good morning credit suisse shares are plunging the bank now looking to tap investors for cash after archegos losses wiped out what would have been a strong first quarter. chipotle smashes estimate after online orders smash in-person. and at&t and american airlines we have inn terviews with ceos both companies it is thursday, april 22nd, 2021 "squawk box" starts right now. ♪ ♪ good morning welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm becky quick along with joe

kernen and andrew ross sorkin. we will check out the equity futures. yesterday, the dow futures indicated up by 5.5 points after the action where the blamarkets were higher. s&p is down 1.5 points nasdaq down 8.5. the markets were higher after days of decline. we are still looking at markets down this week gains after a down day on monday and tuesday. the u.s. treasury. yields 10-year has been under 1.6%. it is still there. 1.561% that is something we are keeping a close eye on however, in the "squawk stack" this morning watching several things. first up, look at avis it ended at a new high the best performer notable from csx and jetblue avis was up 4.7%

also, we have been looking at the yield on the 10-year below 1.6% it is worth watching areas where you are starting to see high prices questions about inflation are popping up corn closed at the highest level since june of 2013 right now, it is sitting at $615.75 per bushel soybeans at $1,504.25. and bitcoin is now at 54$54,261. we have an interview coming up with john stankey, the new ceo of at&t. we are looking forward to that >> i follow it on coinbase

there are other exchange people have different highs and lows it was weird i saw the big spike down $51,300. that's the same low from a couple of days ago that's the identical number. i don't know. >> technicals are kicking in >> i can't imagine >> off the charts with where that has gone over the course of the year >> a flush that's a big flush 54 down to 51,300. not three months ago three days ago over the weekend is that when the tweet went out talking about it >> are there a number of big holders who are buying at 54 it is possible that is all it is >> how is doge

i haven't looked at dogecoin >> dogecoin? >> 26. it's supposed to be at $1 by pot day, which, of course, makes sense. that ties into slim jims and snickers >> isn't dogecoin making a mockery of all of this >> you saw which companies it is worth more than. worth more than american airlines go figure. i think that is one of the comparisons. >> it was a great line i read a newsletter of a c comp competitor joe deserves credit. he said dogecoin is bitcoin without all of the virtue signaling. in terms of what it is supposed to really all mean

i thought it was a pretty great line >> i don't know. i don't know what to think you have elon with dogecoin. you have that going for you. >> no, but his point is that bitcoin is trying to take over the world and it will replace money and do this and do that and da, da, da, da, da and dogecoin is what it is >> the carbon footprint. that is it with bitcoin. >> it is a different virtue signaling. let's talk about the s.e.c. this morning they are now considering tough requirements disclosure requirements for investment firms trying to increase transparency for the bets that led to the gamestop scandal short bets and

the archegos scandal and a related story. shares of credit suisse are falling hard company reporting a net loss of $275 million over the first quarter. hurt significantly in the collapse of antarrchegos capita. aside from equarchegos capital >> on an adjusted basis. >> exited 97% of the trading positions related to archegos. expects to announce additional loss of $655 million in the second quarter they will issue new shares to counter as they sell more stock to try to bolster the capitol

position new requirements imposed by the b regulator. a number of investigations are going on this story is not over yet fallout continues. >> still having thoughts about the comment, andrew. here is where is -- about the virtue signaling if you are trying to promote yourself as an an anti-establishment, libertarian, anti-fiat money, no government is big enough to control you i'm moving into the future i could see that that is not what i think of as virtue signallers. virtue signallers are almost pro or opposite what i was saying. >> government. >> yes yes. pro big government pro efforts to control that's what i think of virtue signal for me is a huge

prejorative. >> effectively you are creating a rationale beyond the actual thing is and that's trying to suggest. >> things like calling somebody a karen. >> bitcoin is really that. he is saying it is cynical and tongue-in-cheek. >> joe has been out there for a long time and thinks bitcoin is a speculative game i think a lot of people -- by the way, you want to hear something fascinating that i also learned which is a better investment if you invested in dogecoin in 2013 orb bitcoin

>> dogecoin. >> that's the point. >> it has gone up 8,000% >> digital currency made as a joke is a better investment than the thing that everybody says is supposed to change the world what are we talking about? >> it came in at a fraction of a penny and a market cap of $51 billion. it's not comparable to bitcoin >> just profefering the argumen. >> you get an ai cloud whatever. >> you get thed diner in new jersey >> valuing all of the companies. the clubhouse, andrew. what is that valued at >> supposedly $4 billion

>> only 4? i haven't been on any of these changes. you have been on all these, sorkin station head and discord you know, i immediately thought of you it connects celebrities with their fans i can't imagine anyone that has you written all over it have you been on any of these things where you can be with viewers and stuff like that? >> all of my fans who want to be with me? right. >> right >> no -- >> patreon >> that is a different product >> station head. becky, have you been on any of these? >> patreon >> we had them on before that is a different product. >> that's for the arts >> okay. i didn't think there was any

social media left. i thought the next big thing -- we have to leave that behind there are still nuances and different takes on how to do that you have to be social. that's the big problem >> maybe >> let's talk shares of chipotle i have some experience here. you can't go to the chipotle near my house and go in and order. you have to order online basically. you have to. >> yeah. >> this shouldn't be a surprise that it passed in-house orders slightly higher after the company reported $5.36 a share. beat estimate. revenue in line. online orders more than doubled. 50.1%. raising menu prices to offset the higher cost of delivery. executives say that hasn't slowed orders. ceo brian niccol will be on the

exchange today at 1:15 p.m coming up, an update on earnings so far in the season we have seen. the market back near after three straight days of losses. a nice day yesterday near all-time highs. a percentage point away. the s&p. later, american airlines set to report. ceo doug parker will join us at 7:30 a.m. eastern. >> announcer: this cnbc program is sponsored by baird. visit bairddifference.com. what happens when we welcome change? we can make emergency medicine possible at 40,000 feet.

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the dow and s&p are less than 1% away from the record highs set last week. let's talk now with lisa ericson. and our markets reporter at wall street journal money and investing team good to see you as well. lisa, looking over your notes. i think it is a very pragmatic view of what is happening. might not be totally out of consensus, but pragmatic we have an idea of what reopening looks like and it gets us back, probably, to maybe 80%

of where we were the post-covid lookckdowns. the market is excited about that and reapplflecting that. maybe reflected it to a great extent already in where prices are and not overly expensive at this point stay in. that is the default trade. do you have a toe out the door, would you say? >> absolutely, joe i think you encompassed it really well. if you look at 12 to 18 months, equities should have a nice hand and the reason why is we're being able to pick up the economic activity and consumer and corporate behavior is normalize. to your point, we had nice run-up in prices already if you grab prices relative to earnings, you see a gap. we need to continue to see those earnings numbers continue to come in and justify some of the

uptick the market has experienced. >> you make some serious or similar comments it has to do with earnings we are not through the period. i don't know if we are halfway yet. still something to watch and something to base decisions on >> it is still early in the earnings season. a lot of investors i have been speaking to have been surprised by how resilient the market has been a number of stocks in the s&p 500 trading above their 200-day moving averages hit 95% last week that's the highest level in more than a decade. really highlights the rally broadened out a ton. to some invest ors, it is a sign the market is healthy. >> you also point out that there's craziness and froth and

there are under the surface. there are other signs of maybe trouble or fragility like what? >> take a look at dogecoin, right? it seems like the broader market and see the speculative assets and gaining thousands of percent on the year. there are things lurking under the surface there. >> that begs the question, lisa, when you look at -- you're the perfect person -- traditional investing. i like that is the name of what you try to focus on. can there be segmented markets can there be reasonable equity with dividends and they can hav separate from what we see from

spac or cryptocurrency is it froth one place and not seep in? >> absolutely, joe we have seen a few areas of the market there there has been a little bit of excess in terms of investor enthusiasm. what we see as a whole is healthy sentiment measures where investors are positive generally not at extreme we think that puts together a really nice environment where there is some momentum behind the majority of u.s. equity right now. it is not at a frothy level. >> i would think gthey both have the same fuel and that is jay powell and the fed it has to be supporting assets across the board if it were to reverse or rates were to move higher, i think you

might have trouble once again across the board >> look, people want to take risks out there. i think that is clear from this year no matter in the stock market or dogecoin people are willing to take risks. what is interesting to me is a divergence in the market spacs have cooled off. even with the activity earlier this year. people were piling in the lottery ticket stocks. those have cooled off a lot. youare seeing the run-up in dogecoin and other things we discussed. >> good. all right. we will wrap it up lisa erickson. gunjen thank you. you can comment. lisa is actually on the line for things good to have both perspectives

>> thank you >> thank you >> you're welcome. lisa, thank you. traditional. more traditional investing andrew, what do you favor? traditional? i think you like the new stuff, don't you? >> i think the new stuff's fun, but the fun may be speculation >> spac. >> i like it as a story. do i like it as an invesinvestmt i don't know i think i don't. >> you went nuts with the tags you know, i would put a tag on my keys. >> owe airtags we'll get you an airtag for the key. you are switching topics. >> you like the new stuff. >> that part is true >> i'm buying sony shares. they make this thing called a walkman. unbelievable amazing.

>> i used to have one of those tape in it remember cassette tape. coming up when we come back, the biden administration is setting new targets for greenhouse reduction and what it means for investing. and we are talking to ceos of american airlines and at&t after those companies report "squawk box" is coming back with all that and more. >> announcer: this cnbc program is sponsored by truist financial. bb & t and sun trust are now, it r truist better together. let me “break it down” for you... arrgggh! you're going down! down to the recycling center!

