going higher jut go to your gas station and you'll see. >> the other thing their survey pointed out is 77% of respondents felt the u.s. government put too much stimulus into the system. a third said it was too much stimulus. thanks for watching "power lunch. >> welcome to "the closing bell." i'm wilfred frost at the new york stock exchange. the nasdaq outperforming as we head into the final hour, up close to 2%, sara. >> i'm sara eisen. let's look at what it driving the action right now big tech stocks are seeing big gains after the nasdaq broke a four-week losing streak. apple, chips, the faang stocks are all higher more stomach-churning moves for crypto investors bitcoin surging after a big drop

over the weekend as headlines from china and elon musk send crypto assets on a roller coaster ride and reopening stocks are in the green as the u.s. records its lowest average covid case count since last week. top performing stocks are in c casinos and other reopening plays. we'll be speaking with leaders from industries that could see a boost from return to normal life. today the president of live nation that stock up already around 25% on the years as the company sees robust demand for particulars to live performance. plus the ceo of micron will join us. we'll take you live to the company's virginia facility for that first on cnbc interview. let's focus in on what we are watching in the last hour. mike santoli on the market action and jeff curry from goldman sachs.

mike, start us off with this big move higher we are seeing. it looks pretty broad. >> yeah, sara, pretty decent levitation today the growth stocks are doing more than their share today but the s&p 500 is only 1% from the old highs. we had two weeks of pressure we got down to a 4%, 4.5% pullback from the peak is that enough we'll see. last time it didn't take much longer than six weeks of this kind of range before you pubustd out of it to the upside. right now it's low volume. i usually don't make a fuss about low volume this is much more about sellers not taking the opportunity to jump in with the s&p at 4200, at least not very observedly. but nasdaq 100 here, obviously the laggard by 12 or so -- by 6 or so percentage points year to date take a look back here, march, april, when you had that pretty big gap between the dow and nasdaq 100 banks leading, tech down

here you have it again so maybe this is a little catch-up move by the ndx it was not a return to leadership in the big cap growth, but they still stay in the game and support the market when the rest of things like banks are down today and not working quite as well. take a look at credit conditions this is a very long-term chart going back 30 years. very loose credit conditions, pretty much as loose as they get. as long as this is the case, it's very hard to see really a lot of stress building up and disorderly sell-offs you have rotational stuff, little unwinds just one point, though, it can change fast. that was 2010. you had this huge relief, better credit conditions after the great financial crisis then they got tighter in a little bit of a market scare so it's not like a permanent state of events but basically it is a pretty good backstop. >> it really feels like the tech trade is tied to yields and the inflation debate

a lot of people are noting today that the 10-year break-evens, which is a good measure of inflation expectations had a big drop last week, more in line with the fed thinking and perhaps that's letting tech stocks rally today. >> it certainly fits into that story line, which has been the case for a while now i think it's certainly synchronous with that idea that growth is going to lead or more to the point if those are the conditions that are going to keep cyclicals from getting overexcited and commodities are coming off the boil, yes, you have this market so i can see it both ways. last summer everyone was saying deeply negative real yields were the thing that were keeping these huge mega cap growth stocks driving higher. you actually have yields less negative because of those break-evens coming off a little bit, guys. bitcoin starting the week with a bang, following i guess a weekend of wimpering

it's rallied more than 14% after falling below $32,000 on sunday. despite today's rebound, bitcoin is down 30% for the month. let's bring in jeff curry. jeff, great to see you thanks for joining us. you and your broader team are part of a big note on the topic recently it was interesting -- we always try to debate what exactly bitcoin is from a commodity to a currency, but you were outlining in that note where it derives its value from and that is very different from your typical currency or commodity. >> well, let's go talk about what they actually do. what does a blockchain do? it verifies information. in the case of bitcoin, it is verifying a transaction. in the case of ethereum, it's verifying a smart contract like if you have a contract with a sporting bet, yankees versus red sox, it will determine whether the counterparty has the

wherewithal to make that payment. we think about why bitcoin sold off over the course of the last month. it's because it ran into legal problems whether if it was the problem with the colonial pipeline ransom, problems with esg issues, with the statement coming out of tesla, and then also the crackdown with china. when you think about ethereum and ether, it doesn't face those problems because it's more of a smart contract as a result, we look at investment close, they're chasing that type of crypto -- i don't like to use cryptocurrency, that type of crypto asset. >> so, jeff, when you have that thought process behind you and you do look at that recent volatility of bitcoin, does it help you try and work out whether it's due a bounce or further fall from here while in the midst of this range the last 12 months? >> if you think about where they

ultimately drive their saw, they drive the value from the information network. so if you're thinking about what the long-term value of one of these, it's how much demand flows through the network. when you look at the demand going through ether or ethereum right now because it does all of these other multi-tasking type of processes, we see a lot more volume flow that supports that kind of valuation. now, when we think about bitcoin, the argument people say, well, it doesn't have a lot of uses but it will be a store value. now, here's the point we like to say about store value. think about gold, it is jewelry. think about artwork, it hangs on your wall or think about wine and it can be drank. so we think of all these other stores of value, they have that other use which creates the value. with bitcoin, it needs to be used as a payment system in order to create that value with the legal situation in china right now, problems around

issues around anti-money laundering, all of these create a big cloud around bitcoin's future use. >> i was just going to bring up china because that's something bitcoin and commodities do have in common at the moment, which was big news last night. china wants to crack down on commodities speculation, a zero tolerance policy what do you think china is trying to do there on the commodity? s. >> commodities are no longer china centric. we look at china today and it looks like what the united states looked like in 2004 it was the incumbent commodity consumer you had china out on the horizon starting to consume, pushing up prices guess what, how did the americans respond in '04 crack down on speculation. when you don't understand what's going on who do you blame the spec later in china it's demands coming off, commodity prices going up

the americans and the europeans are driving commodities again. that's what's being lost in china. everyone is focused on china, pmis are slowing down. the key point here is what's going on in europe, what's going on in the united states? that's your marginal consumer today. and so when we think about the impact that these crackdowns have on speculation in '04 and '05, it didn't have any impact because ultimately these are fundamentally driven markets and the fundamentals will likely prevail. >> jeff, finally outlook if you will for both gold and oil over the next 12 months and price targets. >> let's start with oil. we think the market overshot to the downside in terms of trying to price in this iranian deal. we stick to our target of $80 a barrel several reasons why. one is when we look at the iranian deal, let's remember that this is a framework for

reimposing the jcpoa, it's not a lifting of the sanctions we don't think the sanctions will be lifted until october of this year, at which point we expect to see production begin to rise. second point, when we look at demand, demand is very strong in the developed markets. we have mobility increasing significantly, offsetting any kind of weakness we see in the emerging markets, particularly india. i want to pointed out with india, hey, the cases have quit rising so even the outlook there has improved tremendously and there's a lot of increased jet traffic both in the u.s. as well as in europe finally on supply, rate counts went up four they're 356 in the u.s that's not even at the break-even point so no investment, lots of demand and this iranian supply will be coming on in fourth quarter which is why we think the market is a buy today quickly on gold, we like to say gold is a hedge against bad

inflation, like the stag flags people were worried about. oil and other commodities, cyclical commodities are a hedge against good inflation, the kind that demand is pushing along or pulling along to use the macro term when we think about gold, we do want to be long gold in terms of thinking about that decline in real interest rates we were just talking about, but we just don't think it has the same upside that you would get if we had more of that bad inflation, which we don't think is going to be persistent. it was more of a one-off in terms of getting bottlenecks in things like construction but bottom line we see gold going back up to $2,000 an ounce. >> up a bit today, not as much as oil, up 3.7%. just below $66 a barrel for wti. jeff currie, thanks for joining us. up next, a look at the real estate picture in in new york city howard lorber joins us with what he's calling a major spring

