good wednesday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street," i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber. futures are steady and amazon buying mgm for $8.5 billion, and the biggest since whole foods and bolstering the entertainment and streaming features >> and climate decision. shareholders are voting on the company's first major activist investor challenge for the first in modern history and following that closely. >> and banks and bitcoin the ceos of the nation's six largest financial firms will be testifying in front of the senate later this morning. carl >> jim, i remember we were on the air that amazon announced they were buying whole foods and the legacy of that deal is debated but do you think that

will be more interesting >> and you got to short kroger at that moment i can't short anything but i just knew that was the game changer because they were going to lower prices despite what the washington lawsuit says about them keeping prices high. no, i do not think it will matter it will be incremental and one of the things that is incremental about amazon is you want to be able to say to alexa, i said to alexa this morning, play some cajun music. i was in for cajun 4:00 are, cajun music. and i would like to say amazon bond james bond and david, daniel craig, sean connery, who will they give us >> bond. >> which bond? >> what do you mean which bond. >> there's daniel craig. >> i mean sean and daniel, that's hard to -- we get to actually show bond >> how do we have the rights to that >> i don't know. >> can you give me -

>> how this is breaks news. >> is this operation grand slam. >> i like all of them but connery and craig are my two favorites. >> did you ever meet connery >> yes he was on the new york stock exchange, i did meet him once. >> was he not incredible >> i said you were so much cooler than -- >> that was interesting. >> yes, but for the deal itself, guys, we did talk a lot about it yesterday, the $8.45 billion price tag is certainly more as i said yesterday than any other potential suitor for these assets was willing to pay, in fact a lot more but that may not matter for amazon. a $1.6 trillion plus market value and cost of capital is near zero, exaggerated a bit but you know what we're saying here, basically it doesn't cost much and it will bulk up significantly the content library that they have available for their customers who are prime customers. there's hundreds of millions of them now

most of them are signed on primarily to get same day delivery or next day delivery but a lot of people certainly enjoy and like the ability to watch movies, and shows and. >> roku, go to amazon and see what they have. >> certainly one of the important competitors and we have been talking a lot about it with the prospective merger of time-warner and discovery, creating a new clossosus, with hbo max and everything else to bear there and amazon is a significant player and the question is how much will they bulk up their offerings. this doesn't do it it, but this helps and there will be questions with what amazon would be willing to do, and would they be considered to go bigger or the likes of viacom and unclear if that would be the case and unclear if that is something that would be done, and they do

like sports and watch football. >> they have been weak in sports away from the actual content very weak. >> i think there is an unwillingness to go away from the broadcast networks there is a streaming option but they're not going to let you - >> they took lots of people from espn, frankly, i thought they would do something with football last year. they blew it up. they didn't make it. he didn't do a good job. when you look at the amazon slate, all they do is have like tom clancy movies, and david, it's the weak point. it's the achilles heel >> okay. >> was that a reference to - >> i challenge amazon and you just acted as if - >> you know, it's funny carl, all of the, many of the analyst reports that have come out that have chosen to discuss this have said it's a positive even if they are seen as overpaying, it's still viewed as a positive for the company and again, it resign really move the needle -- it doesn't really move the needle with earnings or anything like that but it is

interest in light of the enhanced competition between these giant platforms that are being created and what amazon wants to do here, as opposed to of course, remember, a week ago, i was talking about apple and the fact that they've done nothing. nothing. just sort of sat there and kind of watched. >> was amazon interested at all in what at&t was selling >> not that i'm aware of no. >> really? >> no. >> why not >> i don't know that it was brought to them. but i don't believe that they were interested in something of that size at this point. >> it's learning they need to learn that's the way they work. >> yes. >> it's very interesting, carl, because you know that there are certain weaknesses, what did they do with the nfl did they publicize the nfl i mean did they have alexa who is going to win the game and alexa who will have the most touches so you can go right to draft kings, did they have a tie-in with draft kings? i felt that their whole sports slate was embarrassing and they need to do something sports, and maybe this will do

something entertainment. i'm not used to amazon not being number one just not used to it. >> it's interesting you say that, jim, because there is some discussion about the fact that because they have so much cash, operations generated 66 billion in cars, last year, that's eight times what disney did, that they, when you have a buyer, david, with that much strength, that it sort of erodes other's ability to efficiently value properties and are they sort of disrupting or i guess affecting the market in some ways in which efficiencies get degraded over time >> it's certainly possible listen, we used to say the same thing about netflix in terms of the money that they were putting forward for potentially for producers, and that was the case, i mean it's been a great time to be somebody who creates content. we know that and that likely will continue to be the case. i mean we, yesterday, that excerpt from the interview with john malone a couple of days ago, saying the same thing

it does also call to your point, given this number, that they're paying, 8.45 billion, if it's below the nine that a lot of people have been reporting on, that have sort of said it might hit but nonetheless far above the six that i was told by any number of other people who looked at the asset they might be will be to pay at the top, it does say, what is paramount worth and what, maybe this makes the warner, any of these studios are worth a lot more today at least based on the multiples that they're paying here. >> alphabet might be interested. apple might be interested. >> in what >> building content. >> there's a lot of interest in building content but there aren't that many assets out there and then you have the other smaller players, lion's gate has moved up on speculation maybe somebody would be interested but they had their chance, lions gate and they sold to hasbro, and cbs was running it and then of course, they got together, that doesn't happen,

shari redstone was not interested in that deal but lion's gate had their chance a number of times and unclear whether that will come up again. soechb sony, which is pursuing a different strategy and the parent company in japan seems to be happy with that they're having a deal with netflix that they signed recently they're focused, sony is so much on gaming which is by the way another part of content. don't forget those guys, the gaming guying, activision might be interested. amazon, they make a great move, they make bond, where is adam aron >> watching it at his amc theaters >> cut out entirely. >> and amazon, where is to the moon '21? >> i don't know either >> amc's going to be up again today. >> and why not and carl, if you're in a meme stock, why would you ever sell it

they obviously are going to take it where they want to take it. they're a buying group the s.e.c. has not said they're a buying group they're powerful they want the stock higher it's child's play. why ever sell into the his history -- maw of reddit, bets, why? why? why? >> i think everyone is asking that question and i do wonder whether or not you are welcoming this resurgence in the meme narrative and is that a net positive, if it encourages retail, if it encourages flows, or if it brings back the debate we had earlier in the year about -- >> i think it encourages flows it's where they seem like train wrecks admittedly i pleaded with him last night to go after beyond meat 22% short. easy to do everybody likes it get the heck out of the way.

you got ethan brown. i'm hoping to diversify. but my head writer on "mad money" and of course my only writer, cliff mason, suggests to me that if they don't have the money to go after a third stock, david, they're out of cash, except for those two stocks. >> isn't it just a side show shouldn't we be thinking about the thing that is occupying most true investors trout process, -- thought process, which is inflation? >> i thought they had their own crypto >> don't you have these conversations? >> i'm short bonds i'm getting killed the growth stocks are good faang is cheap there. that's the conversation. >> you kind of got it. it's true. especially what are you going to do but i have had conversations with people who run large businesses who are genuinely concerned that inflation is going to stay, and once it's out, it's out and it's very hard to control. >> it's out, what is it like a

genie? >> a bad genie. >> i see steal peaking and lumber going down -- i see steel peaking and lumber going down and corn peaking. >> skies of blue. ♪ >> jim, i'm right there with you. >> the commodity topping out and the feds talking about tapering. we've got negative economic momentum, surprises on retail sales and consumer confidence and the housing numbers. confidence number, three state months of declining purchase intentions on homes, on cars, on appliances, and that's, that doesn't sound like an a inflationary or hyper inflation. >> that may be numbers but what i'm getting the anecdotal, things are booming >> toll brothers booming i'll give you that irving booming nordstrom. what are they doing for heaven's sake this company here, you can't buy

a row boat in this country, they are doing the best go over the foot locker call that nobody did and came out friday freight costs easing which leads us to semiconductors and i had gena raimondo, secretary of commerce on last night and it was the same quarter s&p, as of '19 with 8 million fewer people in the work force. >> talking about productivity? >> or maybe those people comes back to work and business continues to spend and a lot of extra money in excess savings and willing to take on leverage and we will have incredible economic growth but you're going to tell me we're not going to have inflation >> it's harder to get people, because a lot of the work force moved to other areas the dishwashers moved to other areas. the servers. the people in small retail they gave up they couldn't wait they're gone so people are paying up.

