pop-up shops running out of everything from sparklers to multicolored aerials and the import story is big because we know a lot of those come from china, guys. >> you were telling me, how much do americans spend on fireworks? >> consumers, back in 2019, spent about $1.9 billion on fireworks in 2019. >> shop early. >> thank you for watching "power lunch. "closing bell" starts right now. thank you, kelly and tyler welcome to "closing bell." i'm sara eisen weer record close watch for the nasdaq and the s&p 500 the dow is lagging today just slightly, down 21 points. >> i'm wilfred frost consumer discretionary, and energy are the top performing sectors with energy now up more than 5% on the week as oil hits a two-year high. tech stocks remain in focus as the nasdaq looks for another record close tesla and chip stocks like

micron and nvidia helping lead today's charge >> and more volatility crypto and bitcoin recovering. they touched their lowest level in the month earlier in the week 59 minutes left of the session >> coming up on today's show, liz ann saunders joins us for the latest installment more market-moving fed speak today. plus, beware the cyber pandemic that's a message from checkpoint as the world grapples with the rise in ransomware attacks we'll talk to that company's ceo about the risks and opportunities in the cybersecurity space. >> first, straight to our reporters covering the biggest stories of the day mike santoli, elon moy has the latest on big tech and apple's retail store strategy. mike, i'll start off with you. s&p and dow either side of the flat line? >> s&p just drifting in the

vicinity of those old highs. looks like the activity we got familiar with before this little shakeout hovering there near the highs, protecting a 13% year to date gain also happy anniversary of sorts. it's the 1.25-year anniversary since the big stock market low, march 23rd last year that's this crash right here up since then, 90%, almost exactly from the closing low on march 23rd it's like a 70% annualized return over 1.25 years over two years, much more -- about a 20% annualized total return over that couple of years. not too bad. the question is, we just kind of creating another plateau to launch off of or have to consolidate more a little narrower rally this last little phase. this is the equal rated russell 1000 quarter to date, the equal weights really outperform for the last year. you see this burst higher in the s&p 500 toward the highs and the equal weight still a little below

lagging in terms of the number of new stocks making new highs and stuff like that as well. take a look as well, based on size of stock, performance over the last year. the russell index is running from micro cap, small cap. that's the russell 1,000 which is basically large cap and then the biggest 50 stocks in the index. it's pretty linear here. what's interesting is that we had the rebalance coming in a couple of days every year they turn over these indexes. and they induct the stocks that got too big for the russell 2000 into the russell 1000 and so on. it may make the russell 2000 a little bit less spicy. the biggest stocks there are going to go into the 1,000 things like gamestop, amc presumably, plug power, penn national gaming and if they go up into the 1,000, they are going to have a smaller effect against the megacap. see if the behavior of these indexes changes. we always get a ton of volume and churn. how these indexes shape up could

be interesting as well >> mike, while we debate quite a lot of the debate between growth and value, somewhat stealthily during the past month, those smaller, more juicy tech stocks have rebounded quite impressively tesla is up 5% today, but the theme for the month has been strong, too. >> yes, tesla, certainly kind of is broken higher here. it's now reclaimed its 50-day average. and also that basket of unprofitable tech stocks that everybody was looking at a few months ago the ones that mimic the performance of arc invest. up nicely this month to date about 10% in terms of the flagship arc fund. we don't really know if this is once again the pendulum swinging back or if it's just kind of counter tread moves. market has been doing that all year it's been trading off a leadership and styles and really kind of the emotional content of the market is kind of waxed and waned. but it's been notable that that group has done pretty well

>> tesla is up the most on the s&p 500 right now and making consumer discretionary best sector mike, thank you. the spotlight is on megacap tech today the house committee debates six antitrust bills aimed at some of america's biggest companies. elon moy with the details. >> lawmakers are slowly making their way through this package of bills one has passed out of committee on raising merger fees and increasing funding for the ftc they'll be debating whether state ags can choose the court for local antitrust cases. these were supposed to be the easy bills that here already deep into the afternoon and even though each piece of this package does have support from both democrats and republicans, that doesn't mean that everybody is on board. for example, democratic congresswoman zoe lofgren told her colleague the quest for bipartisanship is not going to stop her from objecting to bad policy >> i think we should think twice before enacting drastic changs

that disrupt the system and has worked well for all parties for decades. i would just note this there is a lot of animosity towards big companies. but this is not limited to big companies. >> she was referring specifically to the bill about the courts and state ags, but lofgren does represent silicon valley and "the new york times" is reporting that apple's ceo tim cook is personally intervening to stop these bills. of course, the two most controversial proposals are the last ones up for debate today or more likely tonight. guys >> how severe is the most severe consequence of some of these bills for these companies? what would it look like? >> yeah, it could look like breaking up the big tech companies. some of the bills that are left to be debated would ban self-preferencing. the product they provide it would require them to draw bright lines between different lines of businesses. it would set new rules for the types of acquisitions they could make this will be a dramatic impact for the biggest of the big

companies. >> ylan, thanks for that let's focus on one of those big tech names, apple. justin has a look at the strategy amid the reopening. >> josh? >> we might forget how much of a retail powerhouse apple is at this point it's operating around 500 stores now all around the world more than 70,000 retail workers. the company continues building here tomorrow opening a new store in downtown los angeles stepping back reports do suggest that retail workers have actually been quitting at record rates in this country, but apple traditionally has a relatively low attrition rate within retail and right now it's actually below that pandemic level. i did just speak with apple retail chief deidre o'brien about what customer traffic has been like. she tells me that every apple store is now open around the world. we are seeing more people out and about now she says and an apple store is a hub of activity and we expect that to continue i also did ask o'brien about

whether apple would ever mimic the strategy of amazon with that go model stores that try and get customers in and out very quickly. she says there is an express experience for customers that want that, but other customers, she says, want interaction with apple specialists, that human touch. i don't see a major shift for this, she says there back to you all. >> it's so interesting, josh they always kind of take trophy locations and that new l.a. one very much seems to look like that's the intention again from the pitches. are they really brand-building exercises as much as they are outlets for them to sell their merchandise? do we know what percentage of hardware is sold in their stores versus online and other measures >> i don't know how much is sold in stores. they don't break out that kind of information for investors that granular level. i checked in with luke ventures. he thinks the stores represent about 10% of total company revenue. so it's not insignificant and, of course, other reasons those

stores are important they benefit certain products more than others for example, the watch that's one of those products where people really like to go into the stores. they like to test drive that product and the bands before walking out. you couldn't do that for a while during the pandemic. the 500 stores are back open for business it's going to be interesting what impact that has on certain product lines like the watch >> josh, great stuff thanks for that. apple essentially flat today just a little bit in the red after the break, cybersecurity firm checkpoint warning of a global cyber pandemic as high-profile ransomware attacks have made headlines around the world that's next.

jbs, new york's mta.

