i'm confused by this that would make a big difference if you were asking retail investors on analysts this same question. >> meme stocks. >> that does it for us today join us tomorrow, we will be here before the 4th of july weekend. we hope to see you then. for now, though, we're going to hand it over to "squawk on the street." bye, guys. good thursday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer and david favor at the new york stock exchange. welcome to q3, futures begin the second half coming off five straight record s&p closes jobless claims a post-covid low, 364,000, ahead of the jobs number tomorrow. a road map begins with the record rally rolling into the second half. the s&p as we said, the second best first half since '98.

plus, amazon versus lina khan. >> and china's warning for the world, president xi saying it will no longer be bullied and if anyone tries they will meet a great wall of steel. jim, though, lots of stats to kick around regarding the first half, dow up 12-7 for the year >> i thought it was interesting brian sullivan on "worldwide exchange" had an incredible chart. even though the market was up 15%, there are many years where it's been up much more, '43 it was up much more, '87 it was up much more in the first half. '87 i know didn't lead to the right conclusion what it said to me is don't think it's too high. it can go higher, and the makeup of how this got there, very exciting to me the industrials and that leapfrog pharmaceuticals off of

covid, and then we had a tremendous run of the consumer and then faang gets in, and then it finished with the semiconductors david, and then oil of course was a theme throughout david, this was a market that had something for everyone >> okay. and will the second half similarly have something for everyone, or do you think you're going to need to be a bit more specific >> no, i don't think so. no >>in you think it's still kind a broader based in a way, kind of moving through, ultimately when we end the year, we're going to look back and see similar performance from the various sectors. >> yes, look, i think when you take -- look at the financials they have come back down, so they can report good numbers and move back up and start buying back stock you look at some of the stocks like a pepsi and kind of cooled off and now it's ready to go oil is at 73, and unless the saudis turn on the spigot, you have a piece like the conoco piece this morning, and it

basically says, hey, oil is back. >> we had a guest yesterday who argued that even though energy was the best performer, it's got a lot more to go for the rest of this year. it's still underappreciated perhaps. >> i think so, so i come back, carl, and i say, look, don't get bored with a rally just because it's quiet, don't ever short a bull market look at that. >> by the way, some of the gainers there, oil is going to be a story especially today as we're looking for headlines about production cuts. nothing official, there have been sources saying maybe they're looking at 2 million barrels per day between august and december, jim, but you know, near 76, we're a dollar away from a seven-year high now on crude. >> i know, rbn is my favorite in terms of go-to very typical of what's happening. you know, the alaska -- alaska used to be what we thought could beat opec, and it's just been going down, down, down

there is a lot of oil in alaska, but -- and i know that the previous president talked about opening up am war. no one's taken the bait. these companies are not drilling in alaska. and a lot of it is because they fear if you're president biden -- >> they couldn't sell the licenses there anyway, and that was before the election. >> they're not interested. >> yeah, they weren't interested but they are interested still in getting oil out of the ground at the permian. >> did you see those --? >> yeah. >> of chevron made a sale. >> you also saw the exxon numbers. obviously there's this other story involving the green peace people posing as recruiters. there was an -- >> are you kidding me? >> to the point where exxon actually put out a statement regarding some of those recorded interviews >> but when i see chevron selling permian, it raises eyebrows

why are they doing that? permian is fantastic. >> why do you think they're doing it >> well, maybe, again, you've got these problems with potential pipeline i don't know, we should call mike worth i don't want to put words in mike worth's mouth. >> what i don't hear you saying is margin compression and fears about input costs is going to be a big part of the q2 reporting season >> there was some margin compression. i think that's important we've got to touch on that. >> general mills talked about it a bit yesterday. >> yes, they did general mills talked about something, which is that there's a surprising number of people because of the hybrid model that are still cooking at home, and i find that to be incredible that was one of the stories that just got completely overlooked who would have thought that the hybrid model includes continual cooking at home. what what are you laughing about? >> i think you're right. i mean, working at home doesn't mean that you necessarily have

to eat it all, though. >> breakfast >> lunch. >> maybe lucnch, dinner. maybe you want to get out. maybe you want to change out of your pajamas. >> david's saying this because he's been out to dinner every day this week. >> i try to get out every night if possible. >> you know i'm trying to emulate what you do. >> yes >> and i get out of the atleta clothes and switch into a brie joni 180 count. >> you're never not -- and i've seen you at various hours, you're always in a tie and a suit always. >> i fell asleep in a tie and a suit on friday night it was terrific. i woke up saturday morning, i was ready to go to work, but unfortunately it was not a workday. >> the gardening, i think we have seen some pictures of him not in a tie. >> gardening no tie. let's go back to general mills you've mentioned the stay-at-home thing peter our current assumption for input

across our told cost of goods sold is approximately 7% raw and packaging materials up high single-digits, manufacturing costs up low single-digits. >> i think that's past. >> you do? >> yeah, we were seeing the peak, with the exception of tio 2 and chlorine, we're seeing a peak in a lot of different chemicals. i do think that we're seeing ag peak for the year. ag's peaked in may may was the month where all commodities peaked. >> it's funny, inflation expectations data track said may 12 was the day where inflation expectations topped. >> i did a whole piece about the may 12th, you know what happened may 12th >> that's when things turned >> no, the curve that made it turn. >> was it a cpi print is this. >> red hot cpi, recognition that that was it, powell lost every since then it's been cathie wood. i don't know if they're ready

with a -- about cathie wood. >> and that was when it occurred, may 12th and everything, the world shifted, and so -- the book far, i respect his work very much, but may 12th was the -- >> he was just citing the general mills call >> i thought the mills call was fine. >> on input costs and all the things that may lead to more inflation. >> i'm looking at the -- look, of course the actual boxes were expensive than the cereal itself that's in there. freight is something that's got -- freight is the problem, and when i speak to everyone out of the consumer package food companies they said find a way, i'm supposed to have a call, my bad with uber that is working on something. there's just not enough trucks not enough truck drivers, and if there were, if there were a national campaign -- because these jobs are very rewarding. they're very lucrative that would -- >> the journal on a second here,

just for a second. toll on u.s. agriculture points to even higher food prices >> who said that >> that's just the journal story today. next story, car market set to cool amid lack of vehicles, which we've talked about >> why do these people -- you know there's a chip shortage look, i'm not saying things aren't elevated. i haven't said that. i'm saying that it's exactly on the course of what -- of what the fed chair said there's been a peak in a lot of the average ag's down 11% from the top. let's go there i don't know if you've -- >> i could hit you on the head with a 2 by 4. >> you could actually buy it now, however, it's still up dramatically over a two-year period. >> when you have growth like we have, you better have these products go up a little. >> it'd be a problem if we didn't. >> yes, it would really just say that we're just going to have a country of coo lacks

