bitcoin. elon musk with a tweet tanking the cryptocurrency yesterday it recovered after he tweeted a clarification. it is monday it comes quick, don't they fridays go fast. it is monday, may 17th, 2021 "squawk box" begins right now. good morning welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. it was a week to watch in the markets. we are still talking about last week friday, much better than the week started or tuesday and wednesday with the selloff friday was strong across the board. dow up 1%. the s&p was up 1.5%. the nasdaq up 2.3%

for the week, you did see weakness dow down 1.1%. the worst weekly performance since february you are looking at the week to date down 1.4% for the s&p 500. strengthening for friday now dow futures down 75 points this morning nasdaq off 40. the s&p down close to 10 points. if you are watching the treasury market, that is where the action was last week. you saw the weaker jobs numbers and stronger inflation numbers that came in the cpi and ppi it looks like the 10-year is yielding at 1.625% all of the worries of inflation. check out the "squawk stack" this morning we saw reversal in the big movers when it came to the inflation front. if you check out corn, corn with the worst week since june of

2016 last week this morning, it is down more. $641 right now lumber unchanged the first negative week last week copper with the first negativeig wti with price gains it had the best day since back of the middle of april on friday third straight week in a row of gains for wti. that has seen pushing prices at the pump aaa's national average for a gallon of gas is above $3. the last time we saw above $2.99 or more was november of 2014 seeing prices at the pump higher gold prices are higher this this morning. up another .60%. obviously a lot of news we are watching out there including the big news in the media world. absolutely we can put that on the stack

at&t and discovery in advanced talks. close to a deal. this close to a deal it could be announced literally this morning during our program. here is what is happening. the likelihood of the transaction expected to be -- the likely transaction is expected to be structured the following way. combine discovery with all of warner media this is not just part of warner media. this is all of warner media. effectively, warner media is going to get spun out of at&t effectively and what is a reverse trust. discovery gets merged into that and it gets effectively taken over, if you will, or run or operated by david zaslov it will be co- owned by at&t

shareholders which will own more of the company all of this three years after at&t made an effort to try to make this work buying time warner you recall after a massive fight with the government over it. the department of justice tried to block that transaction. this ends what has been at&t's journey, if you will, into the media space with directv and so much more. this is a transformative deal in the media world. the question is whether by merging these companies together to take on effectively the likes of disney and netflix by putting all of this content together whether they have enough of it that was the big question for warner media in fact, the biggest conundrum that hbo max faced was given the

d dividend and debt load that you need to continue to fund the business by combining the businesses, you get the cash flow of the lineal businesses around the world and use the cash flow plus, plus to fund this competitive streaming business. >> stankey was just on we asked are you sure you are up to the task? what did netflix say they were going to spend on content? $17 billion. >> $17 billion collectively $23 billion. >> he didn't look like this, but i think he maybe felt like that. as the ceo of at&t and what it takes to run a media business and all of the criticism year after year of why don't you do it the way verizon is doing it why don't you concentrate on your bread and butter. both of randall's deals are

unwound with the directv deal and this, although this one is not done yet this is going back on both of those. it would make at&t simpler and obtain a lot of debt most debt of any non-financial company? >> yes >> i always say if this is -- go ahead, andrew. >> no, no. go ahead i'll add to it >> the only thing i'll say is that -- look, you are right on everything they spent building up if this deal is not structured the same way directv is, at&t shareholders own the majority of the directv deal if it is structured the same way, they would still get the benefit of it. letting somebody else manage it and spend the money that needs to be spent on the content and allowing them to continue to do

things they weren't going to spend the money on the content because they have to build out 5g and s spectrum and dividend. if you were somebody who is a long-time holder, you need the dividend to come in. look at the stock price. they would never get credit for that maybe they still can take some of the up side of this without -- if they weren't going to spend money on these things, it would be poorly run companies and they wouldn't win. >> for sure. the point i was going to make, i adore randall stevenson. when you look at the deal making that took place during that time and what might be described as value destruction, it is sad you think of the at&t deal with t-mobile that led to t-mobile being more compe competitive. they paid the breakup fee over

spectrum the directv deal, although itis structured a way with up side, they rode that down tens of billions of dollars. if you describe this deal on valuation basis as a push for at&t, the amount of time and energy and resources and focus of the last three years that has gone into looking in that direction as opposed to necessarily looking in the direction of whatever you would have otherwise done, it starts to raise questions about all of those strategic moves given the valuedestruction that took place place. >> when he was on, he said dividend yield is still rich he wants to make the stock go up yield is not as high how many years are you talking about it would have been necessary to really -- i don't

know content is so difficult. i go back to when general electric was trying to run nbc and you hear about what are you spending what is the movie about? these guys at ge were like, whoa creative -- i don't know it doesn't always go together that well. it's hard. zaslov. >> more of an art, not a science. >> yeah. this certainly doesn't look -- this is totally different stuff for what zaslov will run what does it mean for zuckezuckerb does this mean he doesn't leave? >> i think jason doesn't have a role in the end. maybe he will. >> that's the question >> verizon just spun off yahoo! and aol. the phone companies are looking

like communications companies. it seems like every one of the deals, a media deal, big ger or smaller or spinning off. everything relating to time warner and aol. >> hbo is now one of many. hbo -- i used to think hbo is it for content. now it just seems with netflix and all of the others making great content. actually, the new show "hacks. the second episode she turns on "squawk box" when she gets up in the morning. >> no way. she must be smart. >> it was me and sharon. >> you know who this is good for? za zaslov. >> yeah. it is good for him unless you're

the dog chasing the bus and you finally got it david is so smart. >> i think they have a better shot now part of the issue y-- by the wa, they he both have the challenge. at&t had the content, but not the content to keep you there. i argue that zaslov has the content to keep you there. it depends how they bundle this. do they put discovery plus and hbo max together as one service? if they do, that will be a lesser fee than the combined service. hbo max is the most in the business at $14.99 or are they separate to disney with disney newsplus on one sidd espn plus business on the other. you bundle all of those.

there will be questions of how you execute that that, to me, is the risk here. >> lucky david bought robert evans' old house in l.a. >> yeah. >> in hollywood. >> he knew he was anticipating he will need a mogul house to do the mogul business i hope it's ready. i know he is probably doing work on it. this was -- i don't know it is such an aboutface for at&t you had to be surprised hearing it it looked like they would put together streaming stuff wait a minute. this is the whole evnchalada >> zaslov told us in december he thought there would be two or three big winners in the streaming wars you know, looking at that and if

there are seven or eight entries, we knew for a long time this was a position where discovery was going to have to buy somebody or get bought t wars >> in the driver's seat. man. >> the only other thing i would add to this is uniquely, there are questions of whether or parent company comcast and nbc universal would want to buy warner media at least the hbo max piece that was considered the crown jewel for that the tie-up in the similar idea of what discovery is doing taking two pieces together and make as much content as possible that probably is off the table the potential of how this is structured in shareholder votes and whatnot, if it happens, it is very difficult for another suitor to come in.

we will see how things play out. i do think that was something that longer-term out was not expected or thought to have happened this career or next it was one of the very chess pieces that may or may not get moved now. also raises questions about what happens to viacom/cbs. maybe nbc u starts to look that way. gets harder with the anti-trust issues owning nbc and cbs at the same time. the assets you have to diffvest >> malone is 80. he is behind all of this he is a genius with tax implications he is in the background. he probably has more to do with this than anybody. than any other player. amazing. coming up, there are other news stories we will get back to it

6:15 we're not obsessed with media because we're in the business? european airline ryanair reporting a loss traffic levels fell 81%. what do you do when that happens? ceo michael o'leary says bookings are surging don't miss the interview with raphael bostic. "squawk box" will be right back. >> announcer: this cnbc program is sponsored by truist wealth. where meaningful relationships matter most. world-class interiors, and peerless design...

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bitcoin plunging over the weekend. yesterday afternoon, tesla ceo elon musk was in a twitter exchange that left people to speculate that tesla sold bitcoin holdings and not accepting it for tesla purchases. a tweet bitcoin users will slap themselves when they find out tesla dumped the rest of the holdings with the amount of hate musk is getting, i wouldn't blame them

the price of bitcoin plunged to $32,000. then musk said tesla has not sold bitcoin and the price of bitcoin rebounded a bit. you see the price is $45,000 and change andrew. thank you, joe coming up, summer travel and focus. the ceo of ryanair will join us after the break. after the break. later, we talk to scot my a keeps me moving forward... even after paying for this. gottlieb over the mask mandates. all that when "squawk box" returns after this voya doesn't just help me get to retirement... ...they're with me all the way through it. come on, grandpa! later. got grandpa things to do. aw, grandpas are the best! well planned. well invested. well protected.