just a few of the high-profile hacks. and as breaches surge, the amount being paid to retrieve the stolen data is surging as well the average ransomware payment came in around $112,000 the world is entering a, quote, cyberpandemic. let's bring in gil thank you for joining us we are warning about the cyberpandemic. how much worse did the covid-19 pandemic make all of this as the digital economy moved online >> good afternoon. great to be here indeed, the covid period made much, much worse than it was before over 93% in ransom wware attack. we were talking about starting

from 100,000 dollars on enterprise and going out to tens of millions of dollars paid on ransom >> what are the consequences of all of this besides the fact companies and governments have to pay these ransomware attacks or pay up in bitcoin to get their data what ultimately is going to happen with all this data that's been stolen? >> i think the first -- many of these attacks are activated. private action, private criminal some of these attacks are also behind members, government sponsored attack and we've seen it's not just dada it's shut down of critical infrastructure we've seen it with colonial pipeline, hospitals, factories that were shut down and something we should be really, really worried about especially if it's used by not just people who want our money but by terrorist organization or foreign government, but i'm sure

are watching and they have more -- bigger powers than what we've seen so far. >> to what extent, gil, has bitcoin and crypto more broadly allowed these attacks to take off onto a new tier because of the sort of lack of money laundering controls and regulation >> i wouldn't blame bitcoin about it i think the situation when cyber started before bitcoin bitcoin like many modern infrastructure, allowed the attackers to monetize in a better way but again, i am in this business for now almost 30 years. and we've seen an increase all the time, even before bitcoin was invented >> who are the worst actors, which countries, what type of entities >> i think that the situation is even -- it's not who are the worst attackers but the fact that once an electronic tool of attack is being used, everybody can get access to it

in many cases it's being sold. there are networks that you can really go in and rent the attack to you don't have to be the attacker, the sophisticated tech guy. you need to be the one that -- the business model there is revenue share. it's like 50-50 or 60-40 between the people who develop the tool and the people activating that and that's one of the worst thing about cyberattacks basically every kid in the world can have access to strategic weapons that may be developed. by the way, we've seen some of the tools being developed even by the u.s. government and used against the u.s. a year or two later. >> and what's the next five or ten years hold then, gil i've seen you describe the current state as a fifth generation of cyberattacks how long would that last what will be the next iteration and how can we be prepared >> we are in the midst of the next generation of cyberattack

most enterprises today are generation free in their defense strategy we need to make the jump to prevent cyberattack. mentioning the word prevention a lot because that's a key element. most companies today are not investing in prevention but in remediation, in intelligence they are investing in many, many things which don't block the attack, don't prevent the attack people need to be practical. it's not a question of if. it's a question of when. and companies need to invest in prevention of gen 5 attacks. it will cost much, much less than remediation and this will -- >> gil, thanks for joining us. good to see you. >> thank you very much good afternoon we have a news alert on comcast. julia boorstin has the detalls >> comcast, viacom and cbs and

roku are moving on a report that says comcast's ceo has looked at comcast, viacom and roku but comcast tells me the report is pure speculation. still, those stocks are moving comcast down 3.5%. roku shares up about 4.5%. and viacomcbs shares up about 3% as well. now to put this report, which comcast has now said is pure speculation and context, viacom cbs is the next natural content acquisition target it's the one that is in the spotlight after the merger of discovery and warner media it would be natural that comcast, nbc universal and all the other media players would be looking at that asset right now. but viacom cbs is controlled by sherry redstone. so whether or not that company sells is entirely up to her at this point now roku is also an appealing and valuable piece of the

streaming landscape, but it's increasingly expensive asset worth noting that the stock is up 230% in the past 12 months so that might give any potential buyer some point for pause before making a deal right now guys, back over to you >> julia boorstin, thank you viacom cbs shooting to the top of the s&p 500 despite we don't know how serious this is and comcast said not in advance discussions. >> comcast is our parent company as well. this seems to be a lot of hurdles as well to this. the fact that you have nbc and cbs, two of the broadcast networks within what would be a combined company and as we've discussed as well, in fact, just with mike yesterday, with roku that one of the attractions of roku is it's agnostic to a lot of the channels and services that it carries. of course, that would cease to be the case in that type and just the share price

reaction you'd see to comcast. when they bought sky in the uk, the pressure that might put on this dividend and capital return program which is very important for shareholders and the way that at&t share prices reacted to their type of deal. and they have similar shareholders as well one would say this is a lot of hurdles to get there but we're in that feeding frenzy of m&as in the media space at the moment quite possible >> so it's worth talking about >> definitely. >> mike santoli, i want to bring you in here. the comcast reaction is actually similar to the day we got the discovery/time warner deal the next question, what's comcast? what's brian roberts going to do next >> of course, there's a history of comcast attempting to get in there when an asset has been put in play, right the competing offer for the fox assets against walt disney just a few years ago this is obviously not successful you want to go back to the early 2000s. hostile bid for walt disney company by comcast and obviously the sky deal which was

consummated. so i think that you have that input, plus the fact that it's the natural thing to do right now to decide if you have enough scale in a post-warner/discovery world to get the streaming strategy right whatever that means, these are almost the obligatory things to look at. the remaining assets out there if, as the reports say, just today, and yesterday that the amazon mgm acquisition that's been proposed if that's going to draw a regulatory scrutiny when amazon is just merely one studio and one distribution platform, if they can't tuck in a small studio like mgm, without necessarily drawing some attention you'd think the threshold is high for getting through regulatory attention with a much bigger deal on this level. >> just one final thought as well, sara, is that if we're talking about the viacom/cbs potential tie up with comcast, you have two big shareholders that care about their voting rights and sharon redstone and

brian roberts would have to presumably give up that control and whatever future -- in a way that john malone did do, of course, for the at&t/discovery time warner type deal. it's just another one of those hurdles to think of. >> also looking at discovery share prices they announced the deal. it's down. and sharply lower. we'll continue to monitor that for now seeing some market reaction viacom cbs shares near the top of the s&p 500. more green ahead for walgreens. the third best performer as chief roz brewer puts her stamp on the pharmacy giant. we'll look at brewer's first 110 days as ceo. ten-year yield right on top as it has been tesla, apple, amc today which is only up 1% it's a calm day for the meme stock. and amazon continues to push higher we'll be right back.

shares of walgreens are up 30%. ceo roz brewer puts her stamp on the company. bertha, what were some of the highlights >> well, you know, roz brewerer's first day, sara, was on the ides of march she had to hit the ground running as ceo, overseeing walgreens national rollout of covid vaccinations at its stores and clinics this spring which is given the drug store chains

overall a real revenue tailwind. the company also closing the sale of its hwholesale drug uni during the quarter investors have given her time but when walgreens reports next week they'll be looking for more specifics on brewer on her priorities as the pandemic tailwinds may start to fade. it's not like she's gotten a honeymoon, though. most analysts still rate the stock a hold and walgreens has underperformed rite aid and cvs this quarter two key things on the retail side, her plans on digital strategy that's really where she made her mark and had an impact at starbucks. her vision for the primary care partnership with vill age md at time when that competition and space is heating up. >> bertha, thank yeoh. great performances so far for that still ahead -- vaccine stocks getting hit hard today as they meet to discuss heart

risks. plus, we'll speak with former cisco ceo about the regulatory risk amid a renewed crackdown in washington. here's a check on bonds, yields higher today really settled down so far this week compared to last week 1.49 on the ten-year