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45 minutes left to go of trading. let's check in on individual market movers. wells fargo initiating tesla with an equal weight rating. price target of $590 the firm expecting deliveries to surprise to the upside tesla is trading higher by more than 5%. it's actually the third best performing storm warning right now in the s&p 500 and here's a check on shares of oatly, the swedish oat milk maker having its first down day since going public last week the stock opened thursday at $22.12 per share it is now trading about $21, so overall a very strong debut, which was seen as a little risky in the choppy markets. but oatly having a strong week some of the other newcomers as well. >> not priced to richly

essentially is one of the lessons from that. shares of richard branson's virgin galactic are blasting hard following a successful test flight over the weekend. morgan brennan spoke with the company's ceo earlier and joins us with some of the highlights. >> that's right. elegant and graceful, these are two of the words used by the ceo to describe virgin galactic's crude weekend flight of the vss unity to the edge of space he said the company completed every point it sought to on the 90-minute trip putting galactic on track for three more test flights to be hopefully completed by early fall with commercial service still poised to start in early 2022 so how much can perspective paying passengers expect to pay once those ticket sales open back up? >> we haven't released pricing on our own yet we plan to do that following these upcoming test flights. however, we are seeing in our microgravity markets about $600,000 a seat equivalent for

the research side of the flights. >> the prerevenue space flight company sold its first 600 tickets for $200,000 to $250,000 but with blue origin now auctioning off a seat on its own first suborbital flight with people onboard, the space tourism market is heating up the current bid for that spot is $2.8 million and while analysts caution that won't set the bar for future pricing, uvs, for example, does say it does reinforce space tourism's economic potential the shares of virgin galactic powering higher. they're up 28% right now keep in mind still down something like 60% from the highs we saw back in february. >> not for me. even if it was free, which i know means you and i differ on that point, m morgan. >> i'll test it out and let you go. >> that's great. but still ten years might be the lead time between those two

trips. morgan brennan, thank you very much up about 30% today, virgin dplak part galactic. up next, is new york city real estate on the way to a revival? we'll ask howard lorber. here are some of the top search tickers virgin galactic, bitcoin, coinbase and tesla back in a couple inflation rising and currencies falling. but i've seen centuries of rises and falls. i had a love affair with tulips once. lived through the crash of '29 and early dot-com hype. watched mortgages play the villain beside a true greek tragedy. and now here i am, with one companion that's been with me for millennia; hedging the risks you choose and those that choose you.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ we've got some news on

amazon and mgm julia boorstin with the story. julia. amazon is nearing a deal to acquire mgm which is expected to close this week. this confirmed by my colleague, alex sherman, according to sources. he says the deal is on track to be $8.5 billion and $9 billion and could close as soon as this week this is in line with what you've been reporting in recent weeks mgm was seeking that $9 billion for a sale it follows amazon's interest in bulking up its library for amazon prime as it competes with the likes of netflix and disney plus we've reached out to amazon and mgm for comment and have not received word back yet. >> julia, there's been so much debate about the timing of jeff bezos stepping down as ceo and who will be the next james bond. i'm wondering if he wants that role for himself.

>> he has been getting in shape. >> he has the right initials if i had that much money, i would buy mgm to make that happen maybe that's a different item on the agenda for him julia, thank you. as many parts of america inch closer to a full reopening, real estate watchers are keeping a close eye on new york city prices robert frank to have a look at where things stand for both buyers, sellers and renters. robert. >> wilf, there are more than 7,000 contracts signed for apartment sales in manhattan so far this year. that is believed to be a record. prices also holding surprisingly firm, down only 7% to 8% in manhattan compared to pre-covid. there are a record 9,000 new leases on the rental side but this is not an instant recovery for manhattan real estate and that's because of the massive supply there are over 20,000 empty apartments rent.

that's a vacancy rate of 12% prices down 20%. landlords are offering an average of two months free rent. on the sale sides there are more than 9,000 apartments listed the real number may be twice that because they are keeping them off the market until the market improves. there are 97 new construction projects in the works so even more in the pipeline coming on with what is a large shadow inventory. >> robert, thank you and now joining us is howard lorber, ceo of vector group and executive chairman of douglas elleman. howard, give us more color behind the numbers that robert just laid out. >> thank you we're seeing pretty much what robert is mentioning, speaking with the number of sales exceeded the year ago total for the first time in four years

listing inventory is seeing annual increases but skewed toward smaller apartments. median prices for quo coops and condos declined. the highest market share of financed condos in seven years of tracking it so people are taking advantage of the economy coming back, taking advantage of the low interest rates maybe it's also showing a little bit that they're doing it now because they're afraid the rates will start inching up. we hope not. and then the new development sales below 3 million surged year over year so it's more at the lower end for new york city, but there's plenty of buyers around to do deals. >> so are you -- are you doing developments i know you do that as well besides the agent business and i know you've worked with steve

wittcoff he said what we're seeing is a price correction and he is not looking to new york city to build new buildings because he's not that optimistic in the long run. >> that's correct. he and i have done a number of things together. right now we're doing a lot of things together. they happen to be in south florida, though. we think that it's not the right time to start building we have excess inventory let's see how long it takes. i think what's happening in new york city now is really more -- it's no longer covid i think pretty much everyone is past that. i think it's really politically driven people have been leaving it's been reported widely to places with no taxes or low tax states. i think we have to see changes in the politics of new york before it starts moving on the high-priced inventory and also new development projects starting again. >> howard, in terms of price points within new york city and other major cities, but new york in particular, which have picked

up the most and which do you expect to see the next bounce, as it were >> well, the lower end definitely it started off right after new york city opened up after the covid shutdown, it started up at the low end. the low end iss increasing now but still hasn't gotten to the high end the high end for the product on the market is still priced high but people are offering substantial discounts as opposed from the lower end of the market, let's call that under $2 million or $3 million. discounts we see from asking price to selling price is 6% or 7%, which is realistic we don't see that yet on the hire end of themarket. people are asking for substantially larger discounts at the high end. >> you mentioned the politics at play here, howard. i know you advised president trump on economic policy do you think the biden agenda is