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we have breaking news from the white house. i want to get to diana olick with the news. >> reporter: andrew, president biden will announce an aggressive target for the u.s. 50% to 52% reduction from 2005 levels of greenhouse gas pollution by 2030. this is nearly twice the pledge from president obama in 2013 it will be announced on challenging the world on increasing and combating the crisis 40 world leaders will be in atte attendance the administration is framing it as a building back better. creating jobs across all industries investing in infrastructure and advancing environmental justice and making products in america in order to bolster supply

chains citing clean energy like ev batteries. the initiative will spread across agriculture and housing and transportation and construction that 50% to 52% range is in line or slightly over the 50% goal that a slew of ocorporations, ford, amazon and shell and pfizer and more than 400 signing a letter to the president. it is part of the path to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 we are expecting to see more details as the summit kicks off and input from global leadership back to you. >> we'll talk more about that today. we will see what the response is from the business community. diana, thank you i appreciate it. becky. thanks, andrew when we come back, the cdc meeting tomorrow to decide whether to lift the pause on j&j's vaccine. dr. scott gottlieb will join us next and as we head to the break.

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welcome back we have breaking news. at&t just reporting the quarterly results. the company came in with adjusted earning with 86 cents a share. better than 76 cents the street was projecting also freed up cash flow. $5.8 billion if you are looking for other numbers. stock is up 1% i will say the adjusted is down 4.7% because of the video i am ma impact it did lose 620,000 customers from 897,000

a lot of strong numbers. the post paid phone net additions. strongest first quarter in more than ten years they had 823 post paid additions and almost 3 million in the past 12 months. the margin is up a lot of talk of the competitive space who are all trying to get new customers. you wonder if it would hurt their margins. up 100 basis points year over year post paid was 0.76%. down ten basis points. running through the wireless and fiber. 235,000 at&t subscribers added to 502 million total hbo max. this is something that people are watching closely for hbo max in the idenunited states 2.7 million subscribers.

netflix, for the united states and canada, added 500,000. 2.7 million. netflix has a bigger base. i can't say they are launching internationally. that is something we are watching closely if you look at some of the numbers going through this the dividend payout is about 63%. they had $6.9 billion in cash in operations $4 million the divinterview at 8:00 a.m. eastern time with john stankey

>> a lot to talk about to john about. the stock compared to verizon which doesn't have the mix of assets it's been at 30 for a long time. a lot of debt. hard to pay that 6% dividend. hard to pay that as you are trying to move into 5g and build your network better. hbo max. i want to talk about hbo max hbo has positive feelings in terms of being the first most disruptive. "sopranos" and "game of thrones. hbo set the standard for things that were not on networks where you could curse words and whatever else happened to be in the shows. can they comeback? past performance doesn't guarantee future success

hbo had it for a long time does netflix have it now spending $17 billion how much will they spend i thought that number might be wrong. how many are they spending on content? how long >> that's the real spend that's the real spend on netflix. that is the issue. the issue is whether at&t will be willing to spend the money and if they should spend the money and if they can spend the money to try to compete at that level. when you need to spend that money to get there >> but they have competing needs for that money to be spent they are spending on that network. $523 billion another auction coming up in seven months a lot of places to compete the dividend at 6.9% now >> yeah.

the competition. theaters have to reopen. i know do you remember when ge bought nbc universal and all the creative types in hollywood said ge i think at&t is up against that a little bit, too. creative minds -- when randall stevenson was this charge. i said you're a mogul? you're going to move to hollywood and figure out content? it's not what at&t had been doing. those questions, too. >> people said the same with ge and comcast. >> right. >> here we are >> i think, john, here is everybody else he can see over everybody else he is like 6'12" that would be 7-feet he can look over the entire landscape. entertainment landscape. >> i'll i'm thinking hbo was the first to have curse words nand now "squawk box" has

it now >> don't look at me. >> don't look at me. andrew you're it. >> andrew's a young man. a young, buffed man. in very good shape >> i have shown off my feet. remember we had ben massage my feet on the air. that is as close as we will get to any of that >> i remember that that was so uncomfortable. >> naked skin massages we've already done it. >> already happened. we're pioneers. coming up, dr. scott gottlieb joins us with the latest on the vaccinations in america and the expectation from the j&j vaccine pause. don't miss the interview with doug parker and the demand

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welcome back. time for an update on vaccinations in america.

the cdc reports 5 1% of people ages 50 and older have at least been given one shot. the cdc will decide to lift the pause on the j&j tomorrow. joining us now is dr. scott gottlieb he also serves on the board of pfizer and illumina you and i were talking about how we really seem to be turning a conner at this point you have seen the high number of vaccinations that have come in and seeing the case count start to come down especially hospitalizations. what are you seeing in where do you think we're headed from here >> look. i think we're headed down. things are improving around the country. cases starting to decline. they will start to collapse later this month and certainly into may you will see a sharp downward trajectory most states, cases are coming down

a couple of states have not started to see the decline most of the states are seeing a decline. even michigan with a dense epi epid epidemic i really don't see anything coming on the horizon to alter that trajectory. even the variants we are seeing. some variants are gaining prevalence in the u.s. like p.1. the summer is locked in at this point and we will have good times ahead. sorry. >> i have been feeling fantastic about that especially since you and i went back and forth about it a couple of days ago. i got an email from a nurse in town who pointed out when you are looking at children. children's share of weekly cases is now topping 20% that's the first time that's happened during the pandemic she had several patients in the operating room, children, who

have had issues from clotting to heart disease and gastro the bright side is children are 20% because the adult cases are coming down significantly. what does this mean about it in terms of letting our guard down? that was her message and it definitely gave me concern as a mom. >> b.1.1.7 is more contagious across the board ands also in children it is affecting children more than the old strain. the percentage among younger people will rise i do think that as we get infection levels down among older americans, you will see rates among younger people decline. israel has not started to vaccinate their children 16 and under yet. you are seeing infection levels decline dramatically because they have been able to control the infection in the adults. the adults are reservoirs for

children and the opposite is true the children become vectors for the transmission into the community for adults once the adult population is under control and in israel, the infection rate will come down in kids. >> scott, we have a banner that says dr. scott gottlieb summer covid risk dropping. fall still in question i want to ask about the fall in question we will have the ceo of s.l. green on so many companies are trying to open this summer and get as many people back post labor day labor day is the target goal for so many with the expectation that the fall is not in question people making plans for conferences and travel plans and getting back to life what do you mean when you say fall is still in question? >> look, i think if we come off a summer where infection levels are low, which will be the case,

we will not get back in september and all of a sudden this will spike up it takes time to build we saw that last summer as well. we had pretty high infection around the country it wasn't until november you saw high levels of infection the risk is later fall and probably the winter. there is a risk that this does come back and it does spread we will have a less vulnerable population the death and disease from covid will hopefully be dmin tidiminid we have to take precautions. maybe late november or december if we come off a good summer i don't think september is in question that is not the variable we should think about we should think about the late winter coronavirus are winter pathogens. they circulate in december, january. this is going to transition from the pandemic strain to a seasonal strain. now the variable with that is the variants if we get a variant that is more

cont cont contagious, that could change the equation there are things that concern us the 167 in india is concerning we don't really understand it. there are uncertainties right now. right now, we should come back in the summer and have a relatively mild fall as well we should be able to be back at work and school in september the risk is to the winter. >> just to put a fine point on that if you are a business leader talking about your plans we talked about this before. what october and november and december look like in terms of meetings and in terms of traveling to conferences and all of the things that so many people to be honest with you are now planning on, should you put a question mark next to that on your calendar? >> i don't believe so. i believe we will be able to come back in the fall and get back to some semblance of normal activity i think the risk is more to the

winter i don't think we'll have holiday parties in the back room of the crowded restaurant if december that is a fact of life going forward for a number of years. we will be more cognizant of respiratory diseases if you want to bring people back to work or the office this summer, infection levels should be low across the country in the summertime there should be an opportunity to do that in the summer if we wanted to. i think that opportunity will be locked in as we get into the fall >> in other words, we're doing it wrong everybody back to work right now. scott, thank you it's good to see you >> thanks, a lot okay talk to you soon >> a lot more coming up in a moment new york city as we were just ment mentioning, ready and wanting to come back to welcome workers

back to the office that is the message from the next guest ceo of real estate company we'll have him when he joins us right after the break. 'rrit ckft ts.

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welcome back to "squawk" this morning 7 million new square feet in new ren be know vated offices in mid town the city is continuing to deal with questions when or if businesses will make a return to offices. joining us is mark oliver, he's the chairman of sl green realty. we're all trying to get new york to come back it feels like it's coming back, mark i think there's some real questions about what the workplace looks like and frankly, therefore, how much space they're going to need. it cuts both ways. people may need more space personally but then the question is are they actually coming to

the office >> you know, that's right, andrew first of all, thanks for having me on the show this morning. sending your crew down here to 1 vanderbilt, i think it sets the right tone for everybody to be right here in the building right now and, you know, the big question in everybody's mind is when are people coming back to the office i can tell you, it's happening people are back in the office. sl green has been in the office since -- 100% since june of last year and there's a number of tenants in the portfolio that are either back or have made hard plans with their employees for a return to office between june and september of this year. they expect people to be vaccinated, back to work, energized at full capacity and we see a new vibe amongst the 30 million square feet of tenants people are ready to come back and people are coming back. >> i don't know if you had an opportunity to hear the conversation we were having with dr. scott gottleib literally in

the segment just prior and he said, look, it looks like clear sailing through the summer and perhaps the fall but then he put a question mark to some degree on late fall and early winter. every time he says it it surprises me because i like to think that once the world gets vaccinated, you know, it's back to normal or some semblance of normal how are you thinking about that? are you thinking somehow winter is going to look very different? people are going to start changing their schedules starting to work more at home during those periods is that how this is going to go? >> look, i think that certain companies will experiment with a hybrid workplace plan, maybe one, two days a week work from home, but i think it's going to be very limited in practice. ithink as time goes on it's going to be less and less so this is new york city. businesses still want to succeed

