>> you don't have anything else to say about it? >> do i have to? self-evident truth stock is up tenfold and, yet it's only down 1%. that means there's a real, real reservoir of people looking to get. it goes higher >> like pete just put it away >> thanks for watching "the exchange" is next >> thanks, skotd i'm jon fortt in for kelly evans. the job report comes out tomorrow morning with companies unable to find workers, we'll look at current employment trends and talking with the ceo who has big partners like walmart and target about how to attract and retain. plus mask mandates and vaccination requirements we'll ask the ceo of papa johns. and ships, rent, car trips and places you might want to skip markets heading higher

dom chu with numbers >> it's a record high for the dow. the half percent gains you're seeing here up 88 points for the nasdaq put it in record high territory. just about a half a percent, even less, away from the s&p 500. by the way, up 14 points right now at the highs of the day, up 21 points at the lows of the day up six that gives you an idea of the trading range. 170-some point gains for the dow industrials. one theme traders are watching is the outperformance today in the small cap index overall and that's trying to help kind of close some of the gap performance there. the russell 2000 on a year to date basis had been handily outperforming. can it close it? can the small caps get back to the record high levels the other parts of the market are getting to that's one trade to watch. and the stock of the day, it was the most looked up ticker on cnbc.com yesterday

it is trending so far today. robinhood markets down 14.25% after it registers to file a bunch of new shares in the secondary offering over the course of the next several years. that is leading to some of the pressure here but at one point, jon, this was a $33.25 stock and it got up as high as 85 up here just give you an idea of the trading so far $60.25 call it roughly up 150-plus percent from low to high and off like another 30% right now certainly a huge volatile move there for robin hood just a few days old in public markets. back to you. >> sign of the times as prince would say, dom as this new wave of meme-like stock trading coincides with record highs for the markets, the vanex social sentiment which tracks investment related mentioned and lists virgin galactic and gamestop as some of

its top holdings that's up 8% in the last three months but drilling down on those holdings shows volatility. space is up more than 3% today and up the same over the past week amd is down 4% after a 10% rise during the same time and gamestop, higher today but that's down 7% so does it pay to follow the meme trade joining me now is mark smith, senior vice president and portfolio manager at wells fargo advisers and cnbc's bob pisani mark, i don't understand what a meme stock is nymore i thought it was like a depressed name that was heavily shorted and primed for a bounce but, like amd, there's real fundamentals behind that stock so if you own it, and it gets caught up in something like this, do you trim it, sell it, hold onto it what do you do in this market?

>> yeah, my clients are asking questions like this all the time, jon. and what i respond to is momentum investing with no underlying fundamentals is inherently gambling. if you are okay with gambling with your hard-earned money, then, yeah, pick up some of these meme stocks that don't have any fundamentals or clients or sure way to profitability if you have a meme stock that has a competitor that's out there that can do exactly the same thing, then maybe you're in for the wrong reasons. so it really is important to know and stick to your guns about fundamentals and i think that's what memes are. basically momentum investing with no fundamentals and when the music stops you can get hurt >> bob, what do you do if something that you have that has fundamentals suddenly overnight turns into a meme stock? what are traders saying and what does history tell us about maybe companies that have strong

prospects, real growth but then get caught up in a maelstrom >> the trading community is very unhappy with the last couple of weeks because it's so choppy that you can't make money. there's professional traders who come in -- real professional traders come in every day and try to trade the market. their positions are getting whacked around rather dramatically up and down every day. this choppy trading leaves a lot of people surprisingly losing money in this situation. so the question is simple. what is it when you own robinhood? it's no longer trading on the fundamentals the important thing is, these are essentially plays on volatility they're call options like amc wasn't really about the movies gamestop wasn't really about collecting video games at this point, at these trading levels, robinhood isn't really a play on whether retail trading is going to get higher or not. it's a call option on volatility the big issue is, when do you go back to trading on fundamentals?