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time now for the squawk

planner for the trading week ahead. tomorrow we get housing data for april. then the minutes from the latest fed meeting. people will be looking over those to see what the job picture is like. we have retailers reporting like home depot and macy's and target and lowe's and kohl's. and i know today is may 17th, but it is the deadline for individuals to file the 2020 tax returns. the irs pushed back the deadline a month because of the pandemic. the 15th would have been friday, but -- wait. 15th was saturday? 16th today is the 17th. joining us right now is mark grant with b riley securities. mark, everybody was looking at the ppi numbers. cpi numbers as well.

both hotter than expected. you were calm about this you say the game is different this time around this is not something you are worried about. why is that? >> good morning, becky the inflation used to be prior to the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 and a major market mover. now it is an influencer. now the distinction is the fed controls both really the bond and equity markets by the amount of money they are putting out. as a matter of fact, the balance sheet grew $20 million alone between the fed and other central banks of the world, they're up $23.5 trillion. the size of the economy of the united states. they are influencing the market. it depends what the fed does as

reaction and jerome powell is clear. they will not raise interest rates. we are seeing the 10-year around 162. the other thing that is important, as you know, ideal w ly, i deal with corporate. it is difficult to find yields anywhere the high yield market is an example using the bloomberg index. it is right off the lowest yield it's ever been we are seeing something very different now with the fed controlling the markets which used to be prior to the 2008 and 2009 crisis. >> does this go back to the old a axiom that you can't fight the fed? >> you can't fight anybody if you make money and you go to jail if you try to shoot them. if that makes money, by the

blink of the eye, and it is not possible to fight the people that make the money. >> it's weird. there's two influences fed gets to make money and it can control large part of the market the federal spending that is now taking place, that is another great wave you think you would not fight either one of those. what happens when the two collide? >> they are colliding. we have $1.8 trillion stimulus package pass now a total of $4 trillion in additional money they are colliding that's why, in my opinion, the fed will never admit this, ever. the fed is holding down interest rates because the government can't afford to pay higher rates. it is a borrower's paradise. for pension funds and seniors, it is a disaster they can't find

yield. i found funds, but the provider of the yield for investors, you can't find any yield any longer sdplonger >> what does that mean for stocks >> as long as there is a correlation, becky, when the fed puts in money and likely to be around $8 trillion at the end of the quarter. it is a positive for stocks. then you also have at the moment, in my opinion, froth in the market almost a gambling mentality with this stuff bitcoin. i think speculation, meaning buying something at one price and hoping it goes higher is fine it plays for yield and cash flow which is important for the market i'm not the gambling type. i think people have to be careful what they're doing in

there. >> and when the fed, forget about raising rates. when the fed says it is going to taper and stop buying as much as it has been doing in the market, what is the reaction then? >> it will be a negative reaction, becky. i don't expect that to take place. if you believe jerome powell and what he says, and i do, he says it will not take place at all until some time in 2023 or early 2024 >> that's raising rates. not tapering >> well, yeah. it would be raising rates. tapering would, in effect, raise rates. then the fed wouldn't be able to hold interest rates down any longer >> you don't think the fed will keep buying at the same clip and never mention or never talk about tapering all the way to 2023 >> yes, di do i think we will be in the low

interest rate environment for the foreseeable future the government cannot afford the interest rates we are increasing the national debt we're about 129% debt-to-gdp ratio, becky the fed is controlling the fac we don't have higher rates >> the vigilante bond market can't do anything. >> you can't fight the people who make the money just like you said >> wow if inflation sticks around, obviously, none of us know what the timeframe the fed is looking for. they think this is something that just passes through if inflation sticks around six months from now or nine months from now or 12 months from now, doesn't that force their hand a little bit >> becky, it doesn't force their hand, in my opinion.

we had the biggest rise in the cpi since 2009 we are just using the benchmark 10-year treasury at 1.62 prior to the financial criesis n 2008 and 2009, the interest rates would go up. now the fed did not increase them at all. the fed will stay on course until some time in late 2023 or early '24. then they will see what to do and it depends on how much of the stimulus money has been put into the markets >> mark, always great talking to you. we will continue to follow-up with you thank you for your time this >> always a pleasure when we come back, more on the merger with at&t and

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good morning the futures are trending lower after the surprisie last week from the continued selling and a bounceback we are getting back on the monday blues down 107 points on the dow nasdaq indicated down 48 and s&p down 14. meanwhile, cdc director rochelle walensky defending the mask wearing guidelines the changes sparked confusion among policymakers here is dr. walensky yesterday on "meet the press." >> the data shows us it is safe for vaccinated people to take off their masks. i promised the american people i would convey that science to you when i know it that is what we did on thursday.

>> starbucks and costco and trader joe's will allow people to enter the stores without masks who are vaccinated home depot and target are leaving the mandates in place right now. we will talk to dr. scott gottlieb in a couple of minutes about a lot of things. he has an op-ed in "the wall street journal" this morning coming up, a warning of bank layoffs this morning and don't miss our interview with raphael bostic. you can watch or listen to us live anytime on the cnbc app. we'll take a quick break and be right back

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in business, it's never just another day. it's the big sale, or the big presentation. the day where everything goes right. or the one where nothing does.

with comcast business you get the network that can deliver gig speeds to the most businesses and advanced cybersecurity to protect every device on it— all backed by a dedicated team, 24/7. every day in business is a big day. we'll keep you ready for what's next. comcast business powering possibilities. welcome back to "squawk box" look at u.s. equity futures on this monday morning. a lot of deal news to bring you and bitcoin news the dow opening down 123 points. nasdaq off 52 points s&p 500 off about 15 points. wells fargo making headlines this morning the u.s. banks stand to cut as many as 200,000 jobs or 10% of the work force this will happen over the next

ten years to increase profitability and changing consumer behavior. it could be the biggest head count reduction in u.s. banking history with branch jobs and call center jobs most at risk. a lot of people talking about that online this morning. coming up when we return fallout from the mask guidelines dr. scott gottlieb is with us to breakdown what it all means and check out these stocks reviewing a new filing that is dissolved the stake in pinterest and nike and increasing amazon and facebook interests "squawk box" returns after this. look for us on apple podcasts or on the favorite poasdct app. subscribe to squawk pod today.

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well cwelcome back to "squaw box. costco and walmart and starbucks will no longer require masks for customers. we have dr. scott gottlieb, the former fda commissioner. he serves on the boards of pfizer his latest op-ed may encourage more americans to get vaccinated doctor, good morning so many questions over the weekend about this decision. really how businesses are responding i want to take on your op-ed when people talk about

quote/unquote the science, there are two sciences here. science of getting infected and the behavioral science of the rules and decisions do to get people to actually take the vaccine. how much do you think the decision was propelled by science versus behavioral science? >> the decision was propelled entirely by the cdc reading of the science and what they found and said people who have been vaccinated are less likely to contract the virus and transmit the virus you know we assume that the vaccines dramatically reduce your risk or asymptomatically based on the data, there is not a lot of value in the fully vaccinated person in wearing a mask in any circumstance unless they want to or because of a

pre-existing condition now the policy accommodations as a result of the judgment now businesses are lifting mask mandates the mandates could not last another week or two. the worst thing to say is we eeked out another week or two of the mask ordinances before lifting them because people disobeyed them i don't know that is a fair criticism of the cdc at this point. >> here is the question. are people unvaccinated going to walk in stores and not wear masks and at the same time, i ask you, for children, i took my kids shopping this weekend they are wearing masks by the way, they are not wearing n-95 masks if somebody in that shop should be wearing a mask who isn't, is not protected.

how do you change behavior or not as a function of this? >> look, i think we are getting to a phase right now this is inevitable to judge individual risk. some people choose to vaccinate. some people will be vaccinated, but believe they are at risk because they have a pre-existing medical condition and choose to wear in high-risk settings in a transport or store people have to make individual choices about risk people who will go maskless now will go maskless anyway when the mandates lifted. still choose not to get vaccinated there will be people on the margin now something seen that we're lifting the mandates for people vaccinated will be encouraged to not do out and get a vaccine. i think we may pick up 2% to 5% of people. i think the message that v

vaccines reduce your transmission a lot of people don't believe they are at personal risk. they are young and healthy, but want to protect those around them i thatink the cdc should have h that base point more broadly they should have been out front more with that >> scott, do you support walmart's decision to remove the mask mandate as say it is an honor system i ask for your family, children who have not been vaccinated, will you have them going in the stores >> look, i think i come back to what i said. we need to judge our individual circumstances. i was in a congregant setting with mixed people and i did not know if they were or were not

vaccinated i would keep a mask on my kids i was in the grocery store everyone was masked. including my children. i would keep a mask on my children longer. a week or two. prevalence is collapsing around the country. the bottom line is the risk is collapsing all over the country. we weren't going to keep the mask ordinances in place much longer the worst you can say is cdc was a week or two early with this. i don't think we will pay a price for that s>> you said your kids would still wear masks inside. are you still wearing masks in a store or something >> well, i was wearing a mask yesterday although i'm fully vaccinated because i'm with my children i wanted to show solidarity with my kids. >> that's the thing. how do you take it off when you make your kids wear it >> you don't what is the down side of keeping

it on? you don't take it off. what is the down side? >> i agree >> i think we're at a point culturally that people accept masks. a great study done years ago that show if you wore a mask in the airport, people stayed further from you the distance was odd or sick. >> no. and that's the thing i feel so bad. i have two kids that are young enough, they don't qualify for the vaccines they're not old enough at this point. we're going to make them, just the two of them to wear a mask while the rest run around, that's the hardest thing it's been hard enough to ask them to give up so many things to this point. i mean, that's the quandary that puts us in by june, nobody is going to be wearing masks.

the refprevalence is going to b that >> yeah. >> things are going to improve quickly. i don't think that will change the outcome. >> okay. dr. scott gottlieb appreciate it. thanks a lot on a monday morning. >> thanks, joe >> thanks. >> do you think people will be disappointed >> behavorially, it's going to be hard to get used to i've tried it's going to take some time but it feels weird >> i will say, over the course of two eye das, one being outside of school pickup on friday, everybody still had their mask on, as soon as we got to the altlacrosse game, it see like all the masks came off for adults >> outside >> but inside, it's going to

take some time even people that have not wanted to wear them i don't know, it's the behavorial-type stuff. yeah, it was kind of good when people avoid you, isn't it >> it's being back. >> yes as we go to the summer travel season, the next guest predicts a full travel season for business it includes ryanair, lauda, malta air and buzz thank you for joining us thank you for giving us the latest snapshot. when you think about how things have improved over in the last couple of weeks, it sounds great, michael but when you do year over year, it still weighs down that's the fact of the situation. >> good morning, joe the investor results ran over town, i'm afraid again, apologies

we're seeing very strong recovery in europe maybe uk passengers booking holiday. vaccinating about 60% of their hop population they're at 30% population, they've expecting to get to 80% by june. moving beyond the kind of restrictions now we have seen our bookings. weekly bookings, from 500,000 million bookings in the first part of april, to 1.5 bookings last week. that's about 50% of revenues but catching up, in italy, france, spain, june, july and september. these are beginning to factor in the fact that most of the european population, adult population will be vaccinated by the end of june. but there will be very few restrictions in place, july,

august, september. people locked up in the last few months are dying to go to the beaches. and over the weekend, the uk, most of europe is back on route for june, july, august and september. i'm not sure we'll see many american guests over here this summer, but we're looking forward to welcoming you back into summer, too >> while you were talking, i was thinking, what type of travel summer it's going to be in europe and i think you answered it. among europeans, you're going to see quite a bit of it, but still coming from the united states, there's a perception that maybe we've got more vaccinated, you know, we've done more in terms of vaccinating the population but variants as well you don't think a lot of americans are going to travel to europe, this summer -- more than last summer, obviously but down how much from a normal year, do you think >> it's hard to know because we don't fly long haul.