>> you mentioned the chip shortage, and micron was a story last night, premarket this morning, down despite that better than expected quarterly number, upbeat guidance amid tight supply and strong demand for memory chips do not miss an exclusive later this morning on tech check. >> you have him too? is there anyone that used to come on "mad money"? don't you have another guest that's on today? >> i'm sure, yes, could be any of them. >> i love sanjay he said the exact wrong thing, he said the statement, excuse my readers here micron's business is healthier, more robust than ever. that is the duck coming down. >> it does have a light on if people want to know. will you turn the light on i love that. that's my favorite >> it's a spac report. you know, this is what -- it's like going to the dentist. >> it is

it is like going to the dentist. spac report. speak of the devil. >> he's actually got them taped up too these -- >> holy -- my god. >> to be fair, jim, your report is like the font -- >> you look fabulous. >> very small print on this report. >> i've got a molar that i could use a little work on there, doc. >> what happened here is basically that a lot of people thought sanjay was going to say, look, demand is so overwhelming, it doesn't matter what we could do there's not enough machines being made in order for us to be able to meet demand. he was pressed several times, and he did not go there. a lot of people were saying that sanjay did not give you what you wanted, and they tried and tried and tried. i suggest you try again. i bet you he recognizes that he was too negative. >> two other bullet points on

chips today. we mentioned amd getting eu clearance on pzylinks. nvidia, who goes to the street high. >> $1,000. this is unbelievable you're actually talking about a company that's going to have $32 billion business in just data data center. we got to go back to what happened with intel yesterday, when intel said sapphire not ready. that means i think that intel is now two iterations behind amd. look at that stock when lisa sue, when gelsinger came on "mad money" and was basically saying, listen, we've caught lisa sue, she didn't come on air ask nd say, hey, no, tha not the case she just said, you know what, i'll just keep doing my job and let's see what happens. >> this is the part of the show where i tell you how well you've done in terms of recommending both these stocks for at least the last five, seven years

can we put both -- i'd love to see amd versus nvidia five years. >> that's a foot race. >> that might be a foot race. >> can we do that? >> look at that. >> of course when lisa sue came in. >> there they are. wow, they actually are fairly close in -- >> they're two of the greatest companies in america >> say what you want, but jim, you've been dead on. you haven't let off. by the way, even -- remember when they owned a lot of nvidia and they sold it. >> a lot of people may have made mistakes selling nvidia along the way. >> not me. when our dog nvidia died, i got another dog, nvidia the second and by the way, the past for nvidia the second is coming. i got a snapshot of what it looks like no one can get into nvidia's headquarters, except for my dog. nvidia, by the way, is when --

they're going to solve self-driving car they don't talk about it it's black ice, that's the problem, and he's going to solve black ice. you know it's black ice that's the problem. >> i did not know. >> i can imagine a number of different problems. >> they can't -- cars right now can't detect black ice that's the main worry. they don't talk about that at waymo. >> i'll tell you, human drivers don't exactly have an easy time with black ice either. >> if you were going to make a car right now, would you ever have a human drive it? >> no, you'd have a machine drive it. >> yes, i wouldn't even have a steering wheel. >> you'd have the boeing cfo running the -- >> yeah, we're going to talk about some new appointments over at boeing. speaking of cars, amazon says, what, 10,000 evs on the road by next year and calling for the new ftc chair to be recused from those anti-trust investigations of the company we'll talk about that.

as we kick off july, the second half q3, more "squawk on the street" in a moment.

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and should be broken up an ftc spokesperson has declined to comment a fascinating move by amazon and a fascinating week regarding big tech and antitrust the judge decision on ftc facebook and then the judge decision on florida law and social media last night. >> i know. i have to tell you that amazon's right when they say that they're entitled to impartial commissioners. they are you can't be guilty until proven innocent only the irs court is that and by the way, when you get in front of the irs court, heaven knows you're going to jail because they've already decided. why should you get a judge, david, who has already decided you're guilty. that's not the american way. >> i think this is the third time this week that we've talked about ms. khan for obvious reasons. and in the world that i certainly used to report a lot on merger and acquisitions, when you talk to senior bankers or

senior lawyers, there is no doubt it's a concern for them. >> absolutely. >> they don't say, it's not going to amount to anything. they actually say this is really potentially serious in terms of the ftc's ability to quash potential deal making prior to it even happening. if you want to do it, you can go ahead and potentially have to go to court if they're going to be aggressive on something, and you might still win, but it's going to take you years. so do you just say we're not going to do that they can have the power. >> they have the power of stalling. >> at a certain level. >> i think that one of the things that i was speaking with someone who has an asset for sale and said, listen, there's a gun to my head because lina is going to -- everyone's on a first name basis, it's like ridiculous lina khan is going to block this deal, but i said there's no -- >> it's also 3, 2, democrat, republican if amazon were to be successful,

and that is very much unclear that they will be, then it would be 2-2, and they get it. they win 2-2, tie goes to the runner. >> why would they even be thinking about making an acquisition? >> amazon? >> yeah. >> well, they're doing the mgm deal. >> don't they know the deck is stacked against them >> i think that's a question for big tech overall we talk about apple which never does a large deal and probably never will people like to at least fantasize about that, could potentially rule that out. >> where's the line, does every new ftc chief need to be a blank slate otherwise you get complaints that's not going to happen. >> i think there's a lot of people who have basically said i own stock in this and i'll sell the stock. that's what it was initially meant for. it wasn't meant that there would be someone come in who's mary lease. you have mary lease in here.

populist >> i don't know. when i look at carl and he's also like, nope. >> that's the jeopardy where there's no -- >> i got that from aaron rodgers. he was telling me, raise less corn and less hell, that's who lina is. that's what shae's going to do. you know the cross of gold speech striking out >> okay, jim, we'll work on this during the break we'll get cramer's mad dash, we'll count down to the opening bell on a pretty busy thursday we're back in a moment yes. formulated to help you body really truly absorb the natural goodness. new chapter. wellness, well done.

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you love bed, bath >> i do. he was extraordinary yesterday, in an amazing interview. they are doing a lot of stuff with their own brands that are selling well they no longer have 15 different kinds of hangers they have been unskewed, bye bye baby is doing very well. the most important thing here, david, is there are still hedge funds shorting it. >> well, there are, but there was also that one and that one and those are -- those are meme runups. >> those were memes, but the meme people like to go after these days stocks that are like $5, and they trade them in hundreds of millions of shares this one is actually worth what it's selling for because it's selling at 22 times earnings, and i think that if you spun off bye bye baby, you would discover this stock is worth substantially more so it mystifies me why the wall street bets companies don't actually go after companies that are good they try to go after companies

that are bad that are shorted, which makes sense. they ought to just say, you know what, this is who we're gunning for. now because i said that, they hate me so much. you know what? i've never really cared. >> no, you can't care. you can't care >> david, if all i cared about were people who hated me, then you know what? i would just be under that table just saying what do you want, david? no, that's not going to happen >> don't you worry about the haters >> you'd be feeding me purina. >> yeah, i would. >> or maybe kittles. >> or blue, or automatic chewy, you could put me right down there. >> let's get to an opening bell, how abouweo t dthat. >> okay. coming up.