and prosper. those that are together, working together as a team are going to prevail. those working at home are going to suffer brand and culture dilution so i think companies are going to do everything possible to have their teams together collaborating, creating relationships as conditions permit but right now conditions are very favorable. >> and are you imagining lots of retrofitting of the office space itself trying to create either more -- i mean, they're sort of at odds. one is you want more communal space at meetings because that's what people are going to come to the office for and at the same time if they are going to be there all day working individually, they want more space to separate themselves out, right >> look, i think you hit the nail on the head 1 vanderbilt where we are right

now, this is a new blueprint for the future of what office buildings need to be when employees and workers come back, they're going to expect healthy work environment, sustainable work environment and fully ameni tized space. this space has been staggering we have done nine new leases during the pandemic, all originated and closed during pan pandemic we signed one last night for 35,000 square feet welcoming a new tenant to the portfolio because we can offer what you can't get home at your kitchen or bedroom people know that they know it intuitively companies know that. the building owners are going to have to make, you know, big investment in their properties the payoff is there and workers

will return. >> marc, we've got to run. the price share you're renting at today -- on a square foot basis compared to where you were let's say january before the pandemic began in earnest in the united states? >> it's building by building our better buildings like 1 vanderbilt and some other very, very high end buildings right on the numbers. others 5 to 10% off those numbers. very typical in a downturn like this it's been 30 plus years in the business i've seen this cycle over and over a sharp downturn followed by big stimulus followed by big economic activity and ultimately a return to office and that's what you're going to see here. >> marc, it's great to see you we appreciate it and as a new yorker, i'm rooting for you and everybody, for all of us come back. >> thanks. look forward to having you guys down here in the building sometime soon. >> you bet

becky? when we come back, american airlines and at&t both reporting this morning and we have the ceos of both of those companies joining us this morning. first up is american airlines doug parker. he's going to be here in the next hour. then a special interview with at&t ceo john stanky catch both of those right here on cnbc. now anyone can own companies in the s&p 500, even if their shares cost more. at $5 a slice, you could own ten companies for $50 instead of paying thousands. all commission free online. schwab stock slices: an easy way to start investing or to give the gift of stock ownership. schwab. own your tomorrow. - grammarly business helps my company build higher performing sales teams. since simon's team started using grammarly business to sharpen their writing, we've closed more deals.

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american airlines set to report

a breakdown of what the company is saying about the reopening of america and an exclusive interview with ceo doug parker paying for the president's infrastructure plan. senator pat toomey talks taxes and the economic recovery. and the sec is reportedly considering tougher disclosure requirements for investment firms. we'll speak to former nyse group president tom farley about what it could mean for wall street. the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now. good morning welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc i'm andrew ross sorkin along with becky quick and joe kernen. u.s. equities with a number of companies reporting earnings that may push this around. the dow looks like it would open down 28 points

the s&p 500 off 6 points the nasdaq lower as well off by 24 points. we've got some news to bring you this hour. perhaps the big story, the sec reportedly considering tougher disclosure requirements for investment firms bloomberg, the regulators this morning how do you increase transparency with derivative bets ways to shed light on short bets those are linked to a run up to the gamestop shares this year. you could see hedge funds be forced to disclose those short bets in a new way. it could change the marketplace. i know there's a lot of hedge fund managers focused on what this all means and what's going to happen. we're going to be speaking to far peak ceo tom farley in just a moment. meantime, at&t reported an adjusted 86 cents a share beat expectations revenue better than expected

at&t sees the 2021 dividend payout ratio in the high 50s percentage range that stock moving higher this morning. we've got an exclusive interview in the 8:00 hour with ceo john stankey. it's a conversation you don't want to miss becky. >> thanks, andrew. also, american airlines releasing quarterly results this morning. phil lebeau has those numbers. phil. >> reporter: becky, good morning. this is roughly in line for both top and bottom line for american airlines in the first quarter. the estimate was for a loss of $4.31 per share. it lost $4.32 per share. one penny worse. revenue coming in a smidge light of expectations at $4.01 billion. in the first quarter the daily cash burn was $18 million excluding debt and severance payments more importantly, if you exclude debt and severance payments the

daily cash burn swung positive by the end of march. revenue down 53% guidance for the second quarter will get a lot of attention here revenue down 40% capacity down 20 to 25% but cost per available seat mile, we've been talking about this with jet fuel costs continuing to increase along with other costs, up 13 to 17% that's the expectation for the second quarter we'll talk about these numbers as well as the outlook for the second quarter and the next year coming up in about 25 minutes with ceo doug parker you do not want to miss this barrier view the guidance is important. more important,the booking trends and not only now but if you look out into the summertime we'll talk with doug about that. joe, back to you >> we won't miss it. we'll be here. we're part of that so you don't need to tell us. we're going to be here, i promise you, all three of us, with bells on. no, i know what you mean

you're talking to everybody else everybody's got to be here, 7:30 they will. they'll be here. in washington today president biden is pledging to reduce u.s. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030 hosting u.s. world leaders for a four-day virtual summit. joining us senator pat toomey. the lead republican on the senate banking committee we'll get to that in a second. it's earth day earth day, too, senator, but let's start with an infrastructure proposal that you're part of i don't want to be cynical i like what goes on in washington everybody puts together a lot of proposals. i don't know what the chances are that this is taken seriously by the biden administration and democrats. any chance that your proposal would result in some type of -- it's a counter infrastructure proposal some type of compromise. are you optimistic that that could happen how big is it?

>> so we'll be unveiling this later today, joe i think the important distinction and the reason i think there is some chance of this prompting the negotiations that would lead to compromise, the reason is that ours is actually infrastructure and the american people actually do support increasing our already substantial investment and what they understand to be infrastructure to me, that is the things that we use in common to move people and products and things and services in our economy so it's roads, bridges, airports, ports, waterways, and it's a serious proposal it will be certainly several hundred billion over a period of time we can payfor this without debilitating tax increases such as those that president biden is proposing and the american people support actual infrastructure so, look, i don't know how it's

all going to turn out, but i think this idea, this set of principles will unite republicans and there isn't going to be much in it that the democrats will oppose on the spending side. they may object how we choose to pay for it, but i'm hoping it launches a meaningful discussion. >> senator, we've seen the arguments about what constitutes infrastructure and it's been broadened to social infrastructure, child care, things like that but also a lot -- some people are criticizing the 2 trillion or whatever it is as basically the new green deal in a trojan horse. do you consider ev investments, green subsidies, do you consider that not infrastructure as well? climate change infrastructure? does that count or would you say that that shouldn't be part of the infrastructure deal either >> i think that should be a separate conversation. i think that is not what we

understand infrastructure to be. we've invested heavily in the highway system of the federal government when they didn't pay for gas systems. we didn't pay for the automobiles on the roads we can have a discussion about what we ought to do to further reduce the co2 emissions which, as you know, have come down very dramatically because of natural gas, actually. we can have that conversation, but there are costs to that. the biden administration, i wish they would acknowledge, truthfully, that switching to a more expensive source for energy actually is -- has a cost. >> yeah. and it's -- i don't know it's going to take some time, senator. you are going to send a letter, i think, or you already did to john kerry >> i did, yes. >> and he's urging banks to stop lending to energy related i guess fossil fuel firms? what will that do near term to

prices and when do we switch over what's our ev count now in terms of percentage? >> these are important questions and this is exactly why john kerry shouldn't be brow beating banks into allocating credit in this country to only politically preferred industries it's a very bad idea we still use fossil fuels for 80% of our industry and that's not going to change overnight. the idea the administration is going around without any statutory authority to do this and apparently twisting arms at banks, which is very reminiscent of operation choke point during the obama administration, but this is no way to enact major changes in policy to intimidate banks into not providing credit to disfavored industries so, yes, it's not just me, it was all of my republican colleagues on the banking committee signed this letter to john kerry i hope the president doesn't go down this road either with

executive orders that would have a similar effect we need to have a debate in this country about how much of a cost we want to bear to further reduce co2 emissions and we ought to be asking how much will it reduce the emissions. how constructive and important is that? what are the costs and what are the benefits we shouldn't be brow beating banks into not lending to certain companies. >> there are different calculations on cuts and what it would mean to, you know, temperature increases that are forecast you know, by definition those are tough to do anyway, 10, 20, 30 years in advance but you throw china and india in and what's possible and what isn't, and the actual -- what you would actually achieve in terms of minimizing temperature changes is almost demini miss. nobody's looked at that. >> that has to be part of the conversation. >> this is not going to happen,

but they're going to come back to you just, for instance, and say let's do 800 but we're going to raise corporate taxes to 25 would you sayok, not 28? >> no. no. >> would you sign that bill? >> no. >> 800, 600 or whatever and they say but we're going to pay for it with 25 -- you won't give them that? >> joe, look, can i -- i think the important thing to remember here is just a little over one year ago we literally had the best economy of my lifetime. strong economic growth. >> and you're old. >> and i'm old as you pointed out. >> yes >> so we had -- and the people who are benefitting the most were lower income workers where wages were growing at the fastest rate we were shrinking the income gallon of rich and poor, white and black. we had strong growth and then the pandemic hit, but, you know, things were very, very good. i think it's okay to get back to that place where you have record

low unemployment and tremendous prospects. i don't think it's a coincidence that we had that economy right after the tax reform and regulatory relief that we put in place so why would we undo the things that gave us the best economy of my life. >> to build back better it's going to be tough to get below 3% and all the other numbers hopefully we do, because that would be better, but that's a pretty big goal, to better than that. >> better than when there were more people looking for jobs. >> low income. >> that would be pretty good. >> everybody has their own narrative. i don't believe anything about anything. >> those are facts about what happened you can argue about -- >> no, no, no, there are real truths there's truths on the left and truths on the right -- >> no, no, i think we know the truth. >> thank you, senator. >> thanks for having me. >> okay. andrew. coming up when we return,

tom farley, far peak founder and ceo. nyc group president joining us to talk about the specific cooldown retail investor earnings and so much more. also bringing us his new beard before we head to a break, we're going to get a quick check on the markets. squawk returns right after this. - in business, customer support is mission critical. with grammarly business, you can turn your frontline reps into bottom line superheros. take carl, for example.

