be seeing a pilot shortage let's say two or three years from now where it really starts to con strain your growth >> well, even take one step back further from that. the military is producing fewer pilots than they did historically that used to be the biggest pipeline for us. at united we became the first and so far only u.s. air line to create our own aviating academy to train about 500 pilots a year this is a real opportunity to take an action on diversity. today there's a huge economic barrier to become a pilot. people with all the ability, instincts, all the raw talent to become a pilot simply can't afford to go do the certification and training what we're doing at the af have i eight academy is giving them scholarships and giving them the chance they have to pass all of the

same rigorous safety certification and training standards that we have for all united airlines pilots, but if they pass that they have and also taking real action. >> waiting for the near term >> scott kirby >> we can keep in mind the airline earnings season.

>> coming up >> rob portman, when does an agreement look like brian brooks just got word he'll become a ceo of the u.s. arm. binance u.s. stay tuned, you're watching "squk x"n bcawbo ocn this is how you become the best!

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interview with the ceo of phillip morris today on closing bell that will be the first interview "closing bell" will have with citi ceo jane fraser since she took over the top spot at the bank in february andrew. >> thanks. meantime, we have a big bidding battle underway this morning for rail operator kansas city southern. canadian national is offering $30 billion in cash and stock, kansas city southern it's $325 per share. kansas city southern had already agreed to be taken over by canadian pacific railway canadian national offer includes $200 per share in cash compared to $90 for the canadian pacific bid. don't get confused with all of this you don't want to miss an interview with the c of canadian

national. still to come this morning, we're going to talk about the down side of soaring housing prices higher property taxes for homeowners we'll tell you which states are getting hit the hardest. rob portman, how would he pay for a u.s. infrastructure bill president biden is willing to compromise we'll see what rob portman is hearing. stay tuned, you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc just over a year ago, i was drowning in credit card debt. sofi helped me pay off twenty-three thousand dollars of credit card debt. they helped me consolidate all of that into one low monthly payment. they make you feel like it's an honor

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housing prices are going up. >> all on the program. adam data program. >> it's really driven by rising property values.

leading the way. 2.2% followed by texas, vermont and connecticut. the county with the highest average is rock dland county at $14 million. hawaii is .37% the average homeowner paying less than $3,000 a year. property tax attorneys saying they are seeing a record number of appeals and challenges to assessments this year. but with school and town budgets so strained by covid they're not likely to get any relief, joe. we talk about the tax burden talking about the corporate tax

rate, individual tax rate. property taxes are such a big part of what the families and homeowners pay and this is going up this burden as a whole is increasing for a lot of americans. >> makes perfect sense so the costs like five times as much to live in new jersey as hawaii that's very logical. >> yeah, but hawaii -- hawaii has the second highest income tax rate s, so you could get a second home but if you want to live there, it's high. >> it's a privilege to live in new jersey, becky. a lot of people make fun of it, andrew, driving and the factories and the smell and things like that because it smells because you ship all of your trash over to us from manhattan. thank you for that but -- >> you know what, it's fine. new jersey's crowded enough. we don't need anybody else here. let them see the sopranos open and think that is it >> garden state.

garden state there's gardens. >> tomatoes. >> that's what you're going with to represent the state >> the what? >> no, no, no, i'm fine with you all thinking that's all this place is because we don't want anybody else you guys can stay away >> yeah. thanks >> right right. >> there's some nice beaches there are. very nice beaches. >> it's the garden state >> a lot of other nice places. let's pivot right now from property taxes, lakes, from property taxes to corporate taxes. that's something president biden wants to help pay for his more than $2 trillion infrastructure plan biden met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to talk about paying for the proposal. he said he's open to compromise. republicans hope that means hiking corporate taxes less or not at all joining us right now is ohio senator rob portman. senator, great to see you this morning. i want to start with -- >> thanks, becky. >> -- a report out last week

suggesting that the ten republican senators who were moderates and looking for bipartisan solutions have grown frustrated they listed you as one of those people they have grown frustrated because they don't think the biden people want bipartisanship at this point. do you think that or do you think there is room for compromise here? >> we'll see the rhetoric of the campaign and the inaugural address is we want to bring people together president biden has said that. the action hasn't matched it with regard to the covid-19 bill as you know, democrats chose to use reconciliation meaning they didn't need republican votes they didn't get any. they've put it through in a way that was not focused on covid-19 or doing it again with infrastructure because the proposal, $2.7 trillion only has about 20% if you use a generous definition 25% for roads and bridges. it seems like they're heading down the same track. on the other hand, they are

