reacting today. kneel kashkari, the latest fed president calling for an earlier start to scaling back easing money policies. details straight ahead. plus, another busy morning for retail earnings. we'll bring you numbers from lowe's and target as well as an exclusive interview with target ceo brian cornell. wednesday, august 18th, 2021 and "squawk box" begins right knew. good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. we're live at the crossroads of the world. right now i'm outside at the crossroads of the world sitting at times square where we are

awaiting brian cornell take a look at u.s. equity futures at this hour yesterday was a down day for the markets. it was a rare down day the first day in five sessions that we had seen down days for the s&p and dow. s&p was off by 0.7%. it may not sound like a lot. to put things in perspective, that's the worst performance we've seen for the s&p for a month's time that's the steady climb upward all of those three are indicated down this morning. the dow futures down by 90 points take a look at treasury yields you can see at least now it looks like the 10-year yield is sitting at 1.267%. it's staying there despite all of this talk >> should be interesting

kashkari, i'm surprised, aren't you? >> yeah. >> there were times when he was saying things it's like he seemed like he went a little bit too far though especially with his history. >> too dovish? >> yeah. and with his sister which you'd think part of what he and paulsen and everybody else et al was dealing with, is it the narrative that the fed ras too easy for too long? i don't know >> yeah, but you have to remember, joe, neel was the break the glass plan he was a throw everything at it kind of guy. so -- >> and what's happening now? what's happening now because you look at the 10-year. the 10-year is not acting like this is time to taper.

10-year seems like it's saying, you know, that there are delta growth worries that's a nice shot there, becky, that you have there. >> why, thank you. >> you're very welcome you did very well setting up that shot. >> it was all me >> nice night. it still is night. >> morning almost morning >> yeah, it's a nice morning for this elsewhere, there is an announcement from the biden administration expected today unveiling the covid vaccine booster program. officials are expected to call for a third covid vaccine shot for americans who are fully vaccinated with the pfizer or the moderna jab. and it will be about eight months after the second dose i did the math i'm not that far off that would be october.

quickly defuse, february is 2 plus 8 is 10. >> always good at math. >> you're right, i was always good at math supposedly you're like got some serious arsenal, antibody arsenal. the more antibodies i've got, the happier i'll be. i'm ready. >> the happier the rest of us will be, too >> if i catch it comes anywhere near me, back off. the tsa has extended a federal requirement that travelers wear masks on flights, buses and trains it's the latest sign that they're concerned. airline executives says most comply with mask it's tied to those who are allegedly worried to wear masks.

airlines are saying don't use duct tape on passengers. >> on passengers >> on masks? >> that's too much wrapping yourself in duct tape, you probably thought about that. that might be too much no, this is -- there's a picture of someone that they -- i guess if you're really bad, you haven't landed -- >> right. >> -- you don't know what the hell else with them? >> what are they supposed to do with them. there was a woman who tried to open the door when they were in flight there was another guy -- i mean, the level of unruliness with passengers is not just people refusing to wear masks some have gotten up, gotten violent and do things that would damage people on the plane, other people. >> what about those -- >> what's your option? >> i don't know. i don't know it all scares me it reminds me of like you know when you find and pull some over

and you find the ties. >> the twisty ties. >> there's no way if you're in one of those you're getting out. >> here's the deal you have flight attendants who are expected to be the bouncers in the air that's a little ridiculous what are they supposed to do at that point >> i agree i agree. i know >> you know, if someone brings a baby in first class, you don't get unruly though. that's my only point some unruliness is justified, andrew, am i right >> never never, never, even with -- put your ear plugs in. put your headphones on. >> oh, well that's a new you the new, improved andrew that's good. we said to you all along put in your ear phones -- >> hold on if not duct tape, what's the answer >> i don't know.