>> right >> i don't have access to figures. but certainly, capacity is way down we think the short-term recovery, american domestics are recovering very strongly now european -- intereuropean stuff is recovering very strongly. i don't think very many people will be traveling with their families long haul the travel across summer will be significantly down, i would think, 50%, 60%. >> yeah. >> certainly in europe, by short-term bookings. they're not going to asia, back to the beaches of europe and i do not want a huge underpay a return certainly in europe we're seeing a sharp recovery of u.s. domestic air travel in the last couple of weeks on the backs of very successful vaccine in america and europe is catching up. >> we made comments about boeing the arrogance of, what, current

management, what is the experience that you're having? it would seem to be in a position to bend over backwards to try to satisfy customers. that's not what you're seeing from boeing? >> you got to be careful look, we've ordered 210 in the game-changer, the 737, the max 8-200s they were certified on the 6th of april we've been very disappointed, though, by the performance of the management team in seattle who have, you know, repeatedly given us that date, delivery date for the aircraft that they've missed there's been a degree of com complaicom mra complaisance and we were told it would be fixed in a day or two and the faa is not billing to cut boeing any slack we think there's -- you know, the leadership team in boeing,

dave calhoun, greg smith, they've done aterrific job boeing as a group has a very strong position to recover strongly but seattle needs to get it back together we wrote them ten days ago to say the team, look, we've got the results, give us an update where we are first and every week now, it's the 26th of may, we don't know where you are we don't know how you're delivering for summer. we need you compliant in ten days it's a great aircraft and company. the leadership under calhoun and smith has been tremendous. but they've let down in seattle. i think regulators are not happy with the way they're being treated by the management team in seattle and we as a customer are not happy with the responses, or lack of responses we're getting. we want to take 14 of these aircraft by the end of may,

we've paid for them. supposedly can soon, we can't even get a reply to our letter i think boeing need to up their game in seattle. they need to deal with the regulator with hutch more humility it needed to communicate with the customer, we need these airplanes. >> good luck, michael. when we come back, much more on that potential deal between at&t and discovery we'll talk more about that next. "squawk box" will be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪ stocks trying to keep the rally going after wall street's best day since march we'll tell you what you need to watch ahead of the open straight ahead. mostly some red arrows a possible blockbuster media deal at&t plans to america with discovery communications we'll break down what it could mean for the media sector. plus, we'll peek to former aei director, author nathan brooks on the president's infrastructure plan and much

more the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now good morning welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc on this monday morning i'm andrew ross sorkin along with becky quick and joe kernen. take a look at u.s. equity futures at this hour we're in the red the dow off by 126 points nasdaq off 51 points. s&p 500 off about 15 points right now. but we've got so many headlines from over the weekend. here's what's making headlines at this hour at&t is in talks to merge its warner media unit, all of it with discovery communications. this is according to sources that spoke to cnbc the announcement could come as soon as this morning it would be a newly traded public company owned by at&t and shareholders and poses construction to rivals, netflix and disney

we'll talk a lot more about that and watch for that deal to hopefully cross the wires soon >> meantime, walmart and costco have both announced relaxed mask rules. both say masks will no longer be required for vaccinated workers and shoppers however, this will not be in the case in local states and cities where man daydates have not bee lifted lots of confusion. meanwhile, gas shortages are easing fingers crossed. and colonial warns that it will take some time for the supply chain to fully catch up. joe. >> i never experienced any issue. and i had someone else pumping my gas for me. that's the beauty of new jersey, sorkin you that don't -- that you don't appreciate i pull into a gas station, and people ask me whatti i need.

and i'm perfectly willing to fill my car with gas >> how are you going to fill it up a day when you never have to go to a gas station ever again >> because they recognize you. >> yeah, they recognize you. can i help you, mr. kernen -- >> yeah. >> that's one of the few good laws that you don't have to reek of gasoline. leisman is here. leisman is here. something is going to change as we undergo a massive shift. the services, service business had a rough time when you can't get near anybody i guess, steve liesman has his latest road block barometer. makes sense. >> exactly, joe, as consumers turn to prepandemic levels, and away from goods, investors, we have a problem data does a poor job of tracking

the economy, even though it's consumer spending. the only alternative, we turn to alternative data of what's really happening take a look at the road back barometer. it's happening but slowly. movie box office spending remains 89% below pre-covid levels that could be the lack of releases when that changes they'll come back to the movies. and pro sports, down 53% at the nba, mlb and nhl, they're all in action. and airline travel is down 37 percent. that's an improvement from april. this time, the lawyers, doctors, barbershops, they're not captured in the retail sales report one way, jpmorgan shows spending with a card not present still stronger than those going to stores and that's interesting with a more permanent shift as we gain

from the pandemic. even once the economy opens. another sign to watch, jpmorgan spending by generation it shows the millennials and gen xers, hey, all of the restrictions are off for them. but baby boomers, really interesting. this is the most vaccinated group. they continue to lag we'll see when that starts to come back, we'll get a more definite shift return to services will happen, undoing 14 months of staying and working at home and being cautious, that's going to take some time. the road back to the service economy so far has been a slow drive but might accelerate now that the mask mandate has been lifted >> i would talk to you, steve, but we've got stuff happening. we're not going to talk to you becky, is this happening, are we ready to go? >> no, this is for real. i'm reading the release right now. at&t, warner media and discovery are creating a stand-alone company by combining operations

to form say new global reader in enter payment. what's going to happen, a reverse trust transaction where at&t would receive $43 billion, in cash, debt securities and warner media's retention of certain debt and at&t shareholders would receive 79% of stock discovery owners would have 29%. they say the board of directors have approved this transaction that is a similar deal to what had been done with directv and the way they had spun that off as well. but let's talk a little bit more about this under the terms of the agreement, they say they'd be bringing together the strong leadership of the teams, content, high quality. forming a new company that will have significant scale and investment resources they say projected 2023 revenue of about $5 00 -- $52 billion

adjust ebitda of $30 billion they say $3 billion of expected cost energy for cost to increase in content and digitization. that's part of the problem how much can you don't pour in, how much more could you pour in for creating content for direct to consumer business at&t says this is an opportunity for them to unlock value for media assets just reading through to see more about this but, guys, this is what we had anticipated. you can see discovery shares have picked up even a little bit more i think they're up by 14% the last i saw right now, up by 17% to 4170 at&t shares up on this shnews up 4.5%. >> they were probably up all

night, as of last check, they said there's no guarantee this could be done. or would be done >> andrew. >> at&t showed how to prove it last night and one major point that is crucial, though, in the marketplace right now. this deal does not require a vote by at&t shareholders, and effectively, agreements are already in place with malone and with vance to vote in favor of the transaction. which means that this is basically a lock deal. so, i know there were lots of questions about whether another suitor could come in that makes it very, very difficult, if not impossible for that to take place one. other things that has happened here, that the governance structure has shifted a bit here so that there's now one share, one vote discovery before had what might be considered a complex

governance structure that gave malone and folks from newhouse more voting. this now moves that to one share, one vote. which, again, i think is something that the market is going to like more broadly seven board members for at&t six board members for discovery. david said as we said before is running the show. >> well, we're going to talk to these folks and get more clarity. who's in, who's out. we might not get that today, right? >> probably not. >> looks like 10:15. >> i don't think we'll get any decision what they do with combined assets in terms of direct-to-consumer, they bundle those, put those together, that may take a while to work out but you've got to remember there are a lot of problems that discovery has nationally that they'll have

to bring to the table. that will be interesting how they sort that out >> and who's next? who makes the next -- things like this have a way of getting other people to think about things >> yes, it does. >> getting people to think, how are we >> a good deal >> and you wonder if you're -- >> yeah, discovery shares up by 17%. at&t up by 4.25% when we come back, rich greenfield will join us on this deal that was just announced between at&t and discovervy. we'll dig much deeper into the details with him "squawk box" will be right back. the big presentation. the day where everything goes right. or the one where nothing does. with comcast business you get the network that can deliver gig speeds to the most businesses and advanced cybersecurity to protect every device on it— all backed by a dedicated team, 24/7.