ultimately what's having an impact or do you see this more in the local level in the proposals for the new plans, higher capital gains taxes would have an outsized effect on people in new york. >> anything that's done federally, whether you're living in south florida with no taxes, state taxes, or living in new york with high state and city taxes, it's the same difference. the only thing we can imagine is people are still very much concerned. if you look what's happened, the last bill is taking care of new york state, some extra money for i think the mta and some other authorities and the city got everything they needed to cover their budget gap and some additional money, yet the state and the city are talking about raising state and city taxes again. so they got all the money they needed from the federal government but now they're talking about raising it again that is not a good sign for

people, for new york city and new york state >> howard, have you seen particularly the high end any clients wanting to transact in bitcoin or other cryptocurrency or eluding to the fact that that's where they made their money in recent years? >> people made their money in recent years by buying bitcoin and some of the other cryptocurrencies what they did with it i don't think anyone knows it seems like they're treating it more like a security purchase they're buying it, they trade it they buy more. but as far as actually buying apartments, buying things, i've heard of a couple of sales, but who knows what's really happening. >> the june primary is rapidly approach, june 22nd. we've got a heated mayor's race here in new york city. how do you expect the outcome to impact the city's economy and the outlook for your market, the real estate market. >> well, i really want to add in

the city it's less the economy and as i said not much about covid anymore, but it's about crime. crime and homelessness and things that we shouldn't see, that we haven't seep in in the t for many, many years and now we are seeing it. so i think that the best law and order person that people is going to do the right things and not defund the police department and put more police on the streets, i think that's the person that should be the next mayor. you have at least one in the race like that, maybe a couple >> yeah, former cop. howard lorber, thank you for joining us really good to get the color on new york city. we appreciate it >> my pleasure the dow is up 240 points chip stocks are moving higher as well today as a group of lawmakers meet to discuss the global shortage at micron's virginia plant we'll take you live there with micron's ceo.

and a check on bonds the 10-year yield holding just above the 1.60 level perhaps giving some support to the growth stocks. technology is in the lead with info, tech and communication srvsz the best sectors 10-year yield down to 1.61 we'll be right back. to make progress, we must keep taking steps forward. we believe the future of energy is lower carbon. and to get there, the world needs to reduce global emissions. at chevron, we're taking action. tying our executives' pay to lowering the carbon emissions intensity

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up 255 on the dow. cnbc's first nft is now up for grabs. we're honoring the mark haines bottom highlighting the day he said the s&p 500 hit a low during the depths of the financial crisis mark died ten years ago today. the auction is open until 10:30 a.m. wednesday we also have a set number of nfts going at a fixed price. all proceeds go to a charity that was a favorite of mark's. it's all up now at mintable.app/cnbc. one more note, this is a carbon

neutral event. we're making sure we have no negative impact on the environment. time for a cnbc news update. rahel solomon has it for us. >> hello, everyone here's what's happening at this hour the vast majority of los angeles public school students will be going back to the classroom this fall they will offer online lessons for students and staff members who live with immune-compromised family members earlier today the new york school system said it will only offer in person classes in the fall. governor whitmer lifted a requirement that prohibited on-site work if the employees' jobs can be done remotely. and in arkansas, bison crossing the street in an arkansas neighborhood. about a dozen of the animals

escaped from the farm. the owner is trying to get them home safely. apparently roads are not closed but police say they will intervene when the bison are in the road and traffic sara, back to you. >> all right, thanks. micron opening its doors to lawmakers today as the senate gears up to vote on that le legislation to provide billions of dollars of incentive to chip makers we'll talk to the ceo of micron next on "closing bell. the dow is up 240 points sales are down from last quarter but we are hoping things will pick up by q3. yeah...uh... doug? sorry about that. umm... what...its...um... you alright? [sigh]

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hidden in code in an app update. that's for apple and ipads the code reportedly references both types of accounts and indicates the checking version plans to integrate with square's debit card for business, which has already rolled out it also suggests square might differentiate itself with no monthly service charges, no fees tied to minimum balances or overdrafts guys, this pegs square against some of the bigger players like jpmorgan, bank of america. we did reach out to square for comment on this. we'll keep you posted. the stock had been up earlier today but it's up more than 5% on this news back to you guys. >> kate, thanks so much for that sara, clearly this is a threat to all banks of any shape and size, not just the biggest banks. what's interesting that square can jump 6% on the rumor that this is coming this is something that has long been thought to be coming. it's not -- >> maybe they're moving in

faster. >> the share price reaction doesn't -- >> there's momentum behind some of those names. >> -- how big it will be for the company. the other thing people have to think about is whenever the fin tech companies goes wholeheartedly into the space, do they have to be fully regulated like a normal bank which would come with all sorts of negatives as opposed to the 6% positive in the share price the smaller fin techs using an existing bank license. square and paypal are too big to do that. if you go into lending and bank accounts as a company that size, they're probably moving into fully regulated territory. >> which would make the big banks a little happier. trstraight ahead, ray dalio weighs in and we'll take you inside the market zone the dow is up just a little bit over 200 points. we'll be right back.

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[ding] don't get mad. get e*trade and take charge of your finances today. ♪♪ commerce secretary gina raimondo wrapping up a tour of virginia's micron plant. it comes ahead of the senate's expected vote later this week on billions of dollars of legislation to support u.s. manufacturing amid the global shortage ylan mui joins us along with the ceo in a first on cnbc interview. thank you, wilfred and thank you, sanjay for doing this interview today. you have a massive facility here you guys are hiring hundreds of

workers. you're expanding the facility, investing billions of dollars in it some people might look at this and say why do you need help from washington because it seems like you're doing just fine on your own already. >> certainly the demand for semi conductors cross all markets from data center to pc to smartphones to automobiles is high these are secular growth trends as well. what is important for us is to have global competitiveness. in order to have global competitiveness, it needs scale, it needs cost and sustainability of operations as well. many of our global competitors in the countries that they operate do get support from the foreign governments. i think it is important that the u.s., in order to drive its leadership on the technology innovation and semiconductor manufacturing here in the domestic industry provides also the right level of support to incentivize more investments here in the u.s. to support u.s.

