>> that is my pick >> what is it? break the tie. cold or iced >> i like the iced and the hot i like them both i can't pick >> ever the diplomat >> wish she was lear to go with us. >> good to be with you thank you for watching "closing bell," excuse me, "power lunch," and "closing bell" ander starts now. >> and thank you welcome to "closing bell" and i'm sara eisen strong start to the session giving way to a more mixed picture on the first day of trading for the month of august. nasdaq holding on to modest gains as we head into the final hour of trade. >> and i'm wilford frost coming to you live from london where i'll be broadcasting for the next few weeks let's look at what is driving the action today there is progress in washington on infrastructure, the senate unveiling $550 billion in new

spending but concerns are creeping up about the debt ceiling more on that in a bit. and -- are under pressure as we await data capped off by friday's job reports the ten year yield falling well below 1.2% and oil prices are taking a leg low with wti crude down around 4% today those still up sharply on the year 59 minutes left to go in the session with utilities on top, materials on the bottom. >> i have to say, i'm lonely here at the stock exchange but so happy to see new london you got to see your family for the first time in, what, a year and a half. >> since, yeah, december 2019. and i've completed my quarantine and then they changed the rules as of today. so just interesting timing there. but all outweighed by getting a chance to see family. >> of course good to see the falling cases there as well. we have a big show coming your

way. in just a moment, a interview with christopher wuller. we're going to take tapering time line and whether the delta variant could derail the economic recovery. and plus back to school is taking on a whole new meaning as students get ready to return to in-person learning we'll speak with the industry leaders all week long and we're kicking off our series with the ceo of kohl's later this hour. shares of a firm are soaring today. we'll talk to a firm ceo max lefton about the increasingly competitive landscape. >> but first of all let's get to the market the s&p 500 comes off i six month win streak but sits well below the best levels of the session. but bob has a closer look at today's action for us. >> hello good to see you. even in london, we're continuing to hold right near record levels the big issue is the impact of the covid variants on consumer behavior that is a big x factor we started off strong, 3 to 1 advancing to declining stocks

cyclicals were great in the morning and industrials and materials some of the bank stocks but it fell apart in the middle of the day. much more mixed picture right now. a cyclical group still strong and banks were up early on not any more tech was flattish and sort the remains so the market is bifurcated today we still have big earnings reports at new highs for example we havetext ron and otis elevator and dover, these stocks have had almost straight up,l a. material stocks which is the other side of the cyclical play, big global gigantic names, sort of mixed and had been for last couple of months so freeport macmirran and though they started stronger. one thing that has been happening that is good news is more stability in chooish china.

after last week where we saw dramatic names, all of them have stabilized alibaba was $180 last tuesday when the maximum fear hit over what was going on with some of the education stocks that you could see they've stabilized ever since then. we are just shy of the new highs and the debate on china a investment asset class right now. that is the debate over the weekend. >> the stock market is flat and the vix is up and there is worries about a chinese lockdown with and that is a place where we could see economic fallout. >> it is very -- the market is having a hard time deciding what direction it wants to go because the numbers, the earnings numbers have been so spectacular and third quarter and fourth quarter estimates are continuing to rise but it's richly valued market so you get days like today where it starts strong and it fades away there is not a lot of strong

conviction one way or another in the middle of the trading day. >> bob pisani, thank you. to taper or not to taper that is the big question looming over the fed following last week's meeting the fomc signaling had this made progress but is it enough. joining us now for an exclusive interview is federal reserve governor and fed voting member christopher waller great to have you on the show. welcome. >> thank you, sara, for having me on. >> always good to talk to fed members post meeting to sort of recap and say your own positions of where you stand as far as the taper debate is concerned, why are we not tapering why are you not tapering or scaling back some of the extraordinary emergency stimulus when we're clearly not in an emergency mode in the economy? >> well, you get right to it, don't you. i would say in the taper -- >> of course. >> -- as we said, we want to see

significant further progress that is always going to be in the eye of beholder in terms of the committee. myself, i think the economy is done a tremendous job. gdp is almost back to its trend. growth path, unemployment is down below 6% and expected to fall more. inflation is running well above our 2% target. and employment, on the employment side, we were down about 6.8 million jobs about 1.8 million is early retirement so those wouldn't come back and that leaves you with about 5 million if we get 800,000 to a million jobs in the next two reports, you're down to about 3 million that means we'll have regained about 85% of all of the jobs that we lost by the beginning of september. in my opinion, that is substantial progress and i think you could be ready to do an announcement by september. >> so you think we're there. you've seen substantial

progress would you say that you're sort of outside of the majority of the fomc there or is that where the committee is moving toward because it didn't sound that way from fed chairpowell last week >> that depends on what the next two job reports do if they come in as strong as last one, then i've made the progress you need. if they don't, then you'll have to push things back a couple of months >> is the bond purchases, the $120 billion of asset purchases helping the labor market specifically >> well, the labor market, the bill is more on the supply not the demand side. there is plenty of demand for labor. the vacancy to unemployment ratio is one in terms of people looking for jobs we don't have any problems with workers saying they can't find jobs there is plenty of jobs. it is not a demand side problem and that is what monetary policy does so hopefully once we get through september, some of the

unemployment benefits go, and schools all reopen and don't get effected by the delta variant, then the labor mark should take off starting in about august and september. hopefully that will continue on through the rest of the year >> so it sounds like governor waller, you're pretty optimistic on the economy that we'll continue to see growth the ten year yield is down to 117. is the bond market sniffing out something that you're not seeing >> yeah, it could be there is a lot of stories. you don't know there is a lot of things going on with the bond market. my suspicion is that the delta variant is creating a bunch of uncertainty. i don't think it is going to have a big impact on the the u.s. directly but it could through our foreign trading partners but i think within the u.s., i don't really see it having a big impact if you remember back in december, we were looking at the absolute peak of the covid variant in terms of deaths, hospitalizations and everything.

people were predicting a recession in the first quarter but the economy grew at 6.4% so even in the worst of worlds the economy went on and did extremely well so i'm looking for the same thing to happen now. that the delta variant is not going to sideline or side track the u.s. economy in any way. >> where do you stand on the whole issue of transitory inflation? >> yeah, i mean, my base forecast is that inflation will cool off in the latter part of year and some of the increases that have occurred because of reopening will cool off and inflation will come back down. that is my base case my concern is anecdotal evidence, i'm hearing from business contacts who are saying they're able to pass prices through, they fully intend to. they have prices power for the first time in a decade those are the sorts of issues that make you concerned that this may not be transitory so it is really an upside risk

i don't foresee it as base case but i do worry about the upside risk if this becomes more than just transitory. >> where would you say you are relative to the rest of the fed on that point? is the committee moving toward that idea as these high inflation stick with us and we do see more and more companies with pricing power >> i would say that people haven't really changed their outlook. they look at it more as an upside risk to inflation than what they forecast a few months ago. we all think it is probably going to pull off like october and november but there is the upside risk that wage pressures from the labor market, the bottleneck problems we're seeing don't unravel as fast as we think and you may have this upside risk to inflation. but inflation expectations are well anchored. they don't seem to be moving