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blackstone just reporting. the investment firm beating expectations on the top and bottom lines blackstone's coo jon gray is joining us in the next hour. it's up 1 1/3%. in the meantime, the spac market may be cooling off after 100 spac listings in march only 10 have debuted in april. joining us with more on the cracks in the spac market and much more is tom farley. he's the ceo of far point. the former president of the new york stock exchange. great to see you thanks for being here. >> good morning, becky good morning joe and andrew. >> so you know well about spacs. you saw the early rise of these things what do you think of this cooling off period >> i think it's more than a cooling off period i think the party is going to be winding down for more people when i joined the spac community we were having a nice neighborhood barbecue, more and

more people came the regulator was okay and then ultimately the party got a little out of control and people showed up with big speakers and def metal music and pyrotechnics there are two things going on, the sec is steng in to -- stepping in to slow things down. what you'll see is a reformed market i think today is a bit more the new normal than february where you had this orgie of new listings, credible people, not credible people. i think it's quite a big change. i'm disappointed last time i was on i got in a bit of an argument with andrew i'd like to see the market take care of this the market is taking care of it. it started in mid february investors are no longer funding knucklehead spac ideas the sec has come out in april, a

little bit behind, but come out with a couple of letters that have spooked the community it's on its way to a healthy and rational outcome but the sec put that into turbo charge. >> if it's 2 a.m. and it's closing time and the cops are showing up and booting people from this, are there backyard barbecues for spacs or do they have a bad name now? >> no, they're an interesting way for a company to get public just like ipo or direct listing. repeat spac issuers, grownups, people who aren't -- quite literally, one spac out there is marketing off a 2027 profit nu number i think the people doing rational things, projections, here's a set of scenarios, if we're investing in a startup, these are scenarios.

people will continue to get funded but that's the small neighborhood barbecue party to carry the metaphor too far it's not what we saw at the end of last year, beginning of this year that's not coming back. >> let's talk more about sec cracking down. we're hearing the sec is discovering more disclosure. i guess the point is about time. look, arcegos, that's a separate issue. apparently they never filed any 13d, 13f filings it's probably not a bad thing to have more disclosure going on at least for the regulators to see where there are potential bubbles and market risks that are building. >> yeah, i'm pulling together three stories. they're all related. more transparency for spacs is fine more transparency for firms like archegos is a good thing

something i fought for at the new york stock exchange and ultimately threw up my hands the words prime brokerage don't make sense but at its core it means it's a lending business. in many cases a very risky lending business if you're not competing on something meaningful outside of how much risk will you extend, it's not that interesting a business that's why investors don't really like that business. they'd rather a dollar of private wealth revenue over a dollar of prime mortgage it's fine and healthy and a good thing. >> fortunately we have you with us for the rest of the show. we'll be back with you in a little bit. >> talk soon thanks, becky. >> joe >> hard to believe he could look even better, you know what i mean coming up, does apple have a

problem with a new product lineup jon fort breaks down a company with a product strategy right after the break. stock down slightly since tuesday's launch of the ipad pro and imac "squawk box" will be right back. time now for today's aflac trivia question. what year was ejdo coin launched the answer when cnbc's "squawk box" continues , right in the wa! aflac! aflac would have paid jill cash directly to help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. hold on, i think she's trying to give us a side-eye... because she can't turn her head! (laugh) get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. get to know us at aflac.com

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now the answer to today's aflac trivia question. what year was dogecoin launched? the answer, 2013 in its first 30 days there were over 30 million visitors to dogecoin.com welcome back to "squawk. apple this week unveiling a new lineup of devices including a new ipad pro and new imac. both use the same apple design chip as apple's computing strategy gotten too confusing. jon fort is here i've got my own views. what do you think, jon

>> andrew, i've got a bone to pick with tim cook microsoft was trying to blur the lines between a tablet and a laptop nine years later apple's bringing you the toewsidgerator. they have an m1 chip that can run ipad apps. now they unveil an ipad pro with the same mac chip with pc level graphics and is a graphic artist dream. a few years back what you doing on your computer what's a computer? i thought i was in on the joke now i think apple was asking because the ipad pro is a mediocre laptop with amazing power and touch capabilities and the imac is the opposite tim, help.

>> okay, my man. i've got to tell you i'm on the other side of this but i think you might be, too. apple has a problem you think with the product lineup at this point? >> andrew, on the other hand, who cares whether it's a tablet or a computer. the bottom line is tim cook is winning even though he was wrong. he was wrong about the ipad being the future of the computer he was wrong about the refrigerator/toaster thing they released m1 macs that is freaking out the competition how important is it to you that you get to touch the screen?

>> so which is the better computer >> imac. >> not the ipad? >> right come on, i mean, these m1 macs, they're really going to put the industry through contortions that's going to be exciting to watch intel, nvidia and the others gear up it's a great time to be alive. >> i'm just weighing in for half a second here because i think the m1 chip is amazing it's amazing in an ipad pro with the keyboard and i also think it's amazing in a mac book pro because the battery life is out of control and it's fastest. >> so you like apple is what you're saying? >> kind of sort of but i think the audience may know that don't forget to watch jon toda with the rest of the game on tech check starts at 11 a.m.

eastern time becky? >> i like it it's a tech smackdown. jon versus andrew. which one do we like when we come back, exclusive interview with american airlines ceo doug parker. and at&t ceo john stankey will join us to talk streaming, wireless and quarterly results let's get a quick check on the futures. right now the dow indicated down by 16 points update for the markets yesterday after two down days earlier in the week "squawk box" will be right back. this is how you become the best! [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito]

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welcome back to "squawk box. i'm dominic chu with your market minute one of the things has been an outperformance on certain parts of the market that haven't been talked about the s&p 500's best performing sector has been a real estate sector up almost 2% right now. health care sector also outperforming here energy sector underperformer and it has been that way for a few weeks. huge outperformer in energy starting to revert back to the mean on the health care front, one of the themes developing over the

course of the last several months and exacerbated in the last month or so has been the idea that the reopening trade could be focusing on certain kind of medical and health care companies. intuitive surgical, big openings up 11% over the past week showing real strength some traders point to it as the possible reopening trade on this front as people go back to performing some of the surgeries and medical procedures they've put off during the virus pandemic these people could perhaps benefit. hospital operators, medical device makers and robotic surgery companies. one of the big moves we're watching is in premarket helped along by a couple of analyst upgrades deutsche bank issuing a short term call on buying it upgrading to outperform. it could get the boost.

>> dom, i don't know if you've been watching. it is a special day. companies across the nation are celebrating take your child to workday or as we like to call it, take your child to the spare bedroom. i'm joined by my son kyle. good morning how are you. >> sleepy. >> little early here it is, but kyle's been learning all about the markets, too we've been doing that by playing monopoly the last couple of weeks. we've got some vicious battles kyle, just ask you one thing what have you learned from monopoly lately. >> i buy expensive properties and i don't have to do anything. >> just rake it in are you a fan of buying -- >> can he take me fishing? because i haven't gone to a good trout fishing spot for a long time and i know, i know he's been doing his fair share of trout fishing these days. >> dom is throwing you some

bones, kyle. he knows you've been fishing he'd like to know a good trout fishing spot do you have any ideas for him? >> no. >> why not why won't you share your secret spot >> because i don't want to >> greco is in the control room saying he agrees with that he knows where that secret spot is, dom. maybe i'll share it with you thanks for being here, kyle. >> yeah, joe >> i left for a second kyle, i need to talk to kyle >> he can't hear you hang on a second put him on >> can you hear? that casting move, that casting move is the opposite of your great golf swing if you cast, you'll end up like your father, everything goes, whew, right. so do not fish that much or if you do, realize when you're swinging you've got to turn it over you've got a great swing

i think you can move it right to left your father if he ever moves one right to left, he'd have to swing left-handed. there's no way watch the casting. watch the casting. i figure you could be a good golfer don't blow it on fishing >> he's got a decent zbofl swing. we're working on both of those thanks for coming. good to see you. >> no, i'm not that's why he's got a decent one. >> have a great day. see you later. thanks, guys checking the futures quickly let's see what's happening dow futures down 20 points s&p up by 5. nasdaq down by 27. "squawk box" will be right back. e fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. go to flexshares.com for a prospectus containing this information. read it carefully.

