>> 24% in six days, and all we've been talking about, dom, is how much it's been going up. >> right and home prices and rent prices have been going up because of that so this is going to be interesting to see if this is the whole transitory word that the fed likes to word. >> absolutely. i still thought we were talking about the headlines moving higher i did not know we had come down quite that much. dom, thank you thanks, everybody, for watching "power lunch." tyler, we'll see you tomorrow. "closing bell" starts right now. >> thank you, kelly and tyler. welcome to "closing bell." i'm sara eisen along with wilfred frost at the new york stock exchange the major averages are in the red this monday afternoon, though off the worst levels of the session following the worst week for stocks since february let's look at what is driving the action in this final hour of trade. apple, microsoft, netflix down more than a percent. tesla is down significantly more this follows a 2.3% drop for the nasdaq in the last week. >> there's major merger to talk about. at&t and disney announcing a $43

billion deal to combine discovery with warner media. much more on that in a moment. bitcoin has been on a wild ride over the past 72 hours as crypto investors hang on to every tweet from elon musk the price of bitcoin down 20% in the last week. 59 minutes left to go. energy leads, tech lags. coming up on today's show, mike wilson just released a mid-year outlook on the market with a new s&p 500 price target. he'll tell us the sectors he's recommending right now. plus, white house rescue plan coordinator gene sperling will join us with news surrounding the child tax credit, plus his thoughts on jobs, the economy and very much more. after the bell we'll get earnings from fisker plus a first on cnbc interview with its ceo. mike santoli is tracking the market action. david faber has details on the

discovery/warner media deal. joining us to talk about that me merger is michael mathenson. the broader markets selling off but bouncing off their session lows. >> yeah, a little sluggish just a little heavy i would say, especially on the nasdaq overall we've spent almost the entire day right in the middle of last week's range we had a 4% decline from the highs and then it bounced up around 2% and we're right here in the middle. we're also back to where we were in mid-april so this has been a multi-week period of chopping around, consolidating, cooling off or leaving some of those overstressed positions we'll see if this is all we needed or if the market needs to regenerate some energy with further pullbacks. the nasdaq 100 versus the dow industrials, it's almost as if when over the past year you looked only one of these was the real story you see this massive lead built up by the nasdaq and again right here into february of the right now a dead heat so the dow has

been more of the steady performer and is doing catch-up mode but the valuations of the nasdaq 100 type stocks has come in a fair bit compared to the overall market just apropos of that deal, take a look at at&t and verizon's dividend yields over the last decade or so one of the secondary aspects of this deal is the fact that at&t is somewhat rethinking its dividend strategy. probably going to ending up being a pretty significant reduction in dividend. the market has kept the dividend yield of at&t well above that of verizon. it's not as if the overall valuations have been this different. the payout ratio for at&t has been higher and they have been reluctant to reduce that the market was sort of skeptical of the long-term reliability of at&t's dividend so maybe it can take it in stride if in fact it ends up being a lower payout and will come more into parity most likely with verizon.

>> mike, i guess we were in overbought territory, that's been removed, but we're still some way from oversold, right? >> yeah, things seem pretty neutral right now. the nasdaq coming into this week or late last week was starting to look a little oversold which means a big majority of stocks that are sort of not any longer in a short-term upturn, that kind of stuff. so it's not a fat pitch but it's more about relieving the overstretched conditions, not yet necessarily looking like things have been under a lot of pressure where it represents panic. >> mike, thank you we'll see you soon you mentioned the dividend story. let's bring in david faber for more on the discovery/warner media story. he spoke with discovery and at&t discovery stock is down more than 5% along with some of the other media names. >> nothing really moving up today. early in the day, sara, there was a positive response in at&t and in discovery as we talked about earlier, at&t is going to cut its dividend as mike indicated

it's going to be a very different payout for a very different capital structure at that company i thought we'd also focus on this on what to expect from this new media colosses that's going to be created by warner media with discovery the surprising decision by john stanky to say that's it, not only three years after we acquired time warner, now at&t will earn 71% of the large company and it will be a large company. they're talking about as much as $14 billion in adjusted ebitda by 2023. you put a multiple on that and you get to some pretty big numbers, nine, ten times that and you can figure out where things stand if they get what they want. but a big part of what they want, of course, is to expand their reach. scale, that's what they always talk so much about that's what john malone, who will still be an important shareholder here, although will only have one vote for each of

his shares, has talked to me for years when we do our annual interview and that's what david zazlof will talk about when it comes to streaming and direct-to-consumer. >> we own the ecosystem. we have a portfolio of content that's very diverse and broadly appealing. we think it would be 200, 300, 400 million homes. >> you really think you could get to 400 million direct-to-consumer homes. >> there's billions of people out there that we could reach in the market today we're almost 100 million to start. >> to that point, take a look. i think it's hbo max, over 65 million internationally. that includes international. you look at discovery and that gives you some sense here in terms of size. these are going to be the three big players and then the question becomes, well, paramount plus, apple plus, peacock, hour service of course at nbc universal what, if anything, does the

changing landscape mean for them it costs a lot to run these platforms, to try to make them as robust as possible, wilf and sara you're talking about netflix spending $18 billion on content. zazlov will say we're going to spend $20 billion but that includes what they're spending for their cable ecosystem channels not just their direct-to-consumer platform. it is going to be interesting to watch. as you pointed out earlier, sara, not a great response at least early on in the marketplace so far. >> so many questions, david. but what about david zazlov who will now become the leader of this company give us your thoughts on that, his role, his background, how he got here and how he's likely to be different from the number of executives this company has gone through in the last few years in restructuring. >> yeah, right at warner of course, remember it was run by jeff buccus and then stankey came in, he left and then they had this guy jason

killar who's leaving already but listen, i know david za zmpzlov very well. he signed my first contracts six-month windows, by the way? thankfully he always said you're doing a great job. he's been as it for a long time, building, building, building and is credited with a good amount of success at discovery. but this is going to be a task for which he will say he is well positioned but it's certainly going to be a large one. a global behemoth trying to have content across so many different areas, not to mention owning cnn, sports rights around the globe. listen, if anybody is up for it, it's zaslav and most importantly, john stankey, the man who decided to do this at at&t believed that discovery and zaslav were the right partner. they looked at other potential

partners and considered other potential partners he said this is the right one. i don't know if we have time for it but we could listen to mr. stankey explain their decision-making. i don't think we do. we do, i'm sorry take a listen to stankey and why he did settle on zaslav. >> this is the right one after looking at tons of options it's the right one because of the complementary nature of the content with very limited overlap. it was a great way for us to do a big cut at the capital structure within at&t to get it right so the communications company can in fact grow and we can invest appropriately my job is to make sure this came out on balance right for the at&t shareholder in aggregate, and i think we did that here i'm really pleased about that. >> interesting, sara if you think about viacom, their balance sheet probably not up to it you had somebody who's got significant voting rights might not have wanted to give them up. comcast, owner of nbc universal,

would it have wanted to merge nbcu with warner maybe. but you've got two movie studios there. you've got two big cable news networks there as well and a voting rights issue with brian roberts. so this was in many ways the deal that they had to be set for if they wanted to do this, which literally they and unexpectedly so decided to do. >> david, great stuff. we love the interview. to your point about at&t having been up and selling off, discovery was up the most and sold off during your interview and has continued to slide >> no longer on six-month contracts either. >> all of us, thankfully that would be a stressful environment. let's now see what this means both for those stocks and the rest of the media environment. michael nathanson joins us michael, great to have you weigh in here on this. i mean david covered some great angles there the one i wanted to come to first, 400 million direct-to-consumer subscribers globally is that pie in the sky or is

that actually quite possible now? >> give me a time frame, right pie in the sky the next five to seven years, i think so. the challenge is going to be, as you move into asian pacific, latin america, you'll have all these people on mobile phones who never had paid tv and had very large rpus. so it's possible with all the people in the world who are mobily connected, right? in the near term we're not expecting that but on a 10, 15-year view, it's certainly possible. >> and so to the point that david zaslav was talking about in the interview earlier about the way in which you're going to be able to take all of this content of the two combined companies and sell it directly to consumers around the world, was he kind of overegging the element to which this merger allows that to happen versus just some old rights deals running to expire for things like, for example, hbo to the uk previously with sky.