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welcome back to "squawk." at&t officially now merging its communications with warner media. and discovery. owned by currently at&t and discovery shareholders and will present stronger competition to streaming rivals like netflix and disney rich, your quick takeaways when you heard the dealwas in the

offing >> well, first shock, more than anything else, this was not something that anyone was talking about or anticipating. there's no doubt that discovery was subscale i think that had been talked about for quite some time. i don't think anyone would have expected that discovery effective is consuming all of warner media i don't think it's shocking that at&t wanted to spin out warner media. we talked that vertical integration has never created anything in the sector that's not a big surprise. david zaslav effectively has conquered the throne and now runs all of warner media no one had that on their bingo card >> here's the question for you i think it's genius for discovery. and i think for at&t, spinning it off makes sense the question is are these the right merger partners? would you bet on this group to make it work, especially when you start to think about the

rest of the competitive landscape? >> look. this is actually -- there's a lot written about mega deal and huge just step back this is essentially taking the old time warner that you and i talked about and knew really well i still remember when you were interviewing all of these executives at your conference back in the day of the time warner days. and you're injecting another small cable network group in discovery into that. now, do they own a lot of their programming? sure they own a lot of unscripted reality programming. we had learned of nbcuniversal, that would be transformational two studios. the theme park that has a lot of the warner franchises like harry potter merging in with warner media. that would be a landscape-type deal this is adding unscripted and cash flow to warner media.

probably the most important aspect of this deal is it's no longer a part of the tellico you don't have those that have to answer to the tellico powers. this frees them of that structure. i don't think this is as transformational as the alternatives might have been i just can't believe brian roberts is allowing this to happen and isn't trying to stop this and buy warner media now. >> we were talk about that prospect in the last hour, but when you read through this release from the s.e.c. filings, it looks like the vote already happened it looks like it's a locked-up deal >> it does i think this feels like it's a done deal. i'm just surprised if you had said warner media is for sale, and put the auction sign on the front lawn, i think you would have generated -- this is not just turner. yes, do we all love turner

assets n no the reinvention of itis a huge opportunity when you look what the disney has done with marvel. then you get to hbo and hbo max. i think they've come a long way in building a tech-focused streaming platform they have more subscribers in the u.s. than disney plus, they have more zub subscrr than hulu. they were doing an amazing job building this platform i think the big question that all of your viewers need to be thinking about, andrew, how did this transformation -- what happens to the talent? a lot of talent sort of filtered into warner meedmedia, over thet couple years since jason tyler took over. how does this new structure and new team, as you figure out who comes and who goes, how do they keep that momentum going

that's probably not the easiest thing to do. there's been a lot of deal waiting for executive throughout warner media over the last five years. >> why do you think zaslav won out here why do you think this was a more attractive deal and partnership? do you think there would be have been problems trying to remain a majority deal ifthey had done this deal with comcast >> there's no doubt, if you did a deal with comcast, you would have had to do a double reverse trust. ant ease and divest control. at&t would have to divest control. this gives at&t shareholders, you've got telco shareholders owns a media company with cable networks and planning to be a streaming media company. so that's sort of a weird asset,

in terms of the shareholder base look, i think they won out my guess is viacom was a controlled company discovervy was not obviously, malone played a large role, i think, in kind of wheeling this deal and making you're that zaslav and his team were in charge of the combined equity i don't know, becky. it's a great question. what was the option for not running an option process here i don't know obviously this gets cash quickly. you lay a lot of debt, 43 billion i was reading this morning. you're laying off a lot of debt and doing it very quickly. obviously no shareholder approval this doesn't have any regulatory approval a comcast deal would have had regulatory approval that would have been needed this is probably a quick way to generate cash. maybe it's that simple this was the quickest way to generate cash for at&t and they should have acknowledged that vertical integration is a complete

failure. >> rich, in terms of the combined company, in terms of the cash flow they're going to have, how much money do you think they'll be able to spend on content in terms of game-changer, one of the things you talked about how much does it cost to buy up content. and one of the things that made media hamstrung for some extent having to send all of that money back to at&t >> i'll tell you, i actually disagree with that a little bit. if you look at the hbo financials, they've gone from $2 billion of ebitda to significant amounts. i think the first quarter was down 80% in ebitda, because they were investing strongly in hbo and hbo max. i think now with discovery, with the quadrajet balance and how aggressively this is a subcost category

discovery goes away. you build one streaming service. hopefully, you clear up this hbo/hbo max problem. and you build one for the future i think that's what shareholders want they want to see this fill-in look like disney where all that matters is streaming and all of the energy is going towards streaming. if it's hey, let's maintain our cable networks and keep the profitability, investors are going to vomit >> we've got to run, what happens to viacomcbs and nbcuniversal those are the two chess pieces left >> viacomcbs got delayed three years because of the battles that we talked about with management teams and lawsuits. it's unfortunate they were in place for step-one of a multi-step process. the problem is it's not clear what that step is. merging comcast and viacom --

merging nbc and viacomcbs is possible you sort of want the paramount unit but i don't think they're going to sell that directly. it really feels like viacom, you don't know what the next chess move is, maybe you you buy mgm, they seed a s-spot, liongate, mgm. maybe those are the next moves if i'm sitting at nbc or viacom, this was a real blow, this was a major chess piece everyone thought in warner media, more so until discovery, this is a major chess piece that is getting scaled up away from you. not good >> rich, i think you answered the question, though, in what you were talking about regulatory -- this is a company

that has intense muscle memory of what could happen with a regulator slowing things down since they bought time warner. >> becky, i believe it could actually be that simple. this was a clean deal. no regulatory approval fcc -- i didn't see what the closing was on this, this should not be 12 or 18 months to close. this should be simple to close over a nine-month period i would think. >> rich, great to see. >> thanks for having me, becky and andrew >> thanks for your time. joe. coming up, arthur brooks on the state of the economy and the president's infrastructure plan. check out bitcoin yesterday. elon musk is in a twitter phase that let people to believe that tesla sold its holdings.

but tesla has clarified and said it has not sold any crypto and crypto has bounced back about 45,000 we're coming right back. (announcer) carvana's had a lot of firsts. 100% online car buying. car vending machines. and now, putting you in control of your financing. at carvana, get personalized terms,

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box," where have all of the workers gone we're going to talk to the labor shortage and the decision by at least 18 states to opt out of jobless aid. plus, mohamed el-erian joins adg ektalk markets for the trinwe ahead stay tuned we're watching "squawk box" and this is cnbc. this is hannah - she's a posh virtual receptionist. when you're busy, she answers the phone. thank you for calling the anderson group hannah speaking. when you're in a meeting, ashley can take a message. she's not available, but i'd be happy to take a message. and if you're stuck in court, lisa will let your clients know. thank you, mr. decker will call you back

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welcome back to "squawk box. i'm dominic chu here with your "market minute." over the course of the past week, we've seen volatility on the downside resolve itself for the upside toward the end of the week still, the dow industrials, s&p 500 and nasdaq on a year-to-date basis still show that the dow and s&p are outperforming. if you look, the nasdaq underperformance echoes at probably the biggest theme so far from a macro perspective this year. if you look at a key focus for many traders and investors out, momentum in all of the market, semiconductor up big the transportation index and home housing construction business up big overall. but you can see the pullbacks over the last couple of weeks have been a big focus for many traders. semiconductor, though, still a

relative underperformer given the home and transportation stocks yes, there's one man that has a lot of sway over the cryptocurrency market. that's tesla's elon musk bitcoin is down. but 45,250 is the current price right now. we were 51,500 on friday before the volatility over the weekend with elon musk's tweets of tesla buying, selling, holding. keep an eye on that, plus all of the ecosystem stocks tied with it tesla is out of the free market but so is microstrategy, square and riot blockchain. keep an eye, becky, on the bitcoin ecosystem stocks down so far. back over to you >> hey, dom, let's bring back the bitcoin chart you were looking at a second ago.

bring that back. it wasn't the 45,000 number that i was watching and paying attention to >> that was the number, right? >> it was the ten-year price change i was trying to figure out where to put the decimal point, 6 623563% over ten years? >> that's correct. most people are focusing here. >> back then it was dogecoin >> i wanted to, i had a colleague back in the day that said, you should try to get in on this. i kept thinking to myself, becky, had i just put a thousand bucks if i could back then i'd still be here. >> you would have had 1,000 sometimes 622500% -- >> i would still want to be here with you guys. >> liar. lying. lying. thanks, dom. >> you got it. when we come back, hazard

and kennedy school professor arthur brooks joins us to talk about the american labor force, the president's infrastructure plan and the economy and latest, don't ssmi the interview with atlanta fed president raphael bostic we'll be right back.

