new ceo. it's still down 22% yore to data >> pete najarian >> i'm looking at unitedhealth it's still cheap >> good stuff. trb, the reformed broker >> jpmorgan. best is yet to come for the economy and for companies like this bank, that facilitates all the activity within it >> good stuff. thanks everybody "the exchange" starts now. thank you, scott hi, everybody. i'm kelly evans. this is "the exchange" and we have inflation to talk about, coming in superhot for june, up 5.4%, the core reading up the most 30 years why are stocks rallying today? we'll discuss. plus we have the unrest in cuba, the latest from havana as analysts wonder if venezuela could be next and why our guest says the u.s. should not pursue more sanctions and coming up in rapid fire,

what elon musk gates, espn raises rates >> i know what you were saying and all the viewers and listeners know what you were saying it doesn't matter because we've got another record high for the markets again. it's not the spectacular, but it's still s&p 500 and nasdaq composite both hitting record levels the dow industrial is lagging a little bit because of some of the results you will talk about later in the show. but still a solid move higher for the major indexes, at least the broader base ones like the s&p. one place to keep an eye on is what's happening with marijuana stocks the etf managers group alternative harvest etf, you'll hear traders refer to it as the mj that etf is up 1% off the highs of the session you can see here it's been locked the in a fairly decent channel for some time now. and since the highs earlier this year, we are down roughly

40-some-percent on that particular etf some activity but it's going to take a lot more to get to the levels we saw earlier. from pot to snacks and soda. pepsico, all-time high today that stock is up almost 3% you can see that sharp move higher at the end there. that means that we've seen since the lows earlier this year a 20% rise in the shares of pepsico thanks in part, no small part, a beat on earnings, a beat on sales. they are accelerating and they raised their profit outlook for the year what's helping things, kelly more americans, more people around the world are going out, so their off-premise sales of sodas and snacks picking up. that's helping to drive pepsico higher you can see the shares moving a decent move. i know you're talking about inflation. they're seeing it but sales are seeing it. >> only you could have gotten away with that opening inflation showing no signs of letting up as consumer prices rose 5.4% year-on-year in june

that's the biggest gain in 13 years. used car and truck prices surged more than 45% for the year gas also climbed 45% but home prices only up 2.6% a lot of people think this measure is just getting started. san francisco fed president mary daly told tech check earlier she doesn't think inflation is going to stick around for the long term listen >> i think the main thing to recognize is several months of this doesn't mean that it's not transitory transitory is really about what factors are driving it and do we expect to see it continue to grow going forward i don't see that happening in the used car market or the airline prices or traveling tourism more generally, all of which are really driving up the inflation numbers. >> so, is she right and what does it mean for investors let's bring in chief equity strategist, jeff is also with us, chief investment strategist at mariner

welcome to you both. chris, you're of the point of view i think that inflation pressures will be with us for some time. >> i do -- yes, i do think that's right and it's nice to be with you again, kelly but what i think -- i agree with her in one sense i don't think it's commodity inflation that's going to get us i think there are one-time things like trucks and cars and gas. but i do think wage inflation is going to be the 800-pound gorilla that really as we enter 2022 that's what the headlines will be about. and it's much more pernicious. wage is really only going one direction. you give a 5% raise one year, you can't really dial it back the following year that's what i'm on the lookout for and that's what i think will drive interest rates higher next year >> i take your point but i'm curious what happens around labor day. if you have lower wage jobs, that's why we saw average wages go up during the pandemic.

i know what you're saying for an individual person it's unlikely their wages go down. of course it happens people reset all the time. but for society at large you can definitely see downward wage pressures. >> well, the problem is we see many job openings in almost all of our portfolio companies that are much higher than the current unemployment benefits. so, i really think that this excuse that there's all these folks sitting on the sidelines waiting is not going to turn out to be true but of course the proof is in the pudding and we'll see in a couple months. >> speaking of inflation, we just had the 30 year long bond up for option. what can you tell us, rick >> i can tell you that this auction needed a nose plug for it wasn't a good auction i gave it a d minus. the internals are horrible the auction yield, 2.00. 2% right on the nose the problem was the issue market was trading 2.5 basis points lower, so we ended up with higher yield, lower price, not

