of share buybacks, the better, not bigger strategy and much more, kelly. >> we like to call this sound bite from the future, frank. you'll hear that and a whole lot more on "mad money" tonight. frank holland, thank you very much really appreciate it today that does it for "the exchange" today. "power lunch" starts right now. >> we have a power hour ahead. a tough day for nasdaq, but all that could change this afternoon, because we've got heavyweights, apple, alphabet and microsoft set to report their earnings how you should be positioned, and how the next few hours could determine the direction of the market. the next front in the battle, the u.s./china battle, that is rare earth metals and elements there is a race to secure critical supplies of these m minerals and we are live at the only american operating mine where the department of defense is playing offense. our powerhouse road trip,

next up, raleigh, north carolina the market is hot. the inventory among the lowest in the country a veteran realtor will tell us why this market right now is like nothing he's ever seen before "power lunch" starts right now thank you, tyler hi, everybody. we begin with those earnings you might be seeing nervousness ahead of big tech results today. the nasdaq is down more than 2%. it's underperforming the dow and s&p. the big five tech stocks account for 23% of the s&p 500 three of them report after the bell let's look at what to expect deirdre bosa is looking at alphabet, jon fort is here

welcome, everybody start us off. >> alphabet is the best performing mega cap tech name this year. expectations are extremely high. they're even higher after twitter and snap's results last week showed a rebound in digital advertising. alphabet should be poised to benefit from the rebound of search google's investments in its commerce platforms could lead to more e-commerce ad dollars i will also be looking at google cloud. here it is all about growth and gaining market share against the two giants in the space, aws and azure at the expense of profitability. this is still a money-losing unit of the company. clearly a very important strategic one. back to you. >> i think that especially today one additional topic that might be in focus is all of big tech's exposure or dealings with china.

these questions about sort of the entanglement, apple's ties are obviously more apparent. alphabet's not so much >> no. google search engine doesn't work, neither do any of their products like drive work in china. you might even talk to some of the execs and they would have said we could have warned you because they know china is not an even playing field. they have not been there for some time, however, there are some connections to china that could come under scrutiny. especially if beijing turns its attention to western companies operating there, but not to the extent of apple, which derives about 20% of its revenue from the country. >> we appreciate it. let's trade this stock right now with kim forest. kim, what are your thoughts on alphabet what is your favorite letter in the alphabet i guess is most important here. >> "a," you know

>> and it gets an "a," right >> the company has done extremely well in its lifetime if not just this year. 50% up is a great number it was a laggard for a very, very long time with respect to being in faang and not really keeping pace with the other faang names. something that dierdre didn't touch on is the amount of regulatory scrutiny we think this company is going to come under. that's in the future they're probably not going to talk about it tonight, but that's one of the things that gives me pause about looking at google and to include it in a portfolio. >> kim, we're going to have you stick around because we've got a couple of more to talk about first is microsoft, which is expected to report another record quarter of sales. what else can we expect? >> two things in particular i think will stand out one is growth in azure revenue

where street account consensus is 42% but the whisper number is a couple of points higher. the others is the windows business the chip industry, supply issues are slowing the shipping of corporate pcs in particular so there's a bit of a balance issue there. you can expect the commentary on the effect of the delta variant to resonate too. so is the delta variant and uncertainty around that slowing things down or speeding things up, as the demand for fex iblt through software -- that's where the puts and takes, which outbalances theother could determine whether there's upside for microsoft here. >> just a side note, jon, the fact that netflix is getting into gaming. for microsoft and the others, do they have a sense of what the competitive threat might be? >> right now netflix getting

into gaming isn't exactly a threat to microsoft because netflix's focus is trying to build those casual mobile games into their app and have them relate to netflix properties so that's not the same kind of cloud-driven platform approach that microsoft is taking to xbox live, but it does leave netflix room to potentially move into that down the line but it's probably a couple of years out based on how netflix has been outlining it. >> kim forrest, microsoft? >> we think microsoft is a great thing to have in your portfolio. knot not the gaming aspect but the enterprise software aspect of it i don't know a company that doesn't run all of its really important processes with excel, word and now teams so i think that the company has been demonstrated that they know what business wants, they know