and people who were may itre-ds are back there doing dishes. >> and the bus boys are all waiters. >> and i don't know who the chef is because the quality is not as good as it was. >> no, it's not. isn't that a rich person's worry, david. >> yes, it is a high class zblob yes, carl, it is sometimes difficult to be with my partner who is completely out of touch with the people who go to burlington he thinks burlington is a town in vermont >> well, it is >> burlington, vermont >> it is. >> we're going to get to some of the specialty retail earnings but we want to mention, too, the bank ceos are testifying in front of senate banking and hear from dimon, moynihan, frazier, sharp, solomon, goreman, jim, plenty of directions they could go, whether it's crypto policy, or serving underserved communities, where do you expect the headlines to come from >> i read all of the prepared testimony and i think these people are looking for the

congressional medal of honor of banking. i mean the people, i mean i never seen people, i've never seen people do so much for america. i happen to know these guys, and when you read through their testimony, all that's missing is that they're going to give every single penny away to people who have less money than they do these are incredible, these testimonies. if someone is anti-bank, they're going to have a field day because all of guys are fighting over each other to say how terrific they've been. think in truth they've been, but who do i represent once again, the david constituenciy of people trying to find really good food at three star michelin restaurants. carl, i think you got to read these. they are amazing they serve the bank of the underserved. they do this fantastic on covid nobody was better. well capitalized done great things. some fear crypto oh, my

i wish i could be a banker because then i could be sainted. and i'm not even in that, you know, i'm not co-religious but saying to people, i think i would make it. >> and we should point out to people who are familiar with sarcasm, that you are doing that. >> have you read them? >> i haven't. >> if you read them, i don't think there is a single, david, they checked every box >> well, listen, they're going to come under criticism, you know that, they always do, they always will, and always interesting to listen to jamie dimon in particular who tends to be fairly outspoken on many in issues i hope they ask about inflation. >> they think it's under control. >> not all of them. >> am i being facetious? yes. but when you read them in toto, they are all great, and charlie sharp is not going to say i inherited a really bad bank with very little regulatory control

and i've turned it around. they're not going to say that. my take is, and this is what they really want to hear, i'm raising numbers for every single bank stock taking the money going to a high. charlie sharp, it's a turn, it's going higher so my take-away is buy the bank stocks, but be careful of crypto, as we talk, i'm selling some crypto, if you're listening to mr. flowers speak, he scares me as much as he did when i was at goldman sachs he's the scariest man in finance. just as scary and unforgiving. one time, i did -- he probably forgets when he called me ill-informed >> but you never forgot it. >> no. >> carl, he scolded me it's like he took boiling water and dumped it over my head and said was it too hot? >> it was a good interview we'll talk about that in a bit there's 90 minutes left to bid

on cnbc's first nft as we've been telling you, in honor of mark haines, we're auctioning off his famous haynes bottom moment and got some bidders including some familiar name, john ledger, mark cuban, tillman furtido, among them, and we have raised $90,000 for two very great clarities. if you don't want to participate in the auction we've got a set number of nfts going at a fixed price so this might be a good way to explore this new kind of investment we've talked about so much mintable.app/cnbc, and we look forward to bringing you more news on that probably within a couple of hours. >> wow i have to tell you, the people who are bidding, it's heartening mark cuban it's hard to outdo mark cuban but i'm doing it right now. >> you are going to bid too? >> and does cuban have the fire power? >> yes, carl, jim asked me, what

do i actually own if i win this thing? >> david, you -- >> you will find out. >> one of the things that has always boggled me about david, he continues to get the facts in the way of the score you've ignored me for 22 years >> and i hope to do it for 22 more >> done your way >> on your way >> plenty of retail earnings to get to we will talk about mgm, amazon and shareholder meetings and exxon is the biggest one to watch, but amazon, facebook, pay pal as well, and ford's capital markets day. markets day. don't go away.yone. gets. the d. questions? got it. but, why did you use a permanent marker? because i want to make sure you remember. i am going to get a new whiteboard. it's not complicated. only at&t gives new & existing customers the same great deals on all smartphones.

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big day for exxonmobil, a shareholder meeting, we should know the results of an activist campaign to seat as many as four new directors on the board, this led by engine one and we've been following it for some time and it seems like a somewhat quicksodic effort, given the size of their own stake but they have enlisted significant support, no less than the likes of blackrock, for example, which owns as much as 6% of the stock. they did get backing for three of the four directors from the shareholder services and an influential proxy advisory firm and you can see some of the other supporters as he well. one thing in exxon's favorite here as we try to figure out who will win or if in fact it will get any directors at all elected to the board, roughly half of the shares are owned by retail,

jim, and retail often times is tough to get to vote, and typically does back current management and/or the board, that's changing a bit, it would seem to some, but that is in exxon's favor as they try to sort of fight off this activist campaign, again, that sort of seems to start without that much momentum but has built significant momentum and of course, in the balance is this question of are they doing enough in terms of really combatting climate, changing the compensation of their business or are they simply talking about it but not really putting the money behind it? that's the simple way to try to sum it up. a lot more to it we talked to darren woods of course many times about it recently and hope to talk to him later today if we can after the vote is tallied, but jim, you know, we'll just have to wait and see if they get any, and even more than one perhaps >> look, usually when you have these proxy contests and they want retail, they come on mapz, almost everybody has come on "mad money," because that's where the retail investor sees it, and i actually frankly

question the seriousness of this, but i will say this, david. if you had to nominate a board of distinguished skexecutives wo might be willing to listen to almost radical esg, it is this board. darren woods does not control this board. >> you think it's the current board? let's not forget of course angelakis came on the board beginning of march after d.e. shaw did not mount an activist campaign and did not settle and it is a serious board to say the least. and the contention of engine one, there's not enough energy experience and not enough climate transition experience on this board, and certainly i know there has been support for greg goff who many believe would be a good director given his experience in the energy sector. >> there are very few but there are a lot of people who i think take all these things very seriously and i think that's one of the reasons why darren is

coming on because this board is a board that says you better go carbon neutral you better go carbon neutral everyone's going carbon neutral. chevron. >> to your point, jim farley of ford, saying about gasoline engines, it is interesting, we'll get to the capital markets today. futures are green. s&p still hanging on to a gain for the month. although the nasdaq given yesterday's late action still wee ckn oday 'rba ia minute

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well, i guess, i just asked jim what he was doing and i'll find out myself for this mad dash and countdown to an opening bell in less than three minutes. >> it's ford day and the 70,000, i think we had some terrific stuff from phil lebeau, the 70,000 is growing, and this is the people who want ee., and pre-orders for the f-150, it is a moving target, i've got it so it will be probably 100,000 by the end of the week, i think also that

they're so far, there so far has been nothing about raw cost, commodity costs, i feared a john deere-like statement where we thought it was going to be 500 million and now it's a billion we have not gotten that statement. there will be people who buy the stock, because we did not get the bad news, only the good news, and david, this man is gunning for musk like you wouldn't believe he's gunning for musk. he is not worried about being called a hol gr, hologram he wants musk. he is going to get - >> musk has a market value, musk as, because we always personalize these things but tesla's market value is 10-fold of that ford's, almost 11 fold. >> farley is embarrass bid that and he's had it and he's convinced that his cyber truck, whatever, is nothing compared to an electric f-150. he has, he's talking about that

mustang mach-e, not being advertised because it's selling out. >> zero sum, jim does ford's gain mean tesla losses >> yes. >> really? >> farley wants it that way. i've never seen a guy go so aggressively against one gentleman than jim farley saying it is time to bury musk. kind of like khrushchev, we'll bury you. >> it didn't work out. >> but it's so much fun to watch. because farley has had it. musk, musk, give me a break. give me a break. he wants musk. he wants him >> investing 30 billion in electrification by 2025 which isn't that far away, and fully

electric by 2030, the last five years of this decade, given gm's target on doing away with the combustion engine, to that figure, is going to be crazy if it works out. >> remember the legacy henry ford this man can do it he's more of a legacy of henry ford not the kind of whacky id dology and david, i think he gets it, he's sick of it, he doesn't like that market cap differential and he's not going to let it stand anymore. he's mad as hell >> he's that great combination of chris farley and howard beel. >> there's the opening bell at the big board, celebrating a direct listing, zip recruiter an online employment marketplace, the ceo will join us on tech check this morning, at the nasdaq, another ipo, fly wire, a global payments company and by

the way, happy 125th birthday to the dow jones. 1896 today and risen an average of 7.69% a year >> and when you go back and read who was in there, the story, it's interesting, as far as like an international harvester, so you got a deere survivor, there are many companies that were the backbone of american engineering and industry that have since been moved to taiwan and china it's kind of embarrassing. the auto representation is minimal now. >> it is and by the way exxonmobil which i was just speaking about, joined standard oil in 1928, and left in 2020 left, was booted by the way, almost always works to buy the one that's booted out. exxonmobil has had a great year. >> honeywell was booted out and then back in >> right. >> what was that about >> ge, look, a little more work on this compensation, it was

strong, this company. >> yes, it was strong. >> we didn't talk enough about it. >> it was designed, mr. culp's compensation was designed the board said to make sure we stay, basically, make sure he was fully incented to stay but they did drop had from 12 to 6-something. in terms of where he actually was going to be -- >> stay, like he should have a cot in the office and never leave until the stock gets to 20 or at least he gets the gross margins like farley did, ebitda margin of, for 2023, 6.3, and 4.7 here, i would like to see larry culp get growth. but growth. >> and it is hard to get growth in the last year given what happened to the aircraft engine business overall >> greg over there, raytheon, he had growth but he didn't reprise. >> he did n-- re-price.