good so, it tailed dramatically and the bid to cover 2.19, the worst since february '21 which doesn't sound so bad, but indirectly, 61.1, almost two points below the auction average. direct bidders like hedge funds, pension funds, they didn't show up 16.6 the worst since november 2020 and on 22.3 is the largest amounts dealers have taken of an auction. they get the leftovers, largest amount since october 2020. not a good way to complete 120 billion in supply. as you look at the charts, you can see the cpi selloff lasted about 15 minutes let's see how long this lasts. we pushed from 137 to 135. we pushed from 197 to basically 2% in the 30 and if we stay at these levels, that will mean something, especially considering how to reverse out of the cpi selloff earlier in the session kelly, back to you >> very well summarized as we

look at those intraday charts. let me turn back to my market guests where we're discussing how sticky inflation is going to be if you're more concerned about the wage siede of the equation, jeff, where do you fall? >> i would agree with chris that we would be watching a good sign is the increase in labor productivity, which will help keep labor costs kind of controlled but we'll continue to watch that i think going into the year we felt like inflation could be a wildcard item that wasn't on a lot of radar screens and i think what gives us comfort that it will be controlled, contained is the reaction of the bond market. the bond vigilantes so far have been completely quiet and reaction of the bond market and stock market we don't like to predict the predictors, and it says it's not going to be a problem. i do think there are reasons to think there are base effects, that understandably you would see a spike. you've got these prices that are

undue influence. you've got supply chain bottlenecks that will unwind a bit and labor shortages that also should ease a bit as we move through the anniversary of the unemployment benefits. everyone is saying the yield curve is inverting the yield curve was inverting in 2018 and it inverted for a nanosecond and it quickly went positive again i think we have to be careful of not assuming worst case outcomes here and we think the backdrop remains flavorable that inflation will be out and quickly managed, but we'll see >> i want to explain how your views on the world bring us back to your investment choices you like lockheed martin and facebook, which goes to show you can have a macro view on one hand but good stock picking reasons. where would you be i see paypal is one of your names. neither of you is doing anything like the financial or energy trade that people want to stick their necks out on if they do think rates are going higher

jeff >> we preach balance between growth and value throughout this entire kind of move where folks are getting extreme saying cyclicals and values is where you want to be we've seen growth and value a parody as we move through this midpart of the year up about the same amount. we like technology we like consumer discretionary pockets within auto supply where you have great innovation with advanced driver systems. we also like the industrials and like it in areas where you see innovation like 26 and finally i think we like some of the material stocks still so, balance. >> chris, a quick word on why lockheed and facebook? >> sure, two kind of really different stocks, but facebook is the stock that everybody loves to hate.

but people have talked about it enough, i don't dwell too much on it. lockheed martin is in a forgotten part of the market it's an important company. it's got a long runway of earnings visibility. if there's any black swans out there, one that might happen like the more attention with china, in end it's the cheapest stock in our portfolio at 12 times earnings so, really like it really like the forgotten nature of it. >> 12 times earnings is extraordinary. that's very surprising >> in this part. >> exactly thank you both very much on these markets today. we really appreciate it. as we move along to the banks as earnings seasons get underway, shares of jpmorgan and goldman are lower. jpmorgan beating on profit and revenue. jamie diamond saying the economic outlook continues to improve but the shares are down more than 2% goldman crushed expectations,

bolstered by the ipo market and wells fargo is next with results due tomorrow why are banks under pressure even goldman is down 1%. anton, good to have you. what explains all of this? is it just the yucky bond market rick was describing earlier? >> well, the yucky bond market actually will play in the bank's fa favor. higher rates from a bad auction will help the banks. and the banks have correlated on a trading perspective with what's going on with the 10-year deals. the rey'all i the is the banks delivered. the earnings were good enough. they're both crowded trades. you can poke holes in both companies and say this and that. but at the end of the day they're generating capital, generating book value. there's no long growth right now because there's so much liquidity floating in the market, which means excellent credit quality very strong economy will lead to loan demand and loan demand and

higher interest rates will lead to estimates that are far too low for next year. so, i expect estimates to rise as the year progresses i expect loan growth to show up. and i expect trading and investment banking will continue to be good places to be. the bank logs for investment banking are spectacular. >> what's going to happen with deposits they have these competitors in the crypto world that are offering 4% yields and that's conservative >> not an issue today at all most banks are incredibly flush with cash, far too much cash if you look at banks here to date, double digit growth in deposits and long growth pretty flat so, no competition at this point. eventually that will matter. but core deposits is what banks have, and those are cheap deposits versus the more wholesale type borrowers in a rising rate environment. they may face issues