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cal: our confident forever plan is possible with a cfp® professional. a cfp® professional can help you build a complete financial plan. visit letsmakeaplan.org to find your cfp® professional. ♪♪ phil lebeau with a special guest. i told you, we're all here ready, waiting >> reporter: yes and so is doug parker. let's bring in the chairman and ceo of american airlines q1 results basically in line with expectations with the loss of $4.32 a share revenue coming in at over $4 billion. let's talk about what you saw in

the first quarter. that cash burn separate from the debt and severance payments. you turned positive in march do you 3w4believe that it contie to accelerate? >> first off, we're still going into it. we don't like losing that much revenues down 62% over two years ago. but as you know, the story of the quarter was acceleration at the tail end we got to where we were cash positive in the month of march that's happened since the pandemic revenues while they were down 62% for the full quarter, they were down more like 70% in january and closing at 50% in march. real acceleration throughout the quarter. that's continuing as we have this. >> summer capacity, are you expecting levels to be where they were pre-pandemic or across the entire country or is it more a case of still mainly some of those spots like florida, maybe the southwestern united states, places that people are

vacationing? >> it will be targeted we're not going to be back to where we were two years ago. we retired about 10% of our aircraft we certainly will be flying more to leisure markets because those are the people that are traveling the most today for certain. but that will change as business starts to come back and as international travel comes back. through the summer, we're going to be flying more to beaches and mountains and places where leisure travelers wanted to go. >> you've added within the last couple of weeks flights to certain destinations, even some international markets. let's start off with international. >> sure. >> where is that in terms of does it come back a little bit how much more does it come back i would guess by the end of this year compared to where it is right now? >> that's hard to tell there's obviously huge pent-up demand everybody i'm talking about is making sure we fly international. certainly business travelers are. for the most part, we're all precluded from doing it with

bilateral restrictions in place, quarantines. those are starting to come down. they haven't we aren't looking to rush that those will come down as countries get comfortable with people traveling back and forth. i'm not sure when that happens greece has dropped some of their restrictions, ireland, some other countries starting to drop restrictions we see bookings pick up immediately as that happens. it will be gradual we're not looking to rush it everyone needs to be safe. >> on the corporate side, is it primarily driven by the fact that you have to see these companies opening up the offices and saying, yeah, we want more people out on the road >> business travel, huge pent-up demand we're starting some business travel happy to see you here. happy to see people getting out again but what really needs to happen is people returning to work and people visiting so -- but, again, that feels like it's happening pretty quick

talk to bankers and others, they're realizing they're losing business if they don't have the people on the road so they're getting on the road. we'll get there. >> you had to borrow heavily in order to get through this pandemic all the airlines did. >> right. >> you probably more than any other airline because your debt is so strong -- big. it's close to $40 billion. the cynics look at that and say this is going to hamper their ability to grow even as traffic comes back how worried are you about that debt load? >> i'm not worried about how it impacts us strategically we'll service the debt in 2020 we reduced our debt by 8 to $10 billion now it's higher than we wanted it that's just natural. so that's going to happen organically but as we come through this, we are having $20

billion in cash in the second quarter. that's more than we've had as we get to sustainable cash flow, we'll use that to pre-pay debt sustainable cash flow, we'll use that to pre-pay debt. >> i think there's a question in the studio. >> doug, hey, tom farley thank you so much for being here with us. i have a question going back to the longer haul flights and some of the international travel, business travel. are you looking at the vaccination rates in countries i look at india and it's a trouble spot and it's in part because it's not having vaccinations are you looking country by country saying we can't do long haul flights until the country is fully vaccinated? in which case we're a year or two years out or are you more optimistic requiring vaccination cards or something of that nature or partially vaccinated >> yeah, thanks, tom

again, some of each. as i said, much of this is in the united states looking at that those levels other countries have restrictions but countries are now, such as greece, ireland, as long as you have proof of vaccination, you don't need to quarantine it will be country-by-country basis. based on the country's ability to interact. so what we know for certain is the vaccines work and as they take effect, more people will travel it will take time but it is coming and there's huge pent-up demand. >> hey, doug, andrew here. great to see you the question i would have, i don't know if you saw dr. scott gottleib earlier on the program today but we were talking about what could turn into what he thinks may be a seasonality question around covid. you know, he's talking about how he thinks the summer and into the fall looks great in the united states but he puts a question mark as to what late

fall and winter looks like when you start to strategize and look at your schedule and planning for late 2021, early 2022, is that a conversation that's happening internally that maybe things -- there could be setbacks and things and if that happens, that you'd skip back to scheduling or is there a different view internally? >> andrew, what we learned from last year, we have to be fle flexible there have been stops and starts what we need is to be ready for people as they start to fly. to the extent, you know, it slows down a little bit, we're prepared for that as well. we've gotten through the worst of this. everyone has gotten through the worst of this in a way that has us prepared and able to withstand whatever might come. >> doug, one last quick question we have, i think, 18 maxes that

are temporarily grounded as the electrical issue gets worked out. what's your thought of when they return to flying >> we need the faa to put out the service prep work. as they do that, we'll do it our understanding is the faa is going to do that in the next couple of weeks. >> you have a spectacular headquarters doug parker, thank you for letting us come down here. guys, this is our first chance to get into the new headquarters here we're here with doug parker on a day when they basically meet expectations in terms of what they saw in the first quarter. real focus now going forward in bookings for q2 and the rest of the year guys, back to you. >> phil, thank you and our thanks to doug as well. still to come this morning, we will get back to tom farley after the break to talk about the president's tax policy and what it means for business.

plus, at&t ceo john stankey on the company's quarterly results. that exclusive interview is straight ahead of course we'll also be hearing from blackstone group coo on the firm's results today as well. jon gray will join us in just a little bit "squawk box" will be right back.

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let's talk more about just generally the philosophical approach, tom farley, to managing an economy. the manager of far peak and former manager of the new york stock exchange can you think of a single historical precedent where central planners successfully pick the right industries to back in terms of going against market forces? in a nutshell, that's the difference between the left and the right. the notion you can pick the smartest people and they can direct capital to an industry to pick a winner is the flaw and

the opposite of what market forces dictate >> why are we even having this conversation i know that joe biden was elected and elections have consequences and i knew certain policies would be enacted. aren't we supposed to be talking about an infrastructure bill i was pretty pleased that's what was going to come out of this congress giving $2,000 to 85% of the population is not really a still mu lass to the economy it's a sugar high. an infrastructure bill i could rally around instead what we've gotten is the government doing this sort of central planning telling the banks what to do, whatnot to do. that's gotten us into a lot of trouble before and i think it's a huge mistake here. i think reasonable people can disagree >> how do you see it playing out

though it's so narrow even the house, you have a 51 -- maybe you get 51 with vice president harris as a reconciliation bill. are these things going to be done, tom? can they do it will they get rid of the filibuster they may say after this doesn't pass, okay, you're not working with us. we're going to get rid of the filibuster, is that possible. >> i'd be willing to lose a lot of battles rather than lose the war. i would be willing to play the long game on either side of the aisle because i think increasing corporate tax rates is going to be lousy for the democratic party as well. when i look at the benefits of the corporate tax reduction a couple of years back, they are many, obvious, notwithstanding janet yellen's comments. i think it would be a huge mistake to fund this smorgasbord of liberal ideas by raising corporate taxes and making us

non-competitive in the united states >> hey, tom. on the issue of corporate taxes, what's a rate that you would accept is there a rate that's higher than 21% on the corporate rate that you think would be reasonable i'm just throwing in that gary cohen who actually created and got the 21% would tell you quite publicly tells you he thinks that's much lower than he thought would ever happen nor than was evenness and would probably be more in line with a 25% rate. >> as a side note, i was with president trump and gary cohen in the week that that bill was being debated and president trump asked me what do you think is the right rate for corporate tax and he whispered, please say 15% because gary doesn't think we can get there and i think we can get there. so i don't think that's anything new for gary i saw it firsthand when you asked the question, andrew, the thought going through my mind is could we lower it to 18%, 19% then you said could we end up

with a higher number no, i don't think we have to go higher you have to fully burden state and local taxes and look at our competitiveness. look at our competitiveness vis-a-vis other countries. companies were setting up shop abroad companies were inverting to move their companies abroad we have fewer companies moving abroad more companies establishing themselves here. we have wages going up we have jobs being created we have money being repatriated from overseas to here in the united states of america why would we disrupt that? it makes no sense to me, andrew. >> tom -- >> can you explain that to me? >> i can let me try i think that if you look at what's happened over the last year and a half during this pandemic, for example, you saw the government spend an enormous amount of money, frankly to support the -- to support businesses and to support individuals but we can make an

argument businesses were actually supported much more than individuals turned out to be. >> okay. >> in a way, the government has provided this remarkable insurance policy for the entire country. the idea that that insurance policy is not paid for by the business community i think is a real question. if you are going to use the roads and the bridges and if amazon is going to deliver all of the stuff around the world and it's great that they're creating jobs, by the way, i want more economic growth, i want more jobs, i want higher wages. i want all of the things i think we all want but the question is how do we pay for all of those snings and should business pay for some of that i think the answer has to be at some level, yes, unless you're going to turn the entire system around but nobody wants to have that conversation either. >> i think it's a little disingenuous to say roads and bridges. that's not what this bill is i agree with you, we've spent a lot of money we should take a hard look at it. >> you and i will agree that the

infrastructure bill as proposed today is not an infrastructure bill that improves policies and other things that are too much i'm not going to dispute that with you. >> okay. >> i'm saying in the larger -- given the amount of debt we've taken, we can talk about this as a debt conversation. however you want to look at it, i think there is a need for more revenue and the question is how are you going to get at that revenue? and should the business community have to effectively pay for some part of it? >> number one, as you know,i'm going to have the conversation about cutting costs but number two, even if you need new revenue, i want you and the viewers to understand it is false to think you can just increase rates of corporations and it's a free lunch. >> we are in agreement we're trying to find -- we're trying to find the goldilocks number. >> i think -- okay i just -- i don't know -- i don't know that i can ever win this argument with you you've never heard me argue we need to have lower individual

income tax rates that's not something i would come on your air and say because i don't feel it in my bones that that would be great for america, that that would, you know, hugely impact the country. corporate income taxes, it's a no brainer. >> okay. you know what, if i could come through the screen and give you a big high five. i could get behind lower corporate tax rates if you thought we were going to have a meaningful conversation. >> end it there. you could get behind that's all i heard, my audio cut out. >> okay. if we could get lower corporate tax rates, sure, if we work on individual rates but also work on collection. >> yes. >> part this have is a collection story. >> yes. >> working on the loopholes. >> yes. >> that's some part of the conversation others don't want to have either. >> yes fewer exclusions. >> huge hour of "squawk" still ahead. we can talk about some of this with some of the amazing people we have on deck. jon stankey, at&t ceo. jon gray from blksneacto and