starting to say they'd like to work with us we'd love to you work with real infrastructure, that makes sense if you are doing an infrastructure package until you come up with ways to pay for it which isn't going to hurt american workers which is what their tax hikes will do. >> what's your idea in terms of how to pay for it? >> well, becky, first of all, if you start off with something like 20% of the package, which is, what, again, generously speaking what would be infrastructure, it would include water infrastructure, broadband expansion, it would include things that haven't traditionally been infrastructure but could be considered infrastructure. that's a good start. second, obviously there is a user fee out there, which is the gas tax and other excise taxes which could pay for half of it the rest of it, there are great ideas. one would be to actually use some of the money that was in covid-19, much of which as you know has not gone out the door yet. the majority has not been spent. our state of ohio, other states and municipalities, counties and

so on are looking for ways to spend this money as you know, $350 billion, and a lot would like to spend it on infras infrastructure a lot would like to spend it in this way the local match which is 20% 80% federal funding, 20% local have that match go up some that would provide funding to help with the new infrastructure there are states and localities and they would like to have the flexibility to use this for crumbling infrastructure that's an interesting idea second is electric vehicles. why should they not pay anything for the use of the roads or bridges. being the owner of a hybrid truck, i should pay something in addition to what i'm paying for the gas. that's another idea. vehicle miles traveled is something people are talking about. a lot of the trucking companies are interested in that as long as the money goes towards real infrastructure, roads, bridges,

so on. there are ways to put this together there are also, as you know, interest among some to invest in infrastructure, so called ppp or public/private partnerships. that's another way to do it. there are other ways to do it without hurting meshamerican competitiveness which is what the tax increase would do. >> senator elizabeth warren has i invitedcooperman to your senate finance committee how much do you think individual taxes and individual tax rates are going to get into this conversation and do you expect leon cooperman to accept the invitation >> i don't -- i don't know about leon, but i do know that it's very likely you're going to see additional proposals for tax increases. 24 is what president biden has pledged. he has said it will only be for

higher income individuals. our passthroughs which are 90% of the individuals, it's going to hurt those small businesses and it's going to hurt our economy. so far it's corporate taxes which makes us non-competitive after we finally got competitive after we finally put in place tax provisions that increased investment in the united states, $1.6 trillion of earnings came back from overseas before covid-19 and after the tax bill was passed we also had increases in r&d of 20% increase of research and development among the biggest companies. 20% improvement in infrastructure spending. companies themselves putting more money into capital assets this is all good stuff we also had the lowest property rate in our history, unemployment at 3.15%. things were going well and some of it was attributed to the tax relief and the tax reform. i hope we don't go down that path, andrew

i think it would be exactly the wrong thing to do as we try to recover from the pandemic. >> senator, separately i wanted to ask you about a different topic which is guns and mass shootings in america smith and wesson can't make them fast enough. they're literally flying off the shelves. the house, as you know, has put together a bill that i am told and from what i've seen you say, you believe is too broad clearly we don't want -- i think we were both in agreement, we don't want guns in the hands of the wrong folks. why do you think it would be too broad, for example, to extend the background check time from three days, for example, to 10 days >> well, i think there are ways to tighten background checks i think you'll see some bipartisan agreement on that coming together over the next even few weeks here. i'm having a meeting on that later today. i do think that there are big concerns with the house bill

because it does go too far in a number of respects, including the simple transfer of a gun from a family member it could be a gift as an example. you could be subject to penalties, including criminal penalties. i think there are some things that go too far. i think there is an interest in tightening background checks i think there is also some interest in some sort of a way to identify people who have mental health histories and obvious concerns, family members and others when you look at the shootings, that tends to be the issue. >> just to put a fine point on it, on the background check issue specifically, did you object to aisle longer background check period? my sense, i'll tell you my feeling, if you need a gun within the context of 3 days, there's a larger problem that probably should be dealt with within the context of law enforcement. >> well, that's an interesting

comment, andrew. i don't know that that's true. somebody might feel the need for protection because they live in a violent neighborhood, as an example. that person may feel the need to protect herself or himself or their family so i don't know, i haven't looked at that part of the bill in detail. what i have looked at is ways you could take the current background system and make it work better, including providing much better information, especially with regard to things like mental health where right now many of the states are not providing that data in a timely manner there's a way to do that there's also a way, as i said, again, to help identify people in advance again, with due process. you look at these shootings in many situations the background check wouldn't have helped but it would have helped if individuals had had the ability to go to law enforcement to say something's wrong here and then have some sort of a process to identify that person in advance. so, anyway, those are things i think that could happen and could actually make a difference