that deal starts to expire it's not necessarily a new opportunity, it's just a sort of passage of time factor >> well, here's what i've learned. so we've covered netflix for a long time. the biggest mistake i made with netflix was thinking that the opportunity for programmers was pay tv penetration in all these international markets. it turns out that more people wanted to watch video than they wanted to watch pay tv so the challenge is how do you build a big enough attractive bundle to bring people into that ecosystem that never paid for subscription tv before i think that's what zaslav is seeing if we take hbo, discovery content and sports in all these markets that were never fully penetrated like the u.s. was for pay tv, that's their opportunity, right and netflix has shown you in all these markets, there's more people signing up for netflix than for pay tv. so that is what he has to do he said to my question today on

the call that he didn't think his content alone created urgency for people to sign up for discovery plus he needs movies and sports and big, big ticket items people would come to the package for. >> so what does that package look like? i know they haven't really figured it out or communicated it yet whether it's one giant service or multiple lines like disney does with espn plus and hulu which do you think the market would look more favorably on and which would work better? >> i think in the u.s. you're going to see a disney plus approach you'll have discovery plus, plus warner media almost like what they have with hulu and hbo max like hulu and discovery plus i think internationally, you probably need one size fits all. i don't know whether the brand will be hbo or discovery or a new brand. here you can bundle because we paid for pay tv at a very high level for a long time. but internationally you need to

bring more to it and probably start with a lower price point to get people to sign up >> so how does this shake up your view of the winners and losers in streaming? netflix and disney 1 and two what happens to comcast, our parent company give us the rundown. >> we've been saying we think streaming is a very tough business, so start with that point. this is not an easy business to be in for all the reasons that david faber mentioned. the top two clear as day is netflix and disney these guys become a third player they have a really good potential to get some real scale. then the rest of the industry needs to consolidate i think viacomcbs and nbc universal don't have much chance here to compete in streaming they're going to need to -- they can't combine with each other but they need to do something. everyone else will be a niche service. lionsgate, amc networks. so i think with this deal

happening, the structure is sealed you have the big three and then you have a lot of small players. you don't want to be in the middle unfortunately for nbcu and viacom, they're going to be in the middle, which is not a good place to be. >> so when you look at the share price action today of all of these names, at&t and discovery are both lower now and you're saying they have got a good shot at making this work. do you like those two equities here >> well, craig moffett covers at&t our issue has been the balance sheet and dividend coverage. i don't think craig is changing his mind on that as far as discovery, we know this is going to be a tough 12 months there's going to be all types of hedging going on, people selling discovery to buy at&t. but the way i look at this is this when you look at the market caps of netflix and disney, the market is putting a massive premium on streaming assets. at discovery, there's no premium for these assets, so i think

when this deal closes, which is four months away, this will be the value investors' opportunity to buy streaming assets at a deep discount to other guys trade and that would be my pitch to people. but it's going to take some time this is not going to be an easy next six to 12 months. given all the hedging. and also given all the fears of cord cutting, which are real. >> craig, your partner, is probably being very vindicated i'm sure he was surprised but not too much to see the news today. michael nathanson, thanks for joining us >> thank you. up next we will speak with gene sperling, the man tasked with implementing the biden relief plan. we'll talk about the child tax credit and continued debate over more spending and how to pay for it. plus mike wilson joins us to discuss the note that everyone on cnbc is talking about.

>> mike wilson is on "the closing bell" later today. >> we know mike. we love mike we really do. >> is mike wilson playing it too cute i know we're having fun a little bit at mike wilson's expense i know he forgives us for that this is by far the most promotion that a guest later in the day has ever gotten in the history of television, i think so mike wilson wilma al ken appearance on "the closing bell." i cannot wait to see what he has to say at pgim, the pursuit is on for outperformance. as active investors, to outdeliver with customized strategies, integrating esg best practices into our investment decisions. as asset managers and fiduciaries, to outserve, with our commitment to better esg outcomes. join the pursuit of outperformance at pgim. the investment management business of prudential. stay restless with the icon that does the same. the rx, crafted by lexus.

get 0.9% apr financing on the 2021 rx 350. experience amazing, at your lexus dealer. ugh, these balls are moist. or is that the damp weight of self-awareness you now hold in your hands? yeah (laugh) keep your downstairs dry with gold bond body powder. new projects means new project managers. keeyou need to hire. dry i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home.

♪ ♪ look, if your wireless carrier was a guy you'd leave him tomorrow. not very flexible. not great at saving. you deserve better... xfinity mobile. now they have unlimited for just $30 a month... $30. and they're number one in customer satisfaction. his number... delete it. i'm deleting it. so, break free from the big three. xfinity internet customers, switch to xfinity mobile and get unlimited with 5g included for $30 on the nations fastest, most reliable network.

40 minutes left of trading the treasury department and irs announced they are rolling out the monthly child tax credit payments on july 15th as part of the american rescue plan qualifying families will receive payments in the form of direct deposits, checks or debit cards up to $300 for each child under the age of 6 and $250 for children between 6 and 18. joining us now in a first on cnbc interview is gene sperling, the rescue plan coordinator and advisor to president biden it's great to have you back on the show, gene, nice to see you. >> thank you, sara, appreciate it. >> so you guys have framed this as a way to get at child poverty which in this country has pretty bad rates compared with other

nations. >> this is clearly one of the most important forms of tax relief to working families in the american rescue plan as you've noted, it will go to $3,000 per child and actually $3,600 for children who are under 6 years old. and yes, it provides the same amount for everybody under $150,000 so we don't have the situation where hard expressed low-income families are not getting the same child tax credit that upper middle class families are and this will provide more security, more dignity, more opportunities for family but a lot of experts have estimated that this could, has the potential to cut child poverty in half. and that does a lot by the fact that right now about 35% of children don't get the full tax credit and about 50% of minority

children and families. so this is tremendous for economic security for all middle class working families but also has the potential to make a major dent in cutting child poverty. >> but it's not just for working families, right, gene? people who don't work get it as well and then you have the question about whether it discourages people from going back to work, which is very much a live discussion with the millions of jobs openings as well. >> i really don't think that is a valid issue here overwhelmingly americans work. they want to work. overwhelmingly even the low-income families who benefit from this are hard-working low income families. right now they have always gotten less of a child tax credit than upper middle class families this is equalizing it. there is no evidence to suggest that making sure that everyone gets the same child tax credit hurts work incentives.

in fact in other countries that have some type of fully refundable child tax credit, we've seen an increase in labor force participation. there is no disincentive for somebody who is getting this credit not to go to work it does not phase out. one can't even make that argument so we think this is pro security, pro dignity, and we think it's a pro work tax credit as well. >> so, gene, is it fair to say that this ultimately is a welfare issue long-term adjustment welfare issue as opposed to stimulus issue relating to coming out of this recent downturn? >> so i think this has -- that's two aspects. so what's new that's announced today is that instead of having to wait until you file taxes in march, this tax credit, half of it is being advanced per month and so you're getting it monthly at a predictable time. if you do direct deposits, the

15th of every month. the view is that gets help on the way as the president said. and also by coming at the same time every month helps families plan and helps families deal with their expenses in a regular way. but you're absolutely right, this is -- while this is important for the rescue and the recovery, this is something joe biden believes is important for our long term. that's why it's a critical part of the american families plan, because he believes that typical working families are hard pressed. a lot do feel that they're running harder just to stay in place and that this will help. but we also -- it means a lot to him that we have an equitable society. the fact that this could help cut child poverty so ni significantly means that it is a very positive thing for all working families, for all families in the united states that we would like to have go on for years an years to come. >> gene, looking more broadly at the outlook for the economy, what do you think is a bigger risk from here, when stimulus

rolls off, the economy slowing down, or inflation picking up and leading to the need to kind of choke off the otherwise presence of growth >> yeah, well, look, there's no question that somebody who is here at this white house as part of the obama economic team and went through the frustrations of unexpected economic events in the middle east and in the fukushima meltdown, other things hold back this recovery and not getting the second major impact that we needed from congress, i think that what's important here is that the president has put in place an american rescue plan that has the firepower to have the type of strong recovery and fast strong recovery that we didn't get after the great recession. and i think that is the big story here and i think that this is why this is a smart program that will lead to full employment and has enough firepower that if unexpected global things were to happen, we