certainly market expectations. so the market certainly believe the same story that we're telling. >> do you have concerns about the fed being behind the curve on inflation if we were to see it more persistent, say into 2022 >> well given my outlook which is very optimistic for the economy. as i said, if the jobs reports come in the as i think they will in the next two reports then in my view with tapering, we should go early and go fast in order to make sure we're in position to raise rates, in 2022, if we have to i'm not saying we would. if we wanted to, we need to have some policy space by the end of the year that may be on the more optimistic side of the committee but that tends to be the outlook i have. >> tapering early and fast you could elaborate what that would look like? >> like i said, i could envision if the numbers come in with 800,000 to a million jobs, you

could taper in october you don't haven't to wait until january. and fast meaning a faster pace than we had in the last tapering episode. in that situation, the economy was, got to keep in mind when we started tapering in 2013, unemployment was 7.5%. and growth was 1.5%. gdp growth, and inflation was 1.5% so we're in just a completely opposite situation we've got growth over 6% and unemployment under 6% and inflation over 3%. so there is no reason you want to go slow on the tapering and to prolong this. you want to get it done and get it over with. >> what about the concerns about financial stability and whether the market would throw a taper tantrum like we saw last time which could be counter-productive for the fed's goals. >> i think the markets are about half -- half of the market is expecting in january and the other half is somewhere in 2021. so i don't think moving it two

to three months is going to have a big impact markets have already priced some of this in the speed of the taper, for the most part, you're arguing whether to get it done in say, five to six months or eight to nine months. again, these are small plarjinial differences in the policy, the tapering process so i don't see this having a big impact on financial markets. whatever we do >> do you have a preference of whether you start with mortgage backed securities, because we're seeing housing prices so strong and so hot and the fed could be having an impact there do you think that is a priority? >> well, i was in favor of tapering mbs first but chair powell said that wasn't probably an option and the majority of the committee didn't want to go that way but would you be in favor of tapering mbs faster just to get it done and relieve any kind of unnecessary accommodation to housing that we might be providing directly from mbs purchases. >> got it.

and my final question is what assumptions do you have governor waller about fiscal policy and whether we see another trillion dollars injected into this economy, even spread over years for infrastructure, for instance, not to mention the $3.5 trillion that could go into a reconciliation bill and what that could do for the economy and inflation? >> well congress has to do their job in terms of whatever they think needs to be done on infrastructure or spending our job at the fed is to take those decisions and proceed and conduct a voluntarily policy that we feel is needed so it is built into how we set policy, but we don't really take a position one way or the other of whether they should or shouldn't do it. >> understood. spoken like a fed member thank you so much, governor waller we appreciate the transparency >> all right thank you, sara, very much i appreciate being on. >> good to have you on the show. wilford, with some candid thoughts there on the what the fed should be doing right now

and i'd say very optimistic with the impact on the delta variant does not see it as a hit and then they won't have to raise rates next year. >> i agree but before that i felt like he was willing to go out an a limb a little bit as it related to tapering of mbs but get it done and quickly as it relates to tapering if we get a couple more strong job prints before then. but great interview. after the break, a square deal shares of jack dorsey's vin tech company are soaring on news of a nearly $30 billion acquisition we'll bring you those details and why the buy now and pay later space is drawing so much interest that's next. watching "closing bell" on cnbc.

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welcome back shares of square are sharply higher today as jack dorsey makes a big bet on the the buy now pay later space and kate rooney has all of the details for us. >> shares of square are up as much as 10% following the news that it is buying after pay, the australian fin tech that offers installment loans. the stock in australia has been up double-digits it is closed at this point but it was up double-digits earlier. square reported second quarter reports earlier than expected as well with record profit growth that is helping the stock as well today cfo of square telling "squawk on

the street" that the consumers are ditching traditional resolving credit and described this deal as a win for merchants and consumers. >> we see a real opportunity to enable the next gen consumer looking for different ways and in this experience an interest free way of expanding the purchase potential what that ends up doing is merchants pay for the after pay experience but they get higher average order volumes. they get greater conversion. they get greater frequency and lower returns. and they get a marketing channel. >> competition in this space is really heating up. affirm a getting a boost and you also have fin tech and paypal and plarna. american express and jp morgan have their own buy now and pay later options and most recently apple is reportedly working on a similar offer with goldman sachs. back to you guys. >> kate, it is so interesting and quite a big acquisition for

square not massive relative to market cap but certainly big considering what they've done in the past and yet obviously square is up nicely on the back partly because it is all stock deal and not a cash deal but very interesting to see a rival like a firm up as well not so much a potential takeover target, but really a rival to square and if you do look at the banks, goldman sachs up today. it is a bit of a land grab for expansion but that usually hurts some of the incumbents because there are not that many establishing, they could all rise at the same time. >> it is interesting, like you said, definitely a land grab in the space. and folks that i've been talking to said this is a legitimating moment when the first went public the big question was this trend here to stay or temporary or for bigger ticket items like -- which makes us a huge amount of revenue. year seeing it for smaller

items. after pay focuses in the mid $100 level and more of a consumer shift jack dorsey and rita talking about millennials and gen z referring this to revolving credit it is interesting to see what more of the traditional banks do here when revolving credit and some of the fees are still the main profit engine >> kate, thank you very much affirm, as we mentioned up 14.5%. ahead, we'll talk much more about square and when we joined by a firm ceo, max leave chin. that stock getting a big boost on the news. after the break, a busy weekend in washington. the senate making progress on the infrastructure bill but a fresh spending concern is creeping up on capitol hill. we'll share details next and check out the top search tickers on cnbc, ge, reverse commit and ten year yield tops the list making a big move

lower, 118, tesla and amazon bouncing a bit, a quarter of a per percent. the dow is gone negative we're down 23 points we'll be right back. (vo) while you may not be running an architectural firm, tending hives of honeybees, and mentoring a teenager — your life is just as unique. your raymond james financial advisor gets to know you, your passions, and the way you help others. so you can live your life. that's life well planned.