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china's president xi taking a hard line against foreign inter interference in a speech marking the chinese communist party's 100th anniversary, he said china, quote, won't allow any foreign force to bully or press the

country, adding anyone who dares try to do that will have their heads bashed bloody against the great wall steel forged by over 1.4 b 1.4 billion chinese people a lot of red meat for the party. >> 100th anniversary of the party, and basically saying number one goal get taiwan to be back as a chinese province number one goal. and this is, i think, a strategic issue for america. we cannot afford that to happen, and i hope that there's a response by the united states saying, look, this is an independent country where it's always been like this struggle with the two, how overt you should be. 100 miles away and we will protect them our country has to say that. >> okay. you continue to believe this was a huge threat potentially, and that it's one that we talk about often. >> it was his number one i mean always the best supporting, said it was his top

priority top priority and don't forget, they are using everything. they're pressuring the government it is about pressuring the government and ratcheting up the pressure, and i think that it's going to be not overt, not military >> it obviously would be an enormous development, something the markets are still watching for. there's the opening bell a the big board is ct midstream in celebrate of its successful spinoff from dte energy to become a new company, and over at the nasdaq krispy kreme celebrating its ipo. they were looking for the low 20s over there >> i think that one of the problems with some of the deals i'm seeing now is they're kind of niche i remember when krispy kreme went private they came on the show all the time they were "mad money" guests they went private because frankly people stopped being interested in krispy kreme now they're becoming public and

people aren't that interested in krispy kreme dunkin' donuts goes private, that was good. that stock was always undervalued. i think you start with a company that's undervalued from day one, it's going to stay undervalued we have to stay close to a lot of these companies that all they are is a name brand, and i don't think they're going to get the following. >> this was your point yesterday getting attention. >> i'm very concerned about this. >> although the performance yesterday generally of all of the ipos -- and we had large ones, didi of course the largest was strong >> you could at 14, you could have gotten in. >> that's why i liked it you could have gotten into didi. >> didi's up almost 9%. >> that was the best deal yesterday because you could get some. >> $75 billion market value. >> do you want to own clear? i don't know sen sentinelone, that's a crowded field. >> sentinelone's crowded there's clear had a strong debut.

>> sentinelone is a very good company. it's just a very crowded area. they're regarded as next gen cyber security >> they are next gen, they're not relying on human interaction of any kind. it's all ai driven in terms of picking up signals things prior to even when an attack would occur. >> when the deep instinct, that's the one i mentioned that heather bellini went to, a great analyst at goldman's that is literally about going on the offense, spotting someone and going on the offense that's not been our country's style, by the way. we just kind of take a beating we do. >> could go on the offense their cyber capabilities are quite strong. >> unfortunately they got stolen a number of years bag, that was not a good thing. >> colonial was the high water mark of the ransomware, and i think there's a lot of pressure on our companies it not pay subtly i think that merrick garland

unbelievable justice department, a great mind, is going to figure this stuff out and basically say, you know what we'll go after companies that pay. that's going to be the end of that. >> yeah, the colonial ceo said it was a huge regret of his, but that they did it to save the country in many ways, right? just gasoline supply to the entire mid-atlantic. >> my sources in that kind of world, plus the crypto world were saying colonial, this was the cost of not really upgrading your systems by the way, when you don't upgrade your systems, you're typically working with old microsoft software. >> yes, yes. >> and all the companies that i deal with in this kind of really high end cybersecurity, they're about augmenting microsoft, you know, z scalers, identity, look, we know that -- palo alto was both -- is a hybrid.

he's got the cloud and he's got on prem. but these are companies that are really engaged with a recognition that you've got to stop them by knowing who they are because they come in as someone else. >> right >> that's the way that they've been doing it. they come in, look at these stocks they've been amazing performers. >> z scaler is fantastic. >> se man tech, mcafee referred to them as antiquated. >> norton lifelock has been an incredible performer z scaler has been amazing. po they have a passport, and i am really tired of companies that have not upgraded to the -- what we have. it's a lot of times it's their fault, and they just won't spespen the money because it does cost a lot of money and doesn't produce and return on investment, david. >> i'm looking here, jim, at a

17-page report from elliott. >> that has nothing to do with what i'm talking about. >> no, it doesn't, i'm changing the subject. i'm changing the subject it's a subject that you care a lot about. >> glaxosmithkline. >> i'm all over it like a cheap suit, like the one you're wearing. >> why are you objecting to me moving on? >> i typically like the segue. >> there wasn't going to be one. >> the beatles, next we're going to have mort sol. >> here's 17 pages of report >> what do you think of it >> i actually think they are taking a very respectful approach to emma walmsley in suggesting they need a better board. the board does have some good people on it once they make more money off of this spinoff of the consumer products, maybe getting 50, 55 billion would be possible. >> right and that a board change, a shake-up would imply that eventually that emma waomsly

would go, but they are not attacking her at all it's a very impersonal approach. >> they say years of historical misexecution will not be remedied easily. despite the currently weak s sentiment we believe they have the ability to restore the market's trust in the current year ahead prioritize, rebuilding the company's credibility, strengthening its ambition for the benefit of stakeholders. these are fairly broad goals they're talking about. >> couldn't that spinoff be bought by prosthkter, nestles, e j&j. >> consumer health. >> i think there should be an auction. i also think when you look at what they're saying of having the right board, remember, emma w womsly is a consumer products person maybe she would get a scientist. she's terrific to run a world where the technology, the

scientific now is so good that you need a doctor like at regeneron. you need an older gentleman who understands everything these companies are now doing technologies that are well beyond the ken of most people. >> it's not always easy as curavac would, they're going to plow ahead, try to make this work. >> the rna is a good example when they first started talking about it, they just sounds science fiction. i mean, you're talking about the blueprint to our bodies? like, you know, the blueprint. ten years ago we didn't even know there was a blueprint to the dna, and they are trying to rearrange the blueprint. what an amazing technology >> yeah. >> never really talked about. >> the coding of the human g genome was an amazing step

forward. it's progressed more rapidly. >> you've always complained there's not enough editing in journalism, that's because it's in gene editing. >> that gets back to crispr, that was earlier this week >> crispr by the way, these are cathie wood names. she correctly -- someone criticized, now you like cathie wood well, look, i am saying that these are all high risk stocks yes, they may have had a hit in this, but these are not stocks for people at home i mean, you can go invest with cathie wood. i think that's fine. she has a 20, 30-year perspective, but these are things that, you know, you go and buy that, intellia, and that's fantastic that you got that, and there's a lot of flameouts, too, that don't make it, and curavac i thought that was going to be 90%. >> that was a disappointment look at mobility, ne-yo, that's going to be near a five-month

high as they make 8,000 deliveries in june they shake off the chip shortage we're hearing about the chinese in particular using locally grown players -- >> i actually look some of these stocks i tend to only recommend alibaba, when you have president xi basically saying we will bury you. david, i don't know if you saw the -- what happened in haverford, in gladwin last night. >> no. >> the tesla. >> the fire you mean >> tesla fire. >> yeah, we don't know it's suspicious, but it's not positive to have a tesla, to have the -- i don't know if we have the pictures of it, but it was suboptimal, david. >> i don't feel as though the stock -- the stock reacts

particularly to these occasional -- >> it's interesting, our executive producer todd bonin when he heard the noise put on his mask it's more of your ears that are involved >> just give us a heads-up >> it's your ears. it's not your -- it's not covid-related, but tesla, yeah, i thought that was -- it reminded me haverford, it reminded me of that scene in east town, where actually left east town and went to haverford. we know some people who live in gladwin, executives. >> if you tell me we do, i believe you. >> battery technology is tough i think the volvo chief on our -- no, it was yesterday the volvo chief saying we need to understand batteries as deeply as we understand combustion engines. >> and quantum scape, a lot of people like them, but ford, jim far thinks he has a better