>> he did re-price. >> that's why shareholders said nonbinding resolution, said no thank you, that's not right. >> and with re-pricing i will say from my own experience because years ago we were employees of ge and part of our compensation was referring similar types of grants and nobody re-priced mine from 45, carl, i don't know if you go back, wherever they were, nobody re-priced mine i was looking for that i remember that. they re-priced sundown and nine when it hit six or something. not mine not yours, carl. sorry. too bad. >> you're such a cog here. a key cog here in the empire [ laughter ] >> i totally get that. >> i'm so glad that you bring up exactly the importance that you have [ laughter ] >> it reminds me, it reminds me of an executive in tv a long time ago who told me anchors are fungible that's always kept us humble, guys >> exactly

>> i'm a nonfungible token as well as a hologram. >> you're going to be next. >> the next thing we auction off. >> nft, i wonder if john ledger will bid on that one, too. all your buddies. >> bet or bid? >> bet, bid. why is ledger not responding to me i'm embarrassing i'm out there saying, listen, i'll go to 100,000 he didn't get near me. >> and gamestop shares up 14% again, so out of nowhere, not at the highs, 52, and 483, but so where near that 52-week high of $50.77. >> yes, you know, technically, it's within specialty retail i guess you could argue, jim, and a ton of others, there's nordstrom's, there's dick's, urban, anf and dick's crushing.

>> and that was probably the highlight. everything was selling very well fishing. doing incredible hard to get nonbarb hooks, when you fish hard to get nonbarb hooks. >> no inflation. not to worry. >> no inflation at nordstrom believe me because nothing is selling. carl, they actually, they actually missed the numbers. i mean to miss the numbers i mean there isn't even a pretzel stand that missed the numbers and nordstrom missed the numbers. that's an extraordinary feat abercrombie made the numbers this is an incredibility, incredible time. anf. >> urban comp's up 52. and jpmorgan goes up to neutral today, jim and a price target of 38 matthew boss had, you know, had

pov questions on the call, i'm going to make a prediction, i think other than dick's, i think gap is going to have -- urban, with a great quarter and i think gap stores will blow it away i really do. >> you've been saying that for a while. >> because i think it's going to be true. >> you've been right. >> i love it >> when he says i've been right -- >> i like to point that out. >> i get so excited. >> your critics certainly love to point out when you've been wrong. >> i said sell gamestop at 400 and i ripped out that darn cart catheter, i thought it was a good call. the catheter hurt like hell. it was one of those farley catheters. like jim farley. >> everything comes back to ford for you. >> ford, yes. >> i was singing your praises because you've been on that stock for quite a while. >> what do you want from me that you're so nice to me today >> nothing, don't worry. >> who do you want to have dinner with that is one of my people.

>> you've taken all my friends >> another one last night. >> impressive. >> that's great. >> i was looking at his calendar and i have a source, and i just called him and said listen, i would like to go to dinner that night, they are having drinks with david and dinner with me. >> and that's it they're gone >> i have to be somewhere. >> i know you want to touch on cruise lines because it does look like we are finally going to get some sailings out of the port of miami. >> well, frank del rio wanted that there was some really good take yesterday, frank del rio on closing bell, i think he finally got his wish out of the president who seems very pro-cruise, maybe president biden realizes what the bargain of the cruise is david, it's real, when you go, i mean i tried to book with, i was booking with norwegian, right before it all happened, just right before, and they're going to announce the standing up of 15 ships, fdr's 15 ships

>> frank dello was a guest on "closing bell" yesterday and let's take a listen to what he had to say about the reopening. >> if we can actually operate the sailings that we're selling in 2022, 2022 could be the best year in the history of the industry that's how much pent-up demand there is that's how strong pricing is and now it's a question whether these ports around the world, the travel restrictions will be lifted so that we can return to normal and actually operate the sailings that we want to operate. >> pent-up demand. >> i am told - >> all-time high pricing >> i'm saying they're so solid, i think you can still get haven, the haven section on norwegian cruise, which has multiple bars and two rooms, and david doesn't understand that it's not just a state room, carl, you can have two rooms, david has since kate winslet on the titanic, have you ever focused on them >> no, i haven't i'm focused on ships that carry

other things like containers but you know what you can't do, you can't find those no, you can't find shipping containers you know why because they're all in the wrong places supply chain costs going up. i'm just going to keep coming back to inflation. i don't know why >> panama canal? >> every day i will bring some indicator of inflation. >> have you read the foot locker report >> no. >> and he says the port situation is being resolved. >> 2022. >> williams sonoma has been hurt by the ports i bet that laura alber is saying that it is reaching, that it has peaked, that the port problem has peaked i i'm bullish on the port problem. >> you'll be hard pressed to find it in financial services for example and in recent. you talk about the weakness in

commercial real estate all the time. >> you're absolutely right, carl, no doubt in the major metropolitan areas, rent per square foot, particularly commercial space has come down dramatically, although there is a belief that things are stabilizing now. even in manhattan. and that it won't be as bad as it originally had been fired and then rents as well -- feared and then rents for apartments have come down. >> they have come down. >> that is a cost that has gone down for many people although then we look at housing prices and all of those people buying homes around the country and those have gone undramatically so i don't know where it evens up. >> toll brothers, here is something that wasn't supposed to happen, great margins on the houses they sold and people are usually reluctant to buy toll brothers and others, and a couple of days later they rethink and buy it and that's what is happening again and i would tell you when you read that piece in this morning, in the journal, about hybrid, people are doing hybrid until they can't do hybrid because on monday, the place is

too crowded, everybody is there, and wednesday they're not there, what is this what kind of schedules are these? >> yeah, it's funny, the more the leaders of organizations that i speak, to the less i believe this hybrid thing is going to be -- certain companies that can pull it off but many won't and we will eventually look more similar than we expected they might in the past. >> and except for us. >> and the lawyers may not want to come back and even there, they may be, you need to be there and it comes back to culture and you need to be there, how do you ever create a culture for people early in the work force, if you're not physically with them and that's a lot of firms that we know well, obviously, certainly in the investment banks, private equity, all parts of financial services, and then there are companies where there are a lot more people who just do their job and can do it from anywhere. >> if they go to the knicks box,

okay, should they not also have to go to the office? >> yes. >> i know high pressure lawyers that are back in the office. paul wisele. >> and i know a number of firms and a number of major law firms in new york that nobody is back. nobody you cannot find them >> you can't get a reservation in - >> plenty of banks that aren't bank of america, merrill lynch, they won't let people in their building still >> i'm in one where you can't get in the building. >> but carl, try to get a reservation at a good restaurant michelin one star. forget it. you can't get in. >> and i do think june will be key, and it will be for us, guys, we may have some news to share about our own surroundings in the coming days, i'll leave you in suspense on that one. vix below 19 this morning. let's get to bob pisani. hey, bob >> and i hope it is going to be good news about seeing your smiling face right down here at the nyse with me let's hope that will happen real soon flattish day, flattish open, but