leadership in the semiconductor ecosystem and that is important because semi conductors are important for economic growth across all markets as well as for national security considerations. >> so is there a project that you can point to that you would be able to complete with the help from washington that you weren't planning to do already >> well, we look at our global manufacturing footprint, we are well spread out across the globe and we know that the demand for semiconductor memory and storage is going to continue to increase over the years micron has a strong balance sheet. we have been able to invest in our technology and manufacturing capabilities around the globe. our strategy is grow in line with the industry demand projections. we remain focused on that. we remain focused on driving innovation and leadership and so make appropriate investments to meet the customer requirements

across the end markets so of course we want to see the chip surge get across the finish line and we will continue as part of engaging in the global footprint assess opportunities for greater innovation and greater manufacturing from here in the u.s. as well as our infrastructures around the globe. >> we have a question from sara up in new york. >> hi, sanjay. it's sara eisen. my question is on the timeline of all of this if you guys in your industry gets billions of dollars has has been proposed, how long would it take for the u.s. to build out a semiconductor supply chain so we wouldn't have to be dependent on foreign countries? in the near term, how long will this shortage last, because we're going going to build it fast enough, are we? >> with respect to the investments in semiconductors,

as you know, constructing a new fabrication plant takes a long time it's a year to two-year project. with leading edge equipment it takes a while and producing takes a while as well so these investments are needed to be sustainable over the years the effort that goes into the day of course will produce results in a few years time frame. semi conductors are -- they take a long time in terms of production output to be able from the investments that are decided to be made at a given period of time so yes, these are investments for the next decade or couple of decades that need to be started now in order to secure the resiliency and the leadership of the u.s. semiconductor supply chain. in terms of the near term sh shor shortages, of course micron has made necessary investments

demand from all sectors today is high and we continue to work closely with our customers to address our growing needs, but no question as we see the markets through this calendar year, we see tightness in semiconductor memory and storage. >> sanjay, thank you for joining us today sara and wilf, i'll send it back to you over in new york. back to you. >> thank you our ylan mui and sanjay, the ceo of micron. we are going to go straight athe "closing bell" market zone. we have commercial-free coverage of all of the action going into the close. mike santoli is here tobreak down these crucial moments of the trading day and today we have lindsay bell back welcome, lindsay stocks are near session highs. the s&p 500 is now less than 1% away from its all-time high. the dow is up 227 points mike, what's fueling this surge today after kind of a bumpy week

last week? >> yeah, i would say it's nothing specific that i think came in this morning or anything like that, it's much more this sense that the market has passed a couple of tests here recently. we did have a couple of wobbles the last couple of weeks and really to no net damage. we had a mini bitcoin crash over the weekend and no liquidity air pockets or knock-on effects. that combined with the fact we did moderate people's aggressiveness over the last couple of weeks, people not thinking the market was going to run away to the upside and positioned to quarterly, maybe now rebuilding positions, this is mostly the big growth stocks that are taking care of the move higher today >> lindsay, what's your outlook in the short term for the summer months do you think more of the same of what we've seen the last month or can we break meaningfully in either direction >> i think for the summer we'll get what we typically see across

the summer and that's pretty anemic growth. historically what we've seen between memorial day and labor day is 0.9% upside in the s&p 500 over those summer months that compares to a 4% rise in the months prior to memorial day and after labor day. so we're not expecting anything spectacular. there could be, of course, some dom. there are a lot of known uncertainties in the marketplace that still exist, whether it's regarding stimulus, inflation, interest rates, fed policy, or even earnings, what that's going to look like in the second half of the year. so i think there's a plethora of things that could keep the volatility strong throughout the summer months. once we get past that, we are feeling more optimistic into the end of the year. >> goldman sachs initiating coverage of coinbase with a buy rating crypto assets are getting a big boost after a wild weekend kate rooney has more on all those moves for us kate. >> bitcoin continues its stretch

of double-digit gains and losses today, though, it is to the upside prices recovering to almost $40,000 today. this is after they fell to roughly $30,000 just last week bitcoin is moving even higher after an elon musk tweet just a couple of minutes ago. musk saying he spoke with north american bitcoin miners he calls it potentially promising. this after tesla stopped accepting bitcoin for payments for environmental reasons he said meanwhile ray dalio out with bullish comments about bitcoin he says he owns some he calls it a hedge against inflation. and he compares it to fixed income take a listen. >> personally i'd rather have bitcoin than a bonds. >> guys, there's a lot more attention to margin trading. we had mark cuban tweeting that investors are overleveraged and

overextended he calls it the great unwind analysts highlight some of the exchanges in china offering 100-1 leverage guys, back to you. >> amazing the influence elon musk still has on that asset to the upside, to the downside. mike santoli, though, we could be saying this is helping markets as bitcoin rebounds or you could frame it the other way to say that the extraordinary volatility and pullback in crypto hasn't derailed markets more than it could have done. >> in a sense you've gotten a little cleanout of aggressive positioning in crypto and it did not spill over so you have a sense that it's still safe to consider them separate things. it's not in the same portfolios. it's not still driven by the same leverage dynamics let's keep in mind we didn't go back very far in crypto time in terms of the prices we crashed down to, it was just a few months so yeah, cleaned out a lot of

the hot money that got in on the way up but didn't necessarily change the overall structure of that market. beyond meat sizzling higher as bernstein gives the company a double upgrade it's a reopening play amid improved consumer mobility and a rebound in food service channels it didn't do as well, lindsay, as some of the other consumer goods packaged companies when people were cooking at home because they made high-profile bets on restaurants. they still have a big commercial business but do you see this as a big reopening play >> i totally understand the analyst's perspective on this. if you think about where the stock was in january, it's 40% off of those highs even though it's only down 5% on a year-to-date basis yes, it's positioning within restaurants and others definitely could be a positive for these guys as the reopening

trade continues to make its head way. the other thing you could think about, do you think that this alternative meat society is here to stay and it's going to continue to pick up steam or not? that's really what you're betting on here. certainly as consumers go out into restaurants more often, that will benefit a company like this. >> lordstown motors set to report results after the bell. phil lebeau has a preview. >> you know there's going to be a loss reported for the first quarter. that's not what's going to move the stock. what will move the stock is what the company says on the conference call and what guidance it gives in terms of whether or not it's still on target to begin production of its earth vehicle, the endurance pickup truck by the end of november the endurance pickup orders, are they truly orders or just letters of interest as the ceo indicated to us when we interviewed him several weeks back production, will it start by the

end of september and what are the capital expenses as well as liquidity. don't forget that the analyst call starts at 4:30. we will be on it guys, we get the numbers but that's not what's moving it, right after the bell it's any commentary they have about the outlook. >> we look forward to that later on in the show mike santoli, in the meantime tesla is having a nice bounce today. the broader ark complex was well tesla back above 600 where it hasn't closed above for a while. >> new yoo, it hasn't it did bounce off the 200-day level. as we talked about the sense that we dodged bullets and didn't have a broader liquidation type event that the growthy areas are getting a little bit of a reprieve very, very early in this repair process. so i think you have to keep the whole group on a bit of a short leash but a bounce in tesla. the broader ev move looks pretty cleaned out, you would think

lordstown at a $1.7 billion market cap and back to where the smack merger happened, it's telling you expectations for the secondary and tertiary players has been beaten down quite a bit since the pick. >> the top three performers in the mek are mgm resorts, caesars and norwegian cruise lines right up there you've got facebook and alphabet and twitter and a lot of the stay-at-home plays so are you distinguishing between those groups for investment strategies? and what makes a day like today where they can rally together? >> well, i think what makes today work is if you look at those specific securities, they have all taken a break or a breather over the last couple of months while stocks in the financial and material space have taken off people are coming in and buying the dip on these and perhaps reallocating their money based