battery. >> we're going to be talking to mark fields a little later. >> you should be talking to jim farley. >> you talk to jim farly. >> every day. >> and you will not allow us to talk to jim farley. >> he is sold out of trucks. >> only 12% of the -- >> i had it before the journal they're out. they're sold out of trucks because small, medium-sized businesses are buying them yes, i don't want anyone else talking to him that's not true. phil lebeau talks to him >> spac news this morning. yesterday we had a spac that lowered the acquisition it was doing. they cut in half almost the value of the company being aacq acquired this is going in a different direction. he's getting more equity, he'll own 72% to have now. this is what he had to say, since the relative covid

vaccinations, the the operating results have been so strong i decided i should be focused all in on the as i see opportunities for a significant as available $8.6 billion as they amend that transaction and as i said, they add in a number of other assets. vick and anthonys, the mas tree's brand, aquariums and a number of smaller restaurant concepts >> those are not restaurants that you go to. >> no, i haven't been to those. >> you go to restaurants -- david goes to restaurants where some of the finest wine is served i tend to have sparkling water >> before it's time. >> oh, my, orson wells at the bottom of his career. >> you ever seen some of the outtakes of those ads? >> not good. >> tough going when we come back, mccormick's going to be with us posting a

quarterly beat and raising guidance as jim says, those cooking from home trends continue to benefit the company. we'll talk to the ceo in a moment as dow is up 35, and we did get s&p 4,300 for the first time

mccormick, well-known name, posting a beat this quarter and raising guing guidance more people are cooking from home joining us now is the ceo. i got to tell you, lawrence, great numbers, and people just don't seem to care i'm wondering if it's because maybe you did talk about gross margins, unfavorable product mix or whether people say of course mccormick's great. what do you think is going on? this is a great quarter. >> you know, jim, that's a really great question. we posted incredible growth. a year ago people said mccormick's got to be down next

year, and here we are lapping at an incredible surge from last year, and we were up 11% in sales for the quarter. we were up 16% so far year-to-date, and it's sustained demand for cooking at home coupled with a robust recovery in the restaurant industry and in food service, and on top of that, we've done two great acquisitions during the pa pandemic so you know, our results are very strong, and i'm at a loss to explain the market, but i do believe that in the long run, the market follows the results so i'm confident that as we continue to sustain differentiated growth, really driven by the underlying demand for flavor worldwide that we'll see that change. >> you know, lawrence, are you getting that narrative that was talked about in general mills, which is that the hybrid economy is producing a couple of days of

cooking that never existed before because i think people felt that what would happen is everyone would just go back to normal, but that's not happening, is it >> everyone's going back to normal, but normal isn't what normal used to be. and you're right, there's a high brit work environment. people are going to work more from home than they used to. just look at our company we're allowing office space employees to work up to 50% of their time at home those are meals that are going to be consumed at home instead of away. there's really a built-in sustained demand for food at home, and that's a great benefit for the food industry. for mccormick in particular, our ingredient-based flavors for consumers and for restaurants are benefitting on both ends as consumers continue to cook at home, they're using more of our spices, our seasonings, frenchs mustard, frank's hot sauce, and then as restaurants reopen, they're using those same

ingredients as well, and so really we're benefitting on both ends. >> you know, i was impressed southwest earlier this week, they announced a new frank's red hot queso taco, mentioned frank's red hot. this is not just hot sauce so you are getting real interest from restaurants with frank's by name >> we are, and you know, i don't want to leave chalula out also, we acquired the brand and we're getting tremendous great brand name recognition on cholula. these are go fantastic brands that appeal to young people. even our flavor solutions customers want to tap into the brand equity, and i'll use campbell's as an example you know, campbell's goldfish has a special item out right now. it's frank's red hot goldfish

that's a limited time offer on the market to bring more young adults into the goldfish franchise. these are great brands with great brand equity we can't be more excited about them. >> i have a question whether people understand, particularly wall street that your acquisitions are all products that don't put weight on, and when you have something to their food that doesn't put weight on. and you have got the formula. >> there is a long-term trend, especially among younger consumers, millennials, gen-z, for healthier cooking, more scratch cooking, you know, weight is part of it but they are trying to avoid additives, unpronounceable ingredients, added sugar, salt and fat, and our products are perfectly suited for that kind of cooking whether it's herbs and spices,

which everyone knows are inherently good four you, throuh the hot sauce brands, frank's and french's, and french's mustard as well. a lot of flavor. not much calories. >> do you think people are confused, it sounded like an iff acquisition, not really branded, but integral i don't know if wall street cared enough about it. it could really help you. >> we are a flavor company across the board whether it's consumers cooking at home, a restaurant preparing a meal to serve to their patrons or a consumer packaged goods or beverage company for that matter, producing a product that needs flavor, we're there to meet that need and the fona acquisition brought us great technology and reach on the most value added and technically ins claitt end of

that flavor spectrum it has brought in a slew of new customers in the health and nutrition area think about the pre teen powder drinks, gummy vitamins. >> this is an addressable market that we didn't have access to. i think this is underestimated. >> in the short time we have left, i am not going to leave unsaid, your board is the most diverse board in the country, i believe, and i wanted you to have -- give you the floor about why that matters and how your company does better because of it. >> we believe that the power of people is an underlying principle in our country that goes back to the 1930s. i can't take credit for this we really believe that mccormick needs to be a great place to work for all people and to tap into the full talents that are available in the market. right now there is a war for talent in the market, and we want to be able to attract everybody to bring their full selves to work, to achieve all that they can so we can get the

benefits of the best and brightest talent without any kind of artificial screening it goes all the way to the top, jim. i am glad you recognized our board of directors out of ten independent directors, four are women, two are african american, we have a latina, a north african. this is a very diverse board it even includes a member who walked with martin luther king as a child and was jailed in birmingham in one of the civil rights margins in the '60s and so it's really important. >> jim, before we go - >> i want you to know -- i hope they are looking forward to a great weekend of grilling in fourth of july get out some montreal steak seasoning and french's mustard. >> we'll be doing it fourth of july is not the same if they don't have your stuff. lawrence kurzius, mccormick. terrific job great to speak to you. we will continue more in a moment

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miserable, a pandemic stock, thor, the biggest maker of motor coaches, rvs citi says enough is enough let's buy the stock. it's about time. it's inexpensive, $14 billion in backlog, they are sold out, you can't get one. finally someone is saying buy the stock. i like it. >> we'll see you tonight. >> absolutely. >> "mad money" of course 6:00 p.m. eastern time we got 4310 as the s&p is going a bk aig ws.in wereacin moment. ,310 as the s&pg for six straight wins. we are back in a moment.