remember, we're closing out the month on the flattish side, but the reopening story is very real take a look at the sectors not a lot to wright write home about. retailers, nice open despite nordstrom's disappointment overall, and industrials still up, tech is on the flattish side, right now, and that's been the story throughout most of the month here and if you take a look at some of the other sectors out there, the retailers are kind of mixed this morning, so for example, nordstrom, a real disappointment, on the numbers, and they didn't raise their guidance now, remember, macy's raised some guidance, kohl's raised some guidance with an amazing year, and macy's is up 60% and kohl's has been flying probably up 40%, and in order stnordstro not so much and not all of the retailers are winning but in general, a great 2021 for the retailer, and xrt, which is equal weight etf doing really well most important thing for the marks in may the fed started talking about tapering you heard on our air, on closing bell yesterday, barry said we're

talking about tapering she said it. that's what you want out of us and she was absolutely right so no tapering yet no rate hikes. believing inflation is transitory but the bottom line, what is important is they're talking about it what happened yesterday? she was on the air for the markets. nothing, no moves in stocks, no moves in the ten-year yield, still below 1.6% and the whole talk that the fed is behind the curb and fall behind and get aggressive all of a sudden, so far, that story is not playing out. the fed is holding everybody's hand and saying we're starting the process of crossing the street, kids, hold our hands, and follow us, and so far, it's working. heaven knows they could miscommunicate down the road but so far it's working. take a look, as mentioned, flattish for the month, but the value stock, the reopening plays, particularly anything commodity, material-related this month has been on fire

nucor. schlumberger, dow. all off of their highs, they reached their highs earlier in the month but still pretty great month and the mega caps sort of on the flattish side, and nvidia is up a little bit, some of the other chip names are down, like amd, but flattish as you can see, in mega cap tech in the faang names overall. meantime, we're closing out the month with a few nice ipos, folks. we've got ziprecruiter behind me a bunch of people here down here on the floor folks standing around this is a direct listing so $18 we don't know if that is good or bad or not i heard the number is a little higher towards 25 for ziprecruiter and nonetheless it will happen, and we have a nice crowd on the floor of the new york stock exchange and payment technology company, holding group, they priced at the high end of the range, $21, and the price talk was $19 to $21. nasdaq has flywire, with global payments, and not only did they

price at the high end of the range $24, they raised the terms 10.4 million shares is the price talk and 8.7 million share, and carl, there they are, right there behind me, a nice group of people, hard for us to see because we don't have the camera on the floor but bottom line, there's people there and i will check it out and i'm sure looking forward to seeing the three beautiful faces of my friends down here very soon. back to you, carl. >> we look forward to it, too, bob. bob pisani thanks. let's get to rick santelli >> good morning, carl. it's interesting, listening to bob, because fed speak is, fed speak giving us any new information the last 24 hours? 36 hours the last week? in the minutes i personally don't think so. lower for longer, we're not going to taper, we promise, unless we give you advanced warning, maybe an individual telegram to every trader's house. nothing has changed.

but rates are going down it doesn't mean it's connected to fed speak no policy changes have occurred. in my opinion. you need to know the reasons why markets move you really want to prosper from the move look at what's going on. look at new homes sales. they weren't very good why? because there isn't a good housing market no because the price of inputs like lumber is too high construction workers are an issue. and the fact is, there is no inventory. car, boy, you go by parking lots of any of the cottage industries, the ought autos, the parking lots are empty my friends show pictures of the parking lots we have a chip problem nothing is negative for the economy in the grand scheme of things, it's just out of phase with what we need and that glitch is bringing rates down a bit. makes sense. if you look at a 24-hour chart, you can see we drifted look at a three-day chart, you can see what we did when we lived through the technically 1.60 level and open the chart up

longer and we closed at the highest price, the lowest yield in one month and basically yesterday 1.56 and slipping a little bit again and if you switch gears to foreign exchange, some of the big issues are remaining constant, but we need to remain focused on them. the first is the dollar versus the chinese yuan we continue to make inroads in the lowest levels on the greenback, for three years going back to the summer of 2018 onshore or offshore. and if you look at the dollar versus the canadian dollar, you can see that the canadian dollar is actually slipped just a bit today, probably because crude oil, you know, it's commodity currency, but we're stilt in the zip code of the highest levels of the canadian dollar against the greenback since mid 2015, six years so we continue to see the dollar even though it's up just a bit today under rather significant global pressure. carl, jim, david, back to you. >> rick, thank you rick santelli.

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it's time for jim and stop trading. >> you want a hot one, look at c-scaler this is identity identity may have helped if colonial had anything going. we don't know how many things colonial didn't have, but you get in and be someone else's identity and you can do whatever you want zscale stops that. that's some move got to be there. >> do you think colonial, are we going to look back and consider that a landmark moment for some of the security names? >> yes i think the government is going to start prosecuting them for

corrupt practices. >> if you pay, they're going to find you guilty because ever since jimmy carter, you can't pay ransom one justice department phone call and that's the end. i think it's going to happen not just because i've been pushing it neurfuriously. this has to stop we don't let them do it. these are state sponsored terrorists they're up against. no more ransom bring in a palo alto or z scaler that's how you top this. everybody knows in the industry that these companies are allowing people to impersonate once they impersonate, they have a field day and that's what's been happening people don't want to talk about it, but that's whatted the >> todd is the passport. look at that the company. he's done amazing. he is not 23 he's north of 50

and aneel, and then slootman people say he's the most brilliant guy other than, yes, jensen wong. nvidia reports, and dafd, he is not giving up on arm >> i know. i know, and you're not giving up on him >> he reports tonight. it's always one of the great -- >> the company is reporting earnings too not just jensen. the whole company. >> jensen is brilliant he's brilliant, david. >> tonight's one of the big nights of the week in terms of software earnings. we'll see you at 6:00. "mad money". when we come back, the big bank pios preparing to testify on catol hill we'll go there live in a minute.

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start this wednesday nasdaq benefitting good action in retail and travel names and the ten-year yield behaving, getting closer to 1 55 >> a few stocks to watch here are three big movers we're keep an eye on amazon announcing buying -- plus urban outfitters, the stock is surging. you can see it up almost 13% comps were up 51%. that's comparable store sales. as more shoppers returned to stores after being vaccinated. the reddit trade, resurgence game stop up 11.5% now up 30% for the month of may. >> david, let's get to the senate banking hearing we mentioned. w willfred frost is going to explain to us what's taking place. why is it taking place at all?

>> there's two hearing one is kicking off, the senate banking committee. and that's titled annual oversight of wall street firms tomorrow the house financial services committee at 12:00 p.m. titled holding megabanks accountable. six attendees at both. and as for what we are to expect, carl, to your question, we don't really know the specifics. it could be, therefore, a slew of topics they might get grief on from help provided during the pandemic including ppp, worker pay, junior banker culture, diversity, and those are the types of topics preemptively covered in remarks unlike the aftermath of the last crisis, banks don't have anything specific to defend themselves on. but the fact that pr is better

than it was, they are framing the hearings as giving the banks a chance to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory relative to the position they were in ten years or so ago. >> wilf, it feels like this thin window of topics that it will provide at least bandwidth for them to dive into crypto a lot of the statements frame the bank's view on where crypto may be going >> interesting you mention that. there were specific comments on crypto, but specific as addressing the topic as opposed to specific on their views on it i will be interested to hear if those ceos are pressed to give specific views on where it's heading, what regulation they'd like to see on the topic the submitted remarks tended to be generic, though the topic came up. 20 to 30 pages from some of the ceos in terms of what stands out

from the submitted remarks they're long i hope they're not read out in full we dive into the q and a sooner rather than later. broad in terms of topics including things like crypto there was a focus on highlighting all of their internal initiatives whether that's on race or equality, lending to those who are less well off, for example, in a sort of preemptive way rather than reactive >> i wonder in particular from the democrats, are they expected to get heat in terms of ppp? you mentioned it a lot of the small banks for prominent in terms of the percentage of loan or aid given, and the big banks, again, maybe fell a bit short >> i'm sure it will come up as a topic, david i would think on that topic the banks might be armed with better ammunition to push back than

perhaps on other topics where we're talking about female representation james gorman announced his potential successes last week, for example, for white males there's less grounds for him to push back on topics like that than the ppp on the headline politicians and others have been able to throw a bit of grief toward the banks on ppp, but the underlying detail on the numbers are not so damaging they did do the lending. they did it as quickly as they could and more of the gremlins were in the programs than necessarily the banks themselves imsure that topic will come up as it relates to coming out of the crisis, coming out of the pandemic, it's different in terms of the level of grief they're going to get from the last crisis. i imagine it's more going to be on things like equality, representation, junior banker culture where there's more meat on the boens, but we'll see. >> but it could reflect the divide between with t two parties in terms of their approach to corporate america.