on some of the winners and bringing their exposure there down >> it looks like we've got just a little over two minutes left in the trading day just a tweet from michael saylor saying he was hosting the meeting between musk and the leading bitcoin miners they have agreed to form a bitcoin mining council to promote energy usage transparency so elon is in cahoots with them now and the price of bitcoin jumped over $1,000 on that news. >> we could spend hours debating this it still doesn't alter what's being used to mine it at the moment and that it is very energy intensive >> seeing what they can do about it mike, under the two-minute mark, what do you see in the market internals? >> $1.2 trillion market that gets jerked around because down the road they may use less

energy, interesting. not overwhelming, so gently lower volume lift across the board. as i mentioned, it is the big growth stocks contributing to this s&p gain right around that 4200 round number. the mega cap growth versus the equal weighted s&p and it's beating it by a full percentage point. so it is the facebooks and alphabets and microsofts up more than 2% on no news the volatility index has given way, resumed its downtrend now down below 19 so we'll see if we can get toward the april lows, which is under 17, wilf. just under one minute left of the session still nicely higher, 4% on the s&p, half a percent on the dow and around 1.4% on the nasdaq. off the session highs, just pulling back a little bit but a positive start to the week tech, communication services and consumer discretionary lead the charge today only one sector is negative, that's the utilities, health

care, consumer staples and financials near the bottom of the pile but in positive territory. the 10-year yield 1.60 the vix 18 1/2 dollar down a little bit, oil up nicely and gold up slightly. at the close, the s&p 500 up more than 1% just gaining a little bit into the close this dow up half a percent and the nasdaq up 1.4. strong finish there. welcome back, everyone, to "closing bell. i'm sara eisen along with wilfred frost and mike santoli, cnbc's senior markets commentator. take a look at how we finished up the day on wall street. the dow closed higher by 185 points so it wasn't quite the session high but still overall pretty strong performance and it was broad-based performance. you saw that in the sector breakdown. by the way, the dow's biggest positive contribution was microsoft. there's the s&p 500, up a

percent, which means it closed less than 1% off its all-time high hard to believe we've regained all of that momentum microsoft had the most positive impact on the spy. the nasdaq gaining 1.5%. the two best performing sectors were within the tech complex the russell 2000 index of small caps up z0.6 of 1%. transports gained almost 1% on the day. so overall pretty broad-based rally. coming up this hour, we'll speak with leaders from industries that could see a boost as the economy reopens. we'll talk to the president of live nation about what he expects coming up. they are seeing strong demand for concerts and live events lindsay bell wuith us elena hernandez joins us first comment goes to you, mike. after a week last week stocks

came back strongly financials kinds of underperformed and so did energy, despite a big pop in crude oil. >> this was definitely a pause in the whole reflation trade it wasn't so much about global growth starting to gallop away yes, it's partly about the u.s. reopening after covid cases did crash. but this trend really peaked in march. i think today was much more about the market has gone sideways for five or six weeks, seemed to have dodged a couple of threats over the last couple of threats we got some crypto blowup, no real net damage. so people who got a little more defensive allowed the market to drift higher, riding some of those old favorites, i would say. i just mentioned earlier, when microsoft, alphabet and facebook are all up 2%, 2.5% on no news, it's this reallocation move back into playing a catch-up play on big growth >> elena, is inflation risks

priced into the market, or if it prints high again could it derail the broader indices >> good to be here with you guys again. so no, we don't think inflation is fully priced into the markets. if you look at five-year inflation break even is at 230 that's still in the 3% range that we saw from 2000 to 2015. i think you're right, wilf, we are going to see continued prints on the kind of inflation uptick side. we've seen the supply shocks we've seen how consumers are spending at pre-covid levels so we see how the market priced in a full recovery or pretty quick recovery in the real economy. now that keeps us wary going forward to what mike was mentioning before in terms of people going back because we

don't know how much more you can have this trend going, especially with an inflationary environment that's going to push rates higher and still not being priced by the market. >> one question is how long, elena, those supply shortages, those bottlenecks as fed chair jay powell calls them, last. do you see opportunities within various sectors or stocks related to the supply shortages in places like cars or homes or semiconductors as we talked about with micron's ceo last hour >> yeah, so what we have been focusing on since we are in the business of building longer term portfolios, an increase of pressure of inflation not only from the devaluation and all that you guys have mentioned and we talked about but also because of the supply so we've been preparing since actually last march.

march 2020 kind of going into this year adding tips, adding commodities. we like the sector of commodity producers the end of last year and added a little more this year, we added recovery trades and then the interesting piece for the last month or so is that we pretty much took trades off the technology sector, kind of going into ahead of time hopefully the passing of the infrastructure bill, some form of it, right, by going into sectors like infrastructure and clean energy that we think are going to benefit in the long term once that happens >> we are -- let's pivot in fact because lordstown motors numbers have just crossed and phil lebeau has them for us. >> wilf, remember, these guys are prerevenue while they did report a loss of 72 cents a share that is not what is moving the stock lower what is moving the stock lower is the commentary the company has about being on track to

execute on its plan to roll out its first vehicle in limited numbers starting production by the end of september the good news if you are bullish on lordstown, they do still believe they will start production of the endurance pickup truck by the end of september. the bad news if you're an investor, the company says that we do need additional capital to execute on our plans we believe we have several opportunities to raise capital in various forms and have begun those discussions. they don't say how much more capital they need but they need more to meet their production targets as of now. so lordstown motors down just over 7% after reporting q1 results. again, it's not the loss of 72 cents a share moving the stock lower, it's the fact they're saying they need additional capital. back to you. >> phil, thanks so much for that for more let's bring in jamie perez. jamie has a buy rating, $35 price target

jamie, were you expecting that announcement with a capital raise? >> no, not the capital raise but i was expecting production raise. that's something they have done before elon musk mentions all the time it's hard to take a car from concept to production. so what i'm a little surprised is the dramatic decrease in the production, 50% of the product expectations that's a little bit disappointing right there. >> what do you think is going on here >> it's probably harder -- like i said, elon musk always says producing a car is the hardest thing in the world i think lordstown, having come out with higher expectations after spac but then realizing that producing a car from concept to production is a lot harder than it looks so it looks like there's a few bumps akraung long the road as

the production schedule, which is something we expected but we expected the company to meet its third quarter production guidance, but this is pretty much below expectations. >> so what are you going to be listening out for on the call if you're going to keep your $35 price target or not? >> what i'm going to be listening for on the call is the update on why the production is so low and are they going to be able to meet the full capacity of 60,000 vehicles that's what's key. and also any update as far as prototypes, any testing, any update on production you can expect them to start increasing capex, but the fact that they purchased a gm motors plant and just had to retro fit it is something a little concerning that margins might be further downward so that's some of the things that i'm looking at.