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♪ good thursday morning. welcome to another hour of squaik i'm carl quintanilla with morgan brennan and david faber. record high for the s&p today as q3 begins. s&p going for six straight wins. something we have not done since february ism out a couple moments ago rick santelli. >> yes, ism on the manufacturing, this is a june read we are looking for a number below 61 close. 60.6 a little bit light 60.6, that is the lowest level going back to january, actually.

january when we were 58.7. so a bit of a digression the high-water mark has been march at 64.7. remember anything over 50 is expansion. these are still solid numbers. prices paid zooming. 92.1 historic number. new orders, 66.0 and finally, considering that we have the big employment report tomorrow, it's very interesting to notice that the employment index dipped under 50. 49.9 49.9 we haven't dipped below 50 since november when we were at 48.3. this is not a good dynamic in front of the employment report i understand we seem to have a lot of job openings. we seem to have a lot of people. we can't seem to put them together and quickly, construction sending out also, down 0.3 of 1% we were expecting the other way. last time we had a number this

big was february when it was done 0.8 this makes the second month of 2020 with a negative construction number. considering all the heat in housing, something to pay attention to morgan, back to you. >> rick santelli, thank you. 30 minutes into the trading session. here are the three big movers this morning walgreens. the dow component off the initial highs after beating on earnings revenue topping forecasts held by a rebound in prescription volumes. shares down almost 7%. plus curevac getting crushed afr the covid study showed it was 48% effective. little change from the 47% assessment two weeks ago down almost 7% micron under pressure despite posting an earnings beat the company giving out the current quarter guidance with a shortage of ch shortage chips those chairs down almost 5%. do not miss the ceo of micron

next hour on "tech check." carl. first day of the second half of the year as we said our new cnbc stock survey asked participa participants what this he think the biggest risk of the market is 42% said inflation mike. >> carl, 42% plurality saying inflation is the biggest risk. it's good news because it means they are really not as concerned that economic growth is going to falter, not as concerned that earnings won't come through. it seems as if we have had this crescendo of inflation you can see it in the ten-year treasury yield this ramp as people started getting vaccinated peaking in march but it was really into may that you retained all of that forward looking concern about inflation because this rise in yields mostly was explained by a rise in inflation expectations. you could look at that in terms of the market-based calculations of what inflations are it seems as if the transient

story for inflation is working take a look at the dow industrial year to date versus the nasdaq this is a rough and ready comparison of the reflation theme that would be the dow versus the more disinflation secular growth team. it's gone back and forth that huge peak speculative tech stocks into february what's most interesting is may as treasury yields were coming off that plateau, the dow peaked the nasdaq troughed. and we have come together since. so interestingly we are just about the same on a year to date basis. but we have more or less i think made a temporary peace with the inflation story now at least -- reason to think otherwise, guys. >> mike, what a week for ipos. how do we gauge that within this blooder market discussion as well >> i think you only would worry about it if it seemed as if it was a parade of deals of companies not ready for primetime or, honestly, if there

were going up 60%. it's a healthy sign of a bull market to be receptive to new companies through ipo or direct listings these are, you know, these are deals that seem to be about ready to go. they are not necessarily kind of super early stage. so i think it's one of those things, it's a good part of a market up trend until if goes too far and -- i think in the first quarter we had a supply problem. too many spacs coming outs, too many other types of equity offerings, a lot second secondaries. it's well in hand in terms of being able to be absorbed by the flow of new money. >> yeah. of course, the avalanche of spacs in the first quarter in temperature, mike, so many going public at that point and then announcing deals that were, well - >> yes. >> to the broader market what we can learn from the first half that perhaps can be important for us to think about in the second half anything in particular and/or anything you are looking at in the weeks and months ahead that

will be predictive >> in terms of just what has tended to happen when we get an unusually first strong half of the year, up 14%, usually strength begets strength that's a three quarters of the time the rest of the year you were up. that being said, most of the time the gains for the second half were not as good as the first and usually you have some trough starting in a couple of weeks seasonal effects turn a little bit less friendly. june was supposed to be weak we were up 2%. a lot of eyes are on right now a somewhat narrower market, a lot of stocks not participating in the upside, may caps are not at a new high, the average s&p stock not at a new high yet the index is we had that last summer, led to a broader connection we don't know if that's going to happen now keep that in mind as the market becomes more selective.

our next guest for more on markets, financial services director of floor operations, art, good morning to you >> good morning to you, morgan. >> with the s&p above 4,300 right now, how are you gaging these technical levels here? >> i think we're in reasonable good shape staying above 4,300 is important. a target area is up around 4335, 4340 it's a little early to be running at that. i think our mutual friend mike did a good job on the seasonals. we should be heading into a seasonal rally here into the middle of july, even to the third week of july the second half can be bumpy the third quarter towards the end of it tends to be choppy, but the near-term outlook seems to be good i would keep an eye on prices in

china. i think they are dig fating what's going on as i said on this program before. i think the pull back in inflation here, lumber, copper, several others, are related in some degree to tightening by the people's bank of china let's see if that continues and that will make everything look as transitory as the fed wants >> yeah. meantime, the narrowing of leadership, if you will, that we have seen within the s&p in recent days and recent weeks, the perhaps rote nature of the push/pull between equities and bonds right now, does that continue what are the other kind of key things you are watching in terms of the market dynamics as we move through the dog days of summer here? >> yeah, i think you want to continue to look at the internals. the breadth of the market is important. you want to see that continue to

be strong. i think the markets are a little bit confused everybody has talked about rotation, rotation this rotation is starting to look like a whirling dervish at some point because they were switching in and out almost daily to some of this stuff. i think that's why you are seeing the market begin to narrow a bit here. traders are trying to figure out is there truly a rotation from one area into the other, or are we just milling about waiting for a new group or new topic to emerge here. and as mike and others have pointed out, this rally, particularly in the s&p, has gotten narrower and has gotten flatter. we spent several weeks in a basically a rectangular move on the charts we are breaking out to the upside i think that something the

viewers might want to keep an eye on our old friend bitcoin again. it looks like it might be getting ready for a retest of 30,000, and that could be critical if they test 30,000 and hold, you could get a significant bounce because you get some capitulation from the shorts if you break the 30,000, then traders will look to see if there is a trap door cascade sell-off that follows. all of that will influence the speculative feel in stocks, particularly these chat room stocks. >> speaking of chat rooms, art, a lot of discussion the last couple of days about crude we are not far from 76 there is a kind of fake horse race in people's minds about whether it gets to 100 and whether it gets to 100 before jackson hole how much of that is interesting to you >> well, it is it is a little perplexing. i am not sure whether it's the

influence of washington with knocking down the pipelines and whatever we still have the capacity to start to flush out the permian basin. they are not back up to going all out there again, and that would certainly begin to put a dent in the oil price. i think you are going to have vn opec meeting today saudi and others are walking a type rope. they want to get the prices as high as possible without beginning to excite a new domestic rush in the u.s., particularly to the permian and other areas. they know there is oil out there. they know it can be brought in much more cheaply than the price is now they just don't want to excite these guys to get their rigs up and running. so not so much what opec says, but more the conversations that company come out the next calm of days around it. >> yeah, it's all going to be key to this inflation debate

transitory or not that we are having, especially when you see other industrial commodities like lumber and copper coming off and crude a holding at the higher levels. art cashin, thanks for joining us today. >> my pleasure. as we head to a quick break heerks is a look at the roadmap. an exclusive with the u.s. chamber of commerce ceo talking labor shortage, infrastructure, and more. >> yeah, including that chip shortage causing ford to slash vehicle production this month. we will discuss that with mark fields. >> and chinese president xi taking a hard line to ford intervenes ij will take you live to being. s&p session high