you're talking about restraints. does it matter whether there's other scary things that, you know, serial killers use? i don't know i don't know what you use. let's talk lowe's because we're not going to solve this. >> let's. >> they've got a lot of issues they've got a lot of issues to sort out i wanted to ask you, sorkin. in new york, you need a card what about the fake cards? do they have a better online method that's standardized that we can use in a lot of different cities for restaurants asking for vaccinations >> so my understanding is you're supposed to use this excelsior pass it's an app on your past it gives you a little bit of a quiz to figure out you're you, whether you know what hospital to and then it's a qr code

at the same time i do think you can show your physical card so maybe that's not a new one >> fake i.d.s on this score. could be one in texas but not in new york. >> what do you mean? >> i think if you -- if you go out in the streets of new york right now, there are a lot of people wearing masks i don't think it's -- i think as a city, as a group, i wouldn't say much more cliompliant, but given what they went n, there' such a muscle memory that people are not -- i don't think there's a mask fighting, vax fighting situation in new york relative to other places in the country. >> what did you say? >> kind of stereotypical, too.

>> against the state of texas? >> just to say we're on the state of new york, we won't cheat on our cards but i won't trust the people in texas. i don't know >> vaccination rate -- >> first of all, they're not going to have a requirement. >> lowe's. >> we can talk about governor abbott if you'd like >> are you geuilting him for getting it what do you want to say about him? >> he's double vaxxed. double vaxxed. >> yes but i think one of the things we've learned about this pandemic and specifically this delta variant is just being double vaxxed unto itself unfortunately is not enough. unfortunately he became a victim of that. i honestly wish his health very, very well. the decisions that he made on

behalf of school children and teachers and the citizens of that state i would argue to you, it has been a isturbance that's my own take >> yeah. i figured that the last thing i want to even talk about take us out of here. >> what happened to lowe's >> lowe's, we're going to talk to brian about. >> expect it. >> if he measures up in terms of being a good human being we'll see whether we can talk to brian about that i'm not sure we're going to ask him and see if he can give us a star >> coming up on the other side of the break, neel kashkari calling on the fed to wind down easy money policies. this year we are going to learn more about the central bank's thinking we'll dig into the fed's move after the break. target set to report we'll bring you the numbers and the exclusive interview with the

numbers. brian cornell will join becky on the "squawk" terrace this morning. "squawk box" returns right after this

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the minutes from the latest fed meeting due today at 2 p.m. amid some new calls for an earlier wind down of some easy money policies that should be a different word than minutes, steve. we talk about it for hours after we see it. that doesn't really do t. senior economics reporter, head of the liesmaniacs with his latest

liesmania report you know what i'm saying though? it's only minutes but it just drags on forever it seems like >> unless you're very interested in the topic, joe, in which case it seems like it passes in seconds. >> not enough time not enough time. >> not enough time kashkari -- >> it's surprising 60 seconds -- >> what happened >> the 60 seconds, joe, that i have to deliver this report are quickly dwindling away let me just tell you that the minutes -- they're going to be three weeks old in both the data and comments from fed officials. they've progressed since then and they should still provide some clues to monetary policy. as we've reported this week, the fed is coalescing around a plan to announce the plan to reduce asset purchases so we look to the minutes for some information on how much support there is for the earlier taper, which is september. how much concern there was about inflation not being so temporary and, of course, the impact of

the delta variant. fed chair jay powell at the press conference said they reviewed different opinions and there could be details in there. yesterday powell said it remains to be seen what impact the delta variant will have on the economy. >> the pandemic has continued. as the people and businesses have improvised. it's not yet clear whether the delta strain will have important effects on the economy we'll have to see about that >> markets will look to the minutes for how much confidence officials and fed staff, by the way, have in the idea of transitory inflation if that view is weakened, it could suggest more there are the minutes in 60 seconds. >> if they say 60 seconds, you're like, i can't do it, i need more time, you can always -- just text me or

something. i'm -- we have three hours, steve. we have three hours. >> thanks for that >> we have three hours. >> they're really tough in the back room on me sometimes, joe they want to get on to more talk about mask shaming and those sorts of things. >> thanks, steve let's bring in kevin nicholson, global fixed income ceo. it would be nice, kevin, your firm won't let you they say you've got to manage money whichever way you can for clients. you're stuck with equities too at this point you continue to favor domestic equities? >> we continue to favor domestic equities it's been that way for the last two years. the reason for that is you see earnings revisions going up.