it's possible some of the republicans actually may push back the other way and say are you -- what happened to shareholders coming first? >> totally totally. and i think we've seen that difference perhaps between on the congressional side congressman mchenry, the ranking member and congresswoman maxine waters ten years ago everyone wanted to hit the banks. there's a little bit more of a divide recently. today is the senate one. we'll listen out for the likes of senator warren who will not be in support of the banks regardless of the key topics >> ever. he's just a no >> one other thing, at the start of this, when everyone was discussing this throughout the morning. they're saying it's the six biggest financial firms. it's not if you include fin tech a couple of them are bigger than the smallest of the big six banks. i was thinking these are the two key topics where politicians

like to focus on in terms of banking and tech and when we talk to fin techs, we say do you want to be bracketed as a bank and see more of the focus in the terms of regulators and politicians look at you i wonder today whether we conclude today that tech companies are more in the cross hair than banks. and that that is quite a big evolution over the course of the last ten years and whether the paypals and squares of this world would rather get bracketed as a bank than a tech company. >> that's an interesting point an important one as well thank you. we'll watch closely with your help in terms of following this. other news this morning, amazon announced that it is going to be buying mgm julia has the details of that long-awaited deal. good morning to you, david amazon is paying 8 $.45 billion for storied studio mgm with a catalog of more than 4,000% films. largely older ones

including james bond as well as 17,000 tv shows including fargo and hand maid's tale amazon says the real opportunity is in the project in the works and the potential in mgm's intellectual property. amazon will only own about half of the james bond franchise. now, the fact that amazon is paying far more than the roughly $5 billion others have assessed the value at speaks to the fact that the biggest studios disney, warner brothers, universal, they are tied up with their own streamers and there are a few independent studios left even sony is tied up in a deal with netflix citi say issuing a note before the deal was officially announced writing, quote, this deal will ensure they have access to high quality content as more media firms pivot and it will likely distance amazon's prime service from rivals that were or do offer similar service to prime

so now the question is which media assets could be in play next as media giants scramble for more scale and content in the wake of that discovery warner media deal viacom cbs has been speculated as a target if sherry red stone is open to sell last lion's gate and amc networks we're watching to see how some potential buyers including apple as well as cnbc's parent company, nbc universal feel about the prices in this moment of land grab. david, what do you think is going to be next >> you know, it's a good question, julia. and, of course, one we've both been exploring hard to say. you point out sony, of course. i think the parent company there is more committed to at least that strategy of being a supplier and obviously that netflix deal was an important one for them i do wonder about viacom i've done some reporting on it i think there's a willingness on

the part of the controlling shareholder to listen. that doesn't mean anything is coming and the big question i have and you do as well is will apple ever really step up to the plate? will it ever choose? nobody questions their ability to actually buy anything they should want. regulatorywise, it might be an issue. but will they? they looked at cbs briefly they brought john malone out for a meeting on discovery once. way back they had a dinner with bukkus, but they have not been interested in doing that kind of a deal >> tim cook said they're about premium content, making their own content, controlling the content that comes on their platform they've done some much smaller library deals, but they don't have a meaningful library on apple tv plus the way amazon prime does this deal will meaningfully grow their library. i think the question is do they want to shift strategy do they think they need a deep

library of film and tv content so after people come for the new onliy originals they stick aroun and watch the old tv shows that's a determining factor in how apple approaches a potential deal going forward if they were to buy a company like cbs or discovery, that brings with it live content. discovery and cbs both have their live sports. the fact they looked at those deals indicates that maybe they would be open to looking beyond just that on demand content that apple tv plus is really focussed on right now julia, you know, in the wake of the whole foods acquisition, people still talk about why amazon wasn't more aggressive in finding synergies between the grocery business and their north american at least retail business i wonder if you think this is going to be more demonstrative of the ability to take an acquisition and fold it into operations that bring about i

guess more impressive metrics? what are we expecting in terms of how they'll put this to use >> look, i think these assets could be folded in nicely. this is not a question of infrastructure here. they -- grocery stores are a different thing. to me they already have film and tv shows they are streaming on amazon prime they can easily bring in this library and make it accessible to their prime subscribers and then they also are essentially buying the assets of the studio, the creative assets of the studio. all the projects in the works and they're going to use this to ramp up especially their film production amazon has some very expensive tv series productions in the works including a lord of the rings one which i believe is the most expensive tv series ever to be made. it's in production i believe this allows them to ramp up a film production when it's really -- there's so much pressure to have new original content all the time when you're up against the likes of netflix

and disney plus. >> interesting mike hopkins ran hulu a while. will be running a much larger company in that way. julia, thank you i want to move to another story we're keeping an eye on. the exxon annual shareholder m meeting. activist investor and others have been trying to get four new directors elected to the board unclear at this hour, even though we're getting close to when they tell us what the results are, whether exxon has prevailed as i said earlier, at the outset late last year, it was a quixotic effort. small owner. they brought in larger owners of exxon stock, not the least of which is black rock which said they would support them. iss, the proxy advisory firm with index funds as well comes out in favor of three of the directors. a lot of this coming back to how

quickly the company is being transformed for the new world where you obviously produce a lot less carbon even when you are, of course, an oil company woods has been committed to that change, he says. and that board of directors you're looking at quite an impressive group many would say has been committed to it as well. the question is how committed and quickly. that's one of the key areas of debate here. they have a large retail component in the shareholder base that there are significant institutions that lined up behind engine one. we'll watch closely. we hope to speak either way with darren woods again, either way as in will they get one seat or more or will exxon prevail and prevent any directors from being seated? we hope to speak to mr. woods later today on cnbc. and on the mobile share price, not responding much to this but an interesting battle for the

company. >> i'll tell you what, david i mean, it does feel like a landmark day in the history of the industry in general. i know you've seen the story that's shell royal dutch shell has lost a case a rule where they got to slash emissions by 45% by 2030 that's a big deal. and this ford presentation where they're saying 40% of electric -- global vehicle sales will be fully electric by 2030 as well. and then the exxon vote. we're talking about things in oil and gas you couldn't have imagined even five or ten years ago. >> agree it really is impossible to have imagined we would be having these discussions at this point even as little as i'd say even three years ago. but the rise of esg investing, the importance of it when you've had proponents like larry fink get behind it in words if not indeed, has changed the approach of many ceos of these companies whether they be obviously their key business being producing carbon and the transformation

their shareholder base, some of them say they need to undergo to be competitive is a key here and so it's fascinating. there's no other way to say it as we watch this take place through the capital markets and the pressure from shareholders and customers and employees, it's nothing short of a revolution that has taken place. we'll see where we end up. green is growth right now it would seem >> yeah. and getting obviously a big push from policy as well. governments all around the world. by the way, stocks are once again approaching some record highs. at least record closes amidst one of the strongest rallies in history. the question is how much room is left to run? mike joins us to talk about that as the nasdaq did touch the highest level since about may 7 today. >> yeah. we're sort of hovering here for a while in the vicinity of the old highs. what's interesting is if you can dial back not just to the march 2020 low which i think we

all recognized has been an extraordinary rally from that level. over two years back to may of 2019, we're still up almost 50%. by friday if the market stays around here, we'll have a two-year price gain in the s&p of 50% it's pretty rare it's only happened four or five times during the last decade so maybe some giveback along the way. >> all right mike, thanks senate banking hearing is underway first time all six have testified at once. let's get to the hearing >> rally to do what needed to be done and now we must continue to work together to ensure a fair and equitable recovery as we begin taking steps toward recovery, i'm proud of wells fargo's efforts to support our customers, our employees, and the communities we serve all while continues to transform our organization i believe our country and communities benefit from the strong wells fargo i'm proud that we've been a source of strength for our

customers and communities during the toughest of times. they are our core and must remain our priority in all we do to support our customers during the pandemic, we defer payments and waive fees for more than 3.7 million consumer and small business accounts to help people to make ends meet. we provided over 1 million mortgage forbearances and suspended residential evictions to keep americans in their homes. and we acted as a leading lender in the paycheck protection program, funding more than 13.7 billion in aid to small businesses over 40 % of our loans were made to businesses located in low to moderate income or majority/minority census tracks. recognizing the goal of the ppp was to provide a lifeline to struggling small businesses, we also took the more than 400 million in fees generate bid the program in 2020 and are donating them to the open for business fund which is allowing us to

engage cdsis, not for profits and others to help manage the economic effects of covid-19 and we'll have efforts to foster an inclusive recovery. we look forward to defeating the impact of the pandemic together and believe wells fargo will play an important role in helping rebuild a stronger america. to our employees, i'm proud of the work you've done over the past year to support our customers and communities during the uncertain times. we prioritized safety and well being. my deepest gratitude to our frontline workers who kept branches open safely we transitioned more than 200,000 employees to remote work and we understood the strain the pandemic would place on our employees and their families we made cash awards to employees. offered enhanced support for care givers and parents.