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♪ breaking news at this hour, at&t is merging its warner media unit with discovery communications it was a just announced deal the deal creating a new publicly traded company which had to be owned by current at&t and discovery holders. and also presents stronger rivals for netflix and disney. we should tell you that david zaslav and at&t chief john stankey is going to join us to talk about the deal. at&t getting $43 billion of cash to pay some of that debt down. of course, as interest rates go up, that was probably something also on their minds for the future as well a fascinating transaction and so cleverly structured, frankly, for both sides meantime, many executives saying workers are nowhere to be

count. after a survey, the employed to see what is going on and rahel solomon joins us with more >> hi, andrew. we've likely offered concerns from business owners and executives saying they can't find workers even treasury secretary janet yellen is hearing the same though the unemployment rate ticked up last month we want to know what is on the minds of unemployed. surveying 1,000 unemployed workers 90% say they have not been offered a job although most are most actively looking. when we asked those looking for a job, how important were an enhanced unemployment benefits, all two-thirds reported it was not a reason at all. so what were the reasons for turning down the job one-third said they need to care for their family that includes child care 35% said health concerns because

of covid were a major factory. and 31% said the offered salary was too low. three quarters offered a job saying their proposed wages were lower than the prior job we did see hourly wages pick up in the last jobs report. an indication that workers are offered more competitive wages agency they try to entice new worker we'll see if there's any movement in the next jobs report but so many are reporting low wages as a reason to not accept an offer employers looking for workers might have to do more. guys >> okay, rahel thank you. we'll talk to arthur brooks about this at least 18 states have opted out of pandemic national aid amid a shortage. and the debate whether the stimulus does more harm than good let's bring in arthur brooks, he's with harvard university and contributor to the atlantic.

and author of the book "the art of happiness." thank you. your motto is you don't preach to the choir, you go to places like people agree with you, like harvard. why preach to the choir. why go to manhattan institute or somewhere you can convert people you heard rahel's report, when i saw that 31% said that the salaries weren't high enough i think that therein lies the benefit effect a lot of places, we're hearing it all the time, they're offering more than they ever offered. they've boosted the offerings to try to bring people back still not coming there's still people at home you think there's something to the benefit story, right, don't you, arthur? >> yeah, for sure. restaurants, food service workers, retail workers, it's

pretty clear what they've been saying, it's truly not worth it going back to work under the current circumstances. i'm not saying that people are taking advantage, they're making rational decisions when you have relatively generous unemployment benefits, people are going to avail themselves when they're home with their families, people like to do more unless, unless small businesses, restaurants, establishments start bidding up the wages ordinarily, in a recession, people will take lower salaries. lower wages. and that's one of the reasons labor markets start to remember. we actually don't have that mechanism. people say that's terrific retail and food service places have to pay a lot more the question is whether or not those on the margins in those industries whether they can, that's going to create different problems >> right that's what will we immediately heard. it's like, well, good. it's good that -- finally, we'll get the wage that will be

hoisted upon the corporations, even if it doesn't make necessarily economic sense let's try to get into that let me ask you this. >> huh >> i've talked to you for years, love everything that you write one of the greatest books you've written is "the road to freedom. i think that what you are sort of contrasting that with is the road to serfdom which is the famous book did we all know about that describes what happens down this road, this slippery slope towards an entitlement state or socialism land would you say what's proposed if it was all passed we'd be well on our way down that other road, not the road to freedom, but the road to serfdom. don't you think we reverse and head back the other way and can it be done >> i think you can

what normally happens, one side proposes less. the other side proposes more i think what the democrats are proposing right now, the sort of christmas list of all of the things that they want. i don't think any of them really thinks that all of these things is going to come to pass even if they do as the wiheel turns, the wheel of political fortune changes in the house and senate at some point in the white house, that gets reversed. it's not that democrats want more and republicans want less but there's no effort whatsoever for people to come together to actually try to hammer out a deal that can endure and people at the margin, poor people, people just barely getting by, they're the ones that get hurt. do i have health care this year. do i have a higher wage now? do i not have a higher wage then they can't count on the policies this is part of the political football in washington, d.c. i'm going to win everything, i'm going to get everything i can.

push everything on a pure partisan vote. and then when the next guys come in, they're going to do the reverse. then we get the road to freedom and then the road to surfdom with the change. >> i go back to regan's great comment how we're only one generatj generation away. but it's not -- we don't pass it to our children. >> freedom >> right, the freedom. i look at the polls, oh, yeah, we got to tax corporations oh, yeah, we got to give free education. they all agree with it right now. i don't think we've been this far along in terms of changing what we learned back in the '80s i mean, that was a transformative time. and people -- i hear the narrative, oh, trickle-down. yeah, reagan trickle-down. no one notices that we shook

ourselves down even bill clinton when he decided to do things, it was in the context that people assuming that huge government and smaller private sector was a bad thing now, we don't have that anymore. we're now at a point where people are fully comfortable advocating for massive government and curtailing the private sector we're going to come back from this why would we >> because progressive populism is not actually that popular nor is conservative populism we had the trump era, populism as far as it goes, and we went rail to rail this is very normal in 15 years after a financial crisis joe you've seen these daylta, too. 80% go to the top and you get populism which is highly polarizing, highly coercive, and people are exhausted by it and get sick of it pretty unlikely that now the

progressive part of populism is going to be that effective and the key is that republicans can become a lot more normal politically. if they can, if they can get past the four years that they've had, they can become more aspirational hearings the key point, joe, that gets back to the conversation you say that people want free stuff, for example, this has always been the idea john adams says the greatest threat to democracy is when people can vote to take away other people's money earned stuff, when people feel they've earned their stuff they're happier, they feel more successful and back in their lives where ideally both are conspiring to find some where more people have opportunity to earn success until then, we'll get alternative populisms which are just terrible for the country. >> so, you think if you earned 50 grand a year -- that's better

than -- i'm not saying these are the right numbers. earning 50 grand is better than staying at home and watching netflix. >> there are four secrets to a happy life, faith, family, friendship and earning things cultivated through work. the secret to american success is entrepreneurial culture based on the idea that our lives are an endeavor in success that's the way it works. >> you're not worried about today's youth, what's being taught all of the things we hearing is being taught that is popular in polls? is what you're witnessing right now play out before your eyes, you're optimistic? >> no, i'm hopeful and the point i'm trying to make, yeah, there's a lot of nonsense going around. there's a lot of people saying

things that aren't good for the country that aren't true however, nobody says i want my kid to get everything for free nobody says that everybody says i want my kid to grow up to be successful and work hard and earn his or her success. and serve other people that's what people want. if people have ambitions for their kids, ultimately, they have ambitions for themselves. what will we need are politicians and a business sector that is trying to make these opportunities. >> you know what's going to happen, arthur, some of these policies are not going to work the fed is going to stand at zero and the inequality orchestrated by the fed is going to get even worse. it's the path to health. >> well, stan bruken mueller is always right

>> atlanta atlanta. >> were have a festival this wo weekt. >> happiness festival and joe. it's like dogs and cats living together anyway, next on quk "saw box," allianz chief analyst mohammeded el-erian. with watson on a hybrid cloud they can use ai to help predict client needs and get the data they need to quickly design coverage for each one. businesses that want personalization and speed are going with a smarter hybrid cloud using the technology and expertise of ibm. nice bumping into you. in business, it's never just another day. it's the big sale, or the big presentation. the day where everything goes right. or the one where nothing does.

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breaking news at this hour at&t will be merging its warner media unit with discovery communications the deal just announced, and it creates a new publicly traded company which will be owned by current at&t and discovery shareholders it will also present strong competitor to streaming video rivals like netflix, disney and others, discovery ceo david zaslav and at&t chief john stankey will join "squawk on the street" later this morning to talk about that deal becky. let's also take a look at the futures this morning and after a rough week last week, but one that ended stronger on thursday and friday, we are looking at some giveback this morning dow futures have been increasingly under pressure this morning. they're now down by 164 points s&p futures would open down by 20 points. and the nasdaq off by 78 joining us right now to talk markets, allianz and gramercy

adviser mohammeed el-erian. with all of this building, the fed is going to stand pat and but they won't do anything to taper until 2023, what do you think? >> so, the fed is showing absolutely no hesitation in reasserting its vision that inflation is transitory. short term, i don't think the fed moves at all, it will need unambiguous evidence and then has to go through a whole cycle. i know where it's coming from and sympathy whether it extends on 2023, i'm not sure the reports on raw materials and labor are not going naying awaye

soon >> what were the words that you put air quotes around? the fed was dealing with what -- >> all sorts of bottlenecks that the fed is dealing with. but in its mind, it's absolutely convinced. it has expressed this conviction it's transitory. it keeps on repeating, inflation is transitory. it's not just the macro evidence you show what the michigan inflation expectations, that moved significantly higher one year and five years. but it's also all of the evidence we're getting from companies. the thing i'm hearing most common from company ceos is we're having problems securing input. and we're looking to increase prices and wages what amazon and mcdonald did is

a much bigger phenomenon of higher wages >> whether inflation is here, or transitory or not is to be seen. but he thinks the fed would never admit it, they will have to keep rates low by whatever means, whether that means not raising rates, whether that means to continue to pour money into the treasury markets just because you look at the amount of spending we're doing, the amount of debt we're racking up, there's no way we can service that debt as a nation if interest rates rise. what do you think? >> so, i think he's right in the short term i think that's why we see the ten-year yield where it is even though other indications of migrations are migrating up. and the fed has moved an outcome-based monetary framework. so, i agree with him in the short term you know, becky, it is now incredible people talking about

the ecb, the ecb which is way behind the fed in terms of excuses for normalizing, may start talking about qe paper before the fed the bank of england has thought it i think the fed will hold on to this position for a long time. it is a collective hope that they are right because if they're not right, then it's not good either for the markets or the economy if they are that late >> yes, that late, you talk about the spiral and thinking back to days that haven't been here in decades, right >> yeah. i mean, one of two things are going to happen or both will happen the market will start getting nervous. and then the fed may have to slam on the brakes the last thing we need is the fed slamming on the brakes experience shows when that happens, we end up with a recession. that's why we should all be encouraging the fed to move from i'm not thinking about thinking to thinking. start asking yourself, why is it

that you can dismiss all of this evidence, both on the top down and bottom up, and hold on to a conviction you should be more open-minded have a bit more humility about the fact that we don't understand well supply bottlenecks. and economists typically lag when it comes to supply bottlenecks. >> mohamed, my friend, by the way, you look spiffy, i like this, the queens college look normal with that hat >> you don't want to see the jeans i have on or the slippers i have on. >> we'll take the tie. mohamed, thank you we'll see you soon >> thank you, becky. coming up, i'll show you my slippers if you show me yours. much more on today's top story at&t announcing a deal to merge warner media with discovery. later, don't miss our exclusive interview with atlanta fed president raphael bostic stay tuned lots more after this