we think equities continue to grind higher. >> the latest fed speak and what you heard steve talking about, i looked at your notes and what you're feeling i don't think you would be surprised. you don't fight the fed but just know that the writing's on the wall that at some point in the future we're going to get more serious about possibly tape perfecting >> right, joe. what we're seeing is jackson hole is going to be the two-minute warning for the fed we continue to believe that september will be the announcement the fed has said they want to give the markets plenty of lead time and we think that if it's september is the announcement of the taper, then that gives you two months until you start tape perfecting in november so, you know, jackson hole as we see it is the two-minute warning

for the beginning of the tapering >> you point out and i don't know if it had a pretty solid season, you didn't get the bounce from numbers that could be the next one. >> a large part of that, a lot of the earnings has been brought forward. so, you know, market has rallied because they saw the growth that was going to come through in second quarter earnings. the problem that we face is that going forward what is going to be that catalyst everyone has said for the last 16 months or so that there's no other alternative. equities has won out

you have yields that have come back down. the bond market is telling us they're worried about growth that's why we see the 10 year below 1.5% equities, 10-year is at 126. s&p, the dividend yield on the s&p right now is about 135 so i would continue to like equities over fixed income you have more up side potential. we are seeing earnings revisions go up for our 2022, for next year we're seeing s&p operating earnings if you put the current multiple on there, close to 3900 on the s&p. >> thanks.

are you -- are your offices in downtown richmond? i'm an expert on anything on i-95 now, the entire corridor. there is a rush hour problem that i just dealtwith on monda in richmond. >> yes. >> are you back in the office? >> yes we're -- we have a hybrid model going on in the office now. in downtown richmond at 8 a.m., i needed to get through there and around there i was unable to. we spent a night in chester. i like richmond. >> you were ten minutes away from my house, joe. >> in chester? >> no kidding. >> yeah. >> i should have told you about that. >> you're going to have to call me next time. >> i will. i will all right. kevin nicholson. >> all right. >> river front cio of fixed

income but you do it all and we appreciate it. see you later. >> thanks for having me. coming up, target set to report the numbers in an excluts sieve with the company's brian and yesterday's winners and losers folks the world's first fully autonomous vehicle is almost at the finish line today we're going to fine tune the dynamic braking system whoo, what a ride! i invested in invesco qqq a fund that invests in the innovators of the nasdaq 100 like you

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as of now, federal flood insurance is based on a property's 1% annual chance of flooding and its elevation under the new model fema will look a the the home's replacement cost, whether the risk is rainfall, river or coastal flooding and how close the property is to the source of that potential flooding and most importantly, fema will now factor in future catastrophic

modeling from climate change, including sea level rise, drought, and wildfire. >> it's a complete transform maugs afion of the risk for your property >> someone in florida with a million dollar home and someone in montana with a $200,000 home is paying the same even though their risk is decidedly different. rates will go up for some and down for others. >> it's just important that we address that inequity that the lower value homes shouldn't be subsidizing the higher value homes going forward. >> changing that, however, will inevitably change the value of some homes matthew evay founded first street. >> depending how much that goes up will correlate perfectly to the value of the home for any new home buyer who comes in and

says, this home looks great but now i have to pay 6,000 or $10,000 for home insurance. >> now 30% of the homeowners are not in mandatory fema flood zones. they buy it voluntarily. they could see some of the bigger price increases because their homes have higher values all of it is necessary not just because of the program fema's been hit and many tonight have flood insurance. >> when you think about placing and whether there will be a material impact? >> i think the pricing will go up ksz w