provided free covid-19 testing for those working in a wells fargo location and offered paid time off for appointments. we continued to invest in the institution's critical to their success. while we're encouraged to be seeing signs of improvement, we realize not all our communities are benefitting equally in the recovery this is why wells fargo has been working to support a more inclusive economic recovery with a focus on racial and social equity, economic mobility, and investments in low and moderate income communities for example, we're investing in black-owned minority deposit institutions across the country. it's part of our $50 million commitment to support ndis and we have given more than $150 million to cdfis around the country who are providing grants to hard-hit small businesses additionally just last week we announced our banking inclusion initiative a ten-year commitment to accelerate unbanked individuals access to affordable mainstream

accounts and helped unbanked communities have easier access to low cost banking. we are also committed to helping transition to a low carbon economy and set a goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions including our finance emissions since 2050 finally for our company, while we have significant work to do, we're committed to devoting the resources necessary to operate with strong business practices and controls and maintain the highest level of integrity and have an appropriate culture in place. thank you again for having me and i look forward to answering your questions >> thank you, mr. scharf mr. solomon, you're recognized for five minutes >> chairman brown, ranking member toomey and members of the committee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today. in the last 14 months, it has been an incredibly challenging time as the pandemic swept across the world killing almost 600,000 americans and plunging us into a steep economic

retraction even today our hearts go out to india and others around the world who continue to suffer from the virus however, because of the swift actions taken by congress, the federal reserve and others to combat this health and economic crisis, i'm very optimistic about our future as more people are vaccinated, the u.s. is poised for a strong recovery i'd be remiss if i didn't think moderna, pfizer, johnson & johnson and astrazeneca for the amazing work they've done on life-saving vaccines the banking industry performed well during the crisis as the feds two stress tests in 2020 confirmed. this is due in part to the dodd frank act and other financial regulations put in place since the 2008 crisis. goldman sachs remained well capitalized leading up to and throughout the pandemic. goldman sachs has more than 40,000 employees i continue to be in awe of their resilience to help them through the pandemic, we gave our people an additional 10 days of paid

family leave, expanded access to child and adult care, offered free telemedicine and rolled out a global covid testing regime. in addition, we've continued to pay our on site vendor staff whether they worked or not that includes the mail room staff, cafeteria workers, security and janitorial staff. over the last year we experienced historically elevated levels of client demand and because we were well capitalized, we were able to help our corporate clients whether the impact of covid-19 and position themselves for a post pandemic recovery for our digital bank customers, we launched a covid assistance program. it allowed deferment of credit card payments at no extra costs. we found innovative ways to support small businesses we are not an sba lender, so we did not participate directly in the paycheck protection program.

we donated to mission driven lenders who facilitated ppp loans across the country the capital we deployed with our partners reached small businesses nearly half of which are in minority communities the average loan size is around 43,000, and the median employee count is two in addition last week we committed another 1 billion in partnership with the sba and our cdfi partner to fund approximately 40,000 ppp loans over half of which will benefit minority-owned businesses. we did to ensure the applicants will have the loans processed and approve bd before the ppp loans are exhausted. through a program we provide education by partnering with community colleges and greater access to capital to thousands of small businesses. last year we committed an additional 250 million to serve

another 10,000 small business owners we've also committed an additional $500 million for a program for diverse entrepreneurs and investors launched with gs i want to focus on three other initiatives that are incredibly important to us. first, we've already achieved more than a fifth of ten-yea target of $750 billion in financing, investing and advisory activity focussed on climate transition and inclusive growth we've been carbon neutral in our own operations since 2015 and set a goal of net zero carbon emissions in our supply chain by 2030 we commissioned extensive research an how to mitigate income inequality that showed that black women are one of the most marginalized groups in the country. we could see u.s. gdp increase by $300 billion a year in response we developed a new initiative called 1 million black women. we'll invest $10 billion over ten years to narrow opportunity

gaps for at least one million black women in the u.s the final initiative relates to improving our diversity and inclusion. when i became ceo two and a half years ago, i said this would be a top priority since i last testified before congress, we have made progress. our board will have six out of 13 directors who are women and will be 62% diverse by race, gender or sexual orientation our newest partner class includes the highest percentage of women and black partners to our history. our 2020 campus analyst class in the americas was 50 55 % women and black talent our highest every. however, i'm not satisfied with this and we continue to work to address this thank you. i'd be happy to answer any questions that you have. >> thank you, chairman brown, ranking member too mmey and representatives. i am jane fraser

i joined the bank and became ceo in march i group up in a small village in scotland i became a u.s. citizen in 2001. my husband immigrated to the u.s. from cuba when he was a young boy and is also a proud citizen of our country, so we feel very fortunate about the opportunities the u.s. has created for our family, and we believe we have an obligation to ensure that everyone can participate in the american dream. at citi we also recognize this has been a challenging time for americans. millions of whom we are very proud to call our customers. the origins of this global crisis unlike the last one is the public health crisis with severe economic consequences and through this pandemic, citi has shown we're a very different bank than the one that entered the financial crisis more than a decade ago we're smaller. we're safer. we're stronger

and we're far less complex and we have had the financial resources to support our clients and communities through this crisis and we're laser focussed on driving a sustainable and equitable recovery from the pandemic i will always be proud that we were the first bank to provide relief programs for retail and small business customers in the u.s. we're also proud to be a reliable conduit to the extraordinary consumer and business aid that congress and the federal reserve have provided we also helped deliver this aid across many government sponsored programs including the paycheck protection program as a result of the tremendous need from small businesses, we went from being a pretty small sba lender to so far funding more than $5 billion in ppp loans to the hardest hit small businesses with nearly 80% of the loans going to businesses with ten or fewer employees. and we are automating all the net profits we've made from the

program to further support vulnerable small businesses and communities in the u.s at the same time, we made our own people and their safety a priority and provided special compensation awards and many benefits to our many colleagues to help ease their financial burden and concerns. as the world's most global bank, we will continue to support many of the most iconic american businesses as they navigate the uncertainty of operationing in markets abroad working in concert with federal assistance programs, we will also continue to serve as a source of strength for our customers and communities here at home. we have a smaller branch footprint than many of our peers, but we will harness the full power of our bank's capabilities to extend our reach and help make sure the recovery leaves no one behind we're proud of our record of enabling opportunity in communities. for 11 straight years we have been the number one lender for

affordable housing in the u.s. in 2020 alone we worked with state and local governments to finance over $27 billion in vital capital projects such as roads and schools, hospitals and utilities. and through low cost and no fee products, we continue expanding financial services in underbanked neighborhoods. almost exactly a year ago as cause for social justice rang out in the wake of george floyd's murder, citi answered the calls with action. we launched a firm wide effort including a billion dollars in strategic initiatives to help close the racial wealth gap in the u.s. we're not alone in our commitment to equity, but what distinguishes us is in how we hold ourselves accountable for results. and where we have more work to do, we're very up front about it this transparency has defined our representation goals and our efforts to close our gender pay gap it's also part of our

sustainability agenda and our commitment to net zero emissions by 2050. which i announced on my first day as ceo helping our clients transition to a low carbon economy is going to be central to this work i'm determined for citi to continue leading on the issues they are central to our mission of enabling growth and progress. i want us to build a reputation for excellence in everything we do thank you again for the opportunity to talk about citi's efforts. to be part of the solution, and recovery to the pandemic >> thank you mr. dimon is recognized for five minutes. >> chairman brown, britished

members, i i appreciate the opportunity to talk about jpmorganchase, the people, the businesses and the communities we serve we are living through unprecedented times which history will judge the leaders of government and industry by the actions we take to address the health and economic crises and long standing structural inequities at jpmorganchase we entered from a position of strength and leveraged our size and scale to contribute to stability in our country and ongoing support for the real economy our customers, employees and communities impacted by the global crisis. in 2020 we extended credit and raised capital totaling $2.3 trillion for consumers and businesses of all sizes helping them meet payrolls, avoid layoffs and support operations we delayed payments for credit card accounts and refunded $120 million in fees for more than 1 million customers no questions asked. we funded over 400,000 paycheck protection loans to small