you don't know obviously, a large part of these meme stocks are trading with people who are what we call fundamental insensitive. and when that happens you can't expect the stock to trade on fundamentals >> i still wonder what you do with amd which has fundamentals. it's not amc, it's amd maybe some are getting confused. but let's go boring. less volatility. muni bonds a lot of people have run away from bonds for a while, but now it's time to pick them up. >> yeah, there's a lot of reasons for that, jon. one is the government has done a tremendous job shoring up a lot of different states around the country because of the pandemic. and so right now it's probably a great time to -- most of these have more money in their coffers than they ever had in the last 30, 40 years so munis are a great hideout when we think that taxes may go up

that's been a conversation for the last six months. and munis are a great place to hide out because it's tax-free income for all those reasons, munis are a great place. we're at all-time highs. some folks are thinking, how long is that going to last >> so, bob, if there's a place that's less volatile where traders are camping out, is there a play not just on munis but also, you know, stocks that might benefit or not from this infrastructure bill which we will be talking about later on in the hour? >> there is several etfs that have attracted a significant amount of new money this year. pave, the main infrastructure etf. just had the ceo of that on a few weeks ago on "etf edge." they are attracting huge amounts of inflow. the problem is, it's hard to figure out where the allocations are going to be for a lot of these individual stocks. overall, right now, the market is continuing to believe that

the economic recovery is going to be fine and the covid variants are going to slow but not derail the recovery. the problem is the word slow can encompass a lot of things from a little bit slow to a lot slow. and we don't know how much the variants are going to change consumer behavior. what we really need to know is when are we going to see the peak variants occur and that is not answerable right now that's the main x-factor the investment community is facing >> it's knocking a lot of stocks around with everything else doing the same bob pisani, mark smith, thank you. coming up -- an exclusive look at recruiter sentiment ahead of tomorrow's jobs report. and we'll speak to the kreceo oa tech unicorn plus congressman scott gottheimer says the infrastructure bill could head to he house at any moment. we'll speak with the co-chair of the problem solvers caucus about the hurdles it could face once it gets there.

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cheer on team usa with xfinity internet. and ask how to save up to $400 a year on your wireless bill when you add xfinity mobile. get started today. welcome back to "the exchange." with the ongoing labor shortage, tomorrow's job report will be followed closely the whisper number is a gain of 845,000 jobs

but let's step back to look at the bigger picture the u.s. economy is still nearly 7 million jobs shy of prepandemic levels leaving corporate america desperate to hire talent. and companies big and small are pulling out all the stops to attract and retain employees let's take a closer look at recruiting and talent development. evan song, chairman and ceo of recruiter.com and on the efforts to incentivize workers, rachel carlson, co-founder of guild education is here as well. guild just announced a partnership with target to provide debt-free education to workers yesterday. let's start with recruitment evan, how is this going in this market where it's so hard to find workers i believe a couple of months ago, recruiters were optimistic, right? >> so the interesting thing that we're seeing this month is that recruiter sentiment hit the highest it's been at 3.9 out of 5. yet candidate sentiment is at a low of 3.1

so really have this disparity between the actual job force itself the other thing that we're seeing at the end of the day here, it's a tough market for employers. we spoke last month about chasing candidates we just think it's a phenomenal market for talent acquisition professionals and recruiters that segment is on a rise in terms of people looking for recruiters to fill those open roles. you're right companies are trying to figure out how to get those candidates in we saw that remote work actually ticked up by about 8%. salaries remain pretty stable in terms of where they were last month as reported by the recruiters but like i said, remote work so let's shift out and make those jobs more remote available for those candidates themselves. >> what am i not getting here? with things being as tight as they are, how can candidate sentiment be down but recruiter sentiment be up? i would expect it to be the other way around >> crazy, but recruiter

sentiment is up because they're in high demand it's one of the top industries now that we're seeing in terms of tick up is really companies looking for talent acquisition professionals to help them with their candidate needs. candidates are still not looking. maybe not actively looking they are waiting for after labor day et cetera. we actually saw on the last slide that we actually reported a decrease in the need for college degrees. so last month, the bulk of the recruiters reporting about 67% required a college degree. now down to 65%. and by the way, the bulk of the jobs that recruiters are working on are $80,000 or plus now you have these jobs that are paying $80,000, less need for a college degree and that really goes to what a company is doing. they're expanding the base where they can actually recruit from and i started to use the expression while we're saying work from anywhere, from a candidate perspective, we're going to start seeing hire from anywhere from an employer at a

talent acquisition perspective >> do you have any sense on how durable these trends are, the ability to sort of work from anywhere, the demand or the leverage that workers and candidates have to do that is that just a function of the tight job market that we have? do these things tend to go away? >> so here's the interesting thing. one of the things we asked at recruiter.com in the recruiter index is, are the jobs you're working on, the bulk of those jobs, are they new jobs or backfill your replacing someone or are these new roles? and actually 60% of the jobs they are working on are actually new jobs 40% are backfill that means there's this great expansion going on, even in these companies. and again, keep in mind that talent acquisition professionals and recruiters are going to go where people are hiring. it's the 80,000-plus jobs, the remote jobs. we're seeing a trend in business services, et cetera.