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we've got a news alert on the nfl. hi, julia. >> if the nfl hired goldman sachs to look for a partner to buy a minority stake in its media business that includes redzone, nfl network and nfl.com. this was first reported by "the wall street journal" with nfl tells us, quote, as the media industry continues to evolve, the nfl is exploring a strategic partnership to best position our owned and operated media assets for future growth. going on to say, the nfl has a proven track record of creating leading media platforms that

develop significant audiences so we anticipate speaking to a number of interested parties we do not intend to provide an update on this process until it has concluded. we will not speculate about potential outcomes cnbc has also obtained a letter sent to nfl owners in which it says the goal is to extend reach and create additional value for the clubs by creating new direct to consumer and new content and international expansion. so it sounds like they could be talking to the tech giants such as amazon, apple and google. guys, back over to you >> yeah, that was always going to be the question julia, thank you we've got 29 minutes left to go let's check in on other market movers under armour a best idea a $31 price target the firm says under armour is poised to take advantage of team sports and back to school. that stock up 4% they also said they have reset

on the financials and expect higher growth going forward. here's a check on bitcoin. the crypto currency staging a comeback today after dropping yesterday to lows we haven't seen since january buying shares of greyscale bitcoin trust during tuesday's big drop bitcoin up 2%. 700 bucks. back above 33,000. dropped below 30,000 and it looks like it's held above that level since. >> held above it always bounces aggressively. only dipped very briefly really below the 30k mark we'll have to see if that proliferates next time, if there's a next time. time for a cnbc news update with rahel solomon >> good afternoon, everyone. a new assessment by the u.s. intelligence community predicts that afghanistan's government could collapse as soon as six months after u.s. troops leave the country. "wall street journal" says that a more optimistic estimate was revised after the taliban strengthened this position in northern afghanistan last week a member of the oath keepers group is pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge in connection with january's attack on the

capitol. young will also cooperate with prosecutors who charged group members and associates with conspiring to block congress from certifying president biden's election win separately, an indiana woman was put on probation in the first sentencing connected to the riot a cdc safety group says there's probably a link between the pfizer and moderna covid vaccines and a rare heart condition. that's been seen in a small number of adolescents and young adults after their second shot, but it also says the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risk. and president biden is replacing the director of the federal housing agency the white house was given more control over the agency that overseas fannie mae and freddie mac. you're up to date. sara, back to you. >> those ones getting hit pretty hard rahel solomon, thank you up next, the latest installment of our curb your inflation series liz ann sonders will join us with her take on fed policy and

what sectors perform best when inflation is on the rise june is pride month. we're spotlighting cnbc contributors and cnbc anchors and producers all month long here's human rights campaign president alfonso david. >> i have a message for the young lgbtq person living in a state that recently passed anti-lgbtq legislation don't forget your capacity don't forget that you have value. and don't forget that you have a community that is here to support you through everything your lgbtq identity is a strengthnoa akss, t wene don't ever forget that l rings] [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] ♪ try to be best 'cause you're only a man ♪ ♪ and a man's gotta learn to take it ♪ ♪ try to believe though the going gets rough ♪ ♪ that you gotta hang tough to make it ♪ ♪ you're the best! around! ♪ ♪ nothing's gonna ever keep you down ♪ [triumphantly yells] ♪ you're the best! around! ♪

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[music ends] atlanta fed president telling reporters this afternoon that the economy is on its way to recovering from the pandemic but said inflation has been higher and i recognize is well above our target joining us as part of our curb your inflation series is charles schwab's liz ann sonders thanks for joining us. >> hi. how are you? >> very well thank you. when we consider inflation and its impact on equities, is it

the inflation level itself that matters or whether there are inflation surprises relative to investors' expectations? >> i think it's a combination of both as with anything in the stock market, it's relative to expectations, its rate of change that tends to matter more than level. so we have to keep that in mind. but what also i think is missing in this discussion for weeks now about inflation and impact on the market is it's not just about the rate of inflation, whether it's rising or declining and the impact on stocks, but the backdrop from a gdp pe persp perspective. if you look at nonrecessionary periods and then just take rising inflation periods, falling inflation periods, yes, the stock market has done quite a bit better when inflation is falling rather than when it's rising if you take those same periods and break it into gdp zones, very weak gdp, very strong gdp, the strong gdp zone, even when inflation is rising, actually the market has done better than

when inflation is falling. the complete opposite, of course, when you have the combination of rising inflation and weak growth. so we have to bring the growth piece of this into the conversation as well it's not just about inflation in terms of market impact >> and what about rates. which part of the yield curve is most correlated negatively or positively with equity market valuations and are you concerned that that will hit, for example, the quite expensive tech stocks or whatever it might be? >> i think it's more inflation expectations and break-evens in the relationship between shorter break evens and longer break-evens in terms of impact on the market. at least medium term we know short term on a day-to-day basis, recently, we've seen simply the change in the yield on the ten-year. not so much having an impact on what the market broadly does but some of the underlying leadership shifts we've seen either at the sector level or at

the style level has been driven by the message coming from the bond market specifically the ten-year yield you saw the almost doubling in the 10-year in the first quarter in anticipation of the inflation that we are now seeing at that point of peaking above 1.7 on the 10-year. that was when you saw the shift back toward thee areas and away growth then as it settled back to 1.5 and a little below that you've seen that shift into longer duration assets on the equity side i continue to think the bond market broadly and the change in yield and speed is really key. not so much to what the market is going to do day-to-day but those underlying leadership shifts >> if you look at certain cyclical sessions or subsectors, airlines off more than 10% from the highs. automobiles off more than 10% -- >> construction. >> construction, yeah. a lot of the durables.

a lot of these cyclically tied groups is that trade over what's causing the correction? >> i don't know if it's over, but i think we have been in a rotational market, really since last september where even though the overall broad market with the exception of the nasdaq back in the march, april time frame which had a 10% correction, you haven't had a full 10% correction in the broader averages, but you've had plenty of them at the subsector industry level and the drivers of that are sometimes just, you know, sentiment excess and speculative froth to yield changes as we talked about and i think that in conjunction with yields having been so tame throughout this recent period of a spike in inflation and now to your point, a little bit of a rolling over or corrective level pullback in some of these areas, not to mention the retreat in commodity prices, specifically lumber, copper, iron ore, maybe

is confirming the message coming from the bond market which is that even if it's not transitory, and we're all getting tired of using that word who knows how that's defined in time frame terms, but i think the equity market is now expressing a view about inflation that is more in keeping with what the message from the bond market has been for the last couple of months. and we often think, and it's right to think of the bond market as a bit more rational expression of what's going on in the economy than the stock market which certainly these days can act more irrationally at times >> liz ann, good to see you. thanks for joining us. >> bye >> liz ann sonders of charles schwab the fed set to release the bank stress test tomorrow we'll discuss what to watch out for and how to play the financials that's next in the market zone s&p is flat with 17 minutes left

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plus some of the lowest options and futures contract prices around. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today. 14 minutes left in the trading day. commercial-free coverage for the action going into the close. mike santoli here to break down the crucial moments in the trading day and we have ritholtz josh brown with us as well good afternoon, josh let's kick things off with the broader markets on record close for both the nasdaq and s&p 500. the s&p closing below its record closing level. both up for the third straight day. nasdaq, anything positive for that microsoft is trading lower now but briefly crossed again above

a $2 trillion market cap we'll keep an eye on that one as well i guess at the moment we're struggling to work out which of the bigger cap sectors will take the lead we had a record close yesterday. >> record close yesterday. before we got that sort of shakeout last week on the fed interpretation, this was the mode of the market which was hesitating in the vicinity of the highs. not a lot of momentum but not a lot of urgent selling pressure and a lot of indecisive leadership but nothing was fully breaking down. so it is, i think, a little bit of an in between moment but it's hard to say it's negative, even if it's not the broad est rally. the market stayed supportive it's pretty okay >> josh if you look at what is winning the week so far, it's energy again right at the top of the list even as other commodities have rolled over. energy and crude oil remain strong what does that tell you, and are you a buyer?