businesses, supporting over 3 million jobs for more than 40 billion in total funded. about 90% went to businesses with fewer than 20 employees and one-third went to businesses and communities of color outside of ppp, we provided an additional 18 billion in new credit for small businesses. we committed 250 million in business and philanthropic initiatives. we support our employees, especially the frontline worker who is continue to show up through the jobs in branches call centers, lock boxes and other roles that could not be performed at home. we gave special payments provided, additional paid time and continued to pay for regularly scheduled hours even if hours reduced or were zero. there's no doubt that the ball and swift as taken by congress, the federal reserve, the administration over the past 15 months was instrumental in reversing the financial panic and avoiding a deep and lasting economic crisis. for the last year exacerbated

long-standing inequality particularly among black families increasing barriers to wealth creation and holding us back as a country. that's why we recently committed an additional 30 billion over five years to address racial, economic inequality focusing on expanding affording housing and improving access to banking. these are new business commitments that will help to drive real change. we made solid progress since the announcement last year and are on track for a five-year commitment we've already refinanced 2 billion in mortgages for black and latin households and funded investments and loans for an incremental housing units. we're building a foundation that will help us grow relationships in communities of color to meet our aggressive mortgage and commitments. we opened branches in

minneapolis, and harl em with many more in the coming year at we consider our people our greatest strengths our 160,000 u.s. employees locate in soon to be 48 states this summer. 30% of the new branches are opening in new markets are located in low to moderate income neighborhoods and nearly one-third of all branches are minority census tracks for the third time in five years we increased entry level wages to 16 to $20 an hour and provide annual benefit packages including medical and retirement of $13,000 per person. nearly 70% of the employees who started before 2017 with a salary of less than 40,000 are still at the company and experienced average increases of 40%. we have made progress recruiting, maintaining diverse employees over the past five years, for example, we've increased the number of black

senior leaders by more than 50% and established a roamthat holds management accountable our country is poised for strong economic rebound, but we must ensure that the economic recovery benefits all and that we address long-standing equities that threaten the promise of america access to affordable health care and education system filling too many of our children crumbling infrastructure, climate change, and racial inequality are just some of the problems facing our great nation all of us, government, business, and civic society must work with a common purpose to address these challenges the actions we take together will determine the future of our country for generations. i want to close by thanking our employees for their tireless work in a singular focus in doing right by customers they performed their jobs with integrity and commitment, working remotely and navigating personal challenges. i look forward to working with all of you and helping our

country. thank you. >> thank you, mr. dimon. mr. moynihan is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you coming out of the financial crisis, my teammates helped transform bank of america into a strong straightforward client centered company we focus on responsible growth we were a source of strength when the health care crisis hit. we were able to help our clients and ultimately the u.s. economy through the worst shock in u.s. history. our clients including financial assistance with our business as usual work and also helping deliver the timely federal relief programs across the board. we helped nearly 2 million consumers and small businesses defer payments on credit cards, vehicle loans and home loans even with a deferral, the vast

majority of the clients remain current on their payments. we provided ppp loans to nearly half a million small businesses. 83% of those loans have gone to businesses with less than 10 employees. and nearly 40 % have gone to businesses in majority, minority communities. we sent millions of emails to key clients and encouraged them to apply and targeted outreach apart from ppp, we're the largest lend tore small business according to the fdic with 35 million in small business loan balances we also process more than 73 billion there are in stimulus payments and took additional actions to help overdrawn clients not have offset. one-third of which are in neighborhoods and digital capabilities in 2020 as a complement to our successful safe balance checking account, we launched balance assist, a low-cost digital only

payday loan allowing clients to borrow for a 5 flat flow wee expanded many of the benefits including mental health and consultations and no cost coronavirus testing. we offered teammates $100 a day to hire someone to come into their home and take care of their children or their adult dependants we have funded more than 1 million days for our employees we installed more than 44,000 wellness barriers in the branches we provided for special compensation, supplemental pay and transportation and meal subsidies and had no layoffs in 2020 we showed all employees are compensated well last year we increased the minimum hourly wage to $20, and earlier than we had planned. it will raise it to $25 an hour by 2025.

vendors within the u.s. are required to provide wages at or above 15 an hour today thousands of vendor employees have benefitted. since 2012 we have not increased medical premiums for teammates earning less than 50,000 for 2020 we provided special compensation awards for 97 % of our talented team globally that fourth year in a row. maintaining our diverse and inclusive workplace is a priority 50% of the management team and 50% of the board is diverse. 45% of our u.s. based teammates are people of color. we hire and train more than 10,000 communities -- and finally over the last year we increased the investment to support communities in a time of stress and june 2020 we accelerated our long-standing work for racial inequality, and opportunity to drive investments and jobs, small business, housing health care and local communities we have committed $1.25 billion

over five years and have deployed 350 million of that including equity capital investments. investments in 90 private equity funds run by a minority of women entrepreneurs and focus on women-owned businesses and donated ppe to underserved communities. we increased the home ownership program to help more than 60,000 americans get into their homes and neighborhoods. we raised that goal from 5 billion to $15 well this year. we help to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy. we are committed at bank of america to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions before 2050 we'll smort the clients in every industry to help them make that transition we believe in capitalism and this is the best way to solve the challenges facing society. we operate by delivering great returns for our shareholders and delivering for society we call that responsible growth.

thank you. >> thank you, mr. moynihan mr. great boorman. >> thank you members of the committee, thank you for having me here last year none of us could have predicted the extraordinary public health crisis that would unfold around the world. we remain in the midst of the crisis it's caused humanitarian and economic issues. our hearts go out to all of those directly and incorrectly impacted by the crisis in response to the extraordinary and challenging times, we were focussed on serving our clients and our communities and taking care of our employees. we helped our corporate and institutional clients raise additional liquidity and obtain financing for their stability. we raised over $50 billion of capital for the industry sectors most affected by the covid

crisis the airlines, the crews, the travel cities. our teams helped raise health care capital for both moderna and pfizer including a sustainable bond issue wansz by pfizer to support patient access to medicines and vaccines, especially among underserved popul populations. for our retail clients, we got them to manage their investment portfolios today morgan stanley provides a stable foundation of support in any market environment we help raise equity and capital. from taking them public to helping them issue bonds so they can grow and create jobs we hold public sector entities raise municipal entities we help financial institutions trade and manage their assets. in our other two businesses, wealth and asset management, we manage over 5.6 trillion of

assets for households and institutions including endowments and pension funds that manage the retiemplt of our teachers, our firefighters and public service employees for millions of u.s. households, our services help households save money, whether it's for college, retirement, or to put a down payment down on their mortgage beyond our day to day -- a number of well publy liezed events last year led to a necessary focus on racial and social justice, and a recognition that explicit support and purposeful collective action will be required some of our efforts over the past year include providing grants to minority depository institutions to bolster their loan reserves in the wake of the pandemic and assist minority and

women businesses to ensure an economic recovery. we started a program to provide four full-time scholarships to three of america's leading historically black colleges and universities in addition we concern that how we deal can with climate risk over the next decades will have a profound social and economic effect on our communities. morgan stanley recognizes the threat that climate change poses and we're working with all our clients to find ways to mitigate the effect finally, early in the pandemic we committed to making no reductions in our work force through all of 2020 and we stuck with it. we thereby provided reassurance to over 70,000 employees in this most extraordinarily difficult time i'm proud of the commitment all our employees showed to the clients and to our firm to navigate this past year.