the price that business is going to pay, and they make compelling products so that's why we've always been a bull on microsoft. >> kim, also there's a story line this week where people are reflecting on what china is doing to its own biggest tech companies and wondering if there's a philosophical opening for the u.s. where regulators might say, okay, yes, obviously on areas of concern there are tons of different crackdowns, regulations taking place, but do we want our companies to maybe seize this market opening that china might be offering in terms of global competition. >> i don't know that anybody would really run from microsoft to a chinese-sponsored product, especially in the cloud where you're going to put your most intimate company secrets on. so, you know, that does speak well of microsoft and what it's been able to do. >> yeah. it sort of makes that location, if you want to call it, one of

the bigger competitive advantages. >> what about zoom versus teams, kim? >> well, i think zoom is a clear winner right now but microsoft has this strategy of pretty much free and good enough beats great and pay for that's my thought on how teams won over slack you have people that are super devotees to slack. but at the end of the day if you have to pay for it and pay for it to be integrated and all that other stuff, i think businesses look at microsoft and say, eh, good enough. >> isn't that true that is such an interesting point. kim, stay right there as we talk some apple it also reports after the bell expectations, you could say they're pretty high with the stock trading near a record. josh lipton has more for us. josh. >> kelly, here's what we expect, earnings per share of $1.01. gene munster tells me the big

number for him, q4 revenue guidance because that gives investors insight into how apple's longer term growth targets are looking. munster looking for $81 billion there. apple might not offer formal guidance and give detailed color and commentary another figure to look iphone revenue. the street is looking for $34 billion. investors are looking to the next generation iphone in the fall and placing bets on what that device could look like. >> let's talk about chips. are they facing any problem with their chip supply, josh? >> yes last quarter you'll remember that they were facing a global chip shortage for could hit them for several billion dollars in sales, the mac and ipad lines. so it will be interesting to see what products are getting hurt and when they look at that chip shortage, do they see any time horizon when that could possibly

ease. >> but they started making their own chips or are soon to, correct? >> they do have a new m-1 chip but they're still very much dependent on other chips coming to them. but that is a headwind for them. kim, finally let's get to apple. what's your view on this one >> we're long-term positive on apple. it has a great consumer brand. and with people that apparently love it regardless of what the prices are for the devices, so that speaks a lot. we look at some of the things that give us some concerns, like the apple store and the litigation that's going to be happening over that, if not the regulatory issues that come out of that. so those are all cautionary tales perhaps. but we think that they are extremely well positioned. i think tim cook with his supply

chain history will be able to steer that company well through chip shortages. >> i'm always curious not just with a company like apple but where you have a ceo like tim who is so well thought of, at some point, he's been around now close to if not more than a decade running the company what's their bench like? what if tim leaves who's in >> i don't know who's in, but i know that the company has a very deep bench it could be, you know, somebody from design. but the company seems to be running still well under tim but that might be a question for somebody -- a sale side analyst to ask on this call. that's a great question. >> you get to a point where a ceo has been around a decade or a coach has been around for a long time. sometimes they want to move on and do other things.

i'm not saying i have heard anything, i'm not saying he's thinking of this at all, but it is something that you always wonder about with these companies because he is so well thought of and i'm sure one of the things thought of is succession, but who knows. kim forrest, thanks. >> thank you. you've had huge leadership transition under microsoft that made a huge difference in the performance. you just had a huge leadership change in amazon with jeff bezos stepping down. so you're right, it's quieter on the apple front. >> but you begin to wonder, the people who have been there in some sense are really legacy players, as tim has been for so many years you know, sometimes people get ready to do something different. >> get that itch. >> get that itch to do something else coming up, can the u.s. win the battle over china over rare earth metals new details on the defense department strategy. plus the critical

infrastructure need that's not getting a lot of attention a look at what washington needs to do to supercharge america's production of semiconductor chips. here's a look at a few stocks hitting new highs striker, alliant energy and waste -- it says waster management, but i know it's waste management you can't get that one by me more "power lunch" straight ahead. ♪ we're not as far from our goals as it may appear. ♪ because things are coming back. ♪ making now, the time to move forward. ♪ at u.s. bank, our goal is getting you to where you really want to be. ♪ because side by side, there's no telling how far you'll go.