sadly, some of the jobs from last month, things like retail and food services were pretty stable because we saw this bigger uptick in business services so there's expansion going on in the market now obviously, i.t. and health care are also on the top sides as well >> yeah. all right. that's a great look at the trends and numbers evan, thank you. we'll turn to employee incentives target, in partnership with guild education announced it would provide access to debt-free education for all 140,000 employees. here's what the target ceo brian cornell told "closing bell" about interest in the program. >> today, after we announced it we had hundreds of team members already go online and sign up for the program. so i think we'll have a huge impact for those team members who want to go back and get their ged or take college classes toward a degree, certificate programs, master programs >> let's bring in rachel carlson, ceo of guild education

which enabled this program. it seems like all of a sudden, entering this new stage, two of the biggest employers that are offering this benefit at zero cost tuition books in the case of walmart at least which i believe you announced last week. what's going on here that's driving this and are others going to follow? >> thanks for having me and caring about this issue for so many years you're right we've hit the moment where employers and really the most innovative employers in particular, are realizing that the best thing they can do to differentiate themselves as a company, as an employer is to offer economic mobility, upskilling and the ability to gain more skills and move up in a company or eventually move on. that's what you're seeing target and walmart and others do today. >> this is interesting to me and has been for a long time to me, the move from $15 an hour to $17.50, yes, it's nice in the near term but not necessarily

going to change somebody's life in the long term if they can pick up durable skills for a new economy that can be really important. so cornell there mentioned geds. what are the sorts of certifications and degrees that these workers are pursuing and what's the retention benefit that the companies we think are going to see or have seen historically >> it's a real win-win from the employee perspective, target in particular is offering the most comprehensive set of programs and offerings that we've seen what they are doing is they're offering everything as mentioned from that high school completion ged program which is really important for the americans who didn't have a chance to complete that at the age of 18. all the way up through under graduate credentials, certificates as well as masters degrees for the employees who need that. and so what they are really thinking about is, how do weicater to all of our employees but especially our frontline workforce in providing them with something that's going to give them the opportunity to learn

and earn in terms of the company benefit that you asked about, we're seeing that companies that are offering education and upskilling to their frontline workforce, they are winning the work for talent. these are the companies seeing 25%-plus increases in their job applicants from high-quality applications they're also seeing their retention double at many of the companies we work with chipotle has been very public about the fact that their employees who take advantage of the upskilling opportunity are being promoted at a dramatically higher rate and we also see that underrepresented employees think black talent and hispanic and latinx employees are using this as a really great opportunity to diff differentiate themselves and use upskilling to get promoted within the company >> what happens in the sort of hybrid or remote schooling environment for this cohort of often frontline workers who are being served by programs like this who aren't your typical,

you know, late teenager, early 20-year-old who people tend tong of as a college student. the typical college student in america actually is a woman right in her early 30 whos maybe has a kid. so now that there are these technological capabilities at the same time as these programs are coming online, what's the potential over the next five years to grow careers and grow the economy? >> it's wildly exciting that we're finally at a point where the market is meeting the consumer the 18-year-old was devastated by covid but the 32-year-old single mom, often a woman of color, she wanted to learn online she didn't have access or the opportunity to attend high-quality, nonprofit and public schools, which is who we exclusively work at with guild the opportunity to have historically black cholleges an universities, hispanic-serving institutions like the university of arizona who specialize in thinking about various populations that need upskilling

and resource and have schools across the entire united states that are now saying, how do we serve the new normal student, that 32-year-old single mom? it's really fantastic because it means they can learn in a way that meets the needs of their life >> great to see if that lifts the whole economy as well as that big cohort gains skill and broader perspective. rachel carlson, thank you. >> thanks, jon >> guild is a two-time cnbc disruptor 50 company and our weekly newsletter offers a closer look at disruptors like guild. sign up by visiting cnbc.com/disruptornewsletter shares of uber making a u-turn in the past 24 hours. now trading higher after selling off following its earnings report yesterday we'll tell you what's driving turn around next plus, amazon, wells fargo and blackrock all delaying their return to office dates today, but should employers be ready with a leave the office plan if cases continue to climb? we'll explore in "rapid fire."