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welcome back dow -- s&p just go negative. it is a busy few days in washington as the senate makes progress on the bipartisan infrastructure plan but concerns now ramping up over the debt limit. elon moy with the latest from capitol hill >> reporter: well sara, chuck schumer had been hoping to pass this infrastructure bill through his chamber before the end of the week but gop leader mitch mcconnell today signaled that he wants plenny of time to debate this legislation on the senate floor. >> our bill must not be choked off by any artificial timetable. that our democratic colleagues may have pencilled out for political purposes >> reporter: now one reason that

republicans are aren't in a hurry is that after this bipartisan bill is done democrats plan to move on to the $3.5 trillion infrastructure package for paid leave and childcare and community college but it does not include an increase in the debt ceiling which came back into course over the weekend and republicans are telling democrats they need to cut spending or raise the debt ceiling on their own the ranking republican tweeted this, the runaway government spending that the democrats are proposing will only funeral fuel inflation without proper fiscal controls, working class families will suffer the most but the treasury department said today that the coronavirus is the biggest threat to the economic outlook and we learned just a few minutes ago that senator lindsey graham of south carolina has tested positive for the coronavirus. despite being fully vaccinated he said that he started feeting flu-like symptoms on saturday. he went to the doctor today. his symptom are mild but if not

vaccinated he would probably feel even worse than he does guys. >> we wish him well, elon. and as he said, thankful that he's vaccinated. we just turned negative on the s&p and nasdaq is positive with what 32 minutes left in the session. still to come, the ceo of kohl's joins us we'll talk about how retailers are preparing for school season unlike any other as students return to in-person learning. and later, you may want to pack your vaccine card the next time you hit the gym the executive chairman of equinox will join us to talk about a just announced mandate for members and employees at the new york city clubs. as we head to break, here is a check in on bonds and yields moving lower today quite significantly lower. ten year down to 117 early in the session. we have six month lows or so for most of the european bond market the german ten year down to

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welcome back time for a cnbc update with rahel solomon. >> hello and here is your cnbc update at this hour. indoor mask mandates are returning to san francisco and six other counties in the bay area it follows a similar move if los angeles. and a number of democratic and progressive groups say they will spend $100 million to promote

president biden's agenda and seeking to secure passage of the two prong infrastructure package as well the only bill for childcare and so-called human infrastructure bill and melinda french gates are officially single. a judge has approved their divorce agreement. this includes no details on financial terms of the divorce and florida a pilot making a emergency landing after his plane's engine went out. no one was injured because the pilot's 4-year-old son who you just saw in the picture was also on plane with him. sara, back to you. >> rahel, thank you. we've got just under 30 minutes to go before the closing bell we're hovering near session loads. bond yields have taken a turn south, down to 118 on the ten year the nasdaq is higher and outperforming and so are consumer discretionary and

financials a otd day. but tech is outperforming a bit. after the break, schoolhouse stocks, retails are preparing for a back to school season unlike any other as students across the country return to the classroom. we'll talk to the ceo of kohl's about the challenges and opportunities facing the sector next this is how you become the best! [wrestling bell rings] [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] ♪ try to be best 'cause you're only a man ♪ ♪ and a man's gotta learn to take it ♪ ♪ try to believe though the going gets rough ♪ ♪ that you gotta hang tough to make it ♪ ♪ you're the best! around! ♪ ♪ nothing's gonna ever keep you down ♪ [triumphantly yells] ♪ you're the best! around! ♪ [ding] don't get mad.

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back to school season is underway and spending is expected to top pre-pandemic levels as students get back into

the classrooms according to the latest forecast from mastercard spending polls, sales are expected to rise by 5.5% compared to last year, 6.7% compared to 2019 apparel is expected to see the biggest growth with sales to rise by 78%. kohl's among the names that could see a boost from the increase spending. the stock up more than 20% this year and joining us now to kick off our back to school, michelle grass. it is great to have you back on the show welcome. >> it is great to be here, sara, thank you. >> back to school, back to work, back to some semblance of normal life how different is this season going to be for you? >> well, it is going to be very different because for all intents and purposes we didn't have much of a back to school season last year and i think it is not only about refreshing your wardrobe, but it is also, there is an if emotional component this year because maybe kids have been studying remotely, parents might be returning back to the office

so there is a lot of change that customers are navigating this season >> so how are you gearing up for that what sort of assortments and different offerings are you doing differently than what you would do any other back to school season. but as i said, this year is very different. >> yeah, no, absolutely. what i would first say, sara, is when we think about how people are living and dressing, their living a more active and casual lifestyle. this is something that we saw even pre-pandemic and started evolving our business leaning into categories like active and our great brands like nike, adidas, underarm our and champion we're super excited. we're repositioning and pivoting the whole brand for the active and casual lifestyle and that is what we expect customers and kids to wear as they move into the next chapter

we've done some research and 40% of people said that they're not going to go back to the way they dressed pre-pandemic, that active and casual is here to stay and that is something that we're good at so i think we've never been better positioned for the season. >> so much for throwing away the sweatpants over covid. we are dealing with this delta variant which is surging in this country. and i know you just announced a new policy on face coverings do you worry at all that that could disrupt this boom that we are seeing in consumer spending just as we are set to go back to work and back to school in the fall >> well, i think what you've seen from us and all retailers during this whole time is that we are going to be responsive, we're going to be agile, we're putting the health and safety of our associates and customers first and want to make sure that customers have a really safe and welcoming environment to shop. so the policies that we put in place are specifically intended

to address that. but thinking the important thing is we're going to be there for our customers however they want to shop. we offer the conveniences. i'm excited about stores but our digital business is thriving during this time as well so we'll be there right with them whatever they need. >> so michelle, what are those policies are they changing as we speak? are you being nimble about it? is it mask related, vaccine related? >> yeah, you bet related to masks so we just issued our updates policies so areas that are high risk, we'll have masks tomorrow and recommend that customers in those areas take on face coverings. but like i said, during this entire time we're just staying really close to make sure that our associates and our customers are comfortable in our environment to make sure they feel safe. >> michelle, i have to ask you about the sephora partnership within the store because i think it just

launched, what, yesterday. it is something investors have been very excited about. they want to know if it is going to drive traffic and sales in the rest of the store. what could you tell us any early indications here >> yeah, you bet well i would say overall for kohl's this fall is a curtains up moment for the company starting with as you said as launch for sephora we went live online just yesterday and we're beginning to roll out our stores this month we plan to open up 200 stores this fall up to 850 over the next three years it is a game-changer for us. but it isn't just sephora, it is changed throughout the store to reflect this big pivot into the active and casual lifestyle and we also have great new brands like tommy fill finger and calvin klein come news the st stores as well. >> and going back to the outlook more broadly and whether you do fear that this pick up in cases could lead to a pull back again

like we saw spikes of the virus over the last 18 months and since it is not picking up in hospitalizations, do you remain fairly optimistic? >> we, like the rest of the industry, remain bullish on the the back to school season. we're going to stay close and make sure that everything that our stores and our operations are safe for our customers and our associates but all of our indications to date are that this is going to be a great back to school season for the industry and the kinds of things that we saw heading into back to school like active, ath-leisure, denim, those things to be strong for the company. >> are people paying more with the inflation that we've seen across categories in this economy, michelle? >> yeah, you know, it is a great question there is a lot of change and dynamics going on right now in the business what i could tell you that kohl's stands for value. there is many ways to get value through events we have, through our great rewards program, worth

mentioning on the sephora that you could earn your beauty inside points when you buy something from sephora so what i will tell you is we're doing a lot on the business to manage the cost headwinds that we have. and so as it relates to things like supply chain, we're working closely to reduce cost of goods and the team is on it with the supply chain so the team is being responsive and agile to the head winds that are in front of us >> i know a lot of parents are looking forward to back to school this year michelle, thank you so much for joining us to kick off our series >> thank you, sara great being here >> michelle gas, the ceo of kohl's and tomorrow we'll continue our series and we'll speak with the ceo of under armour. and columbia sportswear chairman and ceo and a lot more interviews throughout the week will fred. >> after the break, oil takes a dive in a key video game company

gets ready to press play on their earnings those stories and many more when we take you inside of the market zone we are just low on the s&p 500 with 15 minutes left in the session. you can sell your policy, even a term policy, for an immediate cash payment. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized that we needed a way to supplement our income. if you have one hundred thousand dollars or more of life insurance you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth. visit conventrydirect.com to find out if you policy qualifies. or call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance. - [announcer] at southern new hampshire university, we never stop celebrating our students. from day one to graduation to your dream job, that's why we're keeping your tuition low for the 10th year in a row. - [student] the affordability and the quality of education, it can be enough to change your life. - [announcer] as a nonprofit university, we believe in making college more affordable for everyone.