>> besides the individual issues, the market has just kind of turned on these companies your price target wouldn't have looked so crazy high back in february when this was a $30 stock. it's now trading below 10. so do you have to adjust to the market expectations? we've seen a huge drop-off in a lot of these names, fisker and others >> most price targets are not set for 2021 but 2022 and 2023 when these companies promise to produce vehicles right now they're not generating revenue. so yes, the key question is what are they going to produce in 2022 when the price targets are actually used. >> jamie, thanks for joining us. much appreciate it. >> thank you pivoting back to the broader markets, lindsay, i'll come to you in terms of your core sector

positioning for the rest of this year we were discussing just before the lordstown discussion the extent to which inflation is priced inalready what's your take on that and how does it inform your sector positioning? >> i actually -- my take on inflation is especially after the fed meeting last week is really that the market got ahead of itself on inflation expectations because if you look after the fed meeting last week, we didn't see the bond market really react to it we saw the break-even stwinflats come down a decent chunk the market is getting more comfortable with inflation this year and going into the future, so to me that's a positive what we have seen is that the s&p 500 has handily moved higher as long as inflation expectations remained below 3% from my perspective i think the market is getting more comfortable with where inflation

is. >> lindsay bell, elena hernandez, good to see you. up next, sebastian page tells us why he is cautious on stocks. plus the president of live nation will join us. the stock is up nearly 15% had another good day today we will discuss how america's reopening will impact the live events business isth summer and beyond we're back in 90 seconds 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.

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major stock averages closing all in the green today with the nasdaq leading the way the nasdaq just 4% from its all-time high. the s&p 500 less than 1% from its all-time high. joining us is sebastien page, t. rowe page. why do you say that you are bullish on the economy but not as much on stocks? >> you need to reconcile those views. it's hard not to be bullish on the economy. we have had $1.6 trillion in excess savings in 2020 that is 22 years of excess savings. a lot of it has yet to be unleashed into the economy so aisle in believe in the pent-up demand story we just send checks of $1,400 or more so we are dropping money from the helicopter into the economy. meanwhile, close to half the population has had one dose of the vaccine at least, so really

hard not to be bullish on the economy. the problem, sara, is everybody else is bullish on the economy and stocks, they're up today they're up 90% since the bottom. the price earnings ratio is in its 99th percentile of its long history. even relative to yields, stocks are starting to look a bit expensive. 85th percentile. so i'm not saying stocks are in a bubble i'm saying cautious on stocks. we are pulling back. we've taken about 1% of our exposure from way from strategic targets and put the proceeds in dry powder, cash, loans, short-term tips so we're positioned to take advantage of opportunities through the volatility over the next few months but that's how you reconcile it. meanwhile, you can still take advantage of relative valuation opportunities. the way i think about it, you can get cheap exposure to the recovery by being long value

relative to growth long small relative to large cap. and short duration even though rates are down today and growth stocks are up a little bit, the direction of travel for rates is likely to be upwards over the next few months. >> see, i thought you were going to make an argument for inflation, inflation concerns, higher interest rates, higher yields and tie that to the valuation concern but it doesn't sound like you're saying that. you're just looking at sentiment, positioning, those kinds of things? >> sentiment and positioning are extended and they have not been for most of the rally and we have been long stocks for most of the rally but, sara, inflation is the number one risk that is keeping asset allocators up at night, so we're not ignoring it. we're seeing a spike in inflation. the big debate is, is it transitory, or are we entering a new regime a lot of people have called for

new inflation regimes over the last decade and have been wrong, but we are in an unusual situation. we are at peak base effects. my view is that inflation will settle back down, but higher than the base level we had prior to the pandemic. but let's not underestimate the base effects autos up 10%, used cars up 10% in april hotel rooms, airline tickets up 10% in one month gasoline, if you look at headline inflation, up 45%, 50% year over year so we're really hitting the sweet spot of the base effects as you were just talking about earlier, the market is not necessarily buying it. it's kind of like is that all you got inflation? so i think you need to look at labor costs and things like rent if you want to understand the new normal, if you will, for inflation, which in my mind is not a risk to stocks in isolation except if it forces the fed's hand but if you think about it, we

could run 3% year over year for the next three and a half years and we'd still just average 2% over ten years remember the fed has said we're going to target average. so to me we settle back at a higher level but it's not a huge risk for stocks. >> so some of the assets you listed already were alternatives to stocks but perhaps not inflation hedges in their own right, cash and bonds in the short term, short duration what about the likes of crypto or gold or some assets like that >> yeah, crypto is so volatile that it's an asset class on its own. the interesting thing you're seeing over the last few days is that vaul at olatility is not necessarily spilling over to stocks at this point there's idiosyncratic factors in crypto that go beyond the inflation story. metals and mining, gold included, have been in certain

markets a very good inflation hedge. look, being long value stocks relative to growth is also in a sense a position that should benefit from rising rates and from higher inflation. and we're not just putting everything in cash, by the way this is on the margin. we're also looking at short-term dips and also fixed income like loans, because loans have a fairly higher yield in an environment where there's a search for yield comparable to high yield but they do quite well in a rising rate environment because those loans reset every few months so they in a sense have negative interest rate exposure that's where we're putting some of the cash at the moment. they're less liquid so we're not putting all the cash there i always say stay diversified, stay divested for the long run but the big picture is that we're leaning towards value, leaning away from stocks and overall still believe in the

role of stocks for the long run. i just want to make that clear. >> sebastian, thanks. let's send it over to mike for a look at the low volatility sectors of the market. mike, what's the latest? >> the splv did rebalance every few months here's the performance so far this quarter of course only since march 31st. even though everyone is consumed with the reflationary sectors and high beta is doing much better, it's been holding its own with the s&p it's not been left out in the gold even though most people are focused on reopening and the global recovery. there were some pretty radical changes. in particular, stap les the biggest group from 26% to 23%. utilities in white, it gets

rebuilt in a big way goes back up to 15%. that was unusual to have it so low back then because what happened going through last year, things like tech and communication services and to a lesser degree health care started to look like the voe volatility sectors this is based on the demonstrated volatility of these groups also real estate was reexpanded, so this is very defensive. financials now a bigger piece of the pie here as well so it seems as if we've gone back to this area where kind of the boring defensive sectors of lore are back. the big question is do you get whipsawed here it has happened in the past. not intentionally but that's where the market took them but it was the wrong time and backed off a little off that. i think you have to know what you own. it's low volatility, meaning the stocks that were low volatility in the last period, not necessarily the ones that are going to continue to be kind of calm and defensive in the

future, guys. >> really interesting. so tech has gone from quite small to smaller still. >> exactly a massive underweight in tech and communication services relative to the s&p 500. it's like 3% right now. >> mike, thank you. coming up, summer unmasked we're launching a new sear reese with an inside look at what could benefit from the reopening. we'll kick things off with the interview with the ceo from live nation on whetr nheorot americans are ready to head back to live concerts

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.