i continue to believe that fintech and banking have to partner up i don't see them as competitors. i see them as partners as time goes on. >> fair enough just thinking through what's going on in the short term space with t yields trying so hard to be deeply negative where all of this money is being parked at the fed for about 5 basis points return, where does that go from here what normalizes things, only if interest rates drag things higher if we're talking about a federate hike in the picture by the end of the year, does that resolve this liquidity situation? >> it helps. i think one of the best things it solves in the liquidity situation is the continued strong economy where people go out and spend the money. we need to see manufacturing go out and build new plants and hire people and spend money and start to borrow money. and i think that, you know, again the stimulus progress has been fabulous, but they've cre created a lot of deposits at the bank and loan demand

as deposits get run down, earnings go up and that's great for the economy. i think the banks will be laggards across the deposits they're still lowering as we speak. >> we should leave it there, anton. but i just want to check in with you for investors, where should people put their money to work in this space? >> well, i kind of like a little bit of a barbell approach. i like the self-help story i like wells fargo at this point in time. at some point i have to get out from underneath the fed orders it's still relatively cheap to forward earnings, and i think estimates can go up if they can grow their balance sheet and on smaller banks i like first horizon and live oaks, mix between fintech and a bank, and also venture fund and invest in fintech. i think there's a lot of value embedded in that portfolio >> thanks for your time today. good to see you. be sure to watch "closing bell" at 3:00 p.m. eastern time for exclusive interview with

david solomon to further discuss those results and the outlook on the banking space. the cuban government is cracking down after the mass protests the latest from the havana and the role the pandemic may have played plus this commodity has given up all of its gains this year we'll tell you what it is and what's driving prices lower. stay with us >> announcer: this is "the exchange" on cnbc.

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or visit an xfinity store to learn how our switch squad makes it easy to switch and save hundreds. welcome back in the walk of the pandemic, cuba is facing its worst economic crisis since the soviet union collapsed. it's prompting widespread protests this weekend and forcing lawmakers in d.c. to speak out in response. what do we know, ed? >> reporter: well, this sunday there were mass protests not only in havana, the capital where i'm speaking to you from, but throughout the island and another ten cities spanning from east to west and these were mass protests, the likes of which we haven't seen in cuba for decades thousands of people in havana, thousands of people across cuba are calling for an end to the communist one party government, calling for medicine, calling for vaccinations, calling for

food there was a very wide array of discontent, mainly it should be said economic discontent the country is going through a vicious economic crisis brought on both by the pandemic and u.s. sanctions on cuba, which were hardened substantially by the trump administration and have not been softened by the biden administration these sanctions have led to a short fall in currency that the cuban government needs to import food or medicine and that's playing out in the streets now that these people are standing in line for hours on end to buy chicken and pharmacy shelves are barren. the cuban government has responded by saying this is a u.s.-orchestrated campaign and right now in havana both today and yesterday, a very heavy police presence with police cars patrolling and driving through havana has ensured that for the most part, right now at least, there's calm

in the capital >> ed, thanks. ed augustin of nbc news. could these historic protests bring down the government? let's bring in daniel o-soriot daniel, welcome. why is it so bad in cuba right now? is it because of the pandemic? we've seen a lot of concern about access to medicine and food >> yeah, look the reality is the pandemic has shown as individuals and society our vulnerabilities, our fragilities, and the cuban political system and macro economic system has a lot of those fragilities and vulnerabilities. i think that's why there's protests people not only want food, not only want vaccination, but they want the right to vote they want the right to choose. and these are the biggest protests and most substantive protests that we've seen on the island since probably mid '90s,

1994 >> could they fall, given this is a communist regime given they have more than they would. >> it's hard to say if the government is going to fall, this regime is going to fall but there is movement. there is action. there is outrage and i think the u.s. has to listen to the cuban people i know people in south florida are certainly listening to the cuban people there are midterms in the u.s. next year. florida will be in the eye of those midterms and, you know, it is critical to see what happens next. i think the cuban government looks weak it looks vulnerable. and i think as latin america, as the united states, canada and eu have to show its support >> but when you say its weak and vulnerable, to whom exactly. if this regime were to hand over or have some sort of transition to power, what fills that vacuum