would still be able to move expeditiously to a strong recovery now, on -- in terms of inflation, look, i think a lot of things that people have talked about recently have been about just the economy normalizing. so, you know, when you've had the whole economy shut down, of course prices are going to be depressed. when they come up some, that could be just part of normal normalization. take airline prices. they may be up 10% but they are still down 18% from where they used to be so that increase is about as normalizing, getting back to a strong economy again yes, i think there will be -- there always will be certain supply shocks when you're bringing a huge economy like this back up but overall, i think president biden has developed the right approach which is to make sure that we don't repeat the mistakes of the last recovery and have something much

stronger i should point out, you know, goldman sachs just came out today. they had about 2.8% core inflation. they had 2.25% pce and they had both of those going later lower in 2022. so i think overall we'll keep our eye on inflation but we feel very very confident that president biden has the right recipe for a strong and robust recovery. >> since you mentioned goldman sachs, the economics team also mentioned the unusually generous stimulus benefits and unemployment benefits to be specific in the biden plan that you are overseeing distorting the labor market and the supply/demand dynamic. do you not buy that? >> well, first of all, let's remember that last month unemployment report actually showed an increase in labor force participation. we have heard these reports, but we haven't really seen it in the

data yet and this -- the unemployment bonus will end at the end of august so we're taking obviously a broader approach to getting people back to work. we've got the employee retention tax credit we know that by getting more people vaccinated, that they feel more safe coming back to work, that there is more schools open safely. all of these things together are going to get people back to work let's just remember we've had 500,000 jobs a month and we had labor force participation growing even in the last jobs report >> gene sperling, great to see you. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. appreciate it. we have 32 minutes left in the session, well off the session lows we were down 200, also 205 to be precise on the dow at the low of the session. we're currently just down 73 points. still ahead, betting on a box office rebound shares of imax are up 15% so far as people start returning to

theaters we'll check with the ceo about his outlook plus his take on the discovery/warner mediaea dl. we'll be back in a kcouple of seconds. ♪ it feels so good to be cared for. ♪ ♪ back up now, ♪ ♪ just a little more. ♪ ♪ the feeling someone's always there, ♪ ♪ just to show how much they care. ♪ ♪ the feeling you're not alone, ♪ ♪ now she's a part of your home. ♪ ♪ with so much to protect each day, ♪

♪ caring goes a long, long way. ♪ ♪ nationwide is on your side. ♪♪ when traders tell us how to make thinkorswim even better, we listen. like jack. he wanted a streamlined version he could access anywhere, no download necessary. and kim. she wanted to execute a pre-set trade strategy in seconds. so we gave 'em thinkorswim web. because platforms this innovative, aren't just made for traders—they're made by them. thinkorswim trading. from td ameritrade.

time now for a cnbc news update with rahel solomon. >> hi, everyone. president biden tells reporters that he'll be speaking today with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu as for whether pbiden will call for a cease-fire, jen psaki says

the u.s. feels it can be most effective through quiet, intensive diplomacy. one person has been arrested in connection with a massive los angeles brush fire no details on who was arrested or the exact charges efforts to contain the fire continue in a remote section of the city, specific palisades neighborhood. and staying in california, california sticking with its mask mandate until mid-june. today new york went with the cdc's new recommendation that vaccinated people don't need to wear masks indoors, but california says that it still needs more time to get people vaccinated. and in massachusetts, dice, the therapy dog, is helping to ease anxiety for young people 12 to 15 who are newly eligible to get a covid vaccine. the dog's owner says that some kids are so busy paying attention to dice that they don't even realize they have gotten their shot. exactly the intended purpose where was dice when i was getting my shot, guys? i'll sending it back to you. >> love that rahel, thank you.

tech is back on the bottom of the pile after the nasdaq turned in its worst week since february we will ask mike wilson who just raised his s&p 500 price target whether he thinks the tech lag will continue. here's a check on bonds. yields are higher today, the 10-year around 1.64 so not quite kentuc at the march highs the session low is down 200. we'll be right back.

oh, i've traveled all over the country. talking about saving with geico. but that's the important bit, innit? showing up, saying “hello! fancy a nice chat?” then we talk like two old friends about sticky buns and all the savings you could get by bundling your home and car insurance. but here's the real secret. eye contact. you feel that? we just had a moment. [chuckles] who would've thought it? geico. save even more when you bundle home and car insurance.

morgan stanley's mike wilson raising his 12-month price target on the s&p 500. it is creating quite a stir with trader jim leven thal who doesn't think it's bullish enough. >> he is who he is >> do it >> here's the point. >> he's on "the closing bell" today. mike wilson is on "the closing bell" today, later today lisa, the executive producer of that show, you should play this right now for mike wilson.

let's just start something >> up next, the man, the myth and the legend, mike wilson on "closing bell. hey, dad! hey, son! no dad, it's a video call. you got to move the phone in front of you like..like it's a mirror, dad. you know? alright, okay. how's that? is that how you hold a mirror? [ding] power e*trade gives you an award-winning mobile app with powerful, easy-to-use tools and interactive charts to give you an edge, 24/7 support when you need it the most and $0 commissions for online u.s. listed stocks. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today. - [announcer] when you earn a degree from southern new hampshire university, it's worth getting loud... - woo! i did it! (people cheering) - [announcer] ...and emotional. - [woman]woo hoo! - cool! - [man] we're proud of you, right, trav? - yeah! - [announcer] snhu graduates recognize what they can accomplish

with a supportive university by their side. - i did it... you can too! - [announcer] start your celebration at snhu.edu

the major averages are lower for the first time in three sessions the tech sector is leading the sell-off down by 1%. joining us now is morgan stanley chief economic strategist mike wilson he's out with a new s&p 500 price target it's created quite a stir. mike, you've had more of a buildup than when your boss comes on so i hope he wasn't watching and doesn't get jealous. it's great to have you with us. >> thanks for having me. >> one of the key points that the guys were arguing about earlier is quite how bullish this upgrade is. you've been calling for a bit of a pullback, which we've seen, so congrats on that you're reversing that call, albeit still thinking there's downside in the short term ahead. >> yeah, we're not really reversing anything in the near term and we still think this pullback is in process it began back in february, march, started with the high multiple stocks and then led into small caps and some of the

low quality areas, speculative assets that's ongoing, wilf i don't think that's over. what we did not change today is we did not change our year-end price target if you want to get them riled up on the lunchtime program tell them the year-end target is only 3900 that's fair for them to challenge me on that given we're in a bull market the earnings picture has been spectacular. the one thing we're struggling with is valuation. we don't think the multiple of 21 1/2, 22 times is right given that we now know rates will move higher over time the fed's next move will be some form of tightening, whether it's tapering or a rate hike. the next move is a tightening. this third issue that we've been talking about pretty much by ourselves. i don't know folks who are focused as much as we are, but we're very focused on margins because the inflation that people are now talking about we think is going to be a cost issue first. a lot of companies won't be able to pass it on. and so that's another reason why

the multiples can come down. once again, it's a bull market there's always something to buy and own. we've navigated that part of it quite well so far this year, knock on wood, which really focused on the reflation trades, staying away from the high multiple stocks and navigating this transition period >> so, mike, the target as we just put on screen, 4225 for 12 months from now, essentially a percent or two from where we are. what's the potential scale of pullbacks and corrections between now and then is it going to continue like it's been for 2021 only ever being 4% max drawdown or could there be a bigger gut check at some point between now and next summer >> yeah, look, we've all gotten spoiled where the pullbacks seem to be shallower and then we get a sharp one. in any given year, the median drawdown is 41% so that should be your baseline in any year in a normal type of environment

where maybe there's not a lot or too much lickquiliquidity. it could be 10% to 15% which is normal second is that we do think we're going from an early cycle migration to a mid-cycle transition and historically whenever that happens, you get a 10% to 20% pullback in the broader market, the s&p 500. now, given the years of those mid-cycle transitions in the last 30 years, 1994, 2004 and 2011 you can go and see it was a flattish year for the overall index but there was a pretty good drawdown in between and we haven't had that yet we've had it in some parts of the market so i'm more confident that about drawdown broadening out. that's your warning sign, right? so i don't think it can be complete until they finally get to the big index. >> so tech not working well, small caps aren't working well what works well in this whole mid-cycle call that you're making >> that's right, sara.