"the exchange" will be right back this past year has felt like a long, long norwegian winter. but eventually, with spring comes rebirth. everything begins anew. and many of us realize a fundamental human need to connect with other like-minded people. welcome back to the world. viking. exploring the world in comfort... once again. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

hey google, turn up the heat. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ with a bit more thought we can all do our part to keep plastic out of the ocea. with a bit more thought (sound of people returning to the workplace) (sound of a busy office) (phones ringing, people talking, meeting) the company we've trusted to keep us working remotely, is the same company we'll trust to bring us back together. safely.

securely. and responsibly. so now, between all apart and all together, there's a bridge. cisco. the bridge to possible. welcome back to "the exchange." i'm rahel solomon. here's your cnbc news update weather forecasters from colorado state are now expecting

two fewer named tropical storms this year. they are expecting 18 during the atlantic hurricane season. researchers still expecting above average season for storm activity in california, the dixie fire has now burned more than 500 square miles, including much of greenville it's a small town that dates back to the gold rush. roughly 5,000 firefighters are working to contain the wildfire. and on the news, the fire that refuses to be tamed the latest on western wildfires tonight at 7:00 p.m. and shares of tencent hitting their lowest level in more than a year even as wechat starts signing up new users. it was halted last month to upgrade security technology in line with government policies. an olympic sprinter from belarus explaining how she avoided being forced on a plane home she used her phone to translate a plea for help and showed it to japanese police in the airport who took her away from belarusian officials

>> tech to the rescue. rahel, thanks. better ingredients, better pizza. and better than expected earnings for papa john's we'll speak with the ceo about the quarter, hiring efforts and the delta variant risks. "the exchange" is back in just a moment shares of papa john's higher daonheee ostng earnings 's right. but what if i'm already a customer? oh, no problem. hey, cam...? ah, same deal! yeah, it's kind of our thing. huh, that's a great deal... what if i'm new to at&t? cam, can you...? hey...but what about for existing customers? same deal (breathless) it's the same deal is he ok? it's not complicated. with at&t, everyone can ace back to school with our best deals on every smartphone - like the samsung galaxy s21 5g for free.

let's get a quick check on the markets. you can see here the dow up fractionically about a half a percent. 184 points and the s&p and nasdaq higher as well also fractionally. we were talking earlier about what a volatile market it has been for several stocks. we talk about meme stocks. talked about which those are because bigger stocks have been caught up in that frenzy but the overall indices are higher of course, we continue to track that throughout the day. meanwhile, chips on a tear yelps new filter and can uber deliver on new drivers all that coming up on "rapid

fire." "the exchange" will be right back - stand up if you are first generation college student. (crowd cheering) stand up if you're a mother. if you are actively deployed, a veteran, or you're in a military family, please stand. the world in which we live equally distributes talent, but it doesn't equally distribute opportunity, and paths are not always the same. - i'm so proud of you dad. - [man] i will tell you this, southern new hampshire university can change the whole trajectory of your life. (uplifting music)

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let's catch you up on a few stories that should be on your radar. it is time for "rapid fire." here to help break down the headlines, christina and michael yoshikani and cnbc contributor joanna stern. first, the shipwreck of 2021 is no more. big names staging a rally. the vanex ticker smh is trading near all-time highs and up near 2% in the past week. individual names also posting big gains. both up more than 5% amd and kla are up more than 10%. and on semi up nearly 20 michael, what do you do in this situation? there's a broad difference in how different chip stocks are

doing. intel is in the doldrums amd a meme stock even though it was ripping higher qualcomm doing a hostile bid for an auto company. a lot going on >> there's a lot of activity, obviously, with the huge shortage we have right now in chip stocks. it really gives that -- it fuels the public thinking there's a shortage whenever there's a shortage there tends to be higher demand. intel is a special situation obviously, they're going through some adjustments to their business model right now, but in general, everything is going to keep going computer, keep going chip so the overall sector, i think, is going to -- bound to have tailwind going forward >> joanna, you get these items in your hands and review them once, you know, the chips inside are ready. it's interesting in this environment of shortages, apple said they'll be shortages. we heard roku saying we don't know about the devices in the second half.