brian deese from the white house all coming up after this

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stankey and blackstone president jon gray plus brian deese from the white house. american airlines stock getting a big boost this morning on encouraging cash flow numbers. we're going to bring you the details and tell you what ceo doug barker said on "squawk. futures slightly lower as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now a big interview. at&t out with first quarter results. company beating wall street's estimates on both the top and bottom lines free cash flow up year over year to $5.9 million. hbo max is going to focus. the streaming and hbo proper added 2.7 million u.s. subscribers in the quarter

total subscriptions stabbed at 44 million joining us to talk much more about this is at&t ceo john stankey. good to have you with us thanks for being here. >> thank you, becky. how are you doing? it's good to see you. >> i'm doing pretty good >> good. >> according to wall street you're doing pretty well, too. these numbers are better than the street had been anticipated. what do you think is the highlight for you this quarter >> look, i think it's the consistency, number one. number two, we're doing it across each of the three areas that we indicated in our investor base are important to us demonstrated that we can get share in the wireless business and we did it the right way. the fundamental metrics underlining the wireless business are strong. demonstrating we're investing in fiber. we've got a great product the customers love and we can grow that then the hbo max numbers are just really impressive the teams executed incredibly

well with the strategy we put in place at the end of last year. you have to feel really good about the balance performance. as you said at the opening, when you do that, you generate more cash than you did the quarter last year. that's a good thing. >> let's dig into the hbo max numbers a little bit particularly hearing more about that netflix had some disappointing subscriber numbers for the first quarter. were these numbers better than you had anticipated and what really happened here what did you see >> first of all, netflix has a wonderful business they had a different business. they're obviously much more mature in the domestic u.s. streaming market which is largely where hbo max plays right now. as you know in june we'll be launching a product that will allow us to price differently as well as launching 60 international markets which starts to open up our opportunity for growth outside of the u.s

our domestic business is still scaling and as we've said, we fully expect that there's a receptive market for at least 2/3 of u.s. households that are going to want, you know, more than one streaming service. netflix is a very capable and solid product that i'm sure many households are going to choose to have. we'd like hbo max to be one of those products so we're really comfortable. as you know, we guided up our total subscriber numbers and our analysts five weeks ago of what you're seeing the confidence in that guide up in our quarterly numbers. so we weren't surprised by the strength we're really pleased with what we're seeing, but i think most importantly the team that we've put together is doing a really nice job executing on the kind of competencies and capabilities that we have in our product and building the product that's right for us >> when you say you're going to be introducing a video on demand product in the united states for different pricing, i take it you mean lower pricing

hbo plus is already expensive at $15 relative to what your peers are offering what do you think that means to your rpo, revenue per user it's high now. >> it's real impressive that it's as strong as it is. that's one of the reasons we wanted to share that not only is it strong but the strong growth coming against it. if you think about it, these are subscribers coming in at pricing that's really, really good thatallows us a lot of flexibility as we scale this product and add content to it over time. so we're very, very comfortable with that, but the reality is is not everybody is in the same socioeconomic dynamic. the after vonn product that launched in june allows us to get to an entry price point for virtually similar or identical content and as a result of that it will broaden the market share that we can ultimately attack. and the reality, whether a

customer chooses to buy the ad supported product or buy the straight subscription product, it's a creative to our business because we have the entry point with the subscription price with advertising supported. we want to meet the customer on their terms where it makes sense for them we actually think that's the real strength for our product moving forward having both those options. >> is that an acknowledgment though that the higher price point has only so many people it can eventually draw in >> no, not at all. i think from the time it started, becky, we were pretty clear we were big fans of what i refer to as dual monetization models models that allow for a subscription fee as well as advertising way to make money and as a result of that, we always had theintent of doing both if you think about media over the long haul, everybody likes broad choice in media. that's really the strength of

netflix. if you think about what occurred, much of the early content that netflix put out in the product was content supported in dual monetization models it had both subscription and advertising with it. it's what allowed for all of the hours of production to be invested in. so i believe over the long haul if people want broad choice and they want to be able to see the widest selection of content, being able to do both ad supported and subscription supported is good for the industry in allowing for that choice and it's also good for the customer based on where they are and their willingness to pay to move into product so we actually think this is a strength it's by no means an admission of, you know, if something didn't work out the right way, it's always been the plan. >> jon, we had the conversation earlier about hbo and the glory days and how past performance isn't guaranteed there was a time, i think, when hbo really set the standard and

didn't have as much competition. then we had show time, netflix, all of these things. are you confident and ready to spend the money as a stayed telecommunications firm to put up the money necessary for the creative do you have the right people in charge do you have the content people on the right side of at&t for hbo? >> joe, i think look at the results and the answer to that is, yes. we're comfortable and doing a good job of that i believe the glory days are still in front of us, they're not behind us. they're different days and the product is different i think if you look at the history of hbo, it's gone through reinvention over its years. this is just the next chapter of reinvention. it started out as the service that largely replayed theatrical movies and then it moved into scripted television to augment

and complement that. it moved into offering a degree of streaming that was available to customers this is just the next chapter in hbo. you know, every decade companies need to step back and reinvent themselves and offer the customer a better value proposition. that's what we're about doing. we've got a tremendously talented team. kasey bloise running content development for streaming services across warner media, incredibly talented individuals. been with hbo for years. he has a broader pallet to paint on now he can move beyond not just the sensibilities of what an hbo customer might like but more broadly because of the hbo max labeling and what we're able to do i feel really good about it and we're really supportive. you see the numbers coming in. it's hard not to get excited about it. >> you want to maintain the dividend you want to build out your networks and make everything great with wireless and do 5g.

the criticism has always been verizon has an easier go of it because they can keep their eye on the ball of one thing i think vesper would love to be going to the oscar is there any criticism is that valid at all, that you've got too many things on your plate, expensive things, expensive development, all of that and you're spread too thin? >> we have a management team that is capable in each of their areas and we don't -- i'm not making the decisions on every operating dynamic that's going on in the company day in and day out. i have capable leaders running the communications business. i have a capable leader running the media business and they're responsible for making those right calls and i do the stitching and the knitting together where it needs to be stitched and knitted together. so do we have a few more issues that come up are the days a little bit more dynamic than maybe a singularly focused business

sure i would acknowledge that that's the case the trick is to have the right individuals in place to make the right decisions and i'll go back to the results to suggest i think we're demonstrating that we can do that and carry it forward. i feel really comfortable with where we're at >> jon, on that, it does give you more to keep your eye on i'd ask you, we have had hans vestberg on yesterday from verizon. he said very cleanly that one his first priority is make sure he's reinvesting the business. second, he's going to grow the dividend your dividend is yielding 6.9% is that something that is number one priority for you, number two, number three? how do you balance all of those things >> my first priority is get the stock price up so the dividend yield is not 6.9%. that's what i like to do to fix the problem. that's what this management team is focused on. if we keep executing in a consistent fashion, that problem

takes care of itself with math >> in terms of how much you're willing to put towards 5g, i think you spent $23 billion the last big spectrum that took place earlier this year. how much are you looking for the next one that comes up in about seven months time for that 5g spectrum how important is that going to be >> we spent a little bit more than 23 billion, becky we made a $23 billion payment which was the first payment we had to make, the majority of it. we still have a little bit to go as we get down the road and the clearing of some of the spectrum we acquired. look, we feel very comfortable with where we stand right now. we were very deliberate in making sure that we could get spectrum in what i would call both tranches of that auction. the group with a little bit of spectrum available early and then that that comes later after the current incumbents clear out of it so we're balanced in how fast we can bring that to market, you're eluding to

another auction that will occur later this year. it certainly isn't the same amount of spectrum but it has, you know, other pros and cons around it. one of the pros is it will probably come out in the market a bit faster so we're certainly intrigued by that. we think it could be a very nice complement to what we have it's very mimportant for us to maintain pace in the industry. we're doing really well. i think you probably saw some of the performance tests that have come out one time we'll be telling you that at&t is in the lead on 5g, another time it will be t-mobile, but the reality is these networks are all performing really well, getting better every day and we're keeping pace with that we'll participate at the end of the year at a level that we think keeps pace with it and allows us to continue to be competitive in the market and enjoy the kind of success we're having right now based on how our network is performing and customers choosing to come to at&t at an accelerated rate.