>> i think it's somewhat naive to think that this communist regime that's been in power since 1959 is all of a sudden going to disappear what one would hope for, just like one would hope in nicaragua or venezuela, is a transition to a more democratic, to a more egalitarian system, than the one party one system rule that there has been for sadly so long >> i know you think that in a way u.s. soft power is the most valuable thing there, that maybe by lifting sanctions or at least not worsening them that you can kind of hope that that doesn't require the u.s. being blamed for some of the agitation in cuba that we're already seeing play out with an eye towards the politics of this next year, is there anything the u.s. should do? >> it's somewhat unpopular amongst cuban americans to say that sanctions need to be decreased or lifted, but the reality is we've had these types of sanctions now for almost six decades and change hasn't occurred sanctions, diplomatic and economic sanctions, make life

uncomfortable for these regimes, create quite a bit of suffering within these countries but the reality is they have uninspiring batting averages, these sanctions. there's been sanctions without government change in north korea, cuba, venezuela, syria, iran maybe it's time to try something new. >> so, finally then sort of depending on how this plays out, where would you be looking to next is this the kind of popular reaction that we could see in venezuela and other latin-american countries, again, given the strategic importance of cuba historically, is there anything we should be looking for on the russia front for instance >> right well, undoubtedly cuba is the intellectual and ideological architect of what has happened and the regimes that have developed in nicaragua, in venezuela. if we see slippage in havana, if we see a weakening of that regime, then undoubtedly both in

nicaragua and in venezuela they would follow suit. now, we have to see what larger powers come in to try and hold up these regimes as they wither away will it be russia, will it be china? you know, the u.s. has to realize we're not the only game in town in latin america from a political and economic standpoint and there are others with vested interest in this region, in these countries, for their raw materials, for their human talent we're not the only ones look at what's happening in latin america at the moment. >> absolutely. there's a lot at stake daniel, i appreciate it. still ahead mcdonald's is trading right around its high. we're going to look at the battle for employees plus virginia is once again this year's top state for business which states round out the bottom send me your guesses at

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welcome back to "the exchange." let's get a quick check on markets where we're seeing the dow the worse performer today. the s&p and nasdaq are negative right now. in term of sectors tech is leading the way today and financials are lagging we mentioned the results jpmorgan and goldman down, not

hugely you can see down only about 1% so, pretty new to today. speaking of inflation, lumber prices are falling for the fifth day in a row they've given up all of their gains for the year and down 60% from the highs back in may this is going to probably be their eighth straight week of declines after the eight-week streak of gains this past spring so, again, lumber down another 8% today let's get over to rahel salman for a cnbc news update hello everyone the death toll rising to 95 with 14 still unaccounted for at the site of a collapsed condo building in florida. so far 85 of the victim versus been identified and 18 million pounds of debris have been removed from the site. and for more details on the recovery operation, tune in tonight to "the news" with shepard smith. vice president kamala harris is building a coalition to fight voting restrictions after texas democrats have showed, quote, great courage, by fleeing the

state to block a bill. zblfrmts warning companies against sources and products from china it has been linked to forced labor and human rights abuses. they risk violating u.s. law and the seven remaining members of a black female army unit are close to being recognized for their heroic efforts during world war ii. the senate has passed the legislation that would award them the bill is awaiting action in the house. you're up to date. rahel, thank you very much rahel solomon. let's get over to julia boorstin with a market flash. >> emmy nominations are out and these nominations give us a window into the streaming wars netflix has 129 nominations behind hbo and hbo max combined. but in the race for awards attention, disney is actually the stealth winner

while disney plus has 71 nominations and hulu 25, if you look at nominations by company, across all of disney's platforms, it has 146 nominations. that's more than any other media company. and the nominations also speak to the quick ascendents of apple tv plus with 34 nominations, nearly double amazon, despite the fact that amazon has been producing content for much longer netflix and apple are trading higher today disney just gave up some of its gains now pretty much flat after getting about 4% yesterday we'll have to see which of these media giants and tech giants walks away when the award is held september 19th. that would be the first of the award ceremonies >> did you say kwib by >> i did not mention quibi which is no longer, that content is on

roku roku has earned nominations for content that was originally designed the content may have been really good, but it was just the format, the idea of splitting it up, making it mobile only, just didn't work for consumers. but that content is having another life on roku and getting attention there as well. >> there we have it. our julia boorstin with all the latest crypto traders missed the volatility, where parents will be spending their tax credit and miraseble musk it's ahead in rapid fire we're back in a moment oh, i've traveled all over the country.