>> well, we have energy exposure, of course, but it's not an area that i'm particularly interested in as far as individual names. i think they have room to run further. probably the peak multiple on these stocks will be lower this cycle than in previous upcycles for commodities and energy specifically. just because people understand that there has been a huge amount of ground gained by alternative energy, especially for automotive i think oil can continue to be okay they're not expensive. they've had a tough ten years. they've had a really good three months i don't think we should say it's definitely over. but nothing about what's going on in that industry excites me to the point i want to sit on conference calls and listen to anything that has to do with exploring for oil. i just -- i don't see it as being a good use of time for most investors >> let's talk about the banks. tomorrow we'll get the results of the stress test during "closing bell.

and the focus is about how much capital the banks are going to be allowed to return to shareholders no bank is actually expected to fail the test this time around last year, banks paid out, on average, 68% of their earnings to shareholders for the stress test period. consensus that banks will pay out 107% of earnings some release of excess capital on top of earnings the breakdown is 31% dividend, 76% buybacks estimates fairly steady when it comes to the dividend payout ratio. but do vary a little more for buybacks and room for surprise there. clearly higher bank share prices at least make it now a debate as to whether banks should maximize possible buybacks or look to use their capital elsewhere. three are the banks that have the most room to surprise are jpmorgan, in terms of the balance between dividends and buybacks given the stock is the most richly valued morgan stanley in terms of the size of approval they'll get given, having traditionally been

the most harshly treated by the process. they've quite dramatically changed their business mix and could be permitted to return more than in the past. and wells fargo, the market remains uncertain on what level of permission to return capital. they'll be given due to the fact they still have that fed asset cap in place and for purely dividend investors, probably looking at around 2% to 3% dividend yields for the big six following tomorrow's results and i guess the big standout question is, to what extent is this already priced in and to what extent is that kicker of a delta if they get big approvals for buybacks when share plrices are still quite rich >> 2% to 3% dividend yields where they're at 3.5%. it's a decent yield premium. there's probably room for surprise on the absolute scale of the buybackes that doesn't always go directly to the benefit of the company doing the buying back of stock, but in general, it's a big kind of source of energy for the markets as a whole because that

gets reallocated into equities even if it's not into the company that did the buying. >> josh, what -- which company will you be watching closest which one do you care most about? >> well, i am in jpmorgan. i think the c car stuff and stress set of stuff, we should let that stress test it's in a world where the fed declares bankruptcy illegal and starts buying etfs and aaa rated corporate bonds in the open market nobody should expect that banks are going to have any trouble. in fact, they are dropping an enormous amount of those reserves that they had against potential losses to the bottom line, returning more capital to shareholders because there were no losses. there were no bankruptcies there were moratoriums all over the economy. so this is more like a national disaster than it is like a recession. i don't think we need to focus on c-car focus on stock buybacks overall for the s&p 500 peaked in the fourth quarter of 2018

they are going to come roaring back in the second half of this year so don't just focus on dividends at the banks focus on total capital return to shareholders it's going to be absurd. you're going to get all of that back this year maybe and then some already it's only june $500 billion worth of buybacks authorized that's half a trillion in money being rained down on shareholders it's a big year for buybacks financials, that's obviously very important don't sleep on the buybacks in tech and understand something. there was this whole concept going around that when the buybacks stop the market was doomed that's not what happened what happened was ten million retail accounts were opened in 2020 probably another 15 million between january and when this year ends.

it sets us up nicely to year end. >> you're holding -- would you rather focus on boosting the dividend or buybacks >> buybacks. why do i have to pay taxes twice? jpmorgan earns x dollars in profit $5 billion they are going to get taxed at the corporate level. then they're going to pay me a dividend that i'm going to get taxed. who is in favor of that if you are living on the dividends. i understand most people aren't not at the prevailing rates for bank equities at least so don't bother. buy back the stock shrink the flow. even berkshire hathaway is doing that now i don't need the current income or current taxes either. i'm a buyback guy. i understand the flaws with buybacks and some of the bad behavior that it could engender. all things being equal for my investors, i don't want to raise their tax bills. it's not what i'm here to do

>> people rely on that for retirement income, though, have a different view the housing data new home sales falling diana olick looks at how that's impacting the home builders. >> home builders are lower on the day. it showed a larger than expected drop of 6% from april. the drop likely due to an 18% jump in the median price of a newly built home builders are focusing on the higher end as their own cost for labor and materials are rising sharply and they need to make up those costs. there was a 76% jump in the number of homes sold, but not yet started, which also indicates some of the supply issues that the builders are up against will, of course, be watching for any commentary on price and supplies from kb home which reports after the bell >> diana olick, thank you. this was a surprise. also downward revisions. what's happening with the home builders >> incredibly fast adjustment on the supply side to, you know,

all the cost increases definitely some sticker shock in supply constraints really hitting the short term numbers. i don't know anybody who has been moved off the idea that long-term the supply demand dynamic is strong. it's interesting you have a pretty sizable pullback 12%, 13%, 14% in the home builder stocks from the high but it seems as if nobody thinks the ultimate thesis has changed. maybe self-correcting. we'll see if that bears out. >> one year low, josh. is that a worry? where are you within broader real estate space? >> i just think that it's rational because the level of price increase that we've had for the average home and in some markets it's even crazier. that's got to cause some hesitation the buyers aren't just going to keep buying no matter what the price is at a certain point, anyone that's willing to overpay for a home has already overpaid for that home. so it makes sense to me that

after a 24% rise in prices that there's a point at which people say, okay, that's too much so maybe that's where we are it does not mean that demand is going away this is a demographic in nature. it's not just about mortgage rates. this is about household formation. eight of the ten most popular ages to be right now in america are in their 30s that's the sweet spot for the desire to buy a home i just think it won't stop probably for another ten years hopefully the pace of price increases stops so that more families find that affordability with their first home because where we stand right now, it's pretty tough to do >> just want to point out the broader market because s&p 500 has gone negative. doesn't look like we'll get that close and the dow dropped back into negative territory on the day. nothing extreme, down 60 points. i asked you about energy earlier. as far as the broader market, what do you think is causing this indecision around the

highs. do you think it's the fed speak going in different directions? the treasury yields? back to 1.48 on the ten year and this whole inflation debate. where are you on the broader narrative right now? >> i'll be honest. seasonally, this is usually, unless we're having like some massive event, seasonally, this is like a very quiet period of time like i'll come clean i took a nap in my pool today. so i don't feel like people are out there trying to invent trades to do it's not a lot of volume i know in some patches, the options market, there's a lot of it but we know what's going on there. overall, i don't think there needs to be a reason why the dow either makes a record high close or doesn't on a quiet wednesday in late june i just think people are living their lives. >> sipping on a crohnenberg in the pool there or not? >> no, not yet not until after the show you know -- >> thank you for waking up for