>> john, corporate leaders have been asked to weigh in more and more on societal issues. it's taking place over the course of the last year. i know in your home state there's some legislation being considered to take a look at some of the voting rights. it's something that both dell and american airlines in texas have come out and criticized what do you think about that what do you think about corporate ceos being asked to weigh in on this do you have a take on anything that you see happening when it comes to societal issues, when it comes to voting rights? >> i think probably if you're running a large corporation right now within the context of our society, you have to step back and observe that we are clearly in a different chapter of our existence and as i think about what things are going to look like going forward, it's something i'm spending a lot of time thinking about, which is how do you keep your employee base with their eye on the ball, which is to come to work, support what the business needs

to do, what our customers require and get along with each other and work with each other while the noise level outside of the company every day is getting higher and less constructive and that balancing act is a really difficult balancing act and i think it's going to get more challenging as we move forward. what i'm electing to do is to make sure that we keep an open dialogue with our employees. as i think about my responsibility as a ceo, my first obligation is to my 230,000 employees. it's to the shareholders that own this company and it's to ensure that we do the right thing by those folks within the communities that we operate in in getting that balance right. and it's a tough call every day. the best way i can deal with it is have a transparent and open conversation with my employees, which i'm endeavoring to do. it's that dialogue that's most important first. when we think we need to speak out on something that impacts

the 230,000 employees and impacts the well-being of at&t over the long haul, those are the things that i think you now start to say maybe that's the right time for me to say something. on the issue of voting rights, fairly early in the process i came out with a fairly declarative statement that said, look, just like at&t has supported movement along civil rights issues all the way back to the 1960s, modernization of our benefits plans to recognize changes in individual's lifestyles, all of these things we've been supportive and on the lead on, we also believe that the right to vote is something that everybody has it's hard earned it should be straightforward, easy, and secure and we made it very clear that that's our position. we also acknowledge that there is a lot of differences that occur from state to state and we can't be an expert in everything that's going on in the state we have elected officials and we have civic officials that are

experts in those things that can do that and what we've elected to do is work with other businesses through the business roundtable, through local chambers of commerce and national chambers of commerce to ensure that we can get our resources pooled, some expertise brought to this and lobby in a way that we do the things that are the right things we want to attract businesses in the states we operate in we want our employees to feel good about that and we want policy to match that >> right now your stock is up by about 3.8% so you are making progress and chipping away at that 6.9% dividend yield tom, i want to thank you for being with us. appreciate it. >> thanks, becky appreciate you having me on. >> take care joe? >> yeah, that was great. thank you. thank you, john stankey. coming up, two more big interviews the first one with blackstone president jon gray then we'll speak with national economic council executive brian

deese. first though, quarterly results out from a number of airlines. american airlines with the first quarter numbers in line. analyst estimates. the company said its cash flow turned positive by the end of the quarter excluding debt payments american ceo doug parker joined us last hour >> the story is acceleration we got to where we were cash positive first time that's happened since the pandemic our revenues while they were down 62% for the full quarter, they were down more like 70% in january and down closer to 50% in march so real acceleration and that's continuing as we head into the cycle. southwest airlines posting a smaller than anticipated adjusted loss. the company also says that it will have a lower cash burn rate for the current quarter as conditions improve -- continue to improve don't miss a first on cnbc interview with gary kelly.

stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc

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better than expected results. jon gray. >> things are coming back. >> that works for you. >> i was at home

it's certainly we're concerned about what was going to happen. it has really been with a lot of confidence we can talk about it there were a few things. it's in our history. it's in the quarter. the investments and technology related. we also saw a great numbers in

logistics. there are $2 billion >> the reason i ask that maybe some of the other things you started to talk about, looked like you're focused much more on growth companies than you have necessarily in the past but invariably that's going to come with more risk. >> you know, i think the way to think about our company is we're really fanatic in our approach to investing what we're looking for are sectors of the economy, geographies where we think growth will be higher, where we can deliver better returns obviously that's been in faster growing tech companies like

science businesses and real estate related to those sectors. if you looked at our first quarter you'd see we invested in a lot of traditional industries that you think have great tail winds. big themes were covid reopening. we invested in hotel businesses in japan, the united states, holiday park business in the u.k., a private aviation business in the u.s. we invested in a bunch of things around the environment and what's happening around esg and so forth >> right. >> in terms of remediation so i think the way to think about our company is one that's focused on delivering great returns and getting there, getting to the right neighborhoods. >> i've got to jam through a handful of questions real quick, j jon. i'm going rapid fire i always ask you whether you're investing or harvesting. we talked about spacs. farley is here he'll have a question for you. i know you're now investing

again. what are you seeing broadly around the globe where is the biggest opportunity to the extent you are investigating? are you still trying to harvest? >> well, i would say it's a bit of both. in the quarter we had big deployment numbers it was one of our busiest numbers ever we had big realization numbers as well. you know, in our business there's always a bit of both going on when you get an asset that you have met, you feel like you've done the full mission, you sell those assets, merge them in and at the same time you look for opportunities. as i said, a lot of focus on the covid recovery a lot of focus on the megatrends i'd say housing particularly in the u.s., we've done that in private equity, real estate, we're seeing a strong recovery in housing. >> tom, jump in. you've got a question? >> go back to what you said about taking a thematic approach i have this mental map of blackstone my entire career more old economy businesses

now cronos, ancestry, reuters bu buyout you guys are a tech firm and is it that easy to turn on a dime and say, oh, we're going to be great global leaders in tech how did you turn that off? was there some magical meeting where you got in a room and you were like, hey, we're going really hard to the hoop here in tech because it's been a really great story. i want to understand that pivot a little bit more. >> well, i think it's really a team sport here at blackstone. we look at what's happening in the world and it was clear to us that big changes were underway we were seeing it in some of our investments. we were seeing it in the economy. yes, the leadership of the firm you talked about, steve schwarzman, joe barada, john corngo runs our growth business. david blitzer runs tech ops, we

spent a lot of time talking about where are the opportunities. it was increasingly clear to us that the world was moving in one direction and when we looked backwards we saw, for instance, in logistics an area we made a huge call that we performed much better because of the tailwinds. things were moving online. it's come over time and it's definitely paid off for us and our investors in a big way >> hey, jon, i want you to end a debate for us. tom and i have been having a big debate about the infrastructure plan on the table and taxes. i said to him -- i think we both agreed if we got rid of the carried interest and 1031 exchange and some of those component parts, maybe you don't necessarily have to raise corporate taxes. would you be game for that >> what i would say about taxes is i'm going to leave it to the policy makers. there are obviously fiscal challenges that exist. there's a desire for all of us in our society to provide a robust social safety net to keep

up on the flip side, we've got to figure out how to create taxes that don't have unintended consequences, thatdon't slow the rate of growth particularly as we come out of this >> jon, help us. jon, just help us with this though you would still do your job if there was no carried interest and you would still do your job if there was no 1031 exchange, what i call loophole and you call benefit >> yeah. for us, those particular taxes, you know, that's not what's driving us what i would say, andrew, you've talked a lot over time and if you look at it today, the taxes on that are treated like capital gains as they have for 100 years. you pay 20% plus 4 unaffordable care in california or new york it's another 10 or 14 points. capital gains goes from 40 closer to 50

i think these things, a comprehensive tax reform if it includes carried interest, that's okay. the issue we and others have had was picking on one industry in particular >> okay. fair enough. you've helped move the debate along so we appreciate it. tom and i will keep at it and we look forward to seeing you again very, very soon. >> take care. >> thank you joe? >> i have to laugh leave it to the politicians. leave it to anybody but the politicians, please, the policy makers rick santelli is standing by with breaking economic numbers rick, the numbers please >> yes, good economic breaking news i might add, joe. 547,000 on initial jobless claims for the week of april 17th and that is a new post-covid low, of course that usurps 576 last week. that jumped just a bit to 586,000. continuing claims, cycling there

as well. 3,674,000 that usurps 3,708,000 which was the revision to last week's continuing claims that moved a bit lower as well. now we can all recognize the fact that we're, what, under 2 million on the continuing claims really before covid hit? 220,000 camp on initial before covid hit. none ofless, these are good numbers. reopening is obviously progressing and as we look at various aspects that give us the signals in the marketplace, at least the ones that aren't completely broken due to all the big stimulus and fed policies right now, i would probably say look at some of those corporate indices, especially the high yield that continue to shrink. companies of course can issue historically low spreads and atlanta gdp now maybe isn't the favorite of everybody out there

and sometimes it runs on the high side, but their last look for what q1 may be is 8.32%. how about we leave it there, joe? >> all right, rick we will do that. thank you. rick santelli. it's in the rundown. liesmania. oh, no, liesman data i see it and see liesmania that's what viewers think, steve. i do, it's a thing >> you're right, joe there's incredible exuberance every time i come on to talk about the data just follow up -- it is. just follow up on what rick was saying this is good news. there's a debate going on that's worth talking about, how much extended benefits out there. more generous benefits have attracted people into these programs i think the jury is still out. it's entirely possible that that's keeping unemployment high but there are other factors out there.

the schools aren't totally reopened people have health concerns returning to work and generous benefits we don't think it happened the first time around. we don't think that's what was responsible for it we're watching it this time around this is good news for that idea, people are not necessarily being kept on the sidelines. we hear about tight labor markets. when you see these numbers come down, piece by piece, a lot of people expect a rebound and sharp declines it didn't happen still a lot of people receiving benefits, 17.4 when you go back to the latest data we have, which is april 3rd there are different programs out there. a long way to go in the job market but certainly this is good news. >> all right steve, excellent thank you. i was kidding. irrational exuberance. that's why i said, irrational -- coming up, much more with former new york stock exchange president tom farley who, you know, didn't need to get any

better looking but the beard does it. markets, spacs, cryptonduc a mh more "squawk box" will be right back. that's decision tech, only from fidelity.

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going to be holding the

annual shareholder meeting on saturday, may 1st. the meeting will be virtual again this year. warren buffet and charlie monger will be together on stage taking questions for about four hours they will have the vice chairman and greg able. berkshire shareholders, while you can't be in person, it's not too late to get your questions in send them to berkshirequestions @cnbc.com i'll be reading through them we'll get through as many as we can get through. when we come back, a wild ride for cryptos in the week since coinbase's public market view we'll talk about that with tom farley right after this.