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to vote to prove a $715 billion transportation and water infrastructure bill. that will focus on improving and repairing roads, bridges rails and ensuring clean drinking water. joining us is suzanne clark, ceo of the u.s. chamber of commerce. welcome back great to see you. >> good morning. >> the chamber has been pushing for some kind of infrastructure deal for a while now the hope was for having something by july 4th, even today tweeting about let's get this over the finish line s it closer than maybe we think >> absolutely. and we are thrilled about it this is critical roads, ports,

bridges, airports, but also rural broadband, getting the lead out of drinking pipes, drinking water pipes across the country. this is a good deal. it does it without raising taxes and it has our full support. >> what do you make of the pay forces do they seem legit >> yeah, i think they make sense, they are legit. it was a way to get there done it got done. and now we need to get it over the finish line. we really do believe that we can. >> what is the finish line mean and wdo you make of this ongoin showdown between speaker pelosi and leader mcconnell about whether or not to link it or delink it from any kind of broader reconciliation process >> i think this getting this piece done, this piece that addresses these critical infrastructure needs without raising taxes, doing it with user fees, making sure that the people that are using it are paying for it, et cetera, is absolutely the right way to go

i think getting it done means getting this bill signed and turning promises into projects, getting shovels into the ground. that's what the american business community wants to see. about what comes next, we will have to see. you can imagine that a major expansion of government spending paid for by making america uncompetitive and giving it the highest tax rate in the industrialized world is something the u.s. chamber would fight pretty hard. >> i want to go back to what gives you the confidence this thing is going to get passed can you give us a sense in terms of expectations? senator by senator or what we will see in the house, particularly because some progressives may oppose it >> i think what gives me optimism is a lot of people thought we wouldn't get this far. i think the end of the day lawmakers understand what's important in their districts and understand why this has to get done we will be out there talking to every one of them and reminding

them what this means for jobs and productivity in their district, what means for their bridges and drinking water i say to you all and i have said it all over the place, i don't know a lawmaker that doesn't want more jobs this their district there is too much good stuffn this bill that every lawmaker is going to have to explain why they didn't want this good stuff at home. >> we are having this conversation about infrastructure even as we see the costs, the prices of so many materials and commodities at elevated levels as we are talking about labor shortages and the fact that so many businesses are having a hard time finding enough workers right now. how do we, i guess, bring those different aspects together to actually be able to materialize infrastructure in a cost effective way, a, and, b, when we are talking about the other factors, what are you hearing from businesses right now? >> great question. i think if you look at the supply chain, it is true that if you can get critical infrastructure done, it does help eliminate or reduce the

cost and the bottlenecks in the supply chain it's a chicken and egg thing getting this infrastructure hor efficient, more effective, more modern is a help to reducing costs and bottlenecks. the important question is the worker shortage. 9.3 million open jobs right now. it's a complex problem some is we need skilled workers. we are still paying people to stay home and we have to stop that we need more childcare and better access to childcare and some of it is we need more visas and access to global talent. it's a complex problem but there are solutions. it's a critical issue. you're right to highlight it. >> does the labor shortage abate in the fall? is that the expectation from the businesses that you represent? certainly a number of forecasters on wall street expect that to be the case. >> it's so interesting to me i have been in this job 100 days and i have been lucky, i get to

talk to job creators across the country, small businesses, big businesss, every geography it's the first thing that i hear about. and so i think they want to be cautiously optimistic that it gets better in fall but there is a lot of anxiety out there i talked to an employer the other day, middle of the country, she is offering inte interview bonus, first day bonus and a 30-day bonus just to try to get people to come to work. >> bonuses are trans sorry but if you are raising wages and salaries that's not the case what does that look like when we have these inflation discussions? >> i think it's the right question one of the things that we are worried about is what runaway government spending could do to inflation. our concern about some of the proposals that we are seeing out of the biden administration that would really expand government programs to a level that we haven't seen before in this country, at exactly the wrong

time the guest you just had on talked about a transitory nation of inflation and i think businesses and the economy are expecting that and yare used to that we have to be careful we don't run an experiment at a time of great economic resurgence for this country. >> quick question on china it's, obviously, always a topic for american business, but especially today because of this speech by president xi nike has been kicked around a bit for saying that the company is a brand of china and for china. that's what ceo john donohoe said a few days ago. historically, it's been a huge white space of growth for american companies what responsibility do they have to criticize human rights abuses, for example? >> i think you're right that it's a complex issue it's hard to be globally competitive and not sell into this fast-growing market in china. at the same time trying to figure out how together as global community and the

business community is, obviously, part of that, how do we bring china to the team on human rights abuses, some of the cyber issues, anti-competitive issues how to you balance both of those things and end up with a fair trading partner is one of the critical issues of our time. >> we will continue to watch it, suzanne. obviously, lots of companies wrestling with thorny issues good to see you. thank you. >> happy 4th >> you as well as we head to break, a check on the commodity complex. wti $75 a barrel today trading at the highest level since october 2018 less than a buck below the world's benchmark crude. that comes as opec plus members gear virtually to decide on production plans for the remainder of the year. analysts expecting half a million barrels per day in august elsewhere, lumber futures we talked with this earlier, continue to tfall this morning

despite that rise earlier in the year the worst first half performance since 2013, down 50% from the early may highs. keep in mind we are pretty significantly elevated from a year ago levels. more "squawk on the street" on the other side of this break

it is now time for our "etf spotlight. the financials ticker xlf up around 235% year to date. handily outperforming the s&p 500. our new stock survey showing that 67% of participants chose the financials adds the top sector for the second half take a look at the big banks year to date with wells fargo and goldman sachs up more than 40% so far we will keep our eye on that sector we'll be right back. stay with us folks the world's first fully autonomous vehicle is almost at the finish line today we're going to fine tune the dynamic braking system whoo, what a ride!

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wrelcome back to "squawk on the street."

we're about an hour into the trading session. a check on the biggest leaders on the s&p this morning. a lot is going to involve energy as crude oil near 76 first time above 75 since 2018 and some of the laggards as well as the semis are trying to work out of an early hole overall, guys, a bit of a tight range as we're around that 4310 level today. >> yes chinese president xi making harsh comments on foreign interference eunice is in beijing with the latest. >> thanks. well, president xi didn't mention the u.s. directly, but he did say that china would not accept what he described as saingtmonius preaching for bullying from any foreign forest he said anyone who attempts to do so will find them selves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by china's

1.4 billion people now, president xi's tough talk matched a show of force we saw today as the chinese communist party celebrated it their 100th birthday as a formation of china's j 20 stealth fighter jets flew overhead president xi jinping promised that china bwould build its mily and described the reunification of taiwan as a f historic mission, promised to ensure stability in hong kong and hailed what he described a new world created by chinese people. it's meant largely for a domestic audience. the leadership has been revising this narrative of the communist party really glossing over some of the past problems the party has had with one man rule. president xi is being upheld and has been upheld as the core of the communist party central to making china great again and by

his deadline that means 2049 the 100th anniversary of the people's republic of china guys >> eunice, given the fact what we saw a military parade, the comments about taiwan, is it fair to say that these are more hawkish or more aggressive comments that we heard from president xi where national security is concerned and what that means on the geopolitical stage than we have in the past >> they have been more hawkish this time around and, in fact, there were several people who were saying that this is part of the president's plan to really try to showcase china's strength, mainly projecting to a domestic audience saying that now is our time in order to rejuvenate the country and really follow on with the march forward to try to make china great again >> eunice yoon in beijing.