we've seen a rotation away from the expensive growth stocks, which a lot is tech. we've seen small caps which we've kind of got away from. my guess is it's going to rotate into some of the reopening stocks, and that's retail, consumer discretionary, maybe even home builders we've seen semi conductors start to really underperform it's like 2018, it's a rolling type correction. we think that the place to be through this period is going to be in the reflationary areas like banks and material. those are our two favorite reflation areas, and also high quality, reasonably priced stocks and that's more health care than tech and some of the comp serves area and you can pick and choose individual names where you think the market is not appreciating the earnings growth that's still there. that's the trick it's much more of a stock picking environment and rotational market as opposed to last year where everything is just going straight up. >> what, mike, would be the trigger for you. yields have spiked a few times and settled back down.

obviously inflation surprised a few people are those some of the factors you're watching out for in the short term >> well, look, first of all, rates was the call earlier in the year that was the most mispriced asset. that corrected itself. that's really what got the correction going in the expense have stocks so i'm not as worried about rates because that's kind of a known risk at this point i would say there's two things i'm focused on now number one, i think the equity market has moved past the bond market we know the fed won't do much and rates will stay low but we also know it's kind of a fake interest rate. our hurdle rate is more like 2.50 so what we need to do is build in a higher risk equity premium to asgrdjust for higher rates and better growth down the road the second thing that i'm really focused on once again is the earnings picture last year was the story about tremendous operating leverage,

as you ramped the economy back up i think it will be intellectually dishonest to say we're not going to see some negative operating leverage as these costs have surprised us on the upside whether it's in materials, whether it's in labor. all these things are becoming quite apparent so it's equity moving up and that means multiples down because they're cushioning for the interest rate blow that may come later and the fed tightening later and then also this margin risk in earnings potential revisions to the downside. >> mike wilson, great to see yous aalways thanks for stopping by. >> thanks for having me. coming up, bit coin under pressure hitting its lowest levels since february in today's session. we'll break that down next in the market zone. can help you build a complete financial plan. visit letsmakeaplan.org to find your cfp® professional. ♪♪ keeping your oysters business growing visit letsmakeaplan.org to findhas you swamped.ssional. you need to hire. i need indeed indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed

you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/promo ♪ ♪ look, if your wireless carrier was a guy you'd leave him tomorrow. not very flexible.

not great at saving. you deserve better... xfinity mobile. now they have unlimited for just $30 a month... $30. and they're number one in customer satisfaction. his number... delete it. i'm deleting it. so, break free from the big three. xfinity internet customers, switch to xfinity mobile and get unlimited with 5g included for $30 on the nations fastest, most reliable network. this is how you become the best!

[wrestling bell rings] [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] ♪ try to be best 'cause you're only a man ♪ ♪ and a man's gotta learn to take it ♪ ♪ try to believe though the going gets rough ♪ ♪ that you gotta hang tough to make it ♪ ♪ you're the best! around! ♪ ♪ nothing's gonna ever keep you down ♪ [triumphantly yells] ♪ you're the best! around! ♪ [ding] don't get mad. get e*trade and take charge of your finances today. ♪♪

just over ten minutes left in the trading day we are now in the "closing bell" market zone, commercial-free coverage of all the action going into the close mike santoli is here to break down the crucial moments of the trading today. today we've got victor jones joining us as well let's kick things off with the broader market stocks under pressure but well off session lows the dow, s&p 500 and nasdaq lower for the first time in three days mike, the dow low was 200 points now only down 60 it's a cyclical tilt to what's working with some of those growth tech names just pausing off friday's bounce. >> in that sense pretty familiar internal dynamics. small caps as well actually had a bit of a flutter to the downside and also made up most of that so it's pretty similar to a lot of what we've been seeing which is underlying it is a rotation toward faster

economic growth, reflation you have energy and materials up today and there's still a little bit of steady pressure on the big cap growth names you know, maybe that's getting into some kind of equilibrium over time. it doesn't change the overall story, still in that churning reset period we've been in for four or five weeks. >> information technology sector and the s&p is only up 3% year to date, mike. so how are we to read -- victor, i'll send it to you. how are you to read the weakness and underperformance in tech is it a signal for the rest of the broader market or just the rotation >> i think if you were to look at the market action last week, i think that's what spooked the market on thursday i think you saw the vix go backward as the sell-off was less contained to just technology and small caps. i think what you're seeing here today is a little bit more dispersion in the markets. in other words, the concentration of selling for the

most part is in, you know, technicals, some of the shorter -- excuse me, longer duration names in the marketplace and you're starting to see again the cyclical trade which is broken down for a very short period of time re-emerge here today as mike mentioned with energy, with materials, and in a way xlp or the staples or acting as a capital preservation vehicle today as you might expect >> let's dive deeper into the tech trade because it was another day -- it was another rough day for semiconductor stocks smh, the etf, now down 10% in the last month but citi group says buy the dip in the chip stocks they say recent red flags bike negative pc sales and lower forks will pressure the sector but longer term semis will bounce back. they would use the current weakness to buy micron and xdi which are the top picks in the tech sector. mike, so much noise around this

sector given the geopolitical concerns, the supply shortages and the fact they have been a leadership group within tech how do the stocks look >> yeah, this sort of rolling pullbacks that we've seen in the entire market starting with the most speculative names as mike wilson was talking about did reach semis. you have to pay attention to that it still seems to be mostly correcting for some extended valuations and maybe just a little bit of too much crowding in there because the shortage story, because the capital investment story into new semi plants was so loud and so up fr front. you look at texas instruments, all those names being recommended to be accumulated. i say fine but they're still not inexpensive relative to where those particular stocks have traded in recent years, they're just less expensive. so i think semis have to hold pretty soon before you have to put it in the liability column

for the market. >> victor, what's your take on this particular subsector of the tech sector, but other areas that had been overheated perhaps and now pulled back more in a more pronounced fashion than the nasdaq >> first i would say in that note in particular it points out really five different corrections that have happened in the stocks index of 8% to 15%. i think the caveat is you're seeing some major technical violations in the most recent sell-off i would say that the idea of accumulating two particular names, nxp is interesting because 48% of their revenue exposure is coming from automobiles. i think most people understand what's happening in the chip shortage and automobile space. while that might normalize in the second half of the year, it's an interesting place in the meantime nonetheless texas instrument for a completely different reason, that 80% of their internal wafer or chip manufacturing happens

internally look, this is a case of as you start to see the markets adjust for inflation, and you can -- however you want to frame inflation, whether it's that cpi number that we get out where i think many people underestimated what that number was going to be and many people underestimated the basing of impacts. but i think you had too many stocks that for one reason or another had gone too far those high beta long duration names. the fed itself had come out in their financial suitability report and highlighted all the red flags in terms of valuations and the potential for a correction to sort of catch fire, so to speak, given the risk premiums in the marketplace. so i just think today is a relatively decent sign you're seeing the markets hold major technical averages but in general you're seeing more concentrated selling and you're seeing some dispersion in markets, which i would argue in the short term anyway is a positive signal. >> bitcoin is under pressure, got as low as $42,150.

but it's off that low, though still lower on the day kate rooney. >> hey, wilf that $42,000 level was the lowest price we've seen for bitcoin in more than three months the selling pressure started over the weekend on sunday after elon musk replied to a tweet that speculated about tesla potentially dumping some of its bitcoin holdings musk didn't outright deny it and some investors saw that as a sign that tesla was potentially getting out. musk followed up with a tweet saying to clarify, tesla has not sold any bitcoin square's jack dorsey also pushing back on some reports that square was thinking about changing its own bitcoin strategy he said nothing has changed there. jack dorsey still a bitcoin bull demand from institutions has been seen as really important this year. it's been a big driver of bitcoin's price. any fears that companieswould be backing off threatens that bull case. back to you. >> kate rooney, thanks so much for that one victor, what's your take on

bitcoin's recent action and whether losing elon musk's vociferous support even though he's not outright negative on it is a blow for the cryptocurrency. >> in the short term it definitely is. but crypto was gaining speed and momentum before sort of elon made himself sort of the mascot of the crypto movement, dogecoin movement, and both the enemy almost instantaneously look, i think you had seen institutional participation wane as we got a little past 40 so in the last month or so institutional participation hadn't really been there this is an asset class that attracts volatility. people were in this name for the volatility more than anything else as 50,000 became a magnet, you start to wonder how many of these holders are going to continue to maintain their position instead of distributing and i think this was the catalyst it could have been many different things over the long term i think you look at this as an opportunity if you start to see bitcoin in the 45s, look, implied

volatility is 123% what that means is, and we here, we use implied volatility as a guide. what that essentially means is within the next week you could see bitcoin trade as low as 36,000 on a one standard deviation move and you could see it up to 51. i think you're getting a pretty decent price to reward in the short term >> based on what, victor what are the fundamentals? >> i'm sorry >> well, we've got two minutes to go, but we'll talk more about bitcoin, now sliding 3%. let's hit the home builder stocks or should we go to mike san santoli. let's hit home builders instead. home builders are underperforming the broader market diana olick with the details diana. >> yeah, take a look at the home building index itb down about 1% on the day as home builders reported high confidence but gave a few warnings.