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sorry about that. umm... what...its...um... you alright? [sigh] [ding] never settle with power e*trade. it has powerful, easy-to-use tools to help you find opportunities, 24/7 support when you need answers plus some of the lowest options and futures contract prices around. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today. welcome back we have four minutes left in the trading day. we're in the closing bell market zone commercial free coverage of the action heading into the close today. today we have josh brown joining us along with cameron dorsey from fuel point private wealth. very good afternoon to you both. let's kick things off with the broader markets. the dow turning lower into the

close after hitting new intraday highs early in the session for the first trading day for the month. counting down two tenths with nasdaq with slight games and i know you keep a close eye on the smh, these years, these decades as it were, but at the same time yields moving in -- moving low what do you think is a better read on the economy, which do you pay closer attention to? >> i would just say that, like, smh is important to follow, but the move that we've seen like very recently is 100% due a lotf

meaning in the smh big move higher big fall for rates i saw one spot 17 last time i like looked. we believe that the fed will focus on september, quote/unquote reopening data to decide on any kind of -- any kind of tapering oranything like that. so i think it is just a quiet first week of august that is my take. you definitely have a divergence, new highs for the indices, but a lower and lower amount of stocks confirming those new highs. that is what most people are pointing to. but then you have some strength. like home builders, d.r. horton is breaking out and tesla is at the highest level since april. so some notable moves and in a couple of stocks but overall is really feels like the tape is asleep and this time of the year, that is not that uncommon. >> although, cameron you are seeing some of the economically sensitive spots under pressure

josh mentioned the ten year yield down to 117. oil prices are down 3.5% but the stock market is flat this time last week, that was happening and the stock market is falling is the market conditioned to buy the dip now every time there is some concern around the economic outlook? >> it certainly seems so we know that there are a lot of rrts traders who are very eager to buying the dip. but markets get spooked by the lower pmis out of the u.s. today as well as in china this weekend where we have a pmi surprise to the down side. we don't talk about it a lot we've seen weak pmi out of asia for the last two months and that number that came up this weekend was in deep territory. so in so far as the asian markets lead the global manufacturing cycle, we think oil is sniffing out the fading momentum and thus the downward

pressure on prices. >> let's hit square. the deal announcing fin tech company after pay. a $29 billion all stock deal expected to close early next year marks about a 30% premium, is like a real thing and you know i'm always very skeptical when people get really excited about young unproven technology companies but full disclosure in the private market, i'm ashareholder in colonna a lot of them have been writing about the companies saying look out, these are all going to be ten, 20, $30 billion market cap

stocks by the time they become public and that has been right if you think about the economics of the business you understand why square is rallying these are companies getting paid by the mer chant, they're laying out of the money up front. the merchant gets to keep like 96% of the purchase price of whatever is being bought and the credit risk is being born by a software company that understands very well how to deal with chargeoffs versus how to deal with giving people enough time to pay and not having the interest clock running. so it is an ingenious idea i can't believe it is taken this long to go mainstream. and it is not just the action, but look at how mastercard and visa are reacting to this news those stocks are down almost 3% each pretty much all day. i think that those are the names that are most challenged by these companies becoming more mainstream would you note that paypal has a

version of this pay in four. so installment payments are the new hotness and i think that credit card companies will be somewhat threatened by their arrival on the the scene it is a very, very hot space >> very, very interesting and sara mentioned affirm up 15% and max jim will join us later in the show and meantime, crude prices taking a dive and that is weighing on some of the energy names. pippa has a look at that for us. >> four straight positive months but starting august on a down note wti and brent dipping more than 3% amid fears that jump in covid cases will dent demand just as opec boosts production weak economy data out of the u.s. and china also hitting prices here. energy stocks were higher earlier in the session but giving back some of the gains into the close the move following a drop in july which snapped the sector's longest monthly winning streak in a decade. back to you.

>> pippa, thank you so much for that cameron, is this a buying opportunity for energy stocks? is this just a brief pullback as delta cases spike only temporarily, we hope >> well we thought the comments from chevron cfo last friday were really quite interesting. he said there are 6 million barrels of latent capacity in opec plus. and so this is why they're being conservative about focusing on debt pay down and returns to shareholders and so given the fact that we are already up 50% year-to-date in oil prices, they saw the risk to the down side now, what we could see and what we want to watch a lot going into the end of the year, is if the higher prices that we're seeing today actually get some of those less disciplined maybe call them wildcatters out there to start zdrilling more and increase production. because we've seen rig counts lag behind the upside in oil prices and we think this is a

big thing to watch for 2022. >> also hearing some concern about a cluster in china commanding with them reporting 75 new covid cases yesterday and potential lockdowns are a economic hit there and bitcoin with a new crypto tax crackdown. robert has the details >> sara, bitcoin down about 5% digital assets so that's a much broader definition crypto lobbyist fighting back saying the language is too broad. the block chain association saying this poses an imminent threat to the budding crypto

industry here in america and many questioning that the $28 billion estimate for revenue because without mandatory reporting, guys, we don't know how many crypto holders may be paying or evading their taxes. >> robert frank, thank you the dow is down 124 points as we near the close do the tax changes that are happening in congress, dissuade the bitcoin case at all, more than just a one or a two-day move >> well i think the bullish interpretation of this is that in so far as these higher reporting requirements from a tax perspective actually cause an institutionalization and even professionalization of the industry surrounding these assets that it could actually drive higher adoption over time, holding all else constant. >> take two interactive and nxp

semi are both moving -- well ahead of their earnings. reporting results after the close. and josh lipton has a preview of both of those sets of numbers. >> let's start with take two down about 15% so far this year. it is down about 20% now from the february all-time high a lack of clarity about the content pipeline saying there is some concern here. jeffrey said the big number for him, q2, he's looking for $850 million if that is strong, investors will stop being as worried about the impact of reopening on take two's business and nxp reporting up about 30% so a little spill r

into the end of trading. the dow is down 109 points just off session lows that we touched a moment ago visa is the biggest drag mcdonald's and american express taking down the dow. and nike and -- is the best performers s&p 500 has gone red trying to stay positive all day long but we did take a little tumble into the close there down two tenths of one percent worse performing sectors, terms, industrial, technology, staples, communication services and utilities and consumer discretionary are the best performing the nasdaq had been going strong all day long and still is. there is the nasdaq 100 and it is up just barely and that is thanks to some strength like tesla which is up 3.3% peloton also doing well. maybe some of the stay-at-home, and t-mobile is having a big day but otherwise it is a little bit