up, yes. a lot of those you will see the premiums go up in the fall when fema is going up for the reauts thor ryization with congress, they're putting forth proposals with how maps are made >> if you get to this, will it substantially change the value of the homes that's the big question. how big an impact that has >> right that's what we were talking about. if i'm buying a home and i see i have to pay more flood insurance on it than i'm required to than i thought i had to pay for, then i want to pay less for that home it absolutely changes the value of some homes. for some it makes the home value even higher because they're paying less for flood insurance than they may have had to. the input costs of the home changes the value of the home. >> you say the actual flood zones aren't changing but we are seeing more disasters outside of

those zones. why aren't they changing those >> reporter: they're congressly mandated every five years they are reassessed this fall they will look at how they determine those flood zones and how often they do because of climate change they're getting administration reform and they'll go hard in the fall to change that. >> diana olick, it's a longer conversation i'm fascinated there are so many other issues related to private insurance more to come thanks becky, over to you thanks, andrew wait a second. looks like target's numbers are just hitting let's get to these before we go to a break want to take a look quickly. earnings are just out from target adjusted earnings a share came in at $3.64 a share. the street was only looking for $3.49. revenue also slightly above and

then you have the comp sales, up 8 mown be point 9% versus 8.9. that's at the high end of the private guidance it's looking at the full year margin rate to be higher a lot of the numbers you'll watch. i'm not entirely sure why the stock is down. i tonight see any numbers that aren't better than expectations. similar to with home depot and walmart. let me talk a little bit more about the numbers. the cominp sales were up 8.7% they say it was driven almost entirely by traffic, more people coming back into stores. comps with 8.7% and came on top of 10.9% last year

digital comp sales grew as well. a year ago is when people weren't going into the stores, they were buying everything online they were led by same day services, order pickup, drive up and pick up your things and shipped which is same day delivery that's been nearly 65% that's on top of all of it that's cheaper if you're fulfilling through the stores it's cheaper than fulfilling through somebody else. >> looks similar to the reaction of home depot. >> home depot yesterday? >> yeah. it's like good it's like the best of world. people are going back to stores.

people look at that initially. you'll see a similar target. 8, 9, $10 is not that much on a percentage basis. >> it's up 89%. >> the average transaction was down like at home depot, too, down 3.4%. >> right. >> i don't know what that means. >> it means that people are maybe spending less in terms of increases, that maybe the shopping basket is not as big but they have more people coming into the store the board of directors approving a new 50-year period you can go into the store every week maybe some of the transactions aren't as big because it's not

as much as the online component. >> the drop in the stock has pared back some. now it's off 2.6%. again, just looking through the numbers, one the most important things, what are they seeing in terms of sourcing. do they have to pay more for it. that's the question, if you have to pay more toget things into the stores, does that cut into your profits that would seem to make some of those concerns dissipate we'll talk more about all of those things all of this coming up in a little bit target shares are down by 3% right now. we do have an exclusive interview with ceo brian cornell coming up in a few minutes. first, we'll tell you about

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good morning welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc we're going to show you the futures now. dow off 80 points. the nasdaq looking to power higher s&p 500 off about 3.5 points a bunch of earnings coming in this morning a section of palantir's earnings we can tell you about. the company revealed it bought $50 million in gold bars in august as a potential hedge against economic uncertainty spurred by the pandemic. palantir said it purchased and will keep it in its facilities the company did not respond to requests for comments on the investment

peter thiel has been a bit of a crypto bug, not gold bug interesting to see him buy physical gold. i'm curious what crypto worlds will think of that when we come back, brian cornell will join becky on the terrace at the nasdaq. then dr. scott gottleib will join us to weigh in on the extension of the mask mandate on planes throughout the business holiday season so much coming up. don't go anywhere. we'll be back after this