interesting that the semiconductor names themselves are higher i guess it goes to show how much people want the gadgets no matter how much the supply is short. >> yeah, it's been a very exciting time for chips. not something we usually say yes, we've got the shortage going on but on the product end, lots of changes happening there. google announcing the new chip they'll make in their own products that we talked about earlier in the week. so qualcomm or if that would take a hit to qualcomm amd rising again i'm hearing more about amd than i have in years when it comes to laptops and desktops apple announced an update. amd announced new chips there that will give higher gpu power. so on the actual product end, my takeaway is that right now is a good time for chips. people are maybe -- consumers are going to be talking about or thinking about what chip is in

their device >> maybe they'll be getting a ps5. uber shares rallying today after-hours sell-off yesterday investors concerned about a loss of more than $500 million in its core ride-sharing business part of that loss is due to the incentives uber offered to attract drivers and shorten wait times. the ceo told "squawk box" this morning the company has started to taper those off as business gets back on track >> in july, we were able to pull back on incentives, target them more precisely and the first-time drivers we brought on in july were up 30% versus june. so now that we have the flow coming onboarding is much easier for drivers. able to pull back on incentives, drivers are still able to earn and the experience is getting

better and better and better >> christina, i am starting to question this whole ride-hailing model. the service has gotten worse the driver pay has gone down over time. it seems like delivering food just makes people happier. >> but the margins are so small on delivering food when you're just ordering some potoilet papr i did it here to cnbc to test it out. uber increased their drivers but you think uber also said they'll be taking a smaller portion of that used to take about 20% to 25% of each ride. now 18.75% to incentivize drivers. but i want to bring up another company that's changing the pace of how things could go revel. they announced they'll be launching 50 ev models in new york and they are going to actually hire their drivers. they'll not be contractors and i think that could be something in a headwind in the future for uber because the labor issues, these revel drivers will get health care,

benefits still a constant issue labor with on the uber front >> michael, is there opportunity here i think about uber that ipo disappointing lyft it wasn't disappointing at first but hasn't gone far since. and then everyone is waiting for didi you saw what the chinese government did to help out after that ipo is this a moment to jump in the back with these stocks or let the car go by? >> well, i think if you are a very long-term investor and you look past just ride sharing or uber's business in terms of being a substitute for taxis, uber is really moving towards basically a service business where they essentially are an on-demand fedex service for all products and services. that's where uber is headed. this whole driver thing is really kind of noise in the meantime while they've moved to that space i share your skepticism about the model in terms of the uber

passenger business because i just don't think that's going to work long term, particularly as autonomous vehicles come online. so i think that's what you have to really look at. if you are looking at uber, these type of names, it's essentially on-demand fedex service. what's that worth? that's what investors need to be pricing in terms of companies like uber and lyft >> it seems like delivering people should be a more premium, higher pay experience than delivering groceries and takeout, but i'm not sure that's translating in the way that, i mean, this technology, which sort of came on with the smartphone and gps, it's a great example of building on top of the iphone's innovation. it seems to be stalling in a way. >> i actually missed the first half of the question because my internet is just completely stalled, but i am going to say that i have been very interested in how uber is going to take and building up what was just said, how they're going to take the

growth that they had during the pandemic around uber eats and as you guys mentioned delivery, just of goods, and see if they can convert that to actual riders, if people started using the app during the pandemic. do they move to using that and what do they go beyond as, just as you have been talking about, a taxi as a ride-sharing service. >> a lot of people answering neither half of the question so you're good. next up -- >> i really have no idea what you said >> it made sense, though adding new search functions to keep people up to date on covid requirements at businesses users can search using proof of vaccination required or all staff fully vaccinated it's part of yelp's effort to make it easier for businesses to communicate policies earlier this week new york became the first major u.s. city to require proof of vaccination to enter gyms, restaurants and other indoor venues beginning in september. christina, depending on the --

whether your state is red or blue or i guess maybe your zip code, people seem to have very different feelings and businesses about vaccination requirements and mask requirements but i guess being able to search by that is going to be good either way >> it may not because it could put your company -- your company could become a target and that's because we can't underestimate the size of the anti-vax movement and one of the comments yelp did mention is review bombings if you go on there and your small mop and pop company says we're going to require vaccines and then people leave horrible reviews, that makes you a target yelp will be very reactive, not proactive. they'll try to pull down these bad reviews and they've already removed 4,500 of them, but the news will already get out there. the bad reviews will already get out there and that's a little concerning >> all right well, finally, the delta variant