mainly that construction material costs are soaring and that is going to come back to bite affordability mortgage rates are also higher than they were at the end of last year. while they have come back a bit lately they appear to be on an upward trajectory. that's why we've seen builders selling off over the last couple of weeks back to you guys. >> we've got just about one minute to go before the close. we've really come back at the session low the dow was down 205 we are now only down 45 points disney is the biggest weight on the dow today. all those media stocks are selling off. discovery after the big deal is down almost 5% after it is going to be merging with time warner or warner media's assets and creating a global media juggernaut if you look at what else is working in the markets right now, the s&p 500 also off of the session lows we're coming off of the worst week for stocks since back in february energy, materials, financials and real estate are all

positive energy leading technology under pressure. communication services a lot of those media stocks are getting hit. utilities are also hurt today. israels, consumer staples as well the nasdaq underperformed -- underperforming value, it's that kind of day. and the russell 2000 is in positive territory small caps closing up about a tenth of 1%. there's the bell overall weakness, but it looked a lot worse earlier in the session. welcome to "the closing bell." i'm wilfred frost along with sara eisen and mike santoli. the dow was down just 56 points at the close or 0.2% at the low the session was down 205 points the nasdaq composite down 0.4. energy, materials and financials the three positive sectors tech and communication services at the bottom of the pile. coming up, the ceo of imax

on the impact the at&t/warner discovery deal will make we'll break down the numbers of fisker with the ceo. victor jones is still with us and chris hisey joins us now as well. mike santoli, come to you first. we missed the internals. what were the internals showing during today's session and overall takeaway on today's bounce off the lows. >> internally very well mixed, almost a 50-50 type breakdown. the equal weighted s&p was exactly flat pretty much on the day. so the median stock held up. earlier in the day, more wave of lightening up in the nasdaq names did not really buckle the entire tape. we're still testing the same range we were in last week i think the bigger picture is we came into the week with the s&p at the same level it was at four or five weeks ago.

people were not as far over their skis in terms of positioning. expectations have been set a little to the downside so you still can't say which way is next or whether the pullback is done but it seems like it's a pretty decent amount of traction. >> chris, how do you read the market action, does it look like we're topping out? >> no, i actually think we're going back the other way we call this a re-evaluation type of period, a wedge in the market driven by first a sharp increase in yields and second, worries about inflation, taxes secondary. but there's a big repositioning going on we're still very early stages of this actually investors should use this as an opportune time to continue to reposition portfolios value to a certain extent over growth not all growth but over the high beta growth and economic sensitives over defensive yield, particularly when you have headline risk that's high and you're after earnings season with what we believe is earnings

season to come even better than what we saw in the first quarter. >> chris, how big a portion in private client portfolios is gold at the moment and what's your latest view on that it's had a great recent sort of three or four weeks. >> well, we're certainly getting a lot of questions about it. there was a little bit of a back door investment as far as overall metals were concerned and there was this belief that you could hedge your portfolio in gold from the standpoint of investors in general and private clients. we actually don't include this in our cio models. we use this as an overlay that if one wanted to protect some side of their portfolio, if they're worried about inflation or other items that gold may hedge against, that's great. from our perspective it becomes competitive when cash is zero. when cash is not zero, gold tends to lose its competitiveness so you've got to be careful about owning gold for

the long haul. in the short term we understand why investors continue to ask about it. >> treasury yields rose a bit today. where is the stock market, bond market dynamic at this point it feels like they were really attached at the hip but the stock market sold off harder than bonds. >> it did. the correlations actually have been pretty high in terms of stock prices and bond prices in the last few months. it sort of loosened up i think mostly because yields have been range bound. as long as yields aren't making new highs it doesn't necessarily get the intense attention of equity traders there's no specific relationship it has to follow and the bond market has not shown a lot of alarm over the inflationary uptick in the data so i think that's probably -- you know, if you boiled it all down net reassuring there's not any fast repricings of the macro outlook or inflation going on out there. really all the inflation expectations are doing is lowering real yields as opposed

to pushing up those nominal yields. >> victor, what's your take on the vix jumping back above 20 today, in fact closing just below that number but it was up above it for most of the session? >> well, it's telling you right now that you should expect moves around 1.25 of a percent everything that we saw today was well within the implied or expected move of the s&p 500 i think what you have to remember relative to this market since the beginning of april, a 21, 22 vix is relatively high. but you have to remember for literally 12 months we traded from around 20 to 25 vix whereas this level would have been considered low so i think when you put it in perspective with a vix at 21, 22, it's telling you not many people are hedging their portfolios you're starting to get a better price to earnings at 21, still elevated, but a better price here in the market i would agree with your previous guest, you have a more interesting setup going into next quarter here than you do in this particular quarter where

people going into the quarter expecting 23% earnings growth, we end up with double that we get a very different market response i think as the market delevers here and we go into what is likely going to be a great earnings quarter again, you have a different setup for the next quarter and i think that's the reason to be active in the marketplace and look for apple at 125, microsoft giving you discounting and exxonmobil if you believe that crude oil can see a $77 by the third quarter as goldman has called out, there's interesting value to be had here i do think you perhaps use derivative for limited exposure in order to keep your cash levels high here. >> you both are looking forward to another season of good earnings. a big merger today, discovery and warner media julia, meade was the worst performing sector today. >> that's right.

those shares trading lower on the heels of this mega merger which creates one of the biggest media companies in the world discovery brings global sports and reality tv strength along with warner media's news, domestic sports and original content there with hbo and hbo max. this is a play for scale in advertising and streaming. discovery's ceo david zaslav saying that they could reach as many as 400 million subscribers. >> we'll be able to super serve advertisers. i think it will help the cable operators drive the bundle itself, which i think will be helpful to them. but most importantly, right now we're spending -- this business that john and i are creating together is $20 billion of content today. we're going to execute on that synergy, but we're going to spend more money on content. >> at&t will receive $43 billion in cash and its shareholders

will receive 71% of shares while discovery shareholders own 29% of shares. but those two stocks giving up their gains that they saw this morning. at&t now down 2.7% discovery down over 5% guys, back over to you. >> julia boorstin, thank you mike, what do you make of the market reactions, discovery lower by 5%. initially positive on the news. >> yeah, i think perhaps a reassessment based on the fact that even if a lot of these goals are realized longer term, content spend and gaining streaming subs, the company will largely be eating itself in other words, it's a huge aglaum rags of cable revenue and cash flow in one place it seems a lot of the impetus for the deal is about at&t's corporate priorities, trying to restructure its own balance sheet, trying to refocus itself as opposed to coming and saying this is the match made in heaven that we would want to build starting from zero

i don't think it meansthat the prospects aren't good necessarily strategically. i think both companies are better positioned together than apart. but just in terms of realizing value for shareholders at these levels, it's just up clear and it will have a lot of debt and a lot of exposure to some of the more structurally challenged parts of media. >> chris, one point that's been raised a lot today is the fact that at&t will cut its dividend as a result. do you think dividend stocks, sustainable dividend stocks are more attractive at the moment than they have been over the last five to ten years and the timing for that particular part of it not ideal, or what's your outlook there? >> yeah, i think as yields back up and fixed income, particularly long dated yields, it's important to look to those companies, higher quality. mike wilson talked a little about this before. high quality balance sheets but dividend growing companies that are going to pay you a dividend somewhere between 2% and 4%, which is likely the terminal growth rate in the real economy