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week but looks like we're going to get a reversal at the opening bell this morning. and investors taking a hard new look at fed policy after last week's spike in inflation. we're going to talk about whether this could be just the beginning of a troubling trend we'll have the atlanta fed president, raphael bostic. the final hour of "squawk box" with so much going on begins right now. ♪ good morning, and welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin equity futures in the red. some of the worst figures for the dow. down 161 points. big gain on friday, ancient history. nasdaq down 78 points, s&p headed down 20 or so

taking a quick look at treasuries, ten-year, well behaved, 1.63. a weekend selloff, that's about a week of selloff in bitcoin and other cryptos got as low as 42,000 or so bitcoin back about 45,000. >> yeah, back to "snl. all the way back to that week. >> elon musk on "snl." >> 850 or more we had a segment talking about it the top story at&t and time warner announcing a deal to combine at&t content warner media. the combination will be owned by current shareholders of both companies. at&t will receive $43 billion in cash, debt and securities and warner media's retention of debt and in the combined distribution, the deal would

create a much more formidable competitor to netflix and disney disney plus. we're going to talk more about this in a few minutes. then at 10:15 eastern, discovery ceo david zaslav and john stankey at&t ceo will join "squawk on the street" for the first cnbc interview a lot of good synergies. it's going to be bigger than nbcuniversal at this point bigger than netflix. you look sat diat discovery, its really all around the world and all of it unscripted in a way. it generates a lot of cash, this gives zaslav, his main is varied at-large and exciting. we mentioned this tongue in cheek, he needed that house, i think in beverly hills he must have known something a year and a half -- he needs a place to have all of the hollywood types come in and what better than --

>> we've been speculating for a while. >> what better than -- no, go ahead. >> we've been speculating for a while where this was a situation where discovery either needed to be killed or get killed. they were going to be bought up, i don't know very many people were anticipating this deal. at least not many people it was quite a shock when i first started looking through stuff, okay, it's out there. discovery shares up by 13% we did see them up as much as 17% this morning at&t shares also higher, close to 3.5%. >> what's the average warner media executive feeling right now? average warner media employee feeling? >> we should ask, there's a call going on right now, they were asked, david zaslav and john stankey were asked david punted to john and john

punted back to david on his future which i think is a bit of -- a bit of a punt all around so, probably complicated there but i have to tell you, i think this deal is going to go down in sor sort of history as a case study in smart and clever negotiating on the part of discovery i don't think anybody had this on their radar the idea that discovery effectively is taking control of warner media, a company that is meaningfully larger than them which is a challenge business, effectively can be described as challenged putting them all together and we talk about the speed of it all when i meant structurally, this is a deal as we've said it doesn't require any voting at this point by shareholders it's goinging to close likely quickly. it boxes out any potential

suitor there's been talk for years about whether nbcuniversal would want to merge with warnermedia to sbbolster the assets of peacock. it's a question whether some of the assets would want to merge with assets of time warner, like cnn. to see john malone put this all together is something. what did you say >> it is and malone is so smart about always doing the tax-free deals, at&t is till going to own 71% of the new company but david zaslav is going to be running things. it seems like a clear sign that at&t is saying, you guys run it, you figure it out. you're going to find ways to pour a lot more into the content for direct-to-consumer, at&t

gets the benefit of those things watching zaslav run this, watching the discovery people come together and putting more money into global content and that social structure, it will be something to see. >> right >> andrew, your newspaper points out in this piece not too long, zaslav doesn't seem to be that enthralled in the news business. it's overcooked. therefore, discovery wouldn't be interested in cnn. i wonder how does cnn become a crown jewel for discovery. or does it shop around >> i think it does because of the global piece when you really think about some of the global assets that discovery has and the international brand of cnn, i think there's probably an unique opportunity to see unique things the question goesback to what happens to at&t at this point. because this -- >> do they have the money -- >> hopefully, they're able to get out of this transaction

alive, if you will call it a push, maybe. i think it's going to be harder to claim that this transaction unto itself was a push >> right >> it was an absolute mess >> right >> as we talked about earlier, the earlier t-mobile deal turned out to give t-mobile a whole new lifeline the truth is on those at least on the warner deal and at&t, those are john stankey companies. john was right there >> how big -- the musical chair, how many chairs are left in your view, guys? how many can you count, when the music stops where do thinks go you immediately think viacomcbs, right? >> i mean, viacomcbs, you know that brian roberts is sitting, thinking about what he can or wants to do next

there's still starz which is out there. and epix and mgm there's a handful. the question is if you put them together, what do you get? it's buy or build at this point, buy or build, and both are expensive. >> all right >> yeah. >> maybe we should be happy, i don't know i like john, but you put zaslav in charge of hollywood-type stuff, i think he might be better than at&t at doing that, don't you think? i mean, doesn't this seem like -- it's almost like at&t is saying, you know what, this is not for us >> he knows how to massage talent, i will tell you that >> this is not for us, let's get the hell out while the getting is good. that's kind of what it looks like now, it's going to be exciting to watch zaslav get his arms around this thing and run with it unscripted, it's not quite as sexy -- it had been for discovery. they've made it sexy

but now to see what he can do with this. i'm interested, excited, about the future for these combined -- >> you know unscripted >> yeah, we do we do. it gets a little dicey sometimes, but we do >> we get ourselves in trouble with that sometimes. >> we're not following a script right now. >> right we're going to move on potential signs of progress on an infrastructure deal out of d.c., democrats and republicans are still pretty far apart how much they want to spend but the white house said late last week that president biden expects a revised proposal joining us economic adviser, jarod burnstein. it's great to see you. this talk of bipartisanship, how seriously do you take this because my understanding is bipartisanship will happen only if it doesn't get jammed

through? and is that likely that the democrats will line up with the plans by the administration? >> first of all, great to see the three of you as well i think in this case, particularly, becky, there's a real chance for bipartisanship the reason i say that, i've known for years, from my work on the hill, that there are republicans that really want to do something on infrastructure you've heard no less mitch mcconnell talk about bridge in his district that needs work that's something i've heard for a long time. some of these republicans would pull me over in the halls and say, look, i don't want anyone to see me talking to you, but we need to get a infrastructure plan and our president doesn't have one but now we've got a president that has one elaborately and going to be moving forward >> jared, you're dodging my question, the president didn't reach across the aisle and move forward with something when he could get the democratic votes

we have had several democrats who have come on the show, in the house and senate, who have raised questions about the infrastructure plan being who progressive, cramming things in there that they don't propose. just last week on friday, we were talking with congressman gottheimer from new jersey saying saying no salt, no dice he wants the s.a.l.t. taxes brought back the exemption for that he's not going to vote on that, if you don't get the votes in the house, you don't get the votes in the senate, you're not going to get it. >> well, i'm not sure exactly what you're pressing me on what i'm trying to say, if you watch what the president is doing and watch what he's saying, he's talking to the lawmakers trying to get to the deal >> here's what i'm saying, what i'm saying is -- what i'm saying

is the deal is probably not going to look like the proposal that was put forth it's probably going to be one that has a lot less of that infrastructure as gottheimer said, he thinks there will be two bill, one that the democrats and republicans can agree on, that's the traditional sort of infrastructure, when you think of bridges, roads, tunnels, maybe some of the infrastructure for the internet wrapped in that the second would be the new definition of infrastructure, which is infrastructure that really relate back to people, senior care, child care. he thinks there's going to be two bills, that's the way to get it done. do you think that's the case >> i think that's a possible scenario look, i'm not going to negotiate legislative details here, it's not my place here as a member of the eecom, not the legislative team and there's one that the president sits on which is, one,

inaction is completely unacceptable which is why he's trying to get to a path forward which may involve particularly the machinations that you're talking about. and the second is no tax increases under $400,000 we do need to see everyone coming to the table on how they're going to support this plan that's something that the president has laid out quite elaborately with a set of highly pro siff tax changes that complied play for the families and jobs plan over 15 years. i think the other point you made which is worth raising which is the more broad definition of infrastructure that the president has consistently pushed and here you have to realize, when you're talk about lead in pipes, when you're talking about millions of people who don't have access to broadband, when you're talking about trying to invest in advanced manufacturing and electric vehicles. he views this as not just a

matter of getting to the other side of the crisis that the rescue plan is hastening, but building back better so those investments, standing up care economy, child and elder care, those are extremely important for this president and they're a bend in the jobs and family plan. >> let's stick to some of the economic purview you just brought up we've been watching this week, inflation numbers, much stronger than expected, cpi, you talk to owners, restaurants, you hear that costs are going up, not only isn'tn what they have to p, but what they're expecting customers to pay how significant is that, talking about trillions of dollars that we're planning on spending on top of the trillions that we've already spent? >> yeah, totally fair question i think people -- i've heard the discussion this morning. i was listening to discussions

you've been having, i think they've been informative but you also have to remember where things were when we got here and what we needed to do. of course, we were down something like 10 million jobs and the president took action quickly and employment began accelerating so, we've added over 500,000 jobs over the past six months compared to the last three months of 60,000 yeah, we have lots of americans with shots in their arms, checks in their pockets, and yes, they're re-engaging with congress and they're doing so with real alacrity and it's putting pressure on various parts of the economy here to me is the good sort of example of the issue airfares were up 10% in one month. they're still down 20% from their peak so, this is the kind of transitional movements from an

economy climbing out to an economy that's back on the move. and that's what will we're tracking now at this rate. >> jared, they're playing us out. we'll have you back soon much more to talk about. thanks for your time today it's good to see you >> you, too, becky andrew coming up, much more on this morning's breaking deal news of the day. the tieup of discovery and warnermedia. check out the shares, both up, discovery up 13% at&t up 3.13%. david zaslav saying this deal has been in the works for months just ahead, we've got an exclusive interview with atlanta fed president raphael bostic stay tuned you're watching cnbc