and spiking covid cases throwing a wrench in companies' return to work plans and creating a need for exit strategies in case firms have to pivot. >> there's a bunch of service. they are seeing a lot of corporations are unsure of how to move forward and that's because so many employees are hesitant about returning to work they don't want to come into the newsroom into their office and then we have another survey just here at cnbc that focused on the number of people that are going to be -- i should say employers requiring mask mandates. and that's 79% from our recent survey so overall, though, the interesting point that i found in this research is we keep talking about mask mandates, vaccine mandates but not, what do we do if things don't work at all? what's our exit strategy >> joanna, you're in the office. you don't have a long string of florescent ceiling light at home >> i enemam in the office rightw and the wifi isn't very good

here so i should go back home. every company and every employee need a go back a work from home or work from the office go bag and that's where their office is. it's in the bag. you don't know if you're going to the office one week or working from home another week that's how i think volatile, the situation we're in. >> have a go back, michael >> we've announced we're going to keep everybody out of the office until january there's just too much uncertainty. and when we go back, we'll go massive hybrid we're only going to have people come back to the office two days a week and three days remote which has been very well received but i think as you have seen, many companies are really starting to reverse their policies because they were just too aggressive and it's better to be more conservative than aggressive considering what's happening with covid >> get a go back, everybody. right now. "rapid fire" is going to go.

thanks, everybody. and now let's turn to pizza. shares of papa john's higher today after delivering stronger than expected results. also announced an expanded partnership to push further into international markets. sk joining me is rob lynch, the ceo of papa john's and our own kate rogers >> thank you for joining us today. >> hi, kate. great to be here thank you for having me. >> jon just mentioned this international expansion, opening up new locations is a big story for the company this quarter this new partnership with drake food service international for the 220 new locations to be opened overseas in the next few years. talk to us about the whiteface you see internationally and here in the u.s >> yeah, you know, as one of the largest delivery pizza companies on the planet, we have a lot more white space than a lot of our competitors. we're in about 50 countries internationally. a lot of our competitors are in

about 100. even in the markets we're in, we're underpenetrated in markets like china we can easily put 1,000 restaurants there. lots of opportunity in latin america, the middle east, continental europe domestically, historically we've felt like we were a little built out here but only about 3,400 restaurants relative to our peer group, which has closer to 6,000. a lot of opportunity to go out and build. and franchisees are more excited than ever because their unit economics have significantly improved over the last two years. they've got a lot of capital to reinvest back into the business. that means growth for our brand, growth for our business. we're really excited about the development opportunities we see moving forward >> let's talk a bit about labor supply it's historically tied in the restaurant industry in particular papa john's works with all the different delivery aggregators has that alleviated any of the labor pressure you're seeing in the market >> it's definitely helped. great partnerships with all of

the major national aggregators over the last six months, labor markets have really tightened up, and we've tried to make sure that we're an employer of choice by extending bonuses and benefits above and beyond what we've done in the past but the aggregators have definitely filled in where we've been short staffed our restaurant operators and franchisees have partnered with them it's a symbiotic relationship where we can provide trips for them and they can come in when we need drivers. >> we talked last quarter about tightness also in the supply chain. how that was trickling down to some of your restaurants have you seen any of that get any better in recent weeks and months >> yeah, we've definitely seen some inflation come into the p&l, particularly in the proteins, in the paper for the cardboard boxes our pizza is shipped in so it's definitely put some cost pressure in. but we've been able to mitigate that through delivering innovation that's premium innovation that allows our

customers to sell, select more premium items which drives some benefit for us that's mitigated some of the commodity and our p&l is in really good shape right now. >> delta and covid cases in general tick up around the country, are you noticing any changes in consumer behavior the company, the stock such winners because so many turned to delivery and carryout any consumer behaviors starting to modify as things get worse around the country >> it's been such a roller coaster ride obviously, with the onset of the pandemic, behavior changed and people were -- as people quarantined and moved inside, our business thrived there and we have been watching really closely as markets have opened back up what the impact of that reopening has been and we've continued to persevere we've continued to do great. our sales growth has maintained and our customers we gained in 2020 and throughout the pandemic have been coming back in 2021. the delta variant is, you know, a few weeks really taking hold

we haven't seen really a significant change in our business we'll continue to monitor that, though but we think that we built a foundation that can persevere through the pandemic or the reopening. >> rob lynch, we have to leave it there papa john's ceo. thanks for joining us and congrats on the quarter. >> kate, thank you very much >> thank you, kate, as well. yes, coming up -- one company is changing its ticker to avoid crypto confusion that's next. and you miss us sometimes but you can catch the show any time, anywhere by listening to and following "the exchange" podcast. we're back in a moment