lower. the ten year yield has been a luge story today a big drop in bond yields. the ten year yield at 117. crude oil down 3.5% and - a lot quieter in london than it is there at the new york stock exchange. >> welcome we close down 1 points on the dow so it was about down 124 and we bounced off that level down 0.3% for the dow and 0.2% and the nasdaq was just positive by six basis points at the close of utilities, the best sector on

the s&p and the worst materials, the only one down more than 1% square's deal to buy now pay now and pay later, excuse me, after way for a 30% premium helping to send shares of rival higher and we'll discuss this red hot payment trend and whether there will be more industry consolidation when we are joined by a firm ceo of max chen shortly. max brown and camran are still with us and grace joins the conversation as well kate, i'll come to you first for your interpretation, of the action today, obviously essentially flat by the close. but big moves in yields and some slightly disappointing data this morning. are you concerned when you see the moves lower in yields? >> i'm not first of all thank you for having me, will and sara i'm not concerned. i'm actually not all that surprised. i think in a what -- what a lot of people miss is what is going

on in japan and europe you can't have german equivalent rates down half a percent being at half a percent and the u.s. go to 1.5 to 2%. when you have that wide of a spread, you'll end up with a carry trade. so i think that is really what you have to look at. is what is going on in europe and say how far could the fed diverge from that. >> does it impact your stance on stocks at all, kate? >> no. honestly, sara, it does not. because when rates are at this low, it is hard to even understand what is going on. this is not what we learned in business school, believe me. i think at this point it's really almost, we're in a zero rate environment and that is what we're moving on >> meanwhile josh brown, lower yeemds helps the likes of shopify and tesla and peloton. are they moving up because

yields, do you think >> i don't think they move higher because of the yields but i do think that they predispose people to coming across them because when you think that growth is going to be low, and you realize growth is going to be scarce, maybe some part of you is more willing to pay incrementally higher for that earnings growth where you find it. but i've heard that story. i don't know any investors who do that. like in real life. i don't know anybody who is like oh, rates just went lower, let's go find a high multiple stock. so there might be some correlation without causation there. but i do think that you are seeing an uptick in some of the quote/unquote stay-at-home or pandemic stocks or whatever as people start to realize that that is not what they are. they're just secular growth stories and people want to own them again shopify is interesting i think we're probably very close to a new break yout.

the stock is been consolidating going back to the first week of february a lot of the high growth stocks and now it looks like it is right there just below a break out point. that resistance going back to mid-february, let's say. it is a bove so that could be a legitimate break out in progress. another name i'll throw at you is upstart this is a company that is doing ai lending and selling those loans, kind of like leads to regional banks who will never be able to build their own technology to do this sort of work that one looks like an impending break out also very similar to chart to shopify. a little bit more volatile but like these are the types of stocks that people are back on the hunt for, maybe part of it is a rate story, but i really think more of it is, hey, i want to own earnings growth, if the cyclical portion of this recovery, we've already seen the best we are going to get what is next, what is going to

work now. >> one stock i wanted to throw at you, josh, was amazon i know you have been cheering on the break out and very bullish on the name. it got hammered off earnings and some real concerns about whether that was as good as it gets for e-commerce sales did you make any moves on the stock? >> i didn't. the stock broke out and got smacked right back into the range. if you were trading this, you're no longer in this trade because it is invalidated. if you're an investor, though, you're probably not overly concerned with it if it fell at 7% on the earnings report. basically they did what they've done very often when is to say we're going to spend the ton of money going forward and there is nothing anyone could do about it they've done it before it has always paid off for shareholders and i think it will again and understanding what they're investing in and why the timing is so important so i've given the company the benefit of the doubt as a long-term shareholder and i'll continue to do so. but, yes, that breakout is now over

that is a stock back at its range, in no-man's-land, i'm not expecting anything near term exciting >> cameron, clearly amazon was a disappointment after the earnings following a great run higher before that of course how is earnings season overall going in your eyes >> things are coming in quite strong 88% of companies are beating and they're beating by an average of 17%. now, the reaction to that earnings has been fairly muted and so what that means to us is that we really are growing into the higher multiples that we started out at the beginning of the year but we could see with examples of things like amazon or even ups where you had really strong growth in 2020 and so you have to comp over that growth and so there is a period of digestion of the higher multiples that we think puts a near term ceiling on some of the stocks so the message ends up being

patience, not nearly fear. >> take two interactive, earnings are out josh lipton with the numbers. >> so take two is reporting first quarter results above 30 on the bottom line not comparable to the 89 cents they were looking for 711 million a quarter versus 688 million for q2 and between 815 and 865 million. it is at 891 million for the year and the guidance between 3.2 and 3.3 billion. the street was at 3.4 billion. for the year they are reiterating the out look as there have been some movement in the release schedule including two of our core titles, shifting he said to later if fiscal 22 than contemplated by our prior guidance we deliver on our pipeline and we believe it will acleave

sequential growth in '23 and operating results over the next few years. the conference call is coming up. >> last hour christopher waller joined us with a pretty optimistic stance on the economy and very specific take on the fed's tapered time line. listen to him. >> the job reports as i think they're going to in the next two reports, with tapering, we should go early and go fast. in order to make sure that we are in position to raise rates in 2022, if we have to i'm not saying we would. but if we wanted to, we need to have some policy space by the end of the year. that may be on the more optimistic side of the committee. but that tends to be the outlook that i have. >> kate, i love this interview for a number of reasons. but mainly because he was so specific and gave his thoughts that maybe inflation isn't so

transitory we'll see. and it does not prove to be transittory, we need to start tapering quick and early he actually put in october date on and i'm curious to hear your take from a federal reserve governor that votes at every meeting. >> you know, i'll tell you, sara, i don't know how we got here okay, i just want to step back and say how did we get to the point where rates went to zero and the fed started buying so we're really in unchartered waters here. how they get out of it, i don't think is anyone's guess. i don't think me know how they get out of it. and we talk about it and they taper, no, we're going to stop tapering i think in the end, i'm not all that concerned about inflation and i think it is important when you talk about inflation, you have to say are we talking hyper inflation '70s style or normal

inflation. normal inflation may be a good thing. nobody seems to complain when the value of their homes go up or when the stock market goes up well that is inflation too so i'm not all that concerned. i think we're in a big mess with a zero rate environment, negative in europe and i'm not quite sure how we come out of it. >> sara, i just thought it was interesting and refreshing to hear him kind of break from the mold of the typical fed interview and fed comments the sound bite we just played there, almost, almost made a prediction, the next two job numbers probably going to come in strong and he mentioned in the interview, anecdotal evidence rather than the typical we will wait for the data and we'll only look at the hard data and not listen to all of the themes around us which are pointing to quite a lot of inflation >> and also said that he was in favor of starting to scale back mbs. but fed chair powell ruled that