thank you for that. meantime, we are getting auto sales out of gm phil lebeau. >> as expected general motors posting big sales for the second quarter. we are in comparison with the second quarter of last year, which was terrible in april, got a little bit better in may and started recovering second half of june of last year gm up 39.7% for q2 of this year. that is just shy of the edmonds estimate of an increase of 45% in line with expectations. the inventory down to 211,000 vehicles haven't done the math in terms of day supply, but down from 363,000 was the day supply last year at the end of q2. so as expected gm and the automakers dealing with tight inventories. we heard from hyundai earlier today, record q2 sales ford tomorrow. we will likely get tesla tomorrow at the end of the day today, david, we get the sales rate for june, which most are expecting to be around 16.4, 16.5 million.

not as strong as april and may that's largely because we see tight inventories. it's a tough markets if you are looking for a new vehicle. >> indeed it is, phil. we will talk more about that with our next guest. mark fields, ford motor company. and we'd love to start off right there. you heard phil talking about it. industry inventory levels down at least 50% from normal seasonal levels. i guess in your long career in the auto industry, have you seen anything quite like this what are your expectations for when it might normalize? >> no, in my career we have never seen inventory levels at these levels in terms of absolute numbers, around this time of the year the industry should have 3 or 4 million vehicles in stock. and you see dealers and their lots full of vehicles, particularly around july 4th now you are seeing inventory somewhere around 1.5 million to maybe closer to 2 million. so you are seeing a lot of

asphalt, clear asphalt on a lot of the dealer lots to your question when is it going to be restocked, thi thin it's going to take the next 12 to 15 months to get the inventories back to where they were pre-covid the reason for that is, one, obviously, the oems are working through the supply chain issues to get the parts to, obviously, build the vehicles and, secondly, you are going to continue to see, i believe, healthy demand for vehicles over the next 12 to 24 months as, you know, the post-covid economy recovers and also changing buying habits as people prefer going forward owning vehicles versus, let's say, taking mass transportation it's going to take quite some time it will get, marginally better in the second half and then next year but it's not going to be a buyer's market for quite some time. >> yeah. well, to that point, average transaction prices in june seen at over 40,000 is it going to go up from there

given the shortage of vehicles >> i think you will see it creep higher you've got to do the math in that when you look going forward, the reason as phil said, the selling rate in june is going to be down versus may and april, is there is not enough cars. and so you are continuing to see manufacturers raise sticker prices, lower incentives and therefore folks that want and need a vehicle are going to be paying for it. and i guess the bottom line, david, is the market demand is there, but the inventory is not. so it's the old supply and demand, and the prices probably not increasing the way we have seen the last couple of months, but i don't think this is the last time we have seen a record for average transaction prices as we go forward this year you will probably see a few more. >> mark, it's morgan not just consumers that need vehicles car rental companies as well which in many cases, thinking

about hertz, which just emerged from bankruptcy and you are joining the board of, sold so much of its fleet last year. what is that process of restocking look like >> i think they are going to face the same challenges in the retail market. obviously, important is the relationships that the rental car companies have the oems. you are going to see rental car companies keep their vehicles longer and maintain them longer. like the car business, it's going to be a very strong pricing market so even though you'll see less vehicles, whether it's automakers selling vehicles or in rental cars, you are going to see strong pricing offset to a certain degree the profit hit from having lower inventories. but in the case of hertz, it's a great brand. i am really pleased and happy to be able to join the board and i have a lot of good things going forward in terms of prospects for the business but overall, every industry,

rental car, retail, government fleet, it's going to be tight. >> all right what about the good things for the prospects for the hertz business give us a sense as to what you are talking about there. >> i am in the process of joining the board. the bottom line hertz, which is a very strong brand, they are number one in the market here, and as greg o'hara, who is going to be the chairman of the company, said we are going to use technology to improve the customer experience overall improve the operations of the business i have high hopes for the team there and, hopefully, we'll contribute to that >> mark, we talked to you in the past about ev. it's become more and more important for the future of the industry i am curious to get your perspective on the companies who have had their plans almost fully funded or are going to need capital but were able to come public via spac or the

traditional way. what is going to happen to so many of these names over final in yopinion? >> it's going to be a batting average. in the car business, that saying, how do you make a small business in the car business you start with a large fortune i think some of these companies that have gone public and the main reason they have gone public is because they need capital, so they have gone public, raised the capital and they say look at actually building, designing, manufacturing and marketing a vehicle, it takes a lot of money. so i think a lot of challenges of these ev companies that they are going to have, these startups that eventually have gone public via spacs, their challenge is execution and their challenge is going to be how are they going to raise the next round of capital if, in fact, they fall, you know, way over their capex budgets. you are seeing cracks in that right now and i think you will see that if going forward. not for everyone that has gone

public, but a certain percentage i believe will get into operational and financial trouble. >> mark, speaking of in the ev space, we have had a few weeks this think about the f-150 lightning. is that turning out to be a landmark moment for adoption how much is riding on this dollar figure in the infrastructure bill on charging stations >> well, to your first question, i think ford has bdone an excellent job in announcing the product they brought out for the lightning, for the f-150 to your point, carl, i think it's a watershed moment for the industry because your basically taking the world's best-selling vehicle and electrifying it. and so it's the old neighborhood effect, right. if your neighbor down the street shows up with an f-150 lightning in their driveway, all of a sudden that gives you permission to go and by evs it's not a science project anymore. i think it very much is a watershed moment for the

industry so from that standpoint, i think it's going to be interesting to see it play out over time. what was the second question >> on the infrastructure proposals, the president has said he wanted 15 billion for charging ended up, we'll see, looks like we will end up closer to 7.5. >> i think it is very important because, obviously, the two biggest deterrents to consumers adopting evs right now are the cost and the industry is solving that over the next few years the other is range and the third is the charging infrastructure so not everybody lives in a house with a two-car garage where they can charge their vehicle overnight from a charging station or on their garage door wall so having that charging infrastructure is critically important. you are seeing automakers who have in the past said we'll leave that to others, do a lot more partnerships to build out the infrastructure, and i think the government piece of this in

the infrastructure bill will be a big enabler not only for building out the infrastructure but for the adoption of evs here in the u.s >> just to bring all of this full circle, the fact that we are having this conversation with evs watershed moment or what it's going to take to restock inventories for the o medical ems and what that means for prices and the market for autos, the just in time supply chain model, is that going away? is that being rethought? what does that look like >> well, i don't think it's going away because in the car business it's all about efficiency, all around cost per unit and that just in time system has been honed over the past 40 years to a very high degree i do think what you might see a couple of things in the industry number one, keep in mind the automakers don't have the direct relationships with the semiconductor companies. they are buying that through their tier one suppliers so i think one of the things

that the automakers will do, they will start to create relationships with the tmses of the world and samsungs of the world so they can have that direct line, if you will, into those suppliers. overall, i don't see just in time going away. you may see some buffer stocks, you know, be held by omems whic may tie up a bit of cash i am not hearing anything about the automakers doing away with that system because it's so important to their efficiency and to getting cars out on time and with quality to their customers. >> mark, always appreciate getting your perspective on a lot of these issues. thank you. >> thanks, david. let's get a check of micron as we go to break. stock is slipping down 5% after reporting results last night the ceo will join us at the top 'lbeig bk.r. wel rhtac camper badge. but even i'm not as memorable as eating

turkey hill chocolate chip cookie dough creamy premium ice cream and chasing fireflies. don't worry about me. i'm fine. you can't beat turkey hill memories. customers. of the hour.