"closing bell. >> no, i have an apple watch my alarm went off. >> josh wanted to keep up his great tan for us and our viewers. and we appreciate that greatly josh, two minutes left of the session. internals, mike? >> they've held up okay. they're certainly to the positive side in terms of breadth. up versus down stocks. and the volumes have been okay, but again, one of the quibbles with this latest little leg to the upside has been -- it has not been broadly inclusive aside from the quick comeback on monday so 1700 and change stocks up 1560 are down. it's positive but still not overwhelming look at new highs versus new lows on the new york stock exchange as well this run to the former highs has not been accompanied by an overwhelming number of new 52-week highs. this is a good ratio 178 highs. it's not showing a blitz to the upside i've seen a lot of work here 20-day highs, it's lagged a

little bit more of a megacap driven move. the volatility index is slipping a little bit it's not buckling below what's been the recent low. it's still in the 16s. again, you have this very calm market you have say seasonal period where you should get a little chop into late june before maybe thi things -- nothing to disturb the overall trend. getting dragged by by unh taking the most points off the dow. biggest contributor on the plus side would be goldman sachs, american express and disney which tells you the story in the market financials are strong. energy strong. consumer discretion best sector in the s&p 500 thank you to tesla everybody else is negative the nasdaq let's see where we are looks like we're close to a

record closing high for the nasdaq looks like you'll get one. anything positive. the russell 2000 index, small caps up a third of 1%. positive for the third day in a row. small caps up. 17% year to date and the dow and s&p 500. just off a record high and the nasdaq continues to win, closing at a record high >> at the close, lower by 72 points on the dow. 0.2% on the s&p. record closing high for both the nasdaq and the nasdaq 100 though themselves with only small news today. welcome to the closing bell. i'm wilfred frost with sara eisen and mike santoli the moves small throughout the session, both to the upside earlier and to the down side of the close. 0.2% s&p down 0.1%. nasdaq up 0.1%

consumer discretionary, financials, the only three sectors in the green the other eight in the red software companies, one of the big winners on wall street after going public earlier we'll be joined by sprinkler board member and former cisco ceo john chambers on the company's outlook and how new regulation proposals could impact the broader tech sector josh brown is with us and adam parker joins the conversation as well a little slippage into the close. we're into the summer kind of lull >> josh alone napping in his pool >> did you nap >> no. not good about naps. >> but also, the machines don't sleep. and so i do think it's been a lot of kind of this very much mechanical trading at this top of the range that the nasdaq has shown this outperformance and in

a way the big growth stocks are this market's defenses because you've not seen, even when we got the jolt last week you've not seen outperformance by the traditional defensive sectors. it's more about, gee, nasdaq has underperformed for nine months there's a little bit of attacking in that direction. i don't see it as a strong brand-new leadership team but it's holding the market together for now. >> adam parker welcome to the show. it's been a while. want to hear your view on the market i think you're bullish on equities why? what's driving that view >> pretty easy you always sound -- and for me, you always sound smart. but it's four things earnings are growing the economy is growing the feds accommodated.

and there's a lot of fiscal stimulus so that's like a golden quadrangel of bullishness. >> josh brown, in terms of -- in terms of that slippage into the close, what sectors are you most focused on now looking forward for the rest of this year? >> so i don't necessarily play that game where i predict what sector will be best? i'm not good at it, but when i look at consumer discretionary, the xly, look at the top 20 holdings it's really hard for me to picture a scenario where these aren't among the best performing stocks thif yes of the year becf what i think about the state of the consumer it's like tesla, ford, gm. a lot of people don't know that. amazon is 25% of that index. amazon is about to explode to the upside and make a new high any day now. and then look at some of the other names.

chipotle is big in there and these are all companies that i think will be the biggest beneficiaries or among the biggest beneficiaries of a consumer that, quite frankly is emerging from this recession unlike any other period of time that we can go back and -- really doesn't exist so i think it's a very unique situation. and i think you want to be in the names that are going to benefit the most so to answer your question, a very straightforward way, i would be thinking about activities and products that you know the consumer wants to pay for. >> it sound like you agree with josh on the bullish view of the economy and the u.s. consumer. my only question is, and everyone talks about the high savings rates. is that a reason enough to be bullish on the consumer? what about the fact that a lot of fiscal stimulus was front loaded and will fade is that not a risk >> we build models to predict return and then discretionary sector, we think it's a great time to pick winners from losers

i'm not maybe as overall optimistic the big stocks that are in there. rising wages or rising input costs. it's a great stock picker market you'll see others go up. i think a dispersion, it's a good time to do that i'm a little bit more cautious, more -- i know you guys just had a -- i'm bullish on energy. i am interested in it. pitching our research to people across the street, i think there's ample pushback there's a place that the triple crown. so giving so many people can own it, i was on cnbc a couple of weeks ago. that's going to be the top

performing sector even though it's been great for the next six months >> y up 44% this year. let's hit tesla because it closed higher by er by more tha% phil lebeau with the details >> it's also the best day for tesla since april 13th that's the last time shares of tesla were up more than 5% rising 8% on april 13th. what was driving this? no major news. no report out there that had people saying, ah-ha, i've got to buy tesla you have a number of things coming together. there's ptimism over ev demand that it will be better than expected by the end of this decade and by mid-2030 range, ev and tech stocks moving higher. a lot of them up 4%, 5%, 6%. and tesla's q2 deliveries next week the expectation is for tesla to deliver just over 200,000 vehicles for the quarter if you guys look at tesla shares over the last couple of years.

guys, back to you. >> phil lebeau, thank you. also heavy trading around tesla. bullish calls. after some underperformance especially relative to a gm or ford >> sure. i don't know that you really can pull a specific threat around. just like a lot of the downside over the last few months was not really news driven it was the stock really trying to digest a ridiculous move in 2020 relative to what the actual company was delivering it seems like as we talked about earlier, a lot of the high concept, hypergrowth stocks have gotten rekindled a little bit. and it has just, with today's jump, it went -- i mentioned earlier crossed back above the 50-day average still right exact ly where you'd expect it to be if you draw a line down from that peak >> adam, in terms of people

hedging for inflation, one sector that gets a lot of discussion is reits. what's your view there >> it's the most risky sector to pick stocks. there used to be stocks that went down. now they can -- people see it as a reopening play with entertainment and lodging and the like the variables used to predict return funds and operations balance sheet. all very correlated. they have what we call asymptetic data. they go down by more than when the market goes up, they go up a lot of risk attributes that make we think they're quite dangerous. your ability to pick winners and losers there have been challenging. making a lever reopening so make that elsewhere -- more cautious may be select areas with data centers or, you know, towers

where you can find some opportunities. but i'm a much more cautious on overall sector myself. >> josh, i think that's the third call that -- of yours that adam parker disagreed with the consumer discretionary likes energy and doesn't like reits. isn't that one of your favorites? >> i don't take it personally. adam is a smart guy. he may be right and maybe i'm wrong. adam and i have different time frames, hough. i'm doing wealth management. i don't have to be right this quarter. in fact, anybody that asks me how did i do this week in the stock market or were you overweight the right sector this month? i hang the phone up. so i think that's really where we're disagreeing. i agree with everything he said about those risks in the reit market, for example, but i think i'm being compensated for those risks. and i don't think that it is necessary to have to pick winners from losers. i don't get paid for that. i think allocating to the sector and being smart about where the exposures are is probably more