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more moderate members of her caucus they say they're going to move forward with voting on the budget blueprint for the $3.5 trillion health care, education and climate package rejecting demands from a group of centrist lawmakers. the first vote on the trillion dollar infrastructure bill speaker pelosi sent a letter asking them to pass the budget

blueprint. >> it's going to be tricky, joe. we spoke with congressman scott gottheimer they said, wait a second, we want infrastructure dealt with you'll see there are nine of them that signed that. they can only afford three defect shuns it will be a battle to see which side wins out. when we come back target ceo brian cornell is here with us at the nasdaq site. we're getting ready to talk about everything that just happened here. target came out with great numbers. the stock sold off i don't get it we're going to talk about what's happening here stock off by 3.5%. we'll talk about all of this when we come right back. hey lily, i need a new wireless plan for my business, but all my employees need something different.

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target just out with quarterly results. joining us to talk about it is target's chairman and ceo brian cornell. great to have you today. thank you for joining us looking at these results, every number was better than the street was anticipating. you raised your guidance to the higher end of what you had previously given for previous guidance range you're looking at operating margin rate of 8% and higher these are incredibly strong numbers and yet the stock is selling off. what can you tell us about that? >> i can't tell you about that this morning, becky. the team has delivered strong results.

we delivered growth on top of growth we've been doing that consistently for years really strong traffic in our stores great store comps. really solid performance we're putting 8, 9 comp in the quarter on top of 24% last year. that was historically high >> right not what people expect, right? >> i feel really good about our performance. >> you said a lot of this was coming back. comparable sales growth was driven entirely by traffic what are you seeing in the stores >> well, store traffic and traffic overall grew by almost 13% so clearly consumers are back out they're physically shopping in stores inside of target each and every day. i think the investments we made during the pandemic in safety and making sure we provided our guest which is a safe shopping experience, we built trust and the guests continue to reward us

they're in our stores. still using our digital channel. i thought our second quarter was perhaps one of the best in retail >> let me just poke at a couple of things. you tell bhee it digital comparable sales were up by 10% people have gotten used to last year's 195% growth >> two year stack looks pretty good >> right. >> is there anything that you see that concerns you? i guess let me just poke at something else somebody said -- joe was pointing out that the average transaction was down a little bit. does that mean people are spending less or does that mean they're coming in more frequently >> with traffic up 13%, they're seeing us more often with americans out, they're physically seeing us more. they're shopping all of our categories rnl that digital number, but the same day services, drive up, pick up, shift, they were you up

55%. >> there are a lot of people wondering how things are going because they're seeing the delta variant growing. >> we're off to a strong start a lot of that is back to school shopping and back to college shopping and we're a destination for back to school and back to college. the quarter is off to a strong start. we're not seeing any slowdown. >> it's not a behavior change at this point >> not at all. america, we're mor i think america, we are more cautious i'm seeing a resilient consumer out shopping and getting back to life back to school and back to college. with he think they'll go back to celebrating halloween. they are excited about the halloween season they'll be cautious. we are expecting a strong

holiday season we will continue to see a really strong growth. >> people who have said, if you want to buy your holiday gifts, you should have bought them yesterday. it's going to be really hard to keep the store shelves stocked this year. is that the case >> our team has done a terrific job maneuvering through this challenging environment. our inventory is up $2.5 million we are getting access to that inventory. stores are ready for the school season, college season we'll be ready for the holidays. >> you already have this stuff >> we have a lot of inventory coming our way right now >> in attterms of getting that merchandize, does it cost you more >> our size and scale, the relationships we have with vendors is a benefit right now

if you look at our back to school, 80% are priced under $10. and a lot is $1. we are making sure the assortment is affordable and that we are walking hand in hand with guests getting ready to go back to school a year ago, it was hand sanitizer and backyard pools >> we saw big growth in apparel as america goes out to restaurants. we are seeing more backpacks and lu lunch boxes. those key items, they are back in the bass ket right now. all of those traditional items

are back in the basket >> is it different apparent a year or longer, it was pajamas and workout clothes and socks. >> you are seeing more ready to wear we are getting dressed again it is nice to wear a tie and sit here with you in person in new york city. we are all anxious to get back to life. >> some of the things you've done is new partnerships ulta, you've opened 50 stores within stores. >> err will i reaction has been fabulous we'll open 100 this month. and more to come those partnerships are important. those partnerships with disney, apple, levis and now ulta. that is driving traffic to our stores and visiting the sites. i've got to get you out to one of those to see ulta inside of a target >> another issue is trying to get enough people into work.