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♪ our top story this morning, a merger of discovery and at&t's warnermedia. our colleague david favo joins us with the latest details

you done good. you done good. i almost felt like -- you should recuse yourself, right >> he signed our contract. >> you did a great job, we're going to renew you for six more months, david, signed sczaslav >> yeah. i got all of my t-shirts that's why i'm saying, it's tough not to say those things. >> to the most powerful man in media. in charge of having subs, getting subs, when we had nobody on cnbc. in charge of getting our distribution together. i always knew -- i knew the guy at discovery, who knew he would get groomed to take over there now look at him, this is like king of hollywood, isn't it? >> yeah, it's quite a -- i mean, stunning, continued move upward. it's funny, know, you mentioned,

zas is a great salesman in terms of other things, that was the great thing when he came to network. >> that's the overriding thing, though, just like scary smart. >> yes >> in business >> yes >> and i think in terms of -- a lot of people writing in they think the assets are going to be much better treated now than at at&t >> there's a lot riding on his ability to do that deliver these very impressive numbers they're putting out there, in terms of $15 billion they're saying in direct-to-consumer revenue by 2023 that's not too far away. for these two platforms, hbo max and discovery plus only been in the works for a few months they've got a lot cut out for them, joe, putting this together, zaslav running the whole thing. >> another one of your longtime relations john malone.

i mean, he's like the elephant in the room with all of this >> yeah. he's going to be on the board of this obviously combined company. remember, he was on the board of at&t, back the old at&t when they bought tci, remember that they do very well with it. that's what became broadband at comcast, when michael armstrong leveraged up the company and had to sell it we've seen it all, joe this is the new at&t, the ftc at&t you've spend a lot of time with randall over the years don't you think, joe, it's a repudiation of what he did in a short period of time >> i would say that if john stankey wasn't his point man or what he was about to do. you can't divorce stankey on any of those deals was he just acting under randall's direction, is that

what you think or just effecting his issues or was he fully on board >> i think he was fully on board because that's the way he is but i also at this point say, wow, he's only been on the job in less than a year and he's basically director and warner, gone >> and the excuse for why it made sense for directv, it gave hem the heft to potentially do this but now both things are. >> yeah, yeah, direct is supposed to help, remember, with the dividends. because remember when they bought it was a significantly cash producing flow asset. that changed that deal barely got any attention when they announced it earlier this year. >> andrew wants in you two guys are what investment bankers are telling customers to do >> david -- that's what i want play chess with david. we got viacomcbs

>> yep >> you got starz, mgm out there. how do you think this plays out given there was a view that, you know, at some point, nbcu might want some people of warnermedia. i think there was a point out there that some viacomcbs wanted to merge now that's off the table, how does it work >> i don't know. starting with comcast, our parent company, there's always been a question as to whether at&t was ready to do something with the warner assets would there be great interest from comcast in merging the two n nbcu and warner together to create a colossus. the two would come together. one of them would have to go certainly get more regulatory scrutiny in a deal like that, andrew right now, it seems very unlikely, even though we've seen brian roberts get aggressive in

the past, remember with disney/fox, they came in and of course, they ended up buying sky comcast. here, you don't have a foreseller, at&t, i know you guys talked about that they had a choice here, 71% of the combined company will be owned by at&t shareholders it's not clear whether comcast can come to play here. you never know with them again, regulatory seems tougher. then the question becomes, andrew, well, is there something that should be done with nbcu, our parent company what about viacom? because they discussed merger partners for some sometime i can tell you, picking up the possibility of this at least a couple months ago, not knowing exactly what it was. my first thought was, it might be that, discovery and viacom getting together that might be having seen it

before, with aol and warner, i remember for edgar brockman to sell these things do create new realities. >> david, thank you for your genius as always we're going to be looking forward to your conversation with david zaslav and john stankey later at 10:15 a.m. eastern time it's a conversation. you do not want to miss the interview of the day meantime, the next interview, the next interview, tom rogers is with us. tom was the first president of nbc cable. and contributor and former ceo and worked with mr. zaslav as well tom, it's great to see you, what do you make with the deal? >> not only did i work with zaslav, he was our junior lawyer at cnbc when when he started

this is a personal accomplishment to sit on top of all of this. my first reaction, discovery, warnermedia, i thought of the two, dis-war this is war. is this no streaming battle anymore. this is a company that has been put together to really take it on david's narrative up until now with discovery has been he sit as part the entertainment streaming wars because discovery was nonfiction and something different. this creates a company that is global in news people aren't immediately playing to this, but global in sports because tnt has sports here, euro sport that discovery has overseas global and entertainment, obviously, with hbo and global and nonfiction entertainment with discovery so it's really the first company that puts together all four content genres into a single company to be able to do war i've never understood the at&t

deal i said that on air look, t-mobile rented netflix for purposes of promotion and marketing. verizon did it with disney plus. and discovery plus as well you didn't need to spend $110 billion with debt to create something that was supposedly going to help with at&t churn. no board member i talked to at at&t could ever really explain the synergies here so this had to happen. >> so, the question i'd ask you, though, now we're talking streaming. if you put hbo max together effectively with discovery plus, are those assets together, meaning the tent pole stuff that hbo max is doing, along with the reality work of discovery, is that enough? is that enough to compete with the netflix, with the disney plus is there enough cash flow to keep spending on even more content on top of that how do you think about it?

>> well, hbo max and as an asset within at&t was always coming up against the at&t debt. the at&t dividend issue. and the need for at&t to build out 5g so for purposes of having cash flow that can be totally dedicated to driving a global streaming business, sure, this is a much better combination i think that, as i said, it's not just about discovery which has a library as big as netflix, when it came to just purely nonfiction programming and now i imagine the total library content here is the biggest in the world, but they do have sports and news to add to it. i wouldn't be surprised to see one global bundle that incorporates all four content genres, where netflix hasn't gone, or it doesn't do sports. disney has had this awkward

issue of it has separated hulu from espn plus from disney plus this may be the first streaming platform that really incorporates all forms of content under one roof and does have the scale with the cash flow to be able to drive it you know, it's really key that -- you've got to have global scale in this game. netflix has shown itself to have a global model that nobody else does but the one thing that discovery really brings to the table here is distribution in just about every country in the world hbo had a real question mark over its head in terms of its ability to really drive global distribution so that element there of being able to create this worldwide footprint against all of these assets is really something that brings a new element to dis-war. >> hey, tom, let me ask you, this is all happening as the

f-fronts start, you've got apple and you've seen this crazy week with people bunding money and consumers, how is this bidding up fronts? >> that's a good question, becky. the other side of this transaction which i pointed out with you guys a number of times is the cord-cutting traditional tv business is in decline. and this is doubling down on that side of the business as well and that takes a lot of managing to make sure that the headwinds of all of that do not overtake the ability to grow the global side but one of the things that you got to take into account here is i would imagine that when you put together tnt, cbs, cbn with discovery and all of those cable channels, it's probably the

biggest by far holder of eyeballs among cable networks now. is it probably has 25% to 35% of all cable eyeballs probably has 25% or so of advertising revenue. so it does create a business that has huge heft in this declining world. and that huge heft should help deal with those head wind. >> tom, we've got to run, it's not fair to ask you, if you're brian roberts or sharon redstone waking up this morning, you're thinking what? >> you're thinking an overnight global competitor that you hadn't counted on is here. and you really got to think about where you grow in terms of your next step and those next steps are not easy because there isn't obvious chess pieces for them to be able to take something like this and pull it off. >> okay. tom rogers, always great to see you. remind, john stankey and david

zaslav will be on this network at 10:15 eastern time. you do not want to miss it >> a big old family reunion around here, with tom rogers coming up, we're live and exclusive with atlanta fed president raphael bostic you don't want to miss that quk x"ilsaon "sawbo wl be right back. i had saved up some money and then found the home of my dreams. but, my home of my dreams needed some work. sofi was the first lender that even offered a personal loan, and i didn't even know that was an option.