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let's catch you up on a few stories that should be on your radar. it's time for rapid fire we welcome kate ruinny and michael santoli. welcome everybody. we begin with things that seem relatively muted on the crypto front. trading activity fell sharply last month coin based kraken, bitcoin and buy stamp falls. this follows a record breaking may when bitcoin began retreating from the all time

high there's so many different reasons why this could be happening from finances, troubles, you name it. but it is the fundamental reason just the bear market and bitcoin basically. >> that's exactly it it seems to be a sentiment story. also i've been talking to describe it as a summer lull for bitcoin, which is not what traders are necessarily looking for. like you mentioned may was real will you a record month. it was fresh off the highs of the $60,000 level. very active month for trading. when you compare june down 40%, may was a record to be fair the lower june numbers are compared to one of the highest levels that we've seen for the past couple of years. but if you also look at some of the trading activity, coin shares talked about being the lowest trading volume since october 2020 really slowing down here net outflows were set to start triggers may be going elsewhere. some of these other tokens dogecoin isn't doing much

either day trading, make a quick trade, it's not bitcoin lately. it's stuck at that $30,000 level. new buyers aren't necessarily picking up the slack >> michael, responsible for the bitcoin buying you buy the thing and shore up the bitcoin and it was a discount and that whole thing unwound. a lot of this discussion reminds me of the traditional stock market lately where a lot of the flow factors or arb opportunities are becoming part of the day-to-day discussion around where some of the things are going. isn't that bullish to have these discussions? >> in the sense that it is in the institutional flow and people trading one against another, sure i guess that's true but there was also a crescendo in excitement around the peak in prices, a lot of people buying because it's going up in price not because it happened to be

owned. it is a traded and owned instrument, not a used one clearly people are slower to take losses and really get excited about selling their bitcoin at half the price they traded at in april they would much rather hang on and hope it comes back tesla shares, their highest volume date of the year was exactly when the price peaked in january. it's just the way things go in fast-moving instruments. >> we talked about this a while ago, but there's concern about tegter and the role that whole unregulated stable market might be playing in bitcoin one way or another. and i wonder if people are trying to wait it out until there's the usdc or some other rival that can come in and provide more trust in the architecture behind all the crypto market right now. >> i think you may be onto something, kelly and i also think there are other ways to play the digital currency if in fact you don't want to be an owner directly of bitcoin. we have trouble buying it for our clients, so we put blok, the

etf into our alternative strategy, and this way you get to participate in all the aspects, the technology, the exchanges, and it's a -- and some of the bitcoin that's on balance sheets like square, so you own nvidia in that etf, you own coin that's another way to diversify your risk in the space but still participate. >> would you guys be interesting in buying and owning an etf if and when it happens? >> it just depends what it looks like e kelly we are looking at it i have the young people working on it because they are much more open minded. but, yeah. so, this is our first foray into it we're probably a little bit late but the etf is up 29% year-to-date versus the actual currency which is roughly flat up modestly. >> it's a good insight i think into the process playing out at

firms like yours all across the country. let's talk about what's going on with 39 million households receiving monthly bank deposits through year end starting this week it's not a stimulus check per se, it's the $150 billion child tax credit they've identified key beneficiaries across industries. some of the winners are suspects like walmart and target and amazon, tj max and nike. others may be more unexpected like tobacco and alcohol sells they don't say you have to spend it on your kids. you need a drink if you've got a bunch of them. >> that's exactly right. and this is disproportionately going to households where it will largely be spent and also hitting households at a time when they really are more flush than usual, let's put it that way, after all these rounds of stimulus so, it is an interesting little bump in what has already been a strong retail spending