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take a look on screen. it's been a volatile run as well for many of the cryptocurrencies we want to bring in tom farley tom, are you and would you be an investor in coinbase i'll tell you that the reference price, this thing was looking like it was the same valuation of the parent company, the new york stock exchange, your former employer. >> the only thing i find more exciting debating you on tax policy, andrew, is talking about crypto i'm all in

i think coinbase is a great company. as you may remember, i actually invested $10 million in coinbase in 2013 on behalf of the new york stock exchange. >> boy, don't you wish you had done that. for some reason i think it was a good reason fx nonetheless, our shareholders benefitted i think the crypto space is amazing right now notwithstanding the press it's gotten i think it's the best kept secret in the world and maybe the history of the financial markets. i'll give you a stat coinbase today, it's the eighth largest exchange in the world. if you ask if everyday americans have heard of it, they'd think it's the biggest in the world. there's a corner of decentralized finance where really smart kids are putting

code up on a blockchain of their choosing and then you have a self-operating contract. defi exchanges are doing as much buying as coinbase today the space has taken off. the traditional competitors, wall street banks who for a century or multiple centuries have made markets in every asset have ignored this and abdicated their role and allowed coinbase to become an $80 billion company. brokerages have ignored it retail has moved around and found other ways to access this asset class. i think it's fascinating and i think it's here to stay. we're past the point of no return. >> i think the question is to the extent the wall street banks have ignored it, it's unclear if they've ignored it or couldn't get into it given the regulatory constraints and otherwise, do they try to compete with it? do they try to buy it? what happens >> yeah, all of that they have to get in now. this is an asset class

people want to hold it in their portfolios i think regulation you mentioned regulation that's going to be interesting even some of the exchanges that coinbase competes with, they're unregulated, float from one country to another that's not going to last it's allowing extraordinary innovation eventually they have to become mature companies in defi, very little in the kyc, aml. that will not last but it has allowed extraordinary innovation the winning business models are an aggregate of what's best of both appropriate regulation accepted in all jurisdictions, including western countries, united states, u.k., so on and so forth. in the meantime, it's wild. >> okay. so -- >> go ahead. >> i know a lot of smart people like you who are talking about defi in a major way. the question is for those viewers out there, they should get a little educated about it because it's complicated and there's a lot of different component parts.

how would you get exposure to that space if that was something you were interested in >> it depends what you want to do in defi you can lend your cryptocurrency out you can borrow against your cryptocurrency you can actually trade that's what some of these decentralized -- defi exchanges allow you to do. literally hundreds if not thousands of other use cases you're going to have to pay attention. user interface is lousy. it's not very approachable if you're not a technologist. that will change over time it will become more approachable it's important to educate yourself and research quite a bit. >> is there nothing to be said about the fact that dogecoin is making a mockery of crypto this is a coin that was built as a joke and it's now a better performer than bitcoin >> i honestly don't have much of a view for better or for worse, andrew, on dogecoin. i focus more on bitcoin or

ethereum there are so many uses on the blockchain with respect to bitcoin, it's clear it's more transportable and storable than gold it wouldn't surprise me at all to see it become a digital gold in terms of valuation and otherwise. in terms of dogecoin, it has a meme and people are ascribing value. it's not something for me but i don't have a positive or negative view one way or the other. i do think bitcoin is -- >> if you are -- >> go ahead. >> if you are a betting man, how do you think gary gensler at the sec starts to look at this we have not heard from the public on this issue when it comes to building out other financial instruments and the like. >> he was my regulator. >> i know. >> i know gary well. i'll tell you my most recent interaction with gary, i've gone on the internet, downloaded the courses he's taught in cryptocurrency at m.i.t. and i've watched those courses this guy is an expert. he understands the use cases

he understands why it exists and the potential benefits this isn't going to be a case of very heavy hand bed regulation that will completely strangle cryptocurrencies in the u.s. he is a guy who by and large likes transparency and certainly likes a minimum level of kyc, aml. we want to make sure you don't have drug cartels and other unseemly characters who are able to ben fill the from either centralized exchanges or defi. i think gary is going to go after those sorts of things. >> tom, if you were running the new york stock exchange as you used to or you were where you're sitting in the nasdaq, what should you be thinking and doing about all of this? >> i wore out my welcome on crypto scurrency to some extent. jeff and i worked together with our colleagues, notably kelly leffler and others and came up with this idea which ultimately intercontinental exchange

started. it was something we were very focused on i think these exchanges, the big exchanges like the major global exchanges, they've kind of missed the boat on crypto and so they have to move fast organically, inorganically, doing acquisitions in order to catch up and be a major player in this asset class. you know what's interesting, andrew, if i can the major global interchanges are combining what in the united states are very, very separate securities and futures some of the global exchanges have combined them finance, ftx, where they're listing securities and futures that's going to be the trend and you're going to see the old school exchanges all around the world try to pull off that to some extent. >> okay. tom farley, we should thank you so much for joining us this morning. it's been great as always. >> it's been great fireworks as usual. >> you've educated us. appreciate it. >> appreciate it guys. >> okay, thanks, andrew.

let's get to cnbc headquarters jim cramer joins us. jim, we saw numbers from at&t and we talked at length to john stankey. what were your thoughts about the numbers themselves the stock is up. it would be nice to see at&t, if you are at&t, if you're bullish, it would be nice to see that stock finally moving up, it would help in a lot of different ways >> unbelievable interview. because he basically just said, he said something that was, i wish other people would say, about the yield, the stock is going to go up and then for the yield, it is going to go down. so stop worrying i felt so reassured by that interview, i felt that he was very gracious about netflix, but obviously, his products are winners, finally talking about taking it overseas, i think we all have hbo max and it's terrific, and this was the most confident i've ever heard the company, and the company frankly sounds like it's just, i would

say it's much better run just much better run i thought that your interview touched on every single thing and i wanted to buy the stock after i heard it >> if i ran at&t, i'd like to have all of those really fun assets, if as a shareholder, would you rather be verizon pure, or would you rather have at&t and the mix of assets that it has >> i think that he is going to get the assets gone that i don't like and it's going to put money towards the answers that i do like, so the answer is at&t. that's the first time i've felt. that and i've been a big t-mobile fan i don't know, i hate to be swayed by one interview but that was the interview. and i felt really confident that i've been wrong that at&t is going to have a problem. >> it takes, he's been in a position, where he was going to take over, i think for a while, but he's grown, i hope he doesn't grow, you know, we'll be yelling up to try to even talk to him

but anyway, he's done a great job. is fabe ner right now, jim >> i'm sorry >> is faber there? >> not yet you have to say that in the form of a question. >> that's what i meant who is david faber >> if you don't put it in the form of a question, and not like that, first you have to call for what category. it's what category >> it's really exciting to guess that he was a jeopardy champion. i just want to make one point, jim. do you remember in the days of haines, david became the brain because he was out one day and we put a plastic brain on top of a cactus it had nothing to do with him being smart. meanwhile, meanwhile i got married in hawaii, so i became the kahuna, so i became in dumb, good-looking surfer dude and he became the brain and better looking side kick was just a bit like kind of a dumb bimbo, a surfer type and now david is a

brain, so he's got on to fortune and fame, from a name that didn't come from him being, you know, haines called him that, because he was out that day and now he is guest hosting jeopardy and i'm still here. >> i want to take what is smarter than all of us for 500 >> he is he grew into that, but that is, you know, haines was, haines had a method to his madness. >> it worked >> i have to tell you, the compares, just like on wall street, anderson cooper, wow i mean anderson cooper, the guy has so much game, you would think that's been his job for years. >> yeah, i remember a lot of people, i remember wolf blitzer was on jeopardy, let's not talk about how people do on jeopardy, though, david won, let's just name by, you know, give praise by name, but not talk negatively about people who may not have done so well >> because i think it's hard. >> i can imagine, i tried to

think of a, like a band that i know, or someone, i can't think of the most obvious thing i've known my whole life. >> what is spidey path. >> it's hard to come up with things sometimes >> this is probably the most exciting thing >> well, do i think, why do i think this is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to us, i think it will sob dynamite. >> and i was thinking he was going to be gone for a week and i realized they don't do it live and i think they can do all five in a day or something, right >> i felt they did eight and picked the best five >> and picked the best one. >> and i wish i could have been there. i wish i could have found the original video, just the cactus, of that brain on top of it. >> that would have been so great. the kahuna and the brain, that's what we knew you as. >> i know. the better looking but dumb side kick thanks, jim. we'll see you in a few. >> thank you, guys >> all right

you are now with him, better looking, but you're not dumb coming up, a live update from the european central bank. we'll be right back.

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steve liesman has an update on the european central bank >> hey, joe, yeah, talking about growth, this is the european central bank president christine lagarde, attractive in the first quarter, but rebound in this quarter and business investment has shown some resilience but all of this together is highlighting the differences between europe and the u.s it looks like they felt it twice as much as we did last year and come back half as much this year, at least the forecasts that are out there and lagarde says the vaccination campaign should pave the way for rebound in activity in 2021. and you heard the atlanta forecast of 8% in the first quarter. we have, let me just check here, 6% plus, in our rapid update and lagarde says the virus continues to be a source of down side risk, and headline, inflation she thinks will increase in the coming year and then subdued,

there will be some increase of underlying price pressure. one more thing, joe, they're monitoring the european exchange rate which has been a source of disinflation with the strength of the currency. but you know, stocks in europe have done about as well or better than the u.s. but the growth in terms of the responses of the fiscal side, responses of the central bank, much more forceful on this side than that side and leave it to better economic numbers for here, at least for now. >> steve, thank you for bringing that to us and due even try to blay, you don't even try to play golf, do you, because you're a great fishermen. because you can't combine that great casting. >> i can fish on golf courses. >> joe, can i just say to you, i know a couple of golfers who very quietly, they will say they prefer to fly accomplish than they do golf >> i'm just saying, i told

becky's son, not a good idea, to try to, if you cast, not a good swing. and you got to pick your poison though fishing may be more relaxing, i'll tell you that much. final check on the market, the futures right now, starting to look down 23 points or so it was fun to see kyle he looks like you and matt, i think, becky, sort of, right? >> he does a good combo he is. i think he's cute. thank you to my better looking and dumber co-anchor we'll see you guys back here tomorrow right now it's time for "squawk on the street. please welcome our celebrity guest. the winner of the dupont award, he is a co-anchor of cnbc's "squawk on the street," from the faber report, here's david faber. >> the newest guest host for jeopardy, david faber, we can't wait to watch him in actio