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welcome back to "squawk. hot inflation data spooking investors and on the fed easing

money policy during the pandemic to talk about this, steve liesman joins us with a very special guest. steve. >> good morning, andrew. yes, i'm joined by atlanta fed president raphael bostic president bostic, thank you for joining us this morning. >> good to see you, steve. >> i want to start where andrew tossed with, the issue of inflation. almost all of the metrics that we talked about came in hotter than expected. and especially with the fed, with university of michigan inflation expectations coming in at 4.6% for the next year. does all of this cause you any concern? >> so, let me just say, there are two things to say on this. first, we expected a lot of volatility in the inflation in the next couple of months. we know that last year it was not very strong in terms of inflation. so, as we come out of the pandemic and into a recovery mode, we know that the numbers are just going large

that's there we also know with all of the relief money in family's hands we've got pent-up demand putting pressure on prices and upward inflation that is putting prices as we go through the transition what is going to be temporary and transitory effects, and which ones are more structural that will be enduring? i think it's hard to know that for sure in the next couple of months, as we start to sort things out, as people figure out how they're going to engage in the marketplace and in the labor market >> i think that's an interesting answer you can give us gauges as to when, if this higher than expected inflation hangs around, when you might have some concern that you've moved from transitory into more permanent >> well, i actually think, through the whole summer, we're going to see a lot of change in terms of how people engage in the marketplace. how consumers engage

how employers do as well what we're going to do with our bank we're going to be out talking to business leaders. we'll be talking to consumers, to get a sense of what they're doing, what they're seeing do they think things they're experiencing in the next couple of months are going to have long legs? or are they things where they actually see an end point? ful they see an end point, they're not going to do things that are fundamentally different than they were prepandemic, that's not something that we have to respond to i don't think we're going to have clear answers at least until early fall and it may all depend on how rapidly we recover >> president bostic, you and other federal reserve members have talked a lot about inequality in the economy. one thing i scratch my head on and there's a tore about this in the journal, don't economists like yourself see inflation as

progressive tax? aren't we hurting regular workers by having higher inflation and aiming for higher inflation? >> i actually look at it very differently than that. i actually think having healthy level of inflation is a sign that the economy is healthy. the economy is going to be dynamic and growing and that should translate into jobs for people everyone is concerned about into the lower wage end of the distribution we don't have an economy that people are employed that have jobs and get into a more sustainable trajectory, then we have a much more difficult challenge to face. so, for me, i really take inflation as a sign of a healthy economy where there's growth, there's innovation, there's value as it's being provided and that in return should result in better fortunes for basically everyone in the economy. >> let me turn to another area of the economy that you follow closely. you describe yourself in one speech as a housing guy. and house right now is in the middle of what seems to be a

historic boom. how much do you worry that policy is something that is fuelling a boom and creating distortions in the economy >> i'm not worried about that so much right now the pandemic changed a lot of the dynamic in terms of housing supply in particular and also, some of the factors associated with the new construction so what we know until housing main housing right now, the number of homes available is far smaller than historically is that means people are looking to buy -- they're in an auction situation. that's going to push prices up as we come through the summer, i'm going to be paying close attention to what's happening in the lumber market. to see if the pressures are there. you know lumber prices have tripled in the past several months if that comes back down, i think we will start to see a lot new construction and we will see people re-engage in normal ways in housing markets, start to sell their homes again. i think, i'm hopeful, we'll get

a more rational market in the months to come but now there's a tightening and that means prices are higher >> i want to get your view for policy here. some have said that perhaps asset purchases have overstayed their welcome. and they're concerned that the fed's going to be too loose for too long are you comfortable waiting this out, until we get the unemployment rate down, and the 8 million or so jobs we lost through the pandemic, staying on the sideline with policy the way it is right now? >> well, i just -- steve, you said it. with still have 8 million jobs short of where we were prepandemic. and until we make substantial progress to close that gap, i think we've got to have our policies in a very strongly accommodative situation or stance like, for me, i'm always -- i'm a nervous guy. i'm always thinking about scenarios. are we staying in our position for too long but i'm not saying that right

now. and i'm not really thinking that we're -- we need to act. so, i'm going to keep my eyes open and i'm definitely going to pay close attention. now is not the time where we have to consider moving. >> president bostic at a risk of being yelled ed by producers dou want to say something about your conference >> absolutely. 25th annual conference we do this every year. we've got vice chair larry summers speaking you can see it through the website. the atlanta fed website. i hope you can enjoy it. >> everybody can participate thanks, president bostic for joining us >> it's a pleasure see you next time. >> all right becky, back to you, big deal of the day. >> that's right. that's what we've been talking about, steve, thanks to you.

and bringing raphael with you. up next, jim cramer's take on the at&t and warnermedia. discovery shares up by about 9%, they've both been up more than that but sticking in the green for both of them quk x"ilbeig bk. online u.s. stocks and etfs. and a commitment to get you the best price on every trade, which saved investors over $1.5 billion last year. that's decision tech. only from fidelity.

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our innovations keep foods and lifesaving medicines cold and fresh until they reach those who need them. at carrier, we create solutions to help you build a brighter future... today's top story, at&t announcing a deal to merge warnermedia with discovery jim cramer joins us now. how, we're hearing it was in the works for a while, jim but it seems like it came out of nowhere to most people last night when it happened because we just had stankey on i know you had him on a few times, too >> right >> and he seemed like -- like it was a challenge that he wanted to take, i thought and undertake. >> yeah, completely. i mean, i think when you spoke with the company, the idea that they had grand plans for this is

definitely true. i mean, i'd never heard to contradict that. and the irony, the role, people saying you have to do something, you have to do something, and they did it. pretty monumental, but it doesn't say how stupid it was that he bought these that? do they call it stupid >> at the point in time, when it was done, was it clear that, you know, at that point, i decided, you know, that phone service and mobile and things like that would get commoditized, and the content would always be king but then cord cutting, it would get worse and worse and worse. >> yes, i mean look, i remember, i thought it was such a huge victory for jeff, when he dumped it on them and they paid a lot of money my hero, because he saw a lot of things coming, and would tell you that, but i guess he felt that there was something they could do to try to stem what has

happened and then we get 5g and they need this money for towers and to compete with t-mobile, which is really good. >> maybe it is win-win for everybody, and at&t, you know, builds out a perfect 5g network, and you can easily pay the dividend and it pays down debt, and zaslov, who is the greatest hollywood mogul of all time, i don't know, look, i think it's great. david is a terrific guy. everyone will love him and he's going to be on and john stankey is a great guy, and he didn't create this thing, so you have a win-win for two guys i don't know if i want to own at&t stock as much as i did before this. but i do think that, you know, people want to speculate what else is going to happen, to me the question is at&t can now become a great cell phone company, and there's a lot of money that needs to be spent to do that.

>> last time john was on, you thought that he had said some positive things about it, so you might, you with want to own at&t less than before the announcement >> well, sometimes when you get talked to and you hear there's a great plan to make money, and then the plan is kind of undone, you do tend to feel like, wow, that was an important series of phone calls, because it took away my time to work on "mad money. i don't know, look, did i hear it was a great thing to break up when i talked with him no did i read about everybody saying it, like moffett nathanson? yes. but there was just kind of no "there" there. it's unfortunate to compete against t-mobile you have to compete against t-mobile >> jim, what do you want to do on comcast, whether you want to own cbs viacom, whether you want to own amc networks?

because now there are a whole other bunch of players out there that become chess pieces in sort of the next round. >> look, comcast, working for comcast, it's a broadband play, viacom, that's a potential streaming play, i mean they're trying disney, you got to get that stock back up. a lot of people thought the conference was unusual and that they didn't tell the story well. i think that they have to now pivot and start talking about the rest of it, and not just be totally hung up on disney plus because now disney plus is the same albatross that espn plus was, espn plus, just doing okay, so i don't know, i know we want to make a story out of all of these, and maybe comcast has to do something because comcast likes to do things because the stock is back up, and i think dave will have that story but i will point out comcast is doing incredibly well because of broadband because that's what people want. broadband is a great story and why is broadband a great story, because of cord cutting, so i think they have a good hedge but i guess, this is good move

for at&t if you want to talk about them being able to compete against t-mobile otherwise, i don't see, i heard about how great it was not that long ago from the company so i'm looking at david and hoping the existential crisis of being told it was a great idea and finding out it wasn't, i don't know, that's a nice -- >> jim, we will see you in just a couple of minutes. we will see you and faber with stankey and zas in the 10:00 hour looking forward to that. when we come back, elon musk is sparking more bitcoin madness. we will tell you about the volatility and what he said over the ekweend and what it may mean when we come back.

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bitcoin sunk as low as 42,000 this morning, before rebounding somewhat, behind all this, a weekend treat from elon musk to lead some to believe that tesla sold the bitcoin holdings but to clarify, there was a tweet that says to clarify

speculation, bitcoin has not been old >> and michael, you live bit sword and die by the sword and elon musk has helped bitcoin and crypto in the past and now perhaps it is responsible for some of the downward volatility. is bitcoin on, does it stand on its own? regardless of what elon musk says elon has other things going on his whole zeitgeist is ev and climate change and if bitcoin uses a lot of energy and is dirty, he almost had to say this does that matter for bitcoin long term. >> and we are talking about the institutional adoption, and kicking off at new levels, and i think it's important to remember, this asset class was really borne out of the idea of creating a more equitable inclusive financial system and it stands that esg considerations are going to be the natural next step in where crypto is going.

so we shouldn't get too focused on one person's opinion. >> really, so at this point, i just saw one of our technical analysts that we have on, who said that bitcoin had some downward momentum, saying that the exhaustion on the downward move hasn't been exhausted, i'm talking about katie stockton, where would you see a good entry point in your view for bitcoin or do you see it right now >> we're not one to make bitcoin price predictions but i can certainly share that the institutions and conversations we work with will certainly look, and corporations we work will will look at pullbacks like this opportunistically, when we look at each time we see a downdraft in the bitcoin price fundamentally their convictions haven't changed but if they can buy exposure, 10, 15% lower than they could a day ago, people have stepped into that trade all the time >> all right, michael, we've been talking about this merger quite a bit, so i'm watching coin base as well, but thanks for the quick analysis, we'll

talk more. when we have time, all right, good to see you. monday good stuff for the week. guys >> somebody on twitter says special shout-out to bill wayne of archegos for making the alert. if they have been talking about this for months, discovery stock price cut in half during that time so maybe they can ask what happened to the shares over that period of time. >> david was a billionaire make sure you join us tomorrow "squawk on the street" is next good monday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber it is an historic day in the media business as discovery and at&t's warner media agree to merge, with a new goliath in stream, and we'll talk to zaslav and stankey at 10:00 a.m. eastern time and a busy week of retail earnings updates of housing data. there's no disagreement on where the focus is today >> you know, it's a stunning

deal i have