u.s. covid cases hitting their lowest levels since last june with the seven-day average of new infections, 26,000. the decline comes as 49% of the u.s. population is partially vaccinated and 39% fully vaccinated this latest data could provide a boost to live nation demand across its businesses currently passing ahead of 2019 levels joining us for part of our summer unmasked series, live nation president thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me on good to see you guys. >> gauge for us how big that

jump in demand you've seen recently is. >> yeah, we're looking great as we get into the summer, fall and then into 2022 right now 2022 is pacing double digits ahead of where we were in 2020 we thought 2020 would be our biggest year ever. so we are seeing the unlock of the demand, people being pent up for the past year across the board. it feels very good now, obviously, after a rough year. >> so to be clear, is that demand relative to number of tickets or in absolute terms you are going to sell 20% more tickets in 2021 than you did in 2019 >> the number of shows that we have booked for 2022 in our large buildings, arenas, amp theaters and stadiums, those are pacing double digits ahead of where we were on 2019. not all of those have gone on sale yet

we have a lot going on sale now every week, but in terms of the shows booked and artists that are planning on getting out from >> so going to a concert or f festival is that going to be normal the way it was before or changes? >> obviously there's a lot of things going on in terms of extra sanitary precautions and making sure everything is cleaned. i think we'll see a big shift in digital ticketing. the nfl who was the leader went from 50% digital ticketing to 100% digital ticketing we think that unlocks some big advantages for the fans and their experience, how they can manage the tickets, send them to friends and others they're coming with. the ability to order, pick up their food, not have to wait in line so we think that we'll be able to have technology that continues to enhance the fan experience. >> i guess, joe, part of sara's

question was related to covid. what about masks what, about vaccination proof? >> sure. first of all, we're obviously fully supportive of all the efforts of the vaccine we give our employees time off to get vaccinated. we help produce the global citizen live acts. because we are amongst the last to open and because we operate in 40 countries in all 50 states, given the pace at which things are moving, we're having to work with the local health officials in every market. the cdc is coming out with new guidelines as recently as yet. so it's hard to predict what it is in july, august or beyond that will be the specific protocols. so rather than trying to dictate a global one size fits all, we're looking to the local health officials to tell us what makes sense in that market at that time and how do we continue to evolve. >> so we don't have an answer yet, joe, whether we have an

indoor concert, an indoor stadium, whether people have to be masked? >> right the answer is going to change. your answer today is different than your answer is likely to be two months from now. your answer may be different in different states and certainly will be different in different countries. so there just isn't going to be a global one size fits all certainly it's going to evolve almost half the country being vaccinated, as that goes up, that will continue to change with the cdc and local health authorities say we need to do. >> on the tech side of things, joe, you mentioned some of the enhancements for people once they're at the live events but you're also starting to embrace nfts and blockchain a little more too tell us about na. >> sure. we've been very focused over the last year. while we weren't putting on concerts, we are continuing to ask ourselves how do we continue to improve our business, how do

we get leaner, nimble, more effective on putting on concerts and how do we continue to adopt new technologies we've gotten into the streaming business we made an acquisition of a company called beats and using that to scale up the streaming of live concerts for those who can't make the show. we're also very focused on nfts, how we can create digital memorabilia. one of the things you unfortunately lose with digital tickets is you lose those ticket stubs so many people like to keep as their record of the event. so starting to offer some digital memorabilia with nfts we think is a great opportunity for the fans, for the artists, for the venues to continue to enhance what it is that we offer off of our platform. and similarly, blockchain is great technology we'll use it in the nfts it has the ability to help manage the ticketing process it manages the digital right, if you will today it is more expensive, slower and not as energy

efficient as our digital tickets, but i expect those things will evolve over time and they can be a nice augmentation to our business. but as a reminders, the ticketing business is certainly much more than just the ticket itself it's the sales and marketing platform that ticketmaster has, it's the largest ticketing business in the world. it's the erp system that provide the venues to build, price, market and manage the shows and it's the funding we provide for the venues tick ti ticketmaster is one of the largest funding providers. >> beyond some of these high tech initiatives that you've got going on within live events, where is the long-term growth story? obviously there's a huge reopening and pent-up demand, but what are you telling investors is the biggest opportunity in your business >> it is amazing

every genre in music is on fire right now, from garth brooks selling out stadiums in under half an hour, astroworld by travis scott selling out 100,000 tickets in under an hour, latin with bad bunnies largest single day on sale in recent years. pop. all of that will continue to build. we see a multi-year run of continued growth in terms of fans going to more and more concerts we don't see any slowdown. we think it's a multi-year effect we think that there continue to be opportunities for improved marketing, opportunities for brands to connect with fans through the digital ticket we separated out our venue management business. we think there's a big opportunity how to better operate the venues and get the fans to get more out of the experience. >> the bad bunny sales were

crazy to watch how fast they went joe, thank you for joining us. >> thank you still to come on the show, it's been one week since the delayed tax day deadline we'll talk to the ceo of h & r block about his company and how it fared during this unusual tax season and how potential reform in washington will impact his business. and may is asian-american and pacific islander heritage month. all month long we've been spotlighting cnbc contributors, business leaders and our own on-air reporters here's ylan mui. >> i grew up in a traditional vietnamese household where respect for your elders and respect for authority was paramount. but i was also living in a country where the most successful people were often the most outspoken so over the course of my career, i really had to learn how to balance those two extremes kind of step outside of my cultural comfort zone and ask tough questions of people in power while still fundamentally believing that hard work will be rerdwaed

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airspace. president biden and egyptian president discussing reviving the piece process between israel and the palestinians they also called for humanitarian aid for gaza and funds to help rebuild homes and businesses destroyed in the latest fighting. and the head of the world health organization slamming wealthy nations for not sharing covid vaccines with poorer countries. he said people in ten countries have received three-fourths of covid shots given. even japan is struggling to catch up tonight two months out from the olympics, the cdc has just issued a warning, do not travel to japan covid out of control there, as the country starts mass vaccinations the full story on the news right after jim cramer, 7:00 eastern on cnbc. wilf, back to you. >> shep, thanks so much. after the braeak, the ceo o

h & r block joins us to discuss this unusual tax season. plus the apple/epic trial comes to the finish line as both sides make closing arguments today. plus a look at when the judge could reach a decision that may veere ro t app universe ir, and nails gummies. the number one brand to support beautiful hair, glowing skin, and healthy nails. and introducing jelly beans with two times more biotin.