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welcome back to "power lunch. intel shares are under pressure today as investors digest the company's new plan to regain dominance in semiconductor manufacturing vowing to reach parity with taiwan semiconductor by 2024. they have lost ground to other vendors and tech giants including amazon, google and apple have begun to design their own chips as well. intel is down more than 6% since reporting an earnings beat last w week tyler, i'll throw it back to you. >> they have been competing fiercely and others have taken what was their lead away so they are in the fight for their life, i guess you could say. >> which leads us into this next issue. >> thank you, kristina she's going to go eat her oreo cookies. as the war of words heats up between the u.s. and china, both

countries are racing to secure rare earth metals needed for everything, from military technology to everyday consumer tech products. the department of defense is spending millions. ryan sullivan is live from a rare earth mine in mountain pass, california, with that story. hi, brian. >> reporter: hi, tyler the rare earth mine, the only operating one in the united states this is the first time ever live tv we are inside the mine we are down deep jacob, zoom out and take a look at it. you guys are going to do the semiconductor story in a minute. they are different but they are the same while all the attention is on semi conductors, apple, intel and everything else, supply chain issues without this line mine, we would be 100% reliant on china for the magnets that are going to power the electrification of everything electric cars, wind turbines, even dentures, mri machines. they all contain these tiny

magnets. an iphone will have anywhere from 8 to 15 magnets it makes them vibrate and the air pod work this mine is about 15% of global rare earth production. i'll give you a little geology lesson the pink stuff there on the left, they scoop it up, crush it, pull out the rare earth, separate it and process it next year hopefully they'll process here, so we are still reliant. it is not just about airpods, though it's about military. they can't go into exactly what it's used for, but yesterday the highest ranking technology scientist, a geologist at the pentagon, which by the way recently put $10 million into this facility, they were here randomly we did not know when they planned the trip, but we did get some words on camera dr. stephanie tompkins told us about why those rocks are so critical to national security. >> the magnets are embedded in a

lot of different military systems. for example, in aircraft, they will be part of many different subsystems the real importance of these magnets is because of the powerful magnetic properties, they allow you to have lightweight materials. if you had to replace the rare earth magnets with more classic iron-based materials, they would be so heavy and so bulky >> isn't that amazing, guys that, so much of this amazing technology we talk about in the future, electric car motors, comes from this. giant bulldozers and 100-ton trucks i think it's fascinating tyler, i'm going to give you a random but interesting geology lesson you remember the color tvs of the 1960s? >> i do. >> this is that mine all the uropium that made the red, red on the screen came from this mine. now they're finding advanced

uses this mine has been here for 60 years. >> so as i look at where you're standing and i see different colors of what appears to be dirt, what are the rare erts that come out of there and why are several of these rare earths allconcentrated right where you're standing? in other words, what are they and why do they happen to coexist in this one place in california >> i thought we were buddies i thought we were friends. you're giving me a geology lesson on national tv. i got nothing. i'm going to get this wrong, guys the ndpr that goes into the magnets, etrium, uropium, those are the ones that matter, am i right? it's close enough. why are they here? we don't know. it's a weird freak of geology. look at this, look at the mine, it's humongous

but in the grand scale of things, it's off the i-15 just over the nevada border into california there's only a few facilities like this in the world this is actually one of the most densely concentrated some of the other companies, by the way, that are either indirect or direct rare earth plays, the biggest competitor is linus, a company out of australia. they process in malaysia and elsewhere. then you've got a few players like tronox, materion, even chemours and then the cleveland cliffs of the world, if you will i'm not recommending those stocks, obviously, jim cramer can do that, but these are the names that people focus on when we talk about the huge demand for literally the stuff that's in that stuff. i mean this is cool but incredibly important for national security and all the