chairman brown you asked us to provide information on additional topics and we've included that in the aattached addenda for brevity for this hearing. i look forward to your questions. >> thank you, mr. gorman thanks for answering that letter you all spoke about lending to small business over the past year in the middle of a pandemic when small businesses and families have been desperate for loans, the amount of loans your banks made has dropped. instead of lending and putting money back into the economy, you've all said publicly you plan to spend millions on buybacks and dividends my question starts, mr. moynihan, your bank's lending fell 14% over the last year. you just announced $25 billion in stock buybacks. why not lend that money to small businesses and families? >> well, the good news, chair brown, is that we can do both. we can return capital to

shareholders to help them enhance a returns at the same time lending to small business for the month of may we did a billion dollars in the first three weeks of may we've done a billion dollars in new commitment to small business that's up 29% over 2019. we have the largest small business portfolio in the company. the reasons why loans fell in the crisis are businesses didn't need the credit but also remember that ppp had a tremendous impact on demand for our clients, and as we did 35 billion of ppp loans, that caused less borrowing from our lines of credit. >> you say you can do both, but you haven't done both. during the pandemic, 5,000 community banks across the country, their lending went up 10%. your job is to spur innovation and create jobs. you supposedly employ some of the best economic experts in the country. you just can't tell me you can't find a better way to spend $25

billion. you can pay your workers more. you can do a variety of things to serve the community better than symptom buybacks. let me shift to mr. dimon. at most of your banks the ceo makes for all of you, but the most of your banks the ceo makes 800 times or 900 times your lowest paid worker help me understand this. i don't think any of us on this panel or any of the senators asking questions thinks that you work 900 times harder than the tellers and customer service agents at jpmorganchase. help me understand this. how did we end up here where ceos are making 900 times what some of their workers are making >> we're very proud of the opportunity we give to all our people here. our starting wages are approximately $35,000 plus medical benefits, retirement benefits we take good care of our people

in terms of training my compensation is set by the board. they look at multiple factors, and that's how it takes place. >> but these are workers that i fight for every day. the people that work at jpmorganchase and columbus and around the country but 900 times is just -- there's really no explanation. let me ask it to each of you in another way. this is a simple yes or no question i appreciate many of you have raised wages a number of you mentioned that i appreciate when you raise your wages for contractors too, but your essential workers need a voice in the workplace will each of you set an example to every other company in america, companies that usually follow wall street's lead by pledging to remain neutral if your employees want to form a un union? yes or no? >> chairman, we would work with our employees to make sure that their voice is heard and do everything we can to ensure that voice is loud and clear.

>> will you remain neutral if they want to form a union? >> as i said, i think we want to engage with them and understand what their concerns are, and have a deep understanding of that before we make any decision >> miss fraser, would you remain neutral? >> we would be supportive of our employees having as many opport they possibly can. >> mr. diemon? >> no. >> mr. moynihan? >> no. we would allow them to have their voice heard and see what happens. >> mr. soloman >> we would allow their voice to be heard >> does that mean you would be neutral on forming a union >> we would allow their voice to be heard >> mr. gorman? >> like the others, we would listen to them and respect what our employees want to do and work with them in that >> we know unions can do much to

give women and people of color power in the workplace the decisions you make affect workers all over the country, workers who your companies couldn't function without, you acknowledged that. the leaders make those decisions don't reflect your workers, they don't reflect the country. a couple years ago congressman al greene asked in a house hearing when your companies would be led by women amend people of your color your banks clearly have not made enough progress. mr. gorman you're one of two ceos who didn't believe there would be a woman or person of color leading your bank in the next decade. don't you have a responsibility to do something about that >> absolutely. but i was asked a question and i answered it truthfully the senior leadership at that point in time happened to be men, but we've since installed a woman as our cfo last week we have a woman co-head of banking, woman co-head of asia, woman head of europe, middle east and africa our vice chairman covering sustainability is a woman.

six of my 13 direct reports are people of diversity. i absolutely am committed to it. but i also happen to reflect the reality this organization has been built over decade and it takes a long time for tall tonight rise to the top. >> in the next decade will one of those women be the ceo. >> i can't guarantee it. i'm giving the board choices, not just who replaces me, but who replaces thatter -- that person. >> all of you need to do more and we want to see permanent change, of course, as the country, the diversity of this country needs to be reflected in the senate, board rooms and in ceo job positions. senator toomey, you're recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman so i would like to start with a simple direct question and i heap you'll understand in the interest of time i would love to get a yes or no answer mr. moynihan already answered this question in the opening

statement he made and he answered in the affirmative. the question is simply, do you believe that capitalism is the best economic system for producing the most prosperity for the greatest number of people mr. scharf >> yes, i do. >> thank you mr. solomon? >> yes. >> thank you miss frazier. >> yes, i do. >> thank you mr. dimon? >> absolutely. >> thank you and mr. gorman >> yes, i do >> great and, of course, obviously i agree on this. i am concerned that sometimes rather than defending this principle of capitalism, some of you have embraced so-called stakeholder capitalism, which really is something different than true capitalism and i would ask you to reconsider this because stakeholder capitalism is meant to diminish the importance of a company'

obligation to shareholders rather than other stakeholders one of the reasons i'm concerned about this is because the implied criticism of capitalism inherent in stakeholder capitalism lends credence to these ongoing attacks we hear. for example, in march, our committee held a hearing entitled "wall street versus workers, how the financial system hurts workers and widens the racial wealth gap" and we had a witness who argued to us, and i will quote, "credit debt itself provides a channel through which wealth drains from marginalized communities to affluent communities its burdens are not equally distributed which exacerbates the racial gap." in the interest of time i will go to mr. dimon if i could and

ask you to -- is it your view that the credit your institution provides drains wealth from communities and exacerbates racialized and engendered wealth caps. >> you've heard from all the ceos here we're making an enormous effort to try to get credit to marginalized, lower middle income, blacks, small businesses, women of color, et cetera, and we're doing a good job. we can always do more. i think we're all trying to do it the right way it absolutely is not -- was not caused by wall street taking credit from those communities. >> now, i mean it seems to me, in fact, that access to credit is a necessary precondition for poor people to move up to the middle class, not the other way around let me move on to an issue that's important in my state as many of you probably know.

pennsylvania is the second largest producer of natural gas among all 50 states. i have heard directly from constituents in this field that they're finding it more difficult to finance their business as a result, they believe, of commitments that financial institutions have made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. this is ironic because as we all know natural gas is the reason that united states has outperformed more of the rest of the world in reducing co2 emissions, but nevertheless they believe they're facing more difficulty getting financed than ever before. also, no matter what one thinks about the eventual arrival of more widespread use of electric vehicles, the fact is piston driven cars are going to be on the roads for quite a while, so we need a certain amount of oil. let me start with miss frazier, my understanding is that citigroup is committed to ending all financing for thermal coal

companies by 2030. frankly,there might still be a need for some thermal coal after that date, but my real question for you is, have you established or do you plan to establish a similar policy prohibiting the financing of either oil or natural gas, aside from if the economics would dictate that you shouldn't provide the financing? >> thank you for the question. senator toomey, our goal is to support our clients responsibly and help them transition to cleaner energy, create jobs in the future this is going to require investing into new technologies and helping them develop so. what we're looking at doing is working with our clients in the transition and to support them in doing so, so that we can balance the evolution of clean energy. >> i understand all that that is -- but that is separate from my question, which is do you now or plan to have any time

soon a prohibition against financing the development of oil or natural gas >> we don't plan to have a prohibition against this, no we plan to help our clients in the transition to the cleaner carbon technologies. >> thank you i think i'm out of time. >> thank you, sir. senator reed from rhode island is recognized. >> you've been listening to the six ceos of the largest banks in the country testifying before the senate banking committee some interesting lines of questioning. sherrod brown going down the role would you be neutral if your employees tried to form a union. all the ceos saying no, only one of them not surprisingly jamie dimon said no. the pay gap, they come back to the board, it's a board decision senator toomey focusing on capitalism the benefits and capital allocation, financing

for energy, back and forth with jane frazier, the ceo of citi. we'll continue to monitor the hearings, of course, and bring you any highlights as we go along this morning want to return to the broader markets as well this morning the s&p is up a bit as you can see, and we've been seeing a bit of a rally as well in names related to this deal this morning that we followed between amazon and mgm, amazon buying that studio for $8.45 billion. it has helped shares of a number of companies that owns studios, some of the parts given the high valuation, being unclear that should be the case comcast, did want to highlight as well, because its cfo saying hey, don't worry, we're happy with our portfolio as it stands and not looking to do any m&a and you see a positive response on some of the parts of the studio, but also because of the comments from the cfo. want to check in on cnbc's nft

auction. the bidding has been extended. highest bid 22.15 ether. all proceeds go to charity cnbc has raised more than $88,000, $88,000 a nice back and forth there. john legere, mark cuban. that will do it for us on "squawk on the street. "techcheck" starts now ♪ . good wednesday morning welcome to "techcheck. i'm carl quintanilla with jon fortt, deirdre bosa and julia boorstin today, amazon buys mgm, a re-set on amazon's streaming strategy this hour. meme stocks making a