once we come off of this big move higher with the fiscal stimulus and liquidity programs pushing nominal growth up to levels we haven't seen since the early '80s so how much attractive are they? i think it's relative to fixed income yields. they're going to be more on par versus where they were but that's the sweet spot of the market once we start to slow down, we haven't slowed down yet in growth rate, so i would caution adding that too much to the core of your portfolio but certainly as a portion of your portfolio and increase that information as we start to slow down, but that's later on in '22. >> we've got a news alert on amazon meg tirrell has it for us. >> hey, wilf another situation where amazon is striking the health care industry and causing some stocks to fall. this in the diagnostics space after a business insider reported that amazon is considering the launch of a new line of business that offers some at-home medical tests, including potentially covid-19 tests. this comes after amazon got

emergency use authorization a couple of months ago for its own at-home collection kit for covid tests. business insiders reporting they are considering starting to market this in june outside the company. up in now this had just been used reportedly for the company's own employee screening program. so you did see quest diagnostics and lab core take a little bit of a hit before the close on this reporting guys, back over to you. >> thanks so much, meg pivoting just to some other news today on amazon, we heard of some high-profile sellers, mike, in the 13 fs what's the latest on their stock in light of some of these pullbacks from tech names? >> well, first of all, it's traded very much in line with the cloud software stocks as opposed to the ones the stocks levered to a recovering consumer it's in that group that's gone from crowded to being slowly exited and distributed over time so i do think that if you're looking at an overall market s&p

right now with expected 30% earnings growth for 2021, those big names really don't look necessarily that shiny in comparison, just on near term earnings prospects so it's gotten caught up in that whole thing plus it had a tremendous ramp into the middle of last year that it's still digesting. >> fisker results are out. let's get to phil lebeau with the numbers. >> this is a loss of 63 cents a share. that is well below what the street was expecting it was expecting a loss of just 19 cents a share keep in mind this estimate has been moving around and it's -- to a certain extent people have been looking at this saying are you really sure that you can guess that it's going to lose 19 cents a share. so you see the loss of 63 cents a share. revenue, they did report $22,000 in revenue don't forget that fisker announced that it has struck a deal with foxcon to build its first vehicle here in the united states in 2023, the first

vehicle built in the u.s i know you'll be talking with henry fisker in just a few minutes. >> updating reservations totaling more than 16,000 as of today. yes, we will talk to mr. fisker soon phil, thanks so much thank you to victor jones and chris hisey as well for being on with us. when we come back the ceo of imax on the outlook of the summer box oicffe. we're back with "closing bell" in just 90 seconds that calms you helps you fall a sleep faster and stay a sleep longer. great sleep comes naturally with sleep 3 only from nature's bounty

check out shares of coinbase in the after hours session moving lower after losing around 4% in the regular trade. the company announced a proposed private offering of $1.25 billion of convertible senior notes saying it will yuse proceeds for general corporate purposes and may use a portion to make investments in or acquisitions of other companies, products that coinbase might identify in the future so adding 3% or so in declines in the after hours. >> it's sort of been on a one-way ticket lower since direct listing. fisker shares are falling after report results of a loss of 63 cents a share. they just finalized a deal with foxcon to manufacture cars in the u.s. joining us is the ceo, henry fisker

welcome. >> good to be here. >> hard to make much of these numbers. i note reservations totaled 16,000 what are you planning to say to the street as far as an update on your business and when we're going to start to see those cars getting sold >> well, you know, i think a lot of people underestimate the complexity of the car industry one of the things i don't think we've got a lot of credit for, we have closed two major deals we are working with two of the largest manufacturers in the world. one being magma, a very large automotive manufacturer and we just signed a deal with foxcon where we are planning to make a truly revolutionary vehicle. being with these two large companies i think puts us in a position to deliver on time. we're the only ev startup who have not used covid to announce a delay. we are on time to deliver our next vehicles next year. of course we are using money right now for development which i think is good news and that's

why you see a loss per share because our development is on track. >> i wanted to dig into the foxcon partnership and decision a little more. i'm curious why you chose foxcon and whether you're worried -- they are the largest apple supplier for iphones, long-time relationship there apple widely rumored to be making its own car >> well, you know, foxcon was part of this innovation that happened at apple. right now i'm looking for an innovation revolution. that's number one. number two, supply chain is one of the most difficult things in automotive as we move into more tech in the cars, foxcon is probably the best supplier you could have in the world. and finally, when it comes to manufacturing, you know, they are extremely fast and innovative, set up manufacturing plants all over the world. also let's not forget the chip crisis

foxcon produces chips. one of the things the chairman told me is i never have to worry about not getting enough chips for my cars. >> henrik, talk us through how the deal will work they're going to own the plant themselves so does that lead to a revenue share? do you have to share your ip with them? how does that work >> it's a very unique deal that hasn't happened before we're jointly investing into this program pretty much 50-50 we do what each of us do best. so yes, they will own the plants around the world, starting with the one here in the u.s. we'll own the tooling. we'll be in charge of development and design we'll market the vehicles, sell the vehicles and i think it sneng incentivizes us and it would create a premium ev under $30,000. >> where in the u.s. is it going to be, have you finalized that

yet? >> we of course are looking at several sites. we're in talks with a couple of states we have narrowed it down to three or four states and of course one of them is wisconsin because foxcon already has a plant there but as a public company we need to do due diligence where we choose is the best businesswise. >> what do you make of all the volatility around your stock, whether it's concerns about higher interest rates or just elon musk tweeting something >> well, i think we get lumped in with a lot of ev startups and there is a lot out there as i said, i think we really differentiate ourselves with the foxcon deal and i think that takes a little time to understand it's a complex industry. there's a lot of excitement when somebody announces a car and it usually takes three or four years to deliver a car and then you have to make a high quality car. so far nobody has proven as a

startup they could do that right out of the gate. i think that's got to be one of the new advantages of fisker we're coming out right out of the gate with a high quality car next year starting under $37,500. that means we have very little competition. there is hardly any electric suv that's been announced for $37,500. >> that said, do you wish in an ideal world i guess, this is a hypothetical, henrik, that you'd moved earlier? are you going to be launching your cars at a time when there really is very genuine competition now from all of the traditional automakers it's not just trying to play catchup to tesla, it's going to be many, many players you're competing with >> actually i don't wish that because we have some new technologies that wasn't available six months ago we just chose our battery technology which i think will beat anybody out there we have a new screen just announced, a collaboration with sharp which is owned by foxcon we'll have a screen with higher

resolution than anybody out there. remember, if you buy an electric vehicle next year from anybody else but us, most likely that technology is two or three, four years ago so anything will seem old compared to the fisker that you're buying next year. so i think we're situated to take a pretty good market share. >> would you ever let consumers buy your cars with bitcoin or put it on your balance sheet >> no, i just don't think it's a sustainable solution it's not environmental friendly and we would not do that >> so i missed the end of that answer, henrik because it's not sustainable, bitcoin itself in terms of its mining or because it's too volatile and not sustainable as a currency. >> i guess you could say both but mainly because it's not environmental friendly i think that's number one. one of our brand pillars is we want to make the world's most sustainable vehicles we are number one i think in esg. it's a very important point for

us in fact we have done a survey with our 16,000 reservation holders and the number two one reasons they buy or reserve our vehicle is because of design and sustainability being environmental friendly so we're not going to do anything to jeopardize that. >> so i guess the quick follow-up is but you would potentially be open to a more environmentally friendly cryptocurrency or also it's just not a consideration for the foreseeable future >> well, look, i don't think anybody can foresee what the currency is going to be in five years. so i couldn't answer that at this point in time you have a unique leasing option where you can lease the vehicle, flexible lease, give it back any time i'm not really bothered about what the currency is we're going tosell our vehicle in europe and take pounds and all kinds of currency so let's see what happens but at this point in time i would say for environmental reasons, no to bitcoin. >> henrik, thanks for joining us good to see you.