stuff we want to drive, fly, ride, listen to. >> speaking of cool, how hot is it there right now how hot is it out there? >> so, okay, it's hot. maybe it's 100 degrees but we've had flash flooding we've had flash flooding it's been pouring rain the last two days, which is unexpected but it's a beautiful day to be down in a gigantic mine. you've got to mine a lot of stuff to be green. >> well, i'm down a research rabbit hole about this mine now. brian, it is a fascinating story. we appreciate you giving us a rare look inside brian sullivan, thank you so much, sir. >> thanks. all right. still ahead, the other battleground in the u.s./china resource race is semi conductors while the u.s. is heavily reliant on foreign producers a new op-ed says the u.s. desperately needs american-made semis. that story ahead on "power lunch.

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[swords clashing] - had enough? - no... arthritis. here. new aspercreme arthritis. full prescription-strength? reduces inflammation? thank the gods. don't thank them too soon. kick pain in the aspercreme. i'm jon fortt and here's your cnbc news update this hour. in just over a half an hour the cdc is scheduled to announce revised guidance on masks to

fight the spread of the delta covid variant. reportedly among the recommendations a call for all students, kindergarten through 12th grade and their teachers to wear masks inside schools whether they have been vaccinated or not. as new covid infections in tokyo hit a pandemic high of more than 2,800 today, japan's prime minister is urging people to stay away from areas where the olympic games are being held and watch them on tv instead at the games after some disappointing performances in the early heats, american carissa moore rebounded to win a surfing gold medal she's the only native hawaiian surfer at the games. the u.s. government has sold the rare woo t-- wu-tang clan album. today's sale completes the $7.4 forfeiture ordered by a judge in 2018 >> jon, thank you very much. let's get a check on markets

which have been sliding lower this afternoon, stabilizing the past hour or so. the dow is down half a percent, the nasdaq is down 1.6% with the most china exposure today. some of the names moving after their earnings including f 5 networks they beat earnings the shares are up 6% ge topped expectations and are up 1.5%. raytheon up nearly 3% citing rising recovery and air travel helping. tesla is down 2% despite beating estimates. for the first time reporting more than a billion dollars in net income check out the airline stocks jetblue is leading the group lower with a 7% drop as the fuel price pressures overshadow solid results. just a few minutes ago, u.s. airlines have filed an emergency petition with federal regulatory commissioner saying action is needed to prevent jet fuel shortages it seems out in reno

first we heard american airlines sounding the bell on this. now it seems like there's airports in particular they're homing in on and it's obviously an issue. >> i guess as travel has come back they find themselves short and obviously travel is way, way back. washington works to build a grand infrastructure bill. politicians could be overlooking a critical need for american made semi conductors we'll talk to jerry seib next. plus our powerhouse road trip continues today we'll take a trip to raleigh, noh rona, rtcaliand give you a look at the booming house market there. "power lunch" will be right back it's a thirteen-hour flight, that's not a weekend trip. fifteen minutes until we board. oh yeah, we gotta take off. you downloaded the td ameritrade mobile app so you can quickly check the markets? yeah, actually i'm taking one last look at my dashboard

before we board. excellent. and you have thinkorswim mobile- -so i can finish analyzing the risk on this position. you two are all set. have a great flight. thanks. we'll see ya. ah, they're getting so smart. choose the app that fits your investing style. ♪♪ you founded your kayak company because you love the ocean- not spreadsheets. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire

the oil market is closing for the day and pippa stevens at the cnbc commodity desk has all the numbers for us. >> hello, tyler. oil dipping again today, building on yesterday's losses fears of a demand slowdown as covid cases rise is hitting prices wti finishing the session at $71.57 for a loss of half a percent. brent crude is at $74.40, down a tenth of a percent later today we'll get inventory data from the american petroleum

institute followed by official numbers out tomorrow analysts are looking for a 2.5 million drop take a look at energy stocks the group is down more than 1%, giving back some of yesterday's gains. occidental, marathon oil and egg resources are among those. the push to complete the nearly $1 trillion infrastructure deal is hitting a series of hurdles. lawmakers have ignored a smaller initiative that focuses on semiconductor production the u.s. is dangerously reliant on foreign producers with us is jerry seib. it's great to have you what would this bill specify >> it would create a fund in which the commerce department could help fund research into semi conductors but also to help provide subsidies to companies that decide to build their