environment. and one where a lot of people are looking back saying at least for good we did see a pull forward of demand and somewhat of a peak. this is an ongoing bump. $150 billion is certainly something that's going to make its way onto the books of a lot of these companies, although spread across the country won't make or break anybody's quarter, let's say. >> i think people are watching on the macro side for much bigger reasons, which is sort of is this the beginning of universal basic income or is this the beginning of a more permanent subsidy in having children in effort to increase the fertility rate >> it's concerning to be sure. i'm happy for those who need the money and get it i think, you know, there certainly are some merits buchlt i but i'm work on a piece that centers around washington acting like mr. magoo, who is well

before your time there's destruction all around him and he never sees it i think these policies have long term ramifications if i have to play it in a stock, i'm going to pick target this is a company that we own, but it has raised its dividend 30% in the most recent period. they've been growing the digital business over 50%, and their private label is going 30. when i had young kids, that was my one-stop shop so i'm going to think that -- i think that's an interesting place to play. >> formula, diapers, eating accessories and all the rest of it >> and alcohol >> and alcohol depending on your market all right. let's talk about elon musk the tesla ceo was in court yesterday defending the purchase of solar city. that was when he was chair of both companies and both were unprofitable through five hour of testimony he said solar city was critical to his strategy for tesla. here's what musk said about the job, quote, i rather hate it and i would much prefer to spend my time on design and engineering,

which is what intrinsically i like doing kate, he also said they asked him -- they got into his tweeting he said it's good marketing. it lowers the cost of making teslas because he doesn't have to spend the budget on advertising. >> he talked about design and engineering and he likes doing that but he spent a lot of time on twitter and social media and it seems to be the flywheel effect of tesla and crypto and just the marketing effort in general. he's got time for everything though he's appearing on "snl." i mean, the idea of running multiple companies, design and engineering is one thing but it seems like he also enjoys spending his time, you know, joking around on twitter and spending a lot of time online and commenting on certain crypto currencies, which the bitcoin community, in particular i hear every day they're upset with the idea he sparked some of this weakness >> they get so annoyed he's not representative of the real community i mentioned earlier it's the

thing to watch in terms of the volume in price actions. what do you think about tesla in terms of its price ander approximate formans year-to-date >> me? yeah well, listen, we owned it and we sold it early when he was smoking his bond on video and there was no leadership at the company. when larry alison came in, who elon reminds me of, you know, we probably should have gotten back in we didn't. i think this is a stock you want to own for the very long term. it's done nothing for a long period of time, a number of months so, it's a good time to dip your toe in we have not yet but we're watching it very closely >> interesting before we go i want to talk disney today because they just raised prices for espn plus. they hiked subscriptions by a dollar a month to 699. that's a 12 year extension with wimbledon, a 7 year deal with the nhl, and monday night

football i love this story because i think around $7 is what they previously earned from the cable bundle, although granted that was across every subscriber. in this case it's only the audience choosing to sign up so, presumably they're going to have to keep raising price over time >> yes you have to exploit the people who affirmative wanted to own sports content this was a strategy. even pricing disney plus at a very low initial starting point, this seems to have been the idea also it implicitly increases the value of the bundled services, right, because you're getting the espn embedded in that. it's what everyone asks for. when you were forced to pay the cable bundle, i just want to pay the stuff i'm interested in, you're going to get a test of that over time it's not as steady or lucrative for disney, but not a bad plan b. >> to get a higher multiple, kate what would you add? >> sports are the last thing it seems like people are willing to pay for and watch.

you think of these mcgregor fights and one off events that a lot of people -- i personally don't watch on a regular basis but you have the pricing power if you're going to watch a game, you really want to watch it, a lot of the price is sort of out the window you're willing to pay just to watch the event. >> i think my dad would pay about $50 to watch lacrosse in high school. maybe that's a totally different market he was coaching it anyway, you know what i'm saying >> yeah, that's awesome. we love the talking points behind it and the improvements this is a company with pricing powers these are the companies you want to own in this environment i would pay 50 bucks i might even pay 100 to see you in your lacrosse skirt >> it's not worth the price you're paying. thank you all very, very much for joining us for rapid fire today. still ahead we reveal the