>> hey, senator portman, i hear you are working on a bill to try and define cryptocurrency for tax purposes try and keep it from being used for tax evasion, things like bitcoin. what's in that bill? when can we expect to see it >> we're still working on it i shouldn't have talked about it at a hearing because we don't have the final bill but it's to better define it, there is as we heard a few weeks ago, $1 trillion tax cap right now some of that tax cap is attributable to the cryptocurrency issue, not certainly all of it or even most of it, but that's one of the issues that, you know, republicans and democrats alike are interested in pursuing we hope to use it on a congressional recess we're pulling information in i think it's one of the issues we should use. the tax gap meaning taxes that aren't being collected if we can have more of that tax

coming in, we wouldn't have to be talking about these pay fors because we have more revenue coming in from people who do owe taxes. >> because you think bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are being used to evade taxes or because you think we're not up to snuff and tracking it and making sure we keep on top of it >> i think it's both, becky. i think it's primarily a lack of information reporting which has historically worked to increase compliance i think that's part of it. it's a reporting requirement, perhaps a new form we're looking at all of the issues trying to figure out the best way forward >> i know that you were one of the people who got the johnson & johnson vaccine early on we have since heard about some problems in a very small number of people who have been vaccinated, something like just 7 or 8 cases or just a small number of the 7 to 8 million people who have been vaccinated with the joirge shot

you've also been trying to get people back in your home state, in ohio, to take on the vaccine. what do you hear what do you hear about the j&j news and what do you hear from people in your home state when you try and convince them to get vaccinated >> yeah, take the shot i think it's incredibly important for my constituents and for their families and also for the broader community that people get vaccinated. we're making progress. over 50% in ohio the progress has slowed recently i think there's a need to do outreach and let people know the vaccines are safe and in ohio you can get the moderna and pfizer vaccine there are appointments that are open i'm encouraging people to move forward. i did join the trial early on because i wanted to encourage more people to get into the trials they needed more participants but also to show people that, you know, i believed it was worth doing this to keep my

family safe and to help keep our broader community safe you're right, it's less than 10 individuals and they tend to be women and it tends to happen right after the shot as i understand it and these were blood clots, but that's out of millions you said 6 to 7 million. i don't know the number globally, but it's millions of people i'm confident that the fda and others in the scientific community are doing the research and doing the background to be sure that every potential issue is addressed so that the j&j vaccine is safe as well. in the meantime, the moderna and pfizer vaccines are out there around the country let's get vaccinated and move on to a more normal life where we can get back to school, back to life, back to going out. my hope is people take advantage of it. >> hey, senator, real quick. given your comments about crypto and tax evasion on that front, i'm curious, are you supportive overall, i think some of your

republican peers have not been, of better funding the irs? i ask because i like you believe if we can collect money that the government is ultimately already due, there are some studies suggesting up to $600,000 a year effectively being evaded, if there was additional investment to collect the money, we may not be having the same kind of information to the degree i know in certain instances you object to >> yeah, no, i absolutely agree. i've been consistent on that since, i don't know, 15 years ago when i was involved in the irs reform efforts if you're a small business person in america, you want to have somebody competent who's going to show up at your doorstep if you're going to get audited and the person is over worked and not properly trained or qualified, it's a problem. so i think it's important to provide adequate resources, including to provide better taxpayer service, because when you call the irs or when you're

emailing with the irs trying to get information, it's very difficult. that leads to less collection. if somebody can't get through and can't get the answers, that person understandably is very frustrated let's provide more professionalism and make sure the tax system works i think it would help in terms of collections. >> hey, senator portman, thanks for your time today. really good to see you. >> thanks, guys. thanks, becky. thanks, andrew thanks, joe. coming up on the other side of this, can we preview two big stories? netflix and a secret from apple. stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc

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we're joined to talk about netflix's earnings we'll get to josh lip ton ahead of this afternoon's big apple event. josh >> andrew, as always, apple is tight-lipped about what's going to be unveiled tim cook's company could announce a new version of the ipad pro with the newest and fastest processor, a new type of screen to produce better images and updated cameras.

in january the app reported 8.5 billion in ipad revenue. a huge move. key question is what does growth look like in the quarters ahead as people return to the school and office perhaps apple could also add its new in-house processor, the m1 the mac has been on a tear idc saying mac shipments surge 112% maybe we'll also see those new versions of air pods remember apple commands about 31% of the wireless ear buds market according to counter point research the long rumored air tags which help them track keys, bags, wallets, so far this year apple stock is trading just above the flat line under performing the market as well as big tech peers like facebook, amazon, alphabet, microsoft. that is after apple surged higher in 2020 skyrocketing up