out. it is interesting when you hear the separate views from a governor usually the governor, the committee sticks together in terms of their views but there is clearly a wide range. and i think this is going to be a theme for the markets to have to digest, will fred, because we're dealing with higher inflation and nobody knows whether it will be transittory or not and companies are passing prices along and everyone is sort of wait and see on that point and we're in this economic boom and nobody really knows what is going to happen when some of the fiscal stimulus wears off and with the variants. we're in uncharted territory so you're going to get a lot of different opinions when i think, josh, will keep the market on its toes because this is a fed fueled liquidity fuels market that is nervous about any taper or cutting off liquidity at the time when the market or the economy looks vulnerable so the importance in the views matter what is the key question is whether the center of the committee starts moving toward a faster taper in case they do need to raise interest rates

sooner than expected if inflation doesn't prove to be so transitory. what say you >> i just think one of the biggest sources of confusion in this debate and it is no one's fault, it is just a little bit tricky, this idea that, like, higher wages are going to stick because of course they will. they almost never go backward and people become accustomed to a certain lifestyle and when they're making more money, they act differently. it is a good thing it is not a bad thing. it is a short-term hiccup for small business owners. it is not easy but once you get through it is nice to see people get a rise in wages. that part is sticky. so that won't be transitory. but what the fed issaying, wil be transitory, is the pace of those increases. so it is not the absolute level of wages that we're debating any more now we're debating will they rise in 2022 at the same rate

they had to rise in 2021 because of how many people in the labor force were just unavailable or didn't feel like working that is the question and the fed is sticking on this idea that, no, we've just seen a big spurt in rising wages and that part will stick but we're not going to see that rate repeat itself, we're not going to see people get a minimum wage hike at the state level every year from here on out. we had 23 states do that that is not going to be repeated next year. so i think both camps can be right. the one thing that i feel pretty okay about is the natural resource inflation is going to be transitory. i think it always is in the end. i think technology is a big reason for that. and i think we're really good at finding energy we're good at dragging the cost down of new sources of energy. that part i won't be panicky about. so maybe when we talk about inflation, it doesn't have to be so monolithicly, maybe we could

say in some areas it is better and some areas it is worse >> i just want to bring some headlines here as it relates to the debt limit, janet yellen has started taking those additional extraordinary measures starting today in relation to the debt limit they will be unable to invest fully in g fund for federal retirees beginning on monday debt issuance suspended for portion of civil service retirement and disability fund through september 30th that is when the treasury goes through to preserve the money until they get the debt ceiling increased from congress. which they are urging them to do so obviously prevent an all out default. they have some of the extraordinary measures that they could take and keep it going for a few weeks but here we go on that the shock clock has begun. and it is interesting on a day where it is not bothering the u.s. bond market there is voracious demand for our debt you saw that today with ten year yields going down to 117

>> right exactly. the extraordinary measures put in play and needed to sort of sweat people out to get to action and that action expected and worth pointing out no real flicker here after hours in the dollar eitherwhich was down slightly today despite, of course, a lot of buying of u.s. treasuries. in light of i guess the previous discussion, cameron, about yields, what do you do with the banks in this environment? >> oh, goodness, it is really hard for banks to outperform in a world of declining yield curve and given the comments from the fed chair today or member today, that we expect the yield curve likely to have peaked out for this cycle so it is a really tough back drop for banks to outperform and so we don't have much faith that they'll be leaders at least until we see that yield curve start to move higher >> we have some more earnings.

let's get to josh lipton >> nxp reporting q2 results here the street was looking for revenues up to 43% to 2.6 billion and the street was at 2.58 billion. and they are forecasting 2.85 billion at the mid point. the street was closer to 2.7 billion. just looking at two big segments, automotive, 1.26 billion and industrial and iot, 571 million the company ceo saying they continue to be positive about the long-term demand trends across all of our end markets and while supply environment were remain challenges in the nearby term, we have taken actions to increase supply which will drive very robust growth for the remainder of 2021 as well as into 2022. back to you. >> nxpi, shares down a half of a percent ents thank you all for joining us on the markets.

up next, can accord kenny drier on whether the spread is a big risk for stocks. and max leftin on the buy now and pay later space today and whether that could lead to more mergers in his red hot industry. we're back on "closing bell" in just two minutes 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.

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last hour we spoke with federal reserve governor and voting member christopher waller who gave his take on when the fed should start tapering. >> inflation is running well above our 2% target. and employment, on the employment side we were down about 6.8 million jobs about 1.8 million is early retirement and so that leaves with you about 5 million if we get 800,000 to a millionons in the next two reports, you're down to about 3 million. that means we'll have regained about 85% of our of the jobs that we lost by the beginning of september.

in my opinion, that is substantial progress and i think you could be ready to do an announcement by september. >> let's bring in tony, from can accord i know yields moved today but that suggests it could be short lived. >> i don't know, will. i think yields started coming down in march when they started to speculate about talking about talking about tapering so the feeling that many have is that bond yields are coming lower because the fed may be getting ahead of the curve, the more robust economic activity cause them to tapering sooner rather than later so maybe it won't be a problem and get ahead of it. but what i found that is most interesting in the note i did today, was if you look at the last two cycles, initially you comeoit of a recession and they throw all of the money at the market and at the economy that

they can as much as the market will bear. and then what happens is you go into this transition period where you finally get this economic grant coming off the low, where that excess liquidity gets put to work and during that economic production, so what happens in that period is you get this push and pull should the fed tighten or not tightsen an that indigestion just creates market uncertainty. >> i get your announcement of recent cycles an yields stay longer each cycle. does that mean stocks go higher for each cycle and more and for longer >> it does what multiple do you put on. i'm in the summer of indigestion, i don't think there is progress either way but what put pell do you put on on a zero fed maybe forever, until we actually get an idea of whether they're going to raise interest rates, not manage the

balance sheet but raise interest rate, they steepened the yield curve and so until that doesn't work any more, i just don't see them lifting rates which i don't know what multiple to put on that so it is all about earnings and earnings continue to be pretty good >> where are you on the rotation and the rerotation and the inflation. it is been every day a little bit different. when yields have moved south, that is benefited technology but it hasn't been that simple lately so what do you do? >> sara, i've been hugging benchmark since we've do you know graded the market and went sector neutral in april. again our biggest fear, from last summer, we were very economically offensive we wanted to be banks and tanks but coming into january and february and march and april they had extraordinary moves we've had a good chunk of pull back in the industrials an the materials an financials.

but so as a result of that, we're just getting this push and pull, day-to-day so again, when i look back apt the last two cycles, the year after the initial recovery when you went into this transition of fed, and got to peak everything, monetary policy and fiscal stimulus and economic growth rate, once you got to that peak, that period of indigestion, definitely benefits in the summertime of those two periods. but going into the year end they ramp the cyclicals so i don't see any reason to change the playbook. while we're in the summer of indigestion i would stay out of the way, don't make big upside or down side bets. if we get the opportunity to attack over the next few weeks, i want to attack and add in exposure into that economically sensitive areas. >> what, tony, gives you situation confidence that it is only indigestion, where could

you be wrong there. >> well the indigestion has killed cyclicals that is the main reason for down grate grading. we did a downgrade in march because they have had been parabolic. some have been smoked. some of the market is down well more than 20%. so the summer of indigestion doesn't mean plus or minus a tick some areas have really been hit. but what should progress from here in my opinion from the bottom up is values may start outperforming growth and if a weaker market. it might go down less. it is already suffers from peak. but the market, it is just it doesn't know what to do until you get the next catalyst and i think we'll get that past jackson hole and into september. >> good to see you as always thank you very much. >> thank you, wolf. still ahead here on "closing bell," equinox announcing vaccine mandates for gym members and employees in new york. up next, the company's executive

chairman on what is behind that decision and if he will expand the mandate nationwide plus a firm ceo max le vefchin talking about the fin tech space check out micron with a 10 cents per arshe quarterly dividend we'll be right back here on "closing bell.