fabrication plants here in the united states as opposed to asia one of the things that's happening is that movement of semiconductor production is going forward asia at an increasing pace. the share of semi conductors made in the u.s. has fallen to 30% in the 1990s to 12% now. 40% of the new semiconductor capacity that is going to come online in the next decade is coming online in china whachlt this bill is designed to do is put some federal money into some pipelines to reverse that flow and give semiconductor manufacturers incentives to put those production and fabrication facilities onshore on the u.s. and address the supply chain problem. t.j. rogers, who has penned a number of columns, has come on and talked about this issue and warned against the government getting too involved with directing funds into building up u.s. semiconductor capacity because he says it basically

ends up oftentimes being wasted or sort of propping up weaker companies. you can think of some prominent examples today so it's not as if we don't want to secure a domestic supply, but is there a risk that such measures could do more harm than good in the long run >> well, there is, and this is the classic policy industry debate what we're talking about is a bit of an industrial policy move one of the interesting things is that traditional free market conservative republicans on this subject now kind of think that's the thing to do. why? there are two reasons for that one is other cub trees are doing this the chinese and taiwanese, they're pro viepgd sviding inces you need to view this as a national security issue not just a business issue that makes the argument for government intervention better and kind of more compelling. why is it a national security

issue? because if you turn the production of semi conductors over to china in particular and let's say china invades taiwan and takes over the production of semiconductors that is happening in taiwan as well, then you have created a national security vulnerability for the u.s. that's something the government ought to and has a legitimate role in stopping and that's the argument for industrial policy. >> and i assume that's why you said it might be worth talking about taiwan separately is that geopolitical threat there. it reminds me of the dependence on foreign oil that was the phrase that i've heard since i was a kid in the 1970s it's dangerous, it's a national security issue here is yet another case my question, jerry, is this. from inception to actual manufacture, how long would it take to build these fabrication plants if the government were to get involved, incentives were put in place are we talking about three years or a decade or more?

>> it's a good question. i don't know the precise answer but it's a couple of years for sure there's another issue which is you also have to make sure you have brought up to speed a workforce necessary to staff those plants it's not simple work it requires skill and requires training, so both of those things have to happen. so you're not talking about an overnight fix, you're talking three, four, five years down the road to change the equation we're talking about here but there's probably that amount of time. if you're worried about the taiwan example, you're thinking about the chinese seizing control over what might be the most semiconductor manufacturing company in the world which is situated in taiwan that's probably five, six, seven, ten years down the road even if you're willing to contemplate that nightmare scenario but semiconductor chips are the new oil to some extent.

>> private markets, capital raising and that sort of issue, if intel can basically still raise debt to fund whatever it needs to do to shore up its processes and hit its goals for u.s. domestic manufacturing and so forth, is that the most efficient way for it to do so? is anything standing in the way of it achieving those goals? >> you have to make sure that the economics of the investment work and that's what we're talking about. you can debate how much government help is needed to make that happen but you're really talking about two different issues you're talking about a short-term supply term issue, a short-term shortage of semiconductors which is kind of a global problem and that's a snap-back from the pandemic problem. you need to bring the supply chain back home. those are both at work right now. the short-term shortage of semiconductors is going to be an issue no matter what you do on

the second longer term question, which is how do you bring more of that production onshore people shouldn't be too confused there are two different issues here they're related but they're not the same the short-term shortage issue is just going to be there for a while until the hiccup created by the pandemic gets worked out. >> jerry, thanks for joining us today. jerry seib. up next, big earnings percolating after the bell starbucks set to announce results. our traders will discuss that one. as we head to break, check out shares of u.p.s. they're sinking. desk revenue coming in short of analysts' expectations the company warning there could be a slowdown ahead. they did beat overall on the top and bottom lines as the surge in e-commerce continued we'll be right back.