81%. let's send it over to julia boorstin, netflix earnings julia. >> thanks, josh. when netflix reports its subscriber numbers are always in focus. this quarter the numbers watch is 6 million that's the streamers' forecast for its user growth in the quarter. that number is down from the nearly 16 million subscribers it added in the year ago quarter. the company is expected to grow earnings 89% on a 24% increase in revenue and investors are also watching a couple other key things guidance for subscriber growth average revenue per user and commentary on plans to increase spending on content as well as the ability to continue to raise prices we also always listen for any commentary about streaming competition. morgan stanley's ben swinberg projecting earnings will increase in the second half of 2021 and continue through 2022 noting that threat nicks has

less than 10% of the global marketplace. moffitt nathan son with a neutral rating and $465 price on the stock cautions the greatest asset, which is also the achilles heel of many of its competitors is its international footprint which should drive incremental profit now 72% of analysts have a buy or overweight rating on the stock. netflix shares are about 31% in the past year. that does under perform the nasdaq which is up about 61% joe, back over to you. >> julia, thanks last half hour we told you senator elizabeth warren is inviting billionaire investor leon cooperman to testify at a senate hearing on taxes. scott wapner joins us. that was actually, scott, your ears were ripping. i was talking about senator warren earlier, i was talking to

the p&gcfo scott moller about stock buyback. it's balance sheet management. it's what they do. to say that they do it to juice the stock is so sort of uninformed if i were cooperman, i'm not -- i'm not going there because i know exactly what kind of -- what did he say? why don't you tell us? >> you're on the right track, joe. the way lee cooperman is thinking about the invitation. i just spoke with him. he's, incidentally, out on the water on a boat fishing when i spoke with him he says the following, this is a direct quote from lee. i acknowledged i received the letter i'm trying to determine whether she's being objective or whether she's trying to promote her own agenda i'm a bit suspicious given how she never responded to the letter before. he did go on to say friends and advisers of his, joe, to your

point are telling him he shouldn't do it because they feel he's going to try to embarrass them if he doesn't show up on the hill for this issue. the letter he's referring to is dated october 30th, 2019, if you recall where she had tweeted about lee cooper man he responded with, my guess is a 5 or 6 page letter that he sent directly to her which he claims she never responded to that's where he directly takes on her idea of the wealth tax where he uses terms like the vilification of the rich your soak the rich positions on taxes where he really specifically lays outputting a wealth tax into play you'll have to forgive me. i'm reading this on the fly as we do this he said in the original letter that he sent to her, i believe in a progressive infrastructure it's the message where senator warren was talking about a wealth tax and how the

government would be responsible distributing the money that would be raised through a wealth tax. lee cooperman lays out what he's been doing in a philanthropic nature as somebody who he lays out pretty clearly and he said on our air and your show as well, joe, that he's essentially a guy who came from very little who's self-made and has done his best to give back to society he's taken the giving pledge, warren buffet's giving pledge and all of that. lee cooper jercooperman's goingo consider it. he has nothing to hide i think he would like to do it he's a little bit weary about what the agenda of the senator is whether it's substantive and she's going to be objective or if she's going to look to embarrass him. >> you're right. i was on the right track when we talked about buy backs, it was like talking to -- i'm not going to go there. becky, have you got a comment?

>> i was actually on the phone -- yeah, i was on the phone with lee, too. i didn't real scott had called i called in the commercial break and was talking to him about the same thing you know, it really sounds like he's weighing it over, scott he says that inherently he's willing to do it he believes in kind of tolerance and talking about issues and having both sides come together. you're right, he's skeptical he said a lot of the people he talks to are advising him not to i guess we'll see what happens he is going to be on squawk box on april 30th. he'll talk a lot more about it, what he's considering, what he's going through with some of these things you can understand the skepticism based on what's happened with some of these things in the past, too, but you know lee, we know lee and it's an issue of him probably wanting to say what's on his mind and have an open dialogue. >> yeah. >> i think it's hard to say wha way he's going to go.