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more companies are making policy changes amid delta variant fears. mcdonald's said crew members an customers will need to wear masks in areas with high or substantial trans mission. facebook saying all u.s. on campus employees must wear masks. equinox and sole cycle announcing new covid vaccine requirements beginning in september, employees and members and riders must show one time proof of vaccination to enter clubs and corporate offices in new york city locations joining us now in an exclusive inview with harvey steve i haven't seen anything like this for gyms. how did you come to this decision to require vaccinations for members? >> so, sara, good to see you as

well it is a proud gday for us we've been guided by doing the right thing but protecting the well being and hnl and safety of our employees and members and our riders, our community as we often refer to it as we felt with the surge in cases this was the right next step we surveyed our members, to hear their thoughts and what we learned was that 96% of them have already been vaccinated and overwhelmingly they wanted to see us move to a vax only-type commitm. and so that is what we'll do starting in new york city. but our plan is to do this across the country at all of our locations for equinox and soul cycle. i don't think there is a consumer facing brand that has gone as far as we're going with our announcement today. >> part of it has to be your geography location, you're heavy in new york city with high vaccination rates and the coast, i wonder if a company could do this with more exposure in the

south and the midwest where we aren't seeing the kind of enthusiasm for vaccines that we are on the coasts. >> well we operate in a lot of the other markets that you reference. so we're -- we're yes on the coast in new york, we're in boston but we're also in chicago and michigan, we're in florida, and we're in texas and there has not been a big difference with our community in terms of those would have been vaccinated and those who haven't. >> so do you have similarly high, 90% plus percentage of members vaccinated in somewhere like texas where you haven't introduced this requirement. >> yes, and once again the response from the members was we would love for you to do this. and so we're in the business of not just protecting, we're in the business of serving so people could go about living their healthy lifestyle and based on that feedback we knew members would be happy and since we announced this morning the response has been overwhelmingly

positive >> why do you think we haven't seen other businesses do this? to the extent that we probably need to in this country to get some type of herd immunity level? >> it is a bold move and i think a lot of companies are afraid of the down side. i mean, covid has been tough to a lot of businesses like ours and their worried about losing some of their customers and in our case members and riders to competing business or to something somewhere else so they're worried about that and we know there is a tough labor market so they're considering losing employees and we when surveyed our employees, 89% are of weeks

do you have data that close that you follow that closely in terms of -- as delta cases have spiked >> we're watching this daily and we definitely saw a slowdown in the last ten days to two weeks. but overall we're still at peak usage since covid started going back to march of 2020 and in terms of let's say on equinox, new membership sales 2019 was, i mean, july of 2021 was 106% of july of '19, the giving of the month it was higher so it came down but we're still seeing increase demand and new record attendance, new record ridership at soul, despite a little bit of a slow down in the back end of july >> so all of those fears about people buying pelotons and mirrors and working out at home and not wanting to ever go do that socially again, it just has

not come to fruition, harvey, or has it changed >> so, sara, we've talked about this in the past when i've been on the show and i'm going to say what i've always said. >> it is becoming a not one or the other, it is a hybrid. but people want in real life experience it is great that you could get food delivered at home but you prefer to go to the restaurant it is great that you could stream a concert but you prefer to go to the concert it is no different than in our business particularly with our offering people want the community, they want the favorite instructor and traber and in person but when they can't make it or for other reasons they don't want to come they want the digital compliment and that is what we've done with equinox. >> thank you for joining us on this big announcement today. >> thank you, as always. >> requiring everybody to get vaccinated up next, robin hood shares rallying today but are still below the ipo price and now details about the surprising number of robin hood users who bought into that ipo that is straight ahead. >> plus a firm ceo max levchin

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time now for cnbc news update >> from the news on cnbc, here is what is happening if you want to get a covid test in florida, you may have a lot of people in line in front of you. dozens and dozens of cars in long lines at some sites this as the state reports hospitalizations from covid are at the highest level since the pandemic began daily cases also set a new record just on saturday. the united states is expanding its asylum program for afghan refugees fleeing the taliban this new rule applies to afghans who worked for the united states based organizations, not just military however the secretary of state tony blinken said the program faces considerable challenges as he put it in both logistics and diplomacy. afghans who want to come to the united states have to leave their home country before they could apply for the program and spend more than a year in a third country waiting to come to the united states. and simone biles will

compete for gold on balance beam tomorrow this is her last chance to medal in tokyo she pulled out of her previous events to focus on ore mental health tonight from tokyo and we'll hear from justin gatlin about the new world's fastest man. that is on the news right after jim cramer at 7:00 eastern on cnbc back to you. >> shep, thank you so much. shares of newly public company robin hood closing high by 7% and we're getting new details about how much users bought into last week's ipo. kate rooney has that story for us >> those details coming from a post on robin hood's app according to the update, more than 300 how robin hood traders participated in the company's ipo last week. that was about 1% of robin hood's total funded accounts as of the end of june. robin hood had sold about 20% of the shares to investors on the trading platform and saw a pretty choppy litz listing day

with shares selling off about 8% at the time. they are still below that ipo price of about $38 one thing helping robin hood stock recover though, conviction from growth investor kathy wood. woods arc invest purchased about 1.85 million additional share robin hood on friday that was worth an estimated $65 million her firm now holds more than 3 million shares of robin hood an that stock makes up just shy of 1% of the arc innovation etf back to you guys >> kate, thank you so much. shares of affirm shooting higher today ending the day up about 14% on the back of squares massive deal acquire rival after pay. up next, the firm's ceo joins us to discuss the buy now and pay longel bend. "csi bl"ack in a couple of minutes

the buy now pay later model taking center stage again today. square announced plans to buy australian company after pay in a $29 billion all stock deal this comes a few weeks after reports that apple is working on a pay later service in partnership with goldman sachs news of the deal boosting shares of affirm. that stock closing up around 15% today. and affirm's ceo max le vef chin joins us now thank you for joining us very nice, 15% jump. you didn't have to do anything