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h & r block reporting strong tax season volume this year. total tax returns prepared by or through the company topping 20 million. that's up 21.4% from last year joining us for an exclusive interview is the ceo, jeff jones. it was such a strange year with covid and the delays, jeff talk to us a little more about what you're seeing and why numbers are up like that >> it was incredibly strange year to say the least. but 2021 was really a season of growth at h & r block. as you mentioned, the total filings, market share growth, our assisted market share growth was the largest it's been in ten years. we saw consumers embracing digital tools more than ever i think this year because there were so many uncertainties for

the consumer between unemployment, stimulus payments, ultimately the refundable rebate credit, there were just so many things that the consumer needed help with this year and they turned to h & r block in great numbers. >> a question you probably get a lot, jeff, personally and professionally, which is when will we get the refunds and how are they looking given that the treasury is getting so much so late >> it's a really important question and it's one of the most common questions we get asked for sure it's why we encourage consumers every year to file early the irs actually processes refunds first in, first out. this year it was so confusing as you said, the tax season started late, it ended late. we saw on the last day of tax season this year record numbers in our diy business, which just reminds me every year that no matter what we do to encourage consumers to file early and get their refunds, we just have a country of procrastinators, to

say the least. >> jeff, what's your take on cryptocurrency and taxation? is this a case of actually people not having huge amounts of realized gains yet or do you think there is quite a big chunk of realized gains that has gone undeclared and untaxed as crypto stands >> it's not yet federally regulated. it's really not a place that we weigh in with consumers much ultimately we think it could be a place we help customers, but today it's not a place where we do a lot of business >> what about what the biden administration is proposing, in an effort to help pay for some of his new plans, he wants to beef up compliance, i guess, and oversight from the irs he says that there are almost $600 billion in 2019 that could be collected from tax cheats basically and up to $7 trillion over the next decade are those numbers accurate do you think this is a good

strategy to add funding to the irs to help figure out more revenues >> we know that the irs has been underfunded and they're such important partners in our business obviously we also know that every year there are millions of people who rely on the irs to get their taxes processed faster and the irs isn't able to do that. fraud is an issue in the business we believe that the irs should have more ability to regulate taxpayers, the people that serve taxpayers, to set standards and help people make sure whoever they're working with to prepare their taxes actually meets a high level of credential and standard. >> how much does the new stimulus packages that have been passed help complicate what is going to be the next tax season, this current year as well, with enhanced unemployment benefits and all sorts of other things that could confuse the issue

>> things that are coming. >> yeah, complicated things. >> i think the thing that was most confusing this year for consumers was this was all brand new. stimulus payments they learned were not taxable millions of people receiving unemployment benefit, that was taxable. but then later the law was changed to be retroactive to go back and take credit for maybe taxes you had paid on unemployment to begin with next year obviously we'll have another turn and hopefully consumers will understand some of those things better but in the end, you know, this is what we do every single year. and for decades, the tax law changes every year there are many things that happen in the background every year and that's why we spend so much time with our tax experts making sure they're well trained and making sure they're prepared to answer those questions for consumers, whether they come to an office or work with us digitally. >> jeff jones, the stock has had

a nice run since december, not back up to the 2019 highs but we'll keep an eye on it. ceo of h & r block. >> thank you, sara. apple's fight in court with epic, rundown of the closing arguments and when a verdict could be reached. and lordstown motors getting hit hard after hours as the earning call gets underway it's down 8%

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after three weeks, apple's courtroom battle with epic games wraps up today and josh lipton has the latest for us. josh >> so, wilf, one critical question in this fight is what is the relevant market here. in its closing arguments, epic is saying that the relevant market is iphone app distribution apple says, no, it's actually much larger, it's the market for game distribution. so users can choose from all kinds of devices and platforms in other words, there's plenty of competition lawyers say fortnite maker epic could have a tough time. antitrust cases are tough for plaintiffs to win in part because the burden of proof is on the plaintiff this trial will have broad implications no doubt because a win for apple could cause the doj to think twice before bringing its own antitrust case. the flip side could also be true the judge said it could take several weeks to render a decision here. by the way, with the end of this

trial, tim sweeney officially signing off and thanking popeye's for the food. back to you all. >> that was a light way to end it josh, so what's next for apple no matter which way this goes, even if it goes for them, are they still going to have to be dealing with these concerns and allegations of a monopoly around the app store? i know europe, for instance, has been looking into it >> yeah, i mean i'm sure the concerns are going to continue there. i think the point is well taken that maybe there is this tight relationship, correlation relationship tbetween the court house in california and washington if apple did win, would that mean the doj was less likely to bring some type of formal action of course the opposite could also be true, if apple loses, do doj smell blood in the water remember in terms of this trial this is the first part of this you almost guarantee whoever loses is going to immediately appeal, which is why some people

think this could go on for years as it makes its way through the courts. >> spotify has been fighting them for a while, especially on those european complaints. josh, thank you. josh lipton. up next, charlie bit my finger is coming off youtube forever. which you would have known if you'd been watching cnbc bell. we caught one the stars of that viral video. now it is officially sold. wawh ce icll you what thpre s enlosing bell comes back n 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.

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welcome back an update to a story we brought you last week here on "closing bell." thursday we caught up with the stars of charlie bit my finger, one of the first viral youtube videos 2008 >> 800 plus million hits. >> they turned it into an nft. it sold for $760,999 yesterday to a bidder named 3 f music who appeared to be in a bidding war with user meme master. the official video will be deleted from yooush. >> delighted for them. some debate whether this was a huge number or not over a half a million pounds to went for for each of those two boys at that age in their life,

good nest egg. i bet they will not talk about it as. >> disaster girl went fore$500,000. >> it got more than that yeah. >> it's not a beimel, you know. >> no, but that's a good amount. speaking of nfts, cnbc's first nfts up for grabs honoring the mark haines bottom he died ten years ago today. the auction is open until 10:30 a.m. on wednesday. all proceeds go to autism speaks it's one of the favorite charities. and to the council or economic education which focuses on financial literacy for more head to mintable .app/cnbc.com up next, counting down to the big reveal of the 2021 cnbc disrupting 50 list identifying the fastest growing

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50 list is being unveiled tomorrow julia is here with more. what can we expect >> our list highlights the fastest growing innovative startups disrupting industries and challenging the status quo this year you will see many new faces on the list because companies must be private to qualify and a record number of companies from last year's list have graduated, 12 companies have gone public, including airbnb, goodrx and snowflake, among others they join the cnbc 50 index. that index is up about 77% over the past 12 months compared to 46.5% gains for the nasdaq in addition to the ipos, there were two acquisitions and four pendin pending spac deals we will unveil the list tomorrow morning. we will have coverage and interviews with ceos all week long back to you.

>> so, julia, how does that rush of spacs made it a harder list to compile has it shrunk the universe you are looking at >> well, look, so only four companies have been disqualified because of spacs i think it's fantastic we have so many new names on list. so many years companies like airbnb was on the list they continued to innovate now the fact that a company like airbnb or a company like affirm or corsair, they, long time disrupter 50 companies, are no longer qualifying. therefore, that opens up more spaces for the massively innovative companies we will be showcases tomorrow it's the most competitive list ever over 1,500 nominations were submitted for those 50 spots >> great stuff we look forward to it tomorrow and also tomorrow on the earnings front, we will hear from nordstrom, toll brothers and urban outfitters

final thoughts. >> has been a good start to the week consumer confidence tomorrow as well as new home data are two areas of the market that started to pause or wobble keep an eye on the results there. >> will do s&p closed out with a gain of less than a percent of the all-time high. "fast money" begins right now. >> i'm courtney reagan this is "fast money. tonig tonight, we're trading the crypto chaos bitcoin bouncing back today following another weekend of wild moves and the digital currency just took another big leap higher on the back of an elon musk tweet what else? what he said that lit a new spark. plus, we are track the afterhours action in shares of loris town motors. and later gearing up for a big week o