>> they've been going back at forth for the better part of two years, becky, on this very issue. lee cooperman has had his own battles with other democrats in the party. you recall there was that letter he wrote to president obama some years ago and then he's been embroiled in this back and forth with senator warren over the wealth tax now it's taken the latest turn with the invitation. we'll see what happens >> scott, thank you for that both of you guys talking to mr. cooperman this morning i want to bring jim cramer into this conversation. jim, if you were cooperman, would you go >> look, there's only one guy i think that's done really well in front of congress and gotten his way, and that's michael corleon. right? because they didn't go after him. >> by the way -- >> hey, you're a rich person hey, you know, what have you

done in your life that i -- that makes it so other people -- you have more money than the state of -- all the people who live in illinois i mean, what is he going to do give him the congressional medal of wealth. >> i'm going to take the other side of this. >> really? >> pe tang wli pe tangly. >> both senator warren and leon coop cooperman. i think it is only fair they talk to each other and yes, i imagine she will try to embarrass him and i imagine he will try to embarrass her. and that may very well be what it is but i think they should have that conversation they should have it out in public and people should actually be able to sea the distinctions in terms of different policies used they bring to bear. yes it may be theater to some degree but i believe some of these things can be telling. >> i sat down with her and

hon honestly had many, many great conversations. my problem is this is a very public forum i think she has a constituency that is ready to go after any hedged fund. i think what's the point other than to say you know what, i went in there. i suffered i did -- you know, i came out okay and now i can go back home. i don't know what is she going to do? you know what, i think it is absolutely terrific. jamie daiamond did well in congress but he still had to go to congress. i think that the risks are high and the rewards are unclear. and i love lee i've known him since 1983. i i love him >> i like your reference jim michael kor corleone

>> the brain disease research, one comment. we talked about migraine asks how important that isand i jus want to get that on the screen you are doing a very important thing and it is an important group tomorrow evening. >> thank you, i woke up this morning at 3:30 with a rager a raging migraine. i took my nerve tech in an hour and a half i felt that there was no longer an anvil on my head. and when i heard noise i didn't feel like i had to put ear plugs on so thank you very much as the big deal for me it is not a headache a migraine is not a headache high gron not make and that's what i'm trying to kplish in my work with brain

people.accomplish in my work wii people. just this morning it was announced he'll become ceo at binance. brian brooks joins us now. >> let me just say first of all i've never been led in with a michael corleone reference here is a real point binance u.s. and binance are

really entirely separate companies. and binance u.s. was set up specifically because the u.s. has their own regulatory regime around these assets and obviously there are tens of millions of american who is want access and we need better clarity in the country to let people invest in this new important technology one of the things i'm going to do at binance u.s. is to continue to shape that dialogue. >> we've had you on before we've talked about the volatility of some of the different assets you saw bitcoin over the weekend on the coinbase excitement ran up to almost 65,000. and then one tweet or one implied threat that could come from regulations here knocked it back 20% right off of a trillion dollar asset what do you make of that and what kind of future do you see in terms of regulations here and around the world you know, joe, on the price

thing, i guess what the numbers show is there were lots and lots of days in the last six months when google stock went down hundred, two hundred points and days bitcoin went up and down if you look at day to day returns it is significantly ned positive, better than the stock market and its traited between 50 and 70,000 for a pretty long time compared to two years ago when it might fall 50% in a week. i don't actually see the volatility as some people say. look we're trying to build a fundamental technology here. so these crypt assets, they are all about building networks. and the early days of the internet a lot of those stocks traded way up and way down but at the end of the day it is fundamentally technology meaning finance is going to be build on top of these networks i'm not worried about it in the short-term the real issue is regulation and getting to a place where the united states can protect people from the real risks of money

laundering and fraud and things like that, while not disadvantaging u.s. investors relative to people who live in asia and europe and other parts of the world. >> what do you want binance u.s. to be? maybe a minute left and we have to go but what are your plans? >> binance u.s. should be one of the most two most important trading platforms in the u.s and binance u.s. should do a better job adding value in a legal licenses way that is where this company can add value, giving people choice on price and on product. >> you saw the coinbase ipo -- not ipo but the direct listing and had a market cap almost hundred billion dollars at one point. do you foresee a similar future for binance u.s. and is that realistic? for the potential? >> look, i think the potential is enormous. the potential is google sized.

i think coinbase over time will go way up from where it is today and i think binance will be its main competitor. >> so binance u.s. will be its main competitor. if i ask you another question i'll have to cut you off and get complaints how rude we are people don't understand, tv. brian. but we have these things we got to hit we'll have you back. some late breaking news there that involved senator elizabeth warren so we always are going to talk about that thank you. we appreciate it quick check on the markets before we leave, down 137 points now on the dow the nasdaq down 38 or so it was a pretty big last hour, ladies and gentlemen >> yeah. >> as promised. >> look forward to talking to lee cooperman here on april 30th you said "squawk on the street" is coming up they get our best deals. you got your existing customers — tquestions?et our best deals..

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futures weak a second day. earnings fill in today with ibm, united, pnj, j&j ibm is going to open at a 14 month high several companies boosting guidance and several boosting prices >> a railroain