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welcome back to "power lunch. i'm seema mody it is not just big tech with earnings out after the bell. starbucks one of the major s&p 500 companies set to report this afternoon. shares are up about 17% this year let's bring in matt millie and nancy laffer nancy, at a time china is so topical, i wonder if you're concerned that one of the starbucks' biggest growth markets is china >> yeah, it is a concern, seema. the mobile order data shows that comps in china have slowed, that loyalty may be slowing we may have hit the tipping point in terms of growth there that's something we're going to be watching on earnings. this is a company that has done very many things right during

covid and beyond they're using digital and data in a really broad way that's improving margins. foot traffic in the u.s. in q3 is better than q2. it's a member of our 12 best ideas portfolio and we do expect the company to raise the dividend in the next quarter so if you've got weakness, this is a stock that you may want to add to at a pace. >> matt, you're concerned about valuation, from what i understand >> yeah, but i'm also worried about the technical picture of the stock. there's good news and there's bad news on the positive side it's broken above its april highs. on the negative side of things, it's also getting overbought if you look at the weekly rsi chart, it's at the same level two other times and each time that was followed by a pullback of 8% to 10% even if they report good numbers, i wouldn't chase it it will probably see another correction soon and you'll get a

better chance to buy it at a cheaper level. >> matt and nancy, thank you kelly, back over to you. >> thank you very much, seema mody. up next, join us for a road trip down to raleigh, north carolina we'll speak with a real estate agent saying the housing craze is not slowing down. wait until you hear what's going on there we're back in a moment and now the latest from trading nation.cnbc.com and a word from our sponsor. in determining your entry points with rising stocks, look to buy pullbacks as support levels, such as uptrend lines, minr lows, retracement levels orovg averages i'm lee bohl and schwab is the better place for traders

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welcome back to "power lunch. we want to get another check on the rough day chip stocks are having it's one of the worst days for the smh this year, down nearly 3% with every single constituent down a percent or more micron and applied materials are some of the worst performers there today and you can see that across your screen it's not pretty on a month-to-date basis either

micron is on pace for its worst day since march 2020, down more than 10% of course we're keeping an eye on amd i'll be reporting on those numbers after the bell so we'll get them as soon as they cross, which should be around 4:15. >> we will see you then. thank you very, very much, kristina. this summer we have been on a powerhouse road trip looking at different housing markets because as they like to say it's all about location, location, location today we're stopping in raleigh, north carolina, where the market is red hot and a super influx of people are moving in from other states jason dalton is a realtor. this market has universities, it has big tech employers, it has love it or list it for those who know the hgtv show where they have been on the scene in raleigh for years, knowing about how hot the market is. but it's really at a fevered pitch lately actually your listing is a good example here a home you listed at about

$725,000 it sold for $801,000 you even had one offer at full price sight unseen that you turned down. why would you turn that down >> well, it was just such a rare product. what i can say is it's more important now than ever to price things right in line with the comps. and we did but we just -- we knew how many phone calls that we needed to take it to the market, and we ended up having 11 offers on it. so, you know, at the 725 price point, i think it's tremendous for 11 buyers to compete for that opportunity and one to crest the $800,000 number. they're the ones that got it. >> so it's very interesting. this is taking place in my town, by the way, and in many towns across the country where you price it down where comps were or a little low in the hopes of getting multiple bids on it. i'm curious, how many of the buyers are coming willing to pay

full cash or put down massive cash down payments and where is all that cash coming from? >> so we are a due diligence state. we have been since 2011. as part of the offer, the buyer writes a nonrefundable check directly to the seller as part of the offer what the offer. what i saw on the low end with that one was $30,000, $40,000, and we ended up getting closer to, like, $75,000. so that buyer was willing to say, here is $75,000 that are nonrefundable money, this is how bad we want this opportunity so it gave my seller the warm and fuzzy that these people will end up at the closing table. >> i'm try to go wrap my hen around that. >> when we became a due