>> we'll let you get off to your analyst call let's get to mike for a look at the recent resurgence of air travel, mike. >> yeah, trying to put it into conex t. every day we get a new report saying a new high for passengers going through security to take a flight relative to where we were before covid well, of course, everything is getting back to normal here is the 2019 levels and last year crashed and recovered very slowly the big question is how close will we get to 2019 without much business travel or anything at all. it seems as if people have internalized it. we are in an upward trend but maybe 2019 numbers for now, at least for the next several months, might remain out of reach. take a look at the airline stock etf or index actually. you've seen it's recovered most of what it had lost in the covid shutdown here you go, right here in february or march or so is where we topped out with the pure reopening type stocks.

so it's going sideways it hasn't really fallen apart. but it seems as if the market is just checking off that box and saying things are getting better, but maybe the airline stocks have already mostly registered what we're likely to see. >> it sure feels like those airports are getting awfully crowded. berkshire hathaway's 13-f filing is out. leslie picker with the details. >> this is their first quarter filing a little bit of something for both you and wilf with regard to your beats for wilf's purposes on the banks, berkshire hathaway almost entirely sold out of wells fargo during the quarter this was a 99% reduction in its stake to hold just 675,000, worth about $26 million at the quarter end. this is march 31st in terms of the other banks, no real changes with regard to bank of america, bank of new york melon, those were unchanged and there was just a nominal trim in u.s. bank corp berkshire did dissolve its state

in synchrony financial. with regard to kroger, sara, boosted the stake there by 52% to $1.8 billion at the end of the quarter. with regard to being a net seller during the quarter, which is something that berkshire hathaway did indicate earlier this year, they did cut their stake in chevron in half and in merck, trimmed that stake by 38% to $1.4 billion. with regard to new stakes, however, reporting a new stake in aon worth about $942 million at the quarter end of course always worth noting, these stakes are as of march 31st and may have changed in the six weeks since that time. guys >> i was going to say, they just timed the selling of wells fargo so badly as we discussed because it's been selling steadily for a couple of quarters now interesting to see wells fargo has gained another 22%, 23%. essentially they finished their

selling and sold 99% of it in the quarter. even that at least would have been in the 30s probably versus some of the selling they did last year below 25 but definitely not a well timed one and probably a factor behind why wells fargo has continued to rally, perhaps rallied the most of the big banks since the end of the quarter as one of those big sellers it's had soesz to be a seller because it's left in total. very interesting one, leslie, thank you very much for bringing us those. up next, the ceo of imax on whether we could see a box office boom this summer. we will also discuss his views on the latest mega media merger.

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. which shows will you be getting into tonight? how 'bout all of them. netflix. 'cause xfinity gets you really into your shows. when one burns for someone who does not feel the same. daphne, let's switch. from live tv to sports on the go. felix at the finish! you can even watch your dvr from anywhere. okay, that's just showing off. you get all of this on x1. so go on, get really into your shows. you need a breath mint. xfinity. it's a way better way to watch.

at&t announcing plans to merge with its warner media unit with discovery at&t shareholders will now own 71% of the new company while discovery shareholders will own 29%. discovery president and ceo david zaslav will lead the new venture. among the names that could be impacted is imax it is one of warner media's biggest partners joining us now is imax ceo, richard gelfond. we are curious what you think

this will mean for your industry after that controversial decision by at&t to take warner brothers films and put them on hbo max the same day as they go to the theaters. >> oh, i think it's lots of good news for imax and the industry david zaslav is one of my closest personal friends i know him so well he's a fantastic operator and has a great operating team i think they're going to focus a lot on the creative part and their global growth strategy even in the streaming world today, leveraging off what you have is a great place to be and start. david will know how to do that i think warner is going to remain at the stop of the studios. >> one of the questions when randall stevenson first bought this asset was how would he do with hollywood clearly, you know, there have been a lot of leaders of that unit, but they rubbed hollywood the wrong way with that decision how will david zaslav do when it

comes to fixing it >> david really understands relationships. he would say i'm one of his closest friends as one of ten people he'd put in that category he really has a human touch and really understands how business gets done and how it works it's a lot more than algorithms and he would know how to handle difficult situations he's been an innovator, he knows how to innovate. but i think he's going to know how to do it within the confines of the existing system i think he's going to do it in a diplomatic, soft touch way >> final question on this deal, richard, before we get on to your business itself, do you think these assets fit together in a clear way to form one single app, or is this going to be a return weirdly to the days of cable bundling, albeit delivered over the top >> i'm hardly an expert on this subject, but a lot of the

reading i've done has suggested that a lot of people were getting into streaming and that you need size and scope in order to succeed a bunch of really good reports i read recently said netflix, disney plus had prime positions and unless you grew, you were going to be too small to succeed, so i think that's what they're doing by this consolidation. they're getting enough size where they have a real shot at succeeding in that space. >> so where is all of this going, this release of movie theaters now that you guys are open and the economy is reopening and vaccinated people don't need to wear masks according to the cdc, how are those negotiations going to go? disney just, for instance, said it will be releasing exclusives to theaters for a 45-day exclusive window, which is half the normal time. >> i think that's more or less becoming a norm, sara. if you look at it, universal has a 30-day window but their

streaming window is 120 days sony's is 45, paramount's is 45, warner's is 45, disney announced 45, so i think it's coalescing around there for imax, we only play movies for one or two weeks and we launch franchises and we provide a real boost to the value of the whole content. so it doesn't really affect us i think that's where it's going. one advantage people don't talk about is with the shorter windowing, it will be interesting to see whether some of the more traditional streaming services like netflix or amazon decide to play with early releases as the world reopens, they discovered there was one model that worked during the pandemic. now that the pandemic is over or starting to be over, people are dying to go out. you know, you just had your airline report, talk about airports i have a friend i just talked to in london who said he can't get

a reservation at a restaurant through july and you look at our results in asia, especially in china and japan, people are coming back stronger than ever and i think we're going to see that in the united states as well >> richard gelfond, thanks for joining us especially good day to have you on this deal ceo of imax. still to come on the show, retail earnings taking center stage this week. walmart, macy's and home depot are set to report tomorrow nd out what to expect, straight ahead

when we started carvana, they told us that selling cars 100% online wouldn't work. but we went to work. building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. creating a coast to coast network to deliver your car as soon as tomorrow. recruiting an army of customer advocates to make your experience incredible. and putting you in control of the whole thing with powerful technology. that's why we've become the nation's fastest growing retailer. because our customers love it. see for yourself, at carvana.com.

time for a cnbc news update with shepard smith >> here's what's happening at this hour. israeli warplanes launched another round of heavy air strikes at targets in gaza and rockets fly from gaza into israel but the united states so far is not calling for a cease-fire for the third time today, the u.s. blocked a u.n. security council statement expressing grave concern. the white house says it can be most effective with what it calls quiet intensive diplomacy. president biden says he'll be talking with the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, today. the u.s. supreme court agreeing to hear a serious challenge to legal abortions in the united states. it's set to consider a mississippi law that with limited exceptions bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. the court is set to hear the case in the next term which begins in october. a decision likely to come by

early next summer. the white house adding 20 million covid-19 doses to the 60 million astrazeneca shots it's already promising to share with other countries. it's coming from a stockpile of j&j vaccines. a newly leaked video shows an unidentified flying object being tracked by a navy ship off san diego two years ago. tonight we'll talk to one of the people who pushed the government to take these sightings seriously and how a report due next month could reveal much more about unexplained objects in our skies that's tonight after jim cramer on the news, 7:00 eastern. cnbc wilf, back to you. zoom video shares down almost 30% since mid-february. up next, the company's chief operating officer on the stock's decline and the results of a new survey and what the future of strk will look like po-pandemic. we're back in a couple of minutes.

the word zoom is synonymous with the pandemic and it's been a key tool for the world to stay connected during lockdown. shares of the company shot up to $568 back in october it's down nearly 50% from that high the question now, of course,

will people still want zoom when we resume normal life. zoom recently conducted a survey to find out. we are joined with the coo to break down the results of that survey thank you for joining us. >> thank you so much for having me. >> i guess the first and key question is even if people go back to work as normal and life as normal or largely as normal, do you expect them to keep their zoom subscription? they'll still be using it, maybe less than the last year but using it nonetheless. >> so as all of us have experienced over the last 15 months or so, video and virtual experience has become integral to our lives the keyword to remember as we enter into a post-pandemic phase as we're all excited about, here as zoom as well for humanity frankly, is the word hybrid. we believe that it's going to be a hybrid environment that takes the stage going forward. as you mentioned, we recently completed a survey of about