important than trying to say these are the five best reits and i don't want to own any of the others we're probably not completely on different pages, but i definitely respect his point of v view. >> i'm saying you can't pick winners from losers. you're saying exposure from long term i did just buy some pool chemicals on his activities. so i think there's ways we can help each other. >> adam, i own leslie's. lesl it's a pool servicer and supplier bull market for pools. >> there you go. >> kumbaya josh brown, adam parker, thank you for joining s. >> thank you, guys take care. >> we've got some breaking news to get to bertha coombs on. bertha >> sara, antivirus software

entrepreneur john mcafee has been found dead in his spanish jail cell just hours after the national court ordered his extradition to the united states mcafee was charged with tax evasion in the u.s. and arrested in barcelona last october. the katalan justice department telling reuters in a statement that all signs point to suicide. sara >> wow, bertha, thank you. >> up next, former cisco ceo john chambers on the outlook for the tech sector as congress sets its sites on new regulations we're back on "closing bell" in just 90 sendcos. does your vitamin c last twenty-four hours? only nature's bounty does. new immune twenty-four hour plus has longer lasting vitamin c.

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go aflac! !mm-hm! get to know us at aflac.com. mike is looking at megacap growth stocks. the nasdaq closes at another record high. mike >> the field position of megacap growth etf moves very much in line with faang or the etf who people who look to track faang basically a record spread between the index itself, the etf itself and its 200-day average. a massive overshoot. very stretch to the upside 30% above its 200-day average. what has it done since then. it's kept the up trend but much more moderate. we were flat right into the early part of this year and this is a much less dramatic premium over the 200-day

in other words, consolidated it did what you'd want the stocks to do during this period after they became grossly overvalued and everybody rotated toward cyclicals let's look at the valuations this is the megacap etf relative to the average s&p stock or average valuation of an s&p stock. and you see it's sort of cheaper than it was in, you know, early in midpart of last year. but you wouldn't call it cheap over the last five years it's built its premium. the 60% premium over the s&p average p/e proper for these companies which are much higher quality. that's the argument to have. so i would quibble with those who say growth is cheap but it's less expensive and less overbought than it was several months ago >> 60% higher as you say >> about a 35 times earnings >> mike, thank you k.b. homes earnings are out. diana has those numbers for us >> it's a split for k.b. ebs at $1.50 a share versus

estimates of $1.32 revenues lower than expected those revenues, though, up 58% i'm looking at prices. the average selling price up 13% and we saw in the new home sales numbers that drop was because of much higher prices but that average selling price is helping margins at k.b. home. net new orders up 145% to the highest q2 in 14 years and home deliveries up 40%. so again, very strong demand, but k.b. homes ceo noting there are supply chain constraints up against this high demand nothing we haven't heard from the others a split for k.b., back to you. >> stock is down after hours a little more than 2%. diana olick. sprinkler making its debut today. joining us is john chambers, an investor and board member at sprinkler. the former ceo of cisco.

welcome back to the show >> it's a pleasure to be back with you and look forward to our discussion >> same here always good to have you, john. i heard my colleague carl quintanilla earlier who was interviewing the sprinkler ceo saying that you compare this company to cisco in the earl days of cisco way back when. why? what can you tell us about what's so appealing to you about it >> i'll start with carl's comments it was so enjoyable to watch rajiv thomas, coach, strategic partner, how well he's developed and how he articulated the view and opportunity for sprinkler. in terms of the parallel, cisco was able to catch a market transition with a clear vision of our differentiation enabled by new technology called the internet we then call very close to our customers. they drove our direction and we rode this wave for two decades we did it through a platform type approach which combined routing and switching and the networking capability with the data center, wireless and security and that's very similar to what is occurring at

sprinklr three major transitions. the first being the internet, the second being cloud and third being a digital world enabled by ai, what basically you're seeing from sprinklr is they are a unified platform that addresses all the customer interfacing capabilities customer care and to marketing, into sales, into research, into engagement, et cetera, on it so the opportunity, marketcap wise, $50 billion. i think it's much larger than that and they're facing players in the industry out there 20 or 30 years, a great company like salesforce or many of the startups primarily one-product category so it has the same opportunities in my opinion, very similar to what i saw at cisco and that's one of the reasons that i'm honored to be the lead independent board member on this team and very proud of what rajiv thomas has been able to accomplish >> what we're showing, some of the noticeable customers

sprinklr has proctor & gamble, estay lauder, hyatt, marriott. all the big companies you'd want as customers >> yes >> what exactly do they do i understand there's a link between companies setting out marketing materials and rnt interacting, engaging with their clients. explain what that means. what are they offering what's the service >> if you really think about it in the dinggital world, insteado having one customer call into a call center, you have over 30-plus different channels they have information coming into you and what sprinklr is able to do is go across all these channels and to be able for the customer to interface to the airlines i flew air france to paris this last week to attend viva tech. the ability to give them communications back to them across all the channels is key and to -- most companies are

remarkably similar whether you're making cars, the airlines, et cetera. they differentiate themselves on how they interface with their customer if you can do this with one voice like cisco did that went across a whole bunch of technologies, that's what's in front of sprinklr. and they are using ai which i think will be bigger than the internet, artificial intelligence, as a leverage point in this digital world. what they do is combine all this digital fields to really change the way that the customers view the companies they are buying the products from. >> who would you say is the most comparable or biggest rival for the company, john? >> well, i would say there are two categories the traditional players, i have a tremendous respect for salesforce and what they have done in that marketplace to give your listeners a view of the opportunity. and then the individual product categories when you pay stuff, there are 50 different competitors. different in customer care versus marketing, versus sales, et cetera. it's tailor made for a new

industry player. i have a lot of weaknesses, but i usually get market transitions right and carl was kind enough to see -- mainly, i listen to what the customers say. they have 9 of the top 10 most valuable brands in america they have 50% of the fortune 500 already, but they're just starting to land and if he can execute well, that's a big if but if he can execute well, that's the opportunity in front of us. we don't like for an opportunity in terms of size, clearly the marketing strategy and the vision is there. so it's execution that will determine we're as good as we think we can be. >> it's notable you were an early investor and on the board. want to broaden out the conversation a little bit. this company and other cloud sas companies and just other companies that have benefited over the last year during the pandemic as the world moved online and the digital economy exploded there's the question about what sticks and who can continue to have very strong growth rates because it's hard to know, you know,

everyone will say we believe this is a structural thing but it's hard to pick the winners and losers coming out of the pandemic when the comps have been so strong and it's going to get tough. >> you said it very well very often companies break away more following a major downturn than they actually do during the past growth and fighting for market share what's next are the companies relevant to their customers and they view as strategic to the long-term direction. and then as the companies that not only handle the downturn well, that's when you build great companies. jack welch taught me a long time ago you come out of a downturn stronger you're a better leader your company is more lean and mean and then you focus on how do you grow? so if i think about the winners and losers, i think it's the one that are going to be closest to their customers who drive these market transitions internet of things, artificial intelligence, everything going digital and translate those to

outcomes the technology companies will outperform the traditional companies by 2 to 1 over the next decade. i think every company will finally become a technology company and digital company as you move forward if i were betting, i'd take those companies that are really moving on ai those that are moving on security because there are a lot of challenges on it. those that are really focused on the cloud moving to the edge and that offers up opportunities for a new series of players as well. >> john chambers, thanks for joining us much appreciated and congrats again on thit up next, the ceo of online education platform courseera on how workers can close the digital skills gap in the u.s. plus shares of pfizer and moderna under pressure there's likely a link between their vaccines and a rare heart inflammation whether more pain could be ahead for those stocks when we're joined by a top pharma analyst back in a couple of minutes.