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with a supportive university by their side. - i did it... you can too! - [announcer] start your celebration at snhu.edu this morning we unveiled virginia as once again america's top state for business this year in our exclusive annual study. but if there are top states there must also be bottom ones and scott cohn is sktill in virginia to reveal those lovable losers >> reporter: that's right. that's one of the by-products doing a study where we rank all 50 states, there are 50 scores and these are our bottom five for 2021 at number 46 is rhode island this is an improvement for the ocean state which has spent many years at the bottom. the state does relatively well on life health and inclusion with high covid vaccination rates but it is still expensive and the infrastructure is --

well, it's rhode island. the infrastructure is poor at number 47, west virginia poor for technology and innovation, business friendliness, access to capital and a few other things there. 48 is maine with america's worst infrastructure including the worst reliable power grid. number 49 is hawaii, still great for life health and p inclusion, but you will pay for it with the nation's highest cost. and that brings us to the bottom >> it's not all bad in our worst scoring state. the work force is america's most productive in term of output for jobs and no state spends more per capita for public health that's partly because everything here is so expensive the state was already struggling before the pandemic with each budget shortfall and a slowdown in its most important industries that's made it harder to climb back add america's second worst infrastructure and fourth worst education system and you get alaska, the last frontier,

finishing last for 2021. part of the issue in alaska is oil. it is the state's life blood prices have come back, but production has not come back enough with it and that creates a lot of problems you can find out more about how your state stacks up at topstates.cnbc.com look at our article about alaska we spoke with andrew, mayor of skag way, a cruiseship port. he tells us they are i come back. >> it's a good point because i don't often think of alaska as a big state for industry but i do think of it as a state who attracts people who are attracted to its lifestyle i watch youtube videos for guys out there living that wilderness lifestyle. they're there and they love it it's almost as if they might work jobs here and there but that sort of big business

aspiration is not really what they're looking for. >> well, yeah. you look at a place like skagway and we talk about this online. normally it's a town of about 1,000 people they normally get a million cruise ship passengers a year. this year they're lucky if they get 100,000. normally people who live there do their errands 15 miles over the border in canada well, the border is closed or they'll take a ferry to the next town over ferries have been hit by budget cuts there's a lot going on there you multiply that times all of the communities in alaska and 700,000 alaskans and it gives you a look at why they are in survival mode. >> maybe we should all take that alaska cruise once we can spending money up there again. scott, thanks for your great work our scott cohn. as the labor shortage continues, employers are stepping up hiring incentives. what workers really want, next. you can catch the show any

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welcome back to "the exchange."

of you've heard about hiring incentives in this tough labor market but mcdonald's is adding tuition payments and child care to attract potential employees >> a lot of the conversations that we had in the first half of the year about hiring challenges, well, it looks like they will likely continue in the back half of the year. so this new data that was just out this morning was from robert happ and it shows of nearly 3,000 senior managers, a little more than half plan to fill new positions and a large number plan to fill vacant roles or bring back furloughed workers. americans are quitting their jobs more than ever. worker confidence was mentioned in yesterday's new york fed survey all of this prompting employers to put their best offer forward. according to this report, 48% of companies are providing signing bonuses, 43% are giving more paid time off and 40% are offering better job titles while compensation is important,

don fay, senior district director says employees are also looking beyond just pay. >> it's been a bit of a shift where we've seen employees really take interest in what are the values of the company. they really want to know what do those organizations stand for, how are they treating their employees, what are some of those things that they're doing to really help their employees >> mcdonald's also responding, telling us they're increasing sn incentives, including raising wages as much as 10% and pto and access to education. >> access to education meaning -- do they have college degree requirements? >> tuition reimbursement. >> so you can have them help you with your college degree. >> right. >> i wonder if this is going to change maybe not all of a sudden but somewhat dramatically when those extra unemployment benefits run out in september. is this all going to stick

through that period of time or is there suddenly a bunch of new entrants and you don't need the new incentives if they believe that, why go through this now >> half of all states have already come off of that, opted out of the enhanced federal unemployment benefits so it will be really interesting to see in september what happens you'll have the other half of states coming off of it but you'll also have people going back to school and parents returning back to work i don't know that it will be such as onslaught of workers as it may appear. >> if not, these snincentives wl just keep going up. coming up on "power lunch," we're kicking off the series with a look at the real estate trends across the boroughs right after this break

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he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa welcome, everybody, to "power lunch." we're glad you could join us on this tuesday topping the hour on wall street, a tug of war we've got hot inflation data overshadowing strong p