diligence state in 2011, we didn't know what to do we were putting $50, $100, even four years ago, i would say $2,000 to $3,000 was a ton of money. in 2020 and 2021, i feel like $20,000 is about the bare minimum that a seller takes seriously if they have a good home so that's earnest money? >> earnest money is held in an attorney's trust account diligence money is a check written directly to mr. or mrs. seller that check, it is in their hands the day of execution so it's theirs the way that the contract reads is that the buyer may terminate for any reason or no reason. so that hefty sum is what i call it -- it's -- you know, they

have skin in the game right from day one. they're coming in with this nonrefundable number that says, all right, all right, that buyer is going to close on this property. just to be clear, if they're outbid, they get their check back, right? >> yeah. the agent representing the buyer holds on to it until we have agreed to terms. >> let's move on to listing number two, which is a more mid priced home, a little above the median in your area, listed at $449,000, but it went above that >> yeah, so i went to talk to them, and they were thinking right around 425, but it just -- it was a great opportunity, and i said, i really think we can stretch it to the 450 mark i think the person that would pay 425 would pay 450, we did,

and we receive multiple offers and got 465 for it. >> jason, tell us where you think this is all going. we've been talking about the dynamic, the relative cost of living has been attracting people from other states, and all of those kinds of things, but with home price where is they are now, the national average up 17% year on year, how much higher can prices go? is the situation start to go slow down at all i think the most asked question for me, is, is it a bubble i don't feel like it's a bubble, where buyers have so much knowledge and education, and they have saved down payments. i'm seeing higher down payments that you've ever seen in 18 years of real estate, at least

20%. you know, not everyone does it, but i am astounded when i see offers, when people are 20%, 30%, 50% down. it just says to me, it doesn't alarm me that we're going to be in situations of short sale and default on mortgages, because even if we do slide a little bit, that homeowner has -- they have ponied up, and they have a lot of skin in the game. i've seen lower loan to values, higher down payments i don't worry. >> it's fascinating, isn't it? thanks, jason, we appreciate it. >> absolutely. jason dalton from raleigh, north carolina. up next, the cdc set to release new mask guidelines. what it would mean for the business recovery. 'lbeig bk thhat one. sofi is a one-stop shop for your finances designed to work better together. save, spend, borrow, invest,

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ugh, these balls are moist. or is that the damp weight of self-awareness you now hold in your hands? yeah (laugh) keep your downstairs dry with gold bond body powder. welcome back, the cdc announcement is expected at 3:00 eastern. it's expected that they will recommend masks indoors again. the university of california has decides that all faculty and campus will be vaccinated before they return.

what qualifies as a hot spot, under this new guidance? >> kelly, we expect to learn more about this on the cdc call that starts in just minutes. really what it underscores is just how much more transmissible the delta variant is our understanding from reporting around these coming potentially changes, is that they're based on new date, suggesting that people, can carry levels high enough to be contagious. if we're looking at check the latest cdc dahl on the counties in the united states that have that high transmission if you remember looking at this mag a week ago, these red spots have been growing very quickly so, while health officials are emphasizing the joint of the spread is being driven by people more not vaccinated, they are recognizing some risks, so they will recognize in some

circumstances masks are approp appropriating, including in schools. >> won't it dissuade people from getting vaccinated >> they hope it won't. the difference is if you're fully vaccinated, the chances of getting sick or dying go down significantly. that is incentive enough to we'll people getting vaccinated, but there is a risk that you could spread it to a person without the variant, so they're going to recommend people start masking up again. >> does this point, in any way, to a shortcoming or weakness in the vaccine? >> no, not necessarily 9 most important they we hear is that the vaccining can keep you from getting severely ill. they continue to do that, but the science is emerging, because

the delta variant is a new variant, appearing to be so much more transmissible, suggesting that people who are fully vaccinated can still potentially transmit, and just trying to make recommendations to keep people as safe as possible. >> you may carry and transmit, but you might not get sick, and if you get sick, it won't be a serious illness. meg, thank you i know you'll be watching the events as they happen. thanks, everybody, watching. "closing bell" starts -- when does it start, kelly >> right now. welcome to "closing bell." the nasdaq is the big underperformer today. >> i'm david faber in for wilfred frost. tech is getting hit the hardest. there we go. alab