7,500 people all across the globe, around ten countries. around 80% of the respondents in the u.s. told us that they believe virtual will be a part of their day-to-day lives, personal and business, and over two-thirds of respondents internationally said that they want more virtual in their business environments as well. the key factors for that are not surprising it's the same things that we experienced during the pandemic. it's in cclusivity, flexibility productivity, and above all, choice choice in the matter of how you work and how you live. >> what do you say when you hear those a90ss like that from citi recently of the need for zoom-free fridays because of too much stress in the workplace or that from john gray of blackstone saying that their business is based on their culture and that culture doesn't survive unless they're back in

person and wanting to move away from video conferencing? >> look, wilfred, you know, i am a working parent myself. i have two kids, 12 and 9-year-old boys. we all came home in the pandemic it's been stressful. i would say for me going back to work, the best thing about going back to work when we do in person is the casual conversations in the hallway sitting next to my office mate who i miss dearly, who i may grab and have lunch with me on a regular basis. but the things that i appreciate the video world for, i can skip my grueling commute and maybe take my last two meetings at work and make bedtime for my kids as a working parent myself, it's my own experience it's the increased productivity that you get from choice and flexibility and also a recognition that sometimes you have to put your own boundaries in place. you know, the companies that you

are talking about, we have a lot of the large financial services companies across the globe as our customers. we don't see them not using zoom we see a hybrid world where zoom actually becomes a part of their office experience, to our zoom rooms, our features that we're putting out that make working more inclusive, that will incorporate both in person and remote working seamlessly. >> what about mental health concerns, have you done any research into the serious potential psychological side effects? there's zoom fatigue but more studies are looking at whether that's a real thing and whether it's not good for us. >> you know, we ourselves have noticed, i think the last 12 to 15 months have been incredibly stressful for everyone across the globe. let's not forget zoom itself, our company, our employees have

been going through a lot of stress themselves. you know, all this growth happens because an employee base comes together and really outdelivers. and i have to say it takes a toll on everyone so we have taken concerted efforts internally to really try to give avenues for our employees to take breaks we ourselves instituted a no meeting, no internal meeting wednesdays obviously if a customer wants to meet with you on a wednesday, we're going to do it, but no internal meeting wednesdays which we take seriously from eric, our ceo, myself, the rest of our exec team all the way down the organization. we've also provided a lot of options for our employees, whether it's yoga sessions or mental health, mental health coaching we really want to focus on that for our own employees. if that's any indication, i think businesses across the globe should be doing that we recently even incorporated into our own sort of employee offering arianna huffington's

new app, thrive, which has been amazing. it tells you to take some of those micromoments, those microgestures and take time for yourself it's become a little bit of a joke in the company, but as the spokesperson i say i'm all for any kind of mental break for you. whether it's a power nap, whether it's a walk outside. take your cell phone with that video meeting and go for that walk outside no problem. >> thank you for joining us on the latest findings, we appreciate it. coming up on the show, bill gates in hot water some fresh reporting out about the billionaire, his divorce and his time at microsoft. we'll tell you about it, next.

(vo) this is more than just a building. it's an ai-powered investment firm with billion-dollar views. a cutting-edge data-security enterprise. yes, with a slide. a perfect location for the world's first one-hour delivery. an inspiration for the next workout cult.

and enough space for a pecan-based nutrition bar empire. it could happen. this is where dreams become brick and mortar. find yours, on loopnet. david tepper's appaloosa management leslie picker with the details. >> that is right tepper filing his 13 f 4 quarter end q1 lots of pairing back of big tech names, slashed a stake in alibaba and twitter by 40% and cut stakes in alphabet, amazon, netflix, salesforce. he did take two new stakes in discovery and viacom cbs these are two names that were of course at the center of the whole archegos which took place at the end of the quarter. it is unclear when appaloosa acquired those stakes.

but of course in focus at quarter end, the firm held about $21 million worth of discovery and $155 million worth of viacom cbs. now all of the stakes may have changed in the six weeks since march 31st guys. >> i wonder how quickly he was in and out of those names. thank you. up next, bill gates coming under fire in the wake of his divorce. we'll break down the latest reports including details about his time at miost.crof we'll be back in a couple. walmart can buy more tea from milo's. milo's can create new jobs, jobs for people like james and lacey and me. me, i love my work family. family here and home, is my life is better for us because of a job. a job created when you buy this tea at walmart. ♪ ♪

our retirement plan with voya, keeps us moving forward. a job created when you buy this tea at walmart. hey, kevin! hey, guys! they have customized solutions to help our family's special needs... giving us confidence in our future... ...and in kevin's. voya. well planned. well invested. well protected.

tonight, no end in sight the mideast crisis continues as u.s. diplomacy is questioning. plus ready to travel how europe is preparing for american tourists. which shows will you be getting into tonight? how 'bout all of them. netflix. 'cause xfinity gets you really into your shows. when one burns for someone who does not feel the same. daphne, let's switch. from live tv to sports on the go. felix at the finish! you can even watch your dvr from anywhere. okay, that's just showing off. you get all of this on x1. so go on, get really into your shows. you need a breath mint. xfinity. it's a way better way to watch.

any reporting about bill gates, his divorce from melinda gates and his tenure of microsoft. "the new york times" and "wall street journal" saying that he made mult tell advanced to employees at microsoft and the foundation while he was married going back decades the board opened an investigation in 2019 into one of the cases after notified that he had sought to initiate an intimate relationship with an if employee in 2000 he 2020 he left the board which was unrelated they said and his relationship with jeffrey epstein contributed to his

divorce. a spokesperson for gates disputing that characterization and said, quote, the claim of mistreatment of employees is also false the rumors are becoming increasingly absurd and it is unfortunate that people that have little to no knowledge of the situation are being characterized as sources. >> fascinating story we'll continue to monitor no doubt more to come up next, a slew of reretail that investors need to look out for after the break. retirement income is complicated. as your broker, i've solved it. that's great, carl. but we need something better. that's easily adjustable has no penalties or advisory fee. and we can monitor to see that we're on track. like schwab intelligent income.

schwab! introducing schwab intelligent income. a simple, modern way to pay yourself from your portfolio. oh, that's cool... i mean, we don't have that. schwab. a modern approach to wealth management. front desk. yes, hello... i'm so... please hold. ♪♪ i got you. ♪ all by yourself. ♪ go with us and get millions of flexible booking options. expedia. it matters who you travel with. that building you're trying to buy, - you should ten-x it. - ten-x it? ten-x is the world's largest online commercial real estate exchange. you see it. you want it. you ten-x it. it's that fast. if i could, i'd ten-x everything. like... uh... these salads.

or these sandwiches... ten-x does the same thing, but with buildings. sweet. oh no, he wasn't... oh, actually... that looks pretty good. see it. want it. ten-x it. yum! esg is responsible investing. who's responsible for building esg into your investments? at pgim, the pursuit is on for outperformance. as active investors, to outdeliver with customized strategies, integrating esg best practices into our investment decisions. as asset managers and fiduciaries, to outserve, with our commitment to better esg outcomes. join the pursuit of outperformance at pgim. the investment management business of prudential.

now to our wuall street loo ahead. we'll hear from home depot, walmart and macy's up 70% so far this year. what sort of threads will you be watching out for. >> they give you a glimpse at april consumer activity which because of the staggered fiscal years we haven't gotten from the other crop of earnings so i think there will be some attention on that. naturally i think there is talk of price inflation, whether they could pass through cost

increases and things like that home depot is particular has been a good bell weather for the market and we'll see if the market responds to home depot numbers as charitable or not or if it confirms the story that things are great in housing land. >> mike, in terms of the session, nicely off the session by the close and the vix back below 20 which it hadn't been for most of today's trade. >> the market is kind of idling here i won't say necessarily nothing is going on. but it is really just bidding its time a lot of the offsets, the imposing currents underneath are keeping it stuck in this spot here but there is resilience everything going on for months now has been about a reorientation toward more cyclically geared areas. if it continues right now i'm receptive to the idea that we haven't had any kind of a flush

or a great radical re-set of positions. butting it sort of healing under the surface and if we skim away some of the excess expectations and getting prices back under control. we've done that in the last several weeks. >> bitcoin back close to 45 k. that does it for "closing bell." "fast money" starts now. >> i'm melissa lee and this is "fast money. tonight's lineup tonight on "fast," the key to the market one of our traders said look at this if you want to know where stocks are headed next we'll drill down on that straight head. plus big news out of berkshire hathaway selling 99% of the stake in wells fargo and we'll get our traders reaction and later we'll tell you what airbnb investors are running for the door at&t announcin