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ welcome back to "the exchange." the market is moving higher ahead of tomorrow's key jobs report here are some movers on this hour higher in their fewer shares than planned and priced its shares at $14. that's below the expected range. still, it's hoping to build on the succeed its traders have

seen they have yet to post a day of losses meanwhile, ethan allen is switching its ticker that change goes into effect on august 16th. ethereum, by the way, is up nearly 20% since monday, on pace for its best week since may. still ahead, new jersey hopes to get $12 billion from the infrastructure bill. we'll talk to the democrat from the garden state and cochair of the problem solves caucus, next.

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welcome back $1.1 trillion infrastructure bill making its way through the senate the subsequent vote in the house might not be so simple, as progressive democrats have complained about the fate of the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill supposedly on deck. here is what ted cruz had to say about the support for new spending earlier today on

"squawk on the street. >> if bill were the only bill we were moving, if this bill was being offered in exchange for the massive $3.5 trillion tax-and-spend bill, i think you would get very widespread, if not overwhelming support for this bill. >> joining me now, congressman josh, co-chair of the problem solvers caucus can you solve this problem, even if it's intraparty, and get this one done >> i think we we coming out of the senate, which i think is bipartisan, as you pointed out, either this week or next week will head to the house. the president is behind it the country is behind it we're desperate to invest in our infrastructure this has gone on too long where we waited to get something done. i don't believe we're going to let anything muck it up.

i'm optimistic this will get done. >> why the confidence? bipartisan might actually be easier than intraparty during these times even though we're facing some challenges you know, i think the reason i'm optimistic is the fact that, a, you have so many democrats and republicans in the senate agrees on this, the problem saufrs caucus, which 29 democrats, 29 republicans in the house, we've been working very closely with our senate colleagues, democrats and reps, building toward this agreement. what was incredible is how much common ground there is here, and when you go home, you hearfrom your constituents, which is the people we work for, the residents and families in my district, how much they want us to get something done. i know that's something a lot of my colleagues are hearing. there's a lot of momentum to get this over the finish line.

this is one of those -- and whether this jobs and the economy fixing rails and roads are -- all the electric vehicles we can get on the road because of this. there's so much behind this, so much momentum, i believe it will get done. >> so give some color to that, both what you're hearing from constituents and what local officials in new jersey, you think, will be likely to do with that $12 billion that would come from this? what sorts of things besides the roads and bridges when people think of would come to a place like new jersey, if this goes through? especially after this covid, we haven't had the riders we normally would have. obviously it's very good for the environment, a third of the bridges in new jersey are

considered unsafe. that's a huge issue. third-worst roads in the country, that means tougher commutes at night, and it also means in the morning, you know, you're late for work, and that hurts of economy a lot of reasons to get these things done. then as you point out, there's huge water issues, and so many of our schools and the last going to the homes and the old pipes that are lead coated, and other come cal have to be addressed. we still have a lot of families that have basic dial-up. it might be a hybrid situation, but still need to get productive work done to -- it's about -- it's obviously about seeing a doctor it's a very big issue, broadband, and we saw it up-front this is going to help connect

all those people that are underserved. in jersey, it's very big for jersey we're talking about billions that will come to states like mine for highways, for public transit, for broadband it's really going to make a very big difference our infrastructure is literally crumbling around us. i was at a bridge the other -- in new jersey, it has been crumbling for years. there are pieces that fall off the bridge you know, cars underneath, it's dangerous, and on top of that, we live in the greatest country in the world there's no reason why our infrastructure should be like this, from a competitiveness standpoint china last year spent $3.5 trillion on infrastructure outside of china here we are fighting to get something to move forward. now we have to get this done. >> for reasons our viewers know, they don't have to worry about bipartisanship or intraparty

wrangling, but we like democracy and capitalism congressm man gottheimer, thank you. >> i'm for all of it that will do it for "the exchange." "power lunch" starts right now with tyler mathisen and courtney reagan. >> if congressman gottheimer can fix that -- we're an hour away from president biden's big meeting with auto executives on the agenda, new ev targets s we have a top analyst to join us. >> and doubling down on denim. jean and apparel maker