today. >> thank you for having me and i can't say i track my stock price day-to-day all that carefully but not a bad day at all >> yeah, well 15% is not just a small daily move but i see your point but i guess in part behind my joke is the question is this a vote of confidence in what you were doing or is it in fact a little bit of a threat giving scale to a rival >> i think it is unequivocally a giant validation of the this entire category. i think even as recently as a handful of newscasts ago you would hear people say it is just a feature, credit card industry will eventually catch up this surge is a pretty powerful statement. nope, this is a huge thing buy now and pay later, and paying over time and not resolving. the world is changing, credit cards are going to be losers in this deal and this is a giant validation of what is going on. >> but it also a reminder, max, that there is increasing

competition, a lot of people, a lot of companies want into this space, including potential apple through goldman sachs and the barrier to entry is pretty low >> i agree with the former, i disagree with the latter so the entry is quite high if you do what affirm does. the thing about affirm that is quite different is we serve totality of cart sizes fromdaly spent dollars through thousands of dollars for jewelry and workout equipment, et cetera it is very different across the board. you have to get to get underwriting and risk management and integrate with merchants at a point of sale. we're the only company that knows how do this, and so we have the expertise and the technology and the experience. and so i think in that sense the entry is very, hee high. there is plenty of companies that have specialized if the mpl but after pay and several others and i think they're the -- is in fact low and it is still 100%

growth industry across the entire board and people are jumping in >> to your point then, max, clearly this is given square expansion into a new geographic market but is the most important part of this land grab, if that is what is going on at the moment, in fact those relationships with merchants and rather a different way to the credit card world than is dominated for the last few decades, where the credit card companies were agnostic as to what the consumers buying whereas the most important thing for you to keep growing is deep partnerships with merchants and becoming that exclusive partner in your space. >> you know, i can't really speculate exactly on the deal for square or after pay for that matter i agree with you that the understanding of the consumer is crucial. that is what makes this entire space such a different thing from the traditional credit card

providers. and yes, that is probably what is driving a lot of the growth and the interest in the industry that said, i do think affirm is extraordinarily well positioned in the space, independence of ebts ranc and we have the understanding of the consumer and excellent relationship with the mer kmchants and we're also partner with shopify and walmart all of the platform brands where we've partnered because we are the best at deep integration of understanding the customer and pointing ought every transaction size. >> and max, to that point, what are you seeing from the consumer right now, broadly after this sort of reopening spurt post covid, we saw big boom in consumer spending, what does it look like right now. >> it is still going strong. at this point we have enough comps to go year and year. travel numbers are up 450%

continues. travel is a particular out liar elsewhere that every summer weekend is like a thanksgiving day at the airport and it seems to continue strong >> max, i know you framed it earlier as being a validation of what you are doing and what you're doing relative to traditional models of consumer finance. but what would you say to someone that said all of this is happening with very high valuations relative to earnings multiples, right at the end of a very long economic cycle and actually really what it marks is a different version every crisis has a new version of course, of a kind of a peak multiples and peak consumer spend ahead of some kind of economic turn around

>> you know, not for me to speculate. on that front, i do have to reiterate that that is why our advantage in the space is so durable. if you look at what we have been good at, where we started, where we've been dominant, not even a comparison to anyone else is these larger, long-term hirer risk transactions. you have to be good at credit ma'am. we performed extraordinarily well through the first parts of the pandemic where there was deep uncertainty when was decisions about what bills to pay. affirm remains to transact and continue to support our m merchants and have shown support to consumers and merchants so the rates are low and i about do believe a test is copping as the economy turns. i feel good about our ability to pass this test we'll see what the rest of the world will do. >> the rest of the fin tech world or some other members of fin tech are getting into

bitcoin, max i want to ask you about it because it was revealed today that square took a $45 million hit to the operating income from bitcoin and we've seen a company like this get so involved. i don't think you accept bitcoin as payment are there plans to do so and what do you think about the merging of the fin tech players with bitcoin >> fundamentally, i think we have to go to whenever our consumers and the customers want us to go and so we will obviously not announce things but for day, we do not accept bitcoin as payment type but you have to agree that cryptocurrencies are now really transitioning into mainstream. just like the mpl has been validated today, in a couple of places register investment advisers are telling clients to put some money into bitcoin i think that is a powerful trend in crypto and we're going to

have to see what we do about it. >> i think that was -- >> max, i think -- >> it was a tease. but with an avoidness of not yet. which we understand is a full disclosure max, my final question, though was back to the share price. up 15% today partly, i think, because becaus are wondering whether you are a takeover target as well. my question is -- over the next year, what's more likely someone buys you, or you buy a rival? >> i wish i could see the future so i'll give you a serious answer first of all, we are an active acquirer in the space. acquired a company which is a firm of canada, very happy about progress there bought a company which is kind of the inverse of a firm helps people return items that they need to exchange and get store credit even before they ship it. lots of pieces to our puzzle

that we see growing organically and are excited about that for our firm itself, on sale every day and on nasdaq. you can participate in our strategy and our success to date, and going forward, by buying our shares. please, do we'd like more shareholders. >> well, got a lot of buyers today, max thank you for joining us a great day to have you. >> thank you very much for having me. a firm closing up almost 15%. a firm a two-time kcnbc destructor company like a firm before going public. sign up visiting cnbc.com/disrupter newsletter. up next on "closing bell," big names gearing up for quarter earnings tomorrow. the stocks to watch next, and there's a very special guest host on "jeopardy" this week do not miss cnbc'sav did faber hosting all week long. "closing bell" will be right

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and a key name to watch after the bell, lyft and a deeper dive what to watch in lyft's numbers. de. >> both gig companies edging closer to adjusted ebitda profitability and lyft has said it expects to hit that milestone in the current third quarter lyft shares are up some 15% thi return to office plans the company pushing back the date for employees by six months to february 2nd. back to you. >> deirdre bosa, thank you watch 11:00 a.m., reese

witherspoon a deal to sell her media firm to a company backed by blackstone. a good one she has become a maven, not just an incredible actress. as we wrap up the show, final thoughts today an odd market day. spill into the close, not a lot of damage done beneath the surface, though, potentially worrisome finds looking at the economy ten-year yield falling to 115 selling around 117 that shows buying a bonds, nervousness there, saw it in europe, german ten-year going more negative. crude oil bown 3.5%. protection against selling like the vix was higher. and then we married from the fed governor saying ready to tape irby october if we get a few good jobs reports. >> you mentioned japan, a big impact not much in the move of the dollar despite big moves in u.s. stocks a very strong day in asian

trade. we'll see if that carries over to tomorrow. i'm just sad i'm not in the u.s. i cannot watch david's hosting of "jeopardy." going to be the first time i finally watched this show that everyone talks about and am trying to understand the format of the questions which i still don't ge. >> oh, my gosh it's legendary, actually i grew up watching it. i'll tape it dvr for you. watch it a moment faber tonight. that does it for us on "closing bell. see you tomorrow from london, and meantime, "fast money" is up next here on cnbc. >> announcer: wall street look ahead is sponsored by -- 3 cai. this is enterprise ai.

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