why investors may see a tough start to the year's second half and how to play it. that story on tradingnation.cnbc.com more "squawk on the street" straight ahead that's great, carl. but we need something better. that's easily adjustable has no penalties or advisory fee. and we can monitor to see that we're on track. like schwab intelligent income. schwab! introducing schwab intelligent income. a simple, modern way to pay yourself from your portfolio. oh, that's cool... i mean, we don't have that. schwab. a modern approach to wealth management.

news out of manhattan today where the trump organization is set to face charges. our shepard smith with the latest hi, shep. >> we're expecting criminal indictments against the trump organization and its money man, the chief financial officer, allen weisselberg, to be unsealed in court at about 2:15 this afternoon eastern time. we will have live coverage on cnbc when it happens weisselberg, of course, already surrendered himself to the manhattan district attorney. that happened early this morning after 6:00 nbc news learned the charges handed up from a grand jury in new york involve an alleged scheme by the former president's company to pay weisselberg and other employees off the books with fringe benefits like cars and apartments to avoid, evade, i

should say, taxes. let's take a live look at the manhattan criminal courthouse now. weisselberg's attorney says he plans to plead not guilty and plans to fight the charges the manhattan d.a. has been investigating the trump organization for years now they are looking into possible criminal conduct, including insurance and tax fraud. attorneys for the former president say that they do not expect he'll be charged today. he has called this investigation a witch hunt now, here's what we're told will happen this afternoon inside the courtroom. after the indictments are unsealed, the prosecutor and the judge will lay out all of the charges against the trump organization and against weisselberg himself. weisselberg, we're told, will be there in the courtroom along with attorneys for the trump organization now, they can enter a plea of not guilty or they could decline to enter a plea at all at that time and bail should be set, which is usually pretty light, frankly, in these types of

non-violent financial cases. a spokesperson for the trump organization is calling the indictments political and claims the manhattan d.a. is using weisselberg as a, quote, pawn in that scorched earth attempt to harm the former president. last week an attorney for the trump family claimed the charges were being pursued because weisselberg refused to flip and cooperate with investigators now, i'll be back for coverage this afternoon when the indictment is unsealed and comprehensive coverage tonight on the news 7:00 eastern cnbc. carl, thanks back to you. >> we will see you tonight, shep, if not before. thanks after the break we, going to speak with the ceo of bolero that's a company that is going public via spac. yeah, it's bowling that's right there it is. that one is not looking too good. a new meaning for bowling for dollars. >> yes first, though, a check on shares of didi.

remember, it went public yesterday. you can see having a very strong second day 14 was where it priced we'll be right back. oodco., an online food delivery service. business was steady, until... gogo-foodco. go check it out. whaatt?! overnight, users tripled. which meant hiring 20 new employees and buying 20 new laptops. so she used her american express business card, which gives her more membership rewards points on her business purchases. somebody ordered some laptops? cynthia suarez. cfo. mvp. get the card built for business. by american express.

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i'll be speaking with the ceo of launch services company astra, going public on the nasdaq today, after merging with wholicity. small rockets, with the goal to raunch one per day in the coming years.

welcome back this morning, bowlero, the world's largest owner and operator of bowling centers, announced -- bowling alleys, let's call them -- announced they will list on the new york stock exchange through a merger with isos acquisition corporation. joining us now in a cnbc exclusive is bowlero corporation founder chairman and ceo tom shannon. tom, congratulations on the news today. thank you for joining us >> thank you >> let's get right into it why is spac and what will the money that you raise through this process enable you to do? >> well, we looked at various ways of going public, we considered them all and at the end of the day we decided to partner up with isos acquisition corp., led by two executives, george barios and michelle wilson, senior leaders at wwe. and they bring a wealth of experience that is relevant to

us we own the professional bowlers association. so we're doing about 70 hours of original tv content every year that we produce. and we see great expansion opportunities for that on the media ide, in gambling, gamification, in global expansion, and these are all things that isos can help us win. >> gambling for bowling. what does that look like >> well, gambling for bowling has been around for more than a century. so you put money into a pot, and you get that at the end of the day or the end of the season, based on various things, but we actually now have gone global. we have a virtual bowling tournament that we unveiled last summer called rumble and so you can compete in any bowling center that is on this software system, that we're partnered up on, anywhere in the world. we had 26 countries participate, over 5,000 entrants in our beta

test, it worked spectacularly well the next evolution of that is to be able to bet on your next shot in center, so you walk up to the line and we give you odds on whether or not you're going to get a strike or some other score, whether you'll pick up the spare, and so it is introducing a new exciting gamification to the traditional sport of bowling. >> yeah. obviously we're seeing the world reopen or the u.s. reopen. people are going out and doing more things right now. i'm reading this note that bowlero bowling center revenue is already exceeding prepandemic levels, despite continued capacity restrictions. i guess add a little more meat to the bones on that one, what are you seeing, who is coming out, where is it happening the most actively? >> really it has been phenomenal, morgan we couldn't have predicted it would come backthis strongly since may, we have beeupver 100% to 2019 numbers, recently one of our weeks we were at 113% same store sales versus 2019,

same period. california has come back extremely strong i'll tell you that after 14 months of lockdown, there was a lot of pent-up demand what we're seeing across the country, in 31 states, we'll end this here with 325 bowling centers. so really seeing the strength across the board. >> all right, well, let's talk about the centers themselves and the new capital you have coming in are you going to expand by virtue of acquisition potentially, you have currency, or is the opportunity more in the current centers in terms of improving margins? >> that's a great question it's both. so we renovated about 120 of our centers. they look like the one you're seeing behind me this is in arcadia, california there is 180 left that could be upgraded and we see significant increases in many cases doubling of revenue and tripling or quadrupling of ebitda after we renovate a center. we're also active in acquisitions so the u.s. bowling market has

3500 independently owned bowling centers, mostly mom and pops, so even though we're the largest bowling operator in the world by a factor of 8x, we have about 8% market share of the u.s. bowling market so we can acquire, we can build new, we're in the process of building two new centers and we can continue to -- we have many vectors of growth and then there is international there is an interesting statistic. there are 3 million league bowlers in south korea, and 1200 bowling centers in that market alone. it is a global opportunity for us >> tom, real quick, we have 20 seconds. you have any trouble hiring people or is the employment market okay for you right now? >> you know, it is a challenge, but frankly it has been a challenge for years. the good thing about bowling is it is largely self-serve so if i give you a lane and shoes, you go and have fun for an hour or two and you don't need a lot of human intervention on the food and beverage side, you do, but the core activity is extremely high margin and not labor intensive. >> i still want to know how

you're cleaning those lanes and those shoes post covid, but we're up against the end of the hour we'll leave the conversation there, tom shannon thanks for joining us. and maybe we'll talk about it at a future date. thank you. >> my pleasure thank you. >> all right, that will do it for us here on "squawk on the street" with the s&p up about .3%. the nasdaq lagging a bit "techcheck" starts now it's real simple you got two more quarters and that's it. good thursday morning, welcome to "techcheck. i'm carl quintanilla with jon fortt and deirdre bosa the second half playbook for tech stek tech and opportunities to watch for the last two quarters of the year the ceo of micron will sit down with u