a new study from online learning company courseera finds that the digital skills gap in the u.s. has worsened trailing behind switzerland, japan and

singapore in terms of proficiency. joining us to talk about how we can close that gap is cou coursera ceo jeff, thanks for joining us. >> great to be here. >> the headline really from this survey that you've carried out despite all of us having access to online training or many of us having access to online training, we're getting behind here in the u.s. in terms of digital proficiency. >> i think there's a couple of things number one is the world is changing faster and faster as john chambers just said, these waves of transition driven by technology and globalization, they are happening faster and faster so it's a competitive world and the world is changing faster what we measure on this global skills report is the performance of laners in different countries around the world and how they score on coursera courses. in business and technology, in data science and so what whey see is that although skills are increasing, relatively speaking, the u.s. is

at about a 73rd percentile compared to every country. within the u.s., different regions more on the cutting edge and other regions which are falling behind a bit >> in terms of this labor shortage that we're seeing in the moment, in the u.s., clearly as you're saying, the world is changing some people might need to change career path. how quickly can people retool themselves, retrain themselves and does the digital world make that easier or is that really only something you can do when you're in person on the job training >> i think the pandemic has completely changed the way people think about this. microsoft estimates that today's 40 million digital jobs will grow by another 149 million new jobs over the next five years. so clearly there's many, many new job opportunities being created. i think what a lot of people don't realize is that many of the entry level digital jobs and very high demand don't require a college degree, don't require

any prior experience and the skills can be learned online in 5200 hours on average. so i think one of the reasons so many people are re-evaluating their careers is there's a lot more flexible digital jobs that are becoming available >> jeff, wanted to get an update on what's going on with your business now that we have seen reopening after what was tremendous demand during the pandemic for people looking for degrees online >> yeah, well, you know, i think what we've seen is the fundamental drive for online learning is the need to learn new skills at a faster and faster pace. to a large degree, digital transformation has only accelerated because of the pandemic the final thing that i'll mention is that even though we've been able to learn online for quite some time, the idea that you can work remotely is relatively new but the value of learning a digital skill so you can do a digital job remotely is better than it's ever een people are starting to see that opportunity.

>> in terms of when people do retrain, are they seeing full respect for their past work experience, their past careers in terms of wages if they transfer across to a new area? or is it a case of having to take a step down >> generally speaking, the compensation for a given job depends upon the demand for that job and how many openings there are and the supply of talent for that job >> what we are seeing is a big imbalance. even though technology is automating many jobs, it is creating jobs. where there's just not enough talent right now there are good paying jobs, more than $50,000 a year that can be had with no college degree or prior experience but the skills need to be developed to do that and increasingly those skills can be learned online >> what are you seeing in your enterprise business from the companies that you do partner with that are trying to educate their staff. how much of a growth area is it and what sort of trends?

>> it's a big growth area. we have a market size generally estimated about $365 billion for corporate training what's happening is that the rate of competition is increasing as the world becomes more global and more digital so companies are having to reskill and upskill their employees. mostly in ai and data science. also in cloud computing. so we're seeing increasing demand due to the need to digitally transform and the world economic forum just found when they surveyed big employers around the world, 84% of employers said they're going to speed up digital transformation because of the pandemic and they really need to reskill their employees in order to do that. >> jeff, very interesting findings thank you very much for joining us >> thank you my pleasure. still ahead -- warren buffett calling on congress to review a taxdeduction commonly used by wealthy americans. details on that coming up. plus, what to expect when nike and fedex report earnings

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here's what's happening. president biden expected this afternoon to outline his administration's new efforts to reduce gun violence across the country, including stronger enforcement of federal gun laws and guidelines making it easier for states and cities to use covid relief money to hire more police a pennsylvania cheerleader was suspended after a profanity laced social media post in which she expressed her disappointment over not making the varsity team in an 8-1 decision, the high court ruled public schools generally speaking cannot punish students for their off-campus speech although the court did leave some room for future exceptions. tonight on "the news," britney spears set to appear in court virtually just minutes from now at issue her father's control over her personal and financial life we're inside the courtroom as the pop star talks to the judge.

and late breaking today, the millionaire anti-virus software founder john mcafee reportedly found dead in his prison in spain. accused killer, even presidential candidate, on the news right after jim cramer, 7:00 eastern, cnbc wilf, back to you. >> shep, thanks so much. up next, the latest details on the cdc's vaccine advisory committee discussing potential side effects from pfizer and moderna's covid vaccines and the impact it can have on th oc going forward "closing bell" back in a couple. but eventually, with spring comes rebirth. everything begins anew. and many of us realize a fundamental human need to connect with other like-minded people. welcome back to the world. viking. exploring the world in comfort... once again.

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the cdc's vaccine advisory committee discussing covid boosters and safety risks for younger people meg has those details for us >> hi. after this several hour-long meeting today, the conclusion is the cdc and advisers say the benefits of these vaccines much outweigh the risks of them for people ages 12 and above but they did specifically look into the links between these cases of myocarditis and per dlit carditis, heart inflation associated with the mrna vaccines 1226 total cases of these two

issues reported among 300 million doses of these vaccines administered of those, people under 30, they've confirmed 323 cases of about 20 million in that age group. they do say this suggests a likely link with the vaccines although it's very rare. some of the characterists, it's most common in males under third. the acute outcomes are good. many have been hospitalized but for a short duration they do say there's no long-term data available yet they say this should be something that's looked out for. the fda will update the label on the vaccines right now the risk-benefit is very good. they also talked about boosters, concluding it's too early to know if and when we'll need them they talked about the data that they'll need to make that decision they also talked about the first groups to consider residents of long-term care facilities, people over 65 health care personnel and people who are immunocompromised and may not have such a benefit from the vaccines on the first couple

of shots guys, back to you. >> a quick follow on the heart issue which we may not have the answer to yet, but do we know if this is accentuating a problem already in these youngsters but hadn't been identified, almost as a strange potential positive or is it creating the problem in the first instance for them? >> they don't seem to have information about risk factors there's a lot of discussion about trying to figure that out. so far it seems too early but it's a really important question and if there is a signal there to be teased out, they'll be following it closely so we can circle back. >> meg, thank you. meg tirrell. shares of moderna and pfizer taking a hit on the back of that meeting. let's bring in michael yee from jeffries to tell us what to do with these stocks. between this news and the news that the vaccination rates, while they've happened fast and that's a good thing, just are not where the biden administration planned for them to be by july 4th at 70%

we're in the still 50% high hesitancy levels. does this change the investing picture around moderna and pfizer >> it's a great question and it absolutely does based on the fact that the information today about potential, you know, higher rates of adverse events but more importantly, the uncertainty about boosters, which is revenue for next year and the year after and all the revenues going forward are really the big questions there so the stock -- moderna sports a $90 million market cap so that's really the debate and that's really the question on people's minds >> but isn't the moderna market cap predicated on the promise of mrna vaccines which they've been working on for a long time, other viruses potentially, cancer is mentioned potentially. isn't that the reason there's been such a huge bid there >> it is

i would say it's both. it's a significant amount if you want specifics, more than half the valuation on the idea that there will be some recurring tail, call it 5 or $10 billion versus $20 billion this year of covid vaccines and there's got to be five or $10 billion of others flu, which data is coming later this year and this will be a big topic for these stocks later this year and other viruses. so to get to 10 to $20 billion of recurring revenue to justify a $100 million market cap is part of the debate both of those are questioned going forward. >> what about the delta variant, michael? and which vaccines are holding out better or worse against it does it just really -- imean, even more that those who haven't been vaccinated yet should, whichever vaccine they can get their hands on >> that's absolutely the case. and that's why i think whether it's a read through today from the cdc panel, you know, encouraging people to continue to get vaccinated because the

benefits of reduced transmission and infection and hospitalization outweigh the myocarditis risk but these variants will continue to be emerging out there others could be coming so they want people to be vaccinated to prevent that that risk out there continues. that's certainly why we'll continue to see some vaccinations but there's still a lot of hesitancy and certainly as we get to 2022, since the infection rates are going down, there's a lot of hesitancy to think about boosters and that's the question, why the stock deserves to take a breather >> delta is on the rise. globally, they are also increasing evidence that the chinese vaccines and the countries that relied on those chinese vaccines early are not faring as well thinking of bahrain and seychelles they are seeing a big resurgence in cases does that ultimately drive demand for a pfizer and moderna which appears to be holding up better against these variants? >> well, this is the point

i think the clear conclusion, and that's part of why moderna and biontech have been great performers this year is they are clearly the number one to vaccines high efficacy, great safety, and everybody should be using those. i think countries which did not, are certainly seeing the negative effects of using inadequate vaccines and i think the question is, if cases continue to evolve, if the case numbers, let's see, the curve, right, the curve continues to start to go up later this year, i think people will start to think about boosters want to get boosters and, you know, visibility on revenues will be there. i think right now people in at least investors i talk to say we don't see visibility on boosters case numbers are going down. the stock supports a $90 billion market cap there should be a pullback on the stock. i'm telling you, there will be a debate on flu vaccines and some of those other issues later this year >> michael, thank you. >> thank you still to come -- much more calling on congress. billionaire warren buffett

making a bid for the government to review america's policy on charitable donations that's often used by people like him. althe l details when "closing bell" comes back

warren buffett is calling on congress to eview the policy o charitable deductions to weed out the wealthy donors using charity to avoid taxes robert has the story >> warren buffett announcing a

$4 billion gift to charity that brings him halfway to his goal of giving away more than 99% of his wealth. he also called for more scrutiny on charitable deductions saying tax deductions are important to many, particularly the super rich who give large amounts of cash or securities to philanthropy it's fitting that congress periodically revisits the tax policy for charitable ded deductions, particularly to those who get image native americans give over $450 billion a year to charity. buffett's comments add growing calls to limit deductions overall for the wealthy. before the pandemic, taxpayers could deduct only 60% of their income with charitable gifts that was raised to 100% during the pandemic and it extends all the way through 2021, but there's now growing pressure, especially after these comments perhaps to let that expire guys >> but he is still a supporter of the step up in basis of

capital gains, presumably? >> well, he doesn't talk about that specifically. he has certainly been one of the biggest beneficiaries of step up which allows him to take all the stock that he's had over that lifetime that has appreciated and grown so much in value give it to charity without ever paying tax on that so you're right. he has used it, whether he supports the policy or not remains a little unclear >> yeah, i think some people today picking up on the fact that he's calling out a little bit of change in tax policy when he's benefited from it he's missing the big part of tax policy that he benefits from so it does feel a bit rich when you hear the attempt to say, oh, we should review it, but, oh, not the bit i really benefit from or at least that wasn't mentioned. the only thing i'd continue on this debate is at the moment the debate from the democrats, whether it gets passed or not is about an annual wealth tax that would have to be settled based out of annual income on capital,

including unrealized capital gains and that's an even worse outcome. this fact of not revisiting or even being proponents of moving the step up in basis in capital gains might end up backfiring for the super wealthy and hurting america as a place for being the home of innovation and entrepreneurialism >> yeah, i some say this is my greatest challenge.

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check out shares of beyond meat taking a leg lower after hours. this after a note from jpmorgan analyst ken goldman.

saying based on a number of dunkin' donuts locations they have discontinued their beyond sausage sandwich the report says the product is no longer listed on the company website. it had been carried by 9,000 locations. jpmorgan said the latest breakfast wrap with beyond meat has been discontinued. a little scoop there some intrepid reporting by a food analyst ken goldman hurting the shares. >> not as much as you might have thought it would hurt them. >> just dunkin' is one -- >> think jumping on rumors of these announcements. >> not clear whether they'll bring it back or whether it was different by low demand. still to come, investors gearing up with busy day with a key read on the consumer we'll preview what to watch in just a couple of minutes

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learn more at protectedincome.org. time for our wall street look ahead the stress test results.

we'll get some key earnings. frank holland with a preview fedex is watching nike frank, kick it off for us. >> hey there, whiffle. fedex is forecast to see the earnings nearly double in q4 they're operating in an elevated global market that shows strong b to c sales margin numbers fedex expanded margins last quarter but has struggled with late residential discovery in late months. over 95% on time is considered good anything lower than that weighs on margins and capacity. surcharges for b to c have been a big part of the revenue growth just another test of de34mand ad pricing power. >> nike has under performed the market here's what to watch china, there's concern about the backlash and boycotts from chinese consumers at the s

shinening issue. they were less likely to buy western brands in june 77% said so in april supply chain challenges, are they still hurting north american sales revenues falling 10% last quarter. a ship set on the west coast did that clean up? is nike able to move product that's why they missed the quarter last time around digital. the growth driver. the site, the sneakers app direct to consumer paid off in the pandemic with john donohoe now leading nike does that continue guys, bottom line, the brand momentum for nike now is strong. jordan, converse, air force ones, but there are hiccups and issues that could make the near term bumpy even though the comps are easy >> christiana reinaldo as well,

have you seen the commercials? goal update, two. >> he went through all of that and wilf thinks that's all that's going to matter for the stock. >> don't think that's going to be a headliner earnings. >> never know. >> i've told you, reinaldo, one of the most marketable athletes. >> on that note, we're out of time. >> more interesting than the bank stress test "closing bell" is out of time, "fast money" starts now. live from the nasdaq market site overlooking "new york times" square, this is "fast money. i'm filling in for melissa lee we have guy adami, dan nathan and tim seymour. on "fast" big tech under fire. six antitrust bills hitting the house floor today. will they have any impact on the industry and will investors care fueled up gains. crude oil posting the highest close in nearly four years and bringing the energy sector along with it. does the