you rolled out some really new initiatives where you are doing things like paying for college for associates my kids even asked about this. what's the catch >> i'll go back to the conversation you and i had years ago about the investment we are making into our business we put a lot of capital into the stores, new stores and advancements in services like drif up and pick up but the biggest and most important is in our steam. we made a commitment in 2017 to get to a starting minimum wage of $15 we've done that. we've been paying bonuses over the pandemic a couple of weeks ago, we provided another $200 to all front-line team members. another $75 million investment now this important investment in education which i think can change lives going back to get

that high school degree, college courses or invest in a masters program. we think we can change lives it is one more way to invest in our team and give them an opportunity for rewarding careers with target. >> is it hard to find employees right now. >> we've built great relationships. we are not seeing the turnover i think because we've invested the culture in place, the caring and winning and working together, that's really connecting we haven't had labor problems. we are seeing a team really engaged and they like to win when we are seeing traffic in our stores, that team feels really good about it and they should be proud. all of the results are a byproduct of the work the teams do each day in our stores, in full fillment channels

this is a team effort. we are building great engagement >> how do you manage inflation we are seeing it everywhere. how do you manage that >> it is work we do each and every day. our portfolio is a real benefit for us we have great partnerships with national vendors we are in apparel and home we have a great essentials business and food and beverage looking at all of those to make sure each and every time you shop at target, the value is there and you feel really good about engaging with our team >> a list of worries from covid to inflation to labor. is there anything you worry about? >> i worry about all of those. i wake up every day with a list of worries i worry about covid.

we put together a task force all the way back in january of 2020. we meet almost every day to talk about what's happening with covid state-by-state and across the globe. i meet with our team to make sure we have the right value embedded but i feel really good about our strategy, capabilities and experience of our team that gives me great confidence that we'll continue to perform well into it the balance of this year and next year >> that's great. >> always nice to see you. >> thank you brian cornell, ceo of target when we come back, new york city now requiring vaccines for indoor dining. the new keta on these rules. that's straight ahead.

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fed minutes as retail earnings roll on building the case for booster shots. and no vax

no service new york's new restaurant mandate goes into effect today the second hour of "squawk box" begins rightnow. good morning take a look at u.s. equity futures this hour the dow looking like it would open down. s&p 500500 largely in the green at this moment earnings out from retailer target becky just talked to the ceo adjusted earnings have come in revenue was slightly above wall

street forecast. store sales up com8.9% comparedo an estimate of 8.8%. >> we deliver growth on top of growth really strong traffic in our stores great store comps on top of 24% last year. that was historically high >> another look at that stock. take a look at where things are. it had come down a little bit. still off 2.6% taiwan semiconductor now overtaking tencent to become

china's largest firm chip maker stocks have been gaining amid the global shortage as of this morning a market cap of $538 billion followed by tencent at $536 billion and alibaba. shares dropped hitting its lowest level since october 2019. joe, we always talk about whether you are missing the train. the train went backwards so, get in if you think it is an opportunity. >> that train has gone around the world a couple of times. do you remember where we were. like $2,200 or 18 or something >> if you want to get to an alibaba train, you can get into a time machine today and pretend you are in 2019. >> the last time that happened,

superman had to fly around backwards. >> you are dating yourself >> again >> yes >> meantime, this other piece of news for you republican senator marco rubio renewing his call for tic toc to be banned in the united states calling on the biden association and in june, president biden revoked the ban. it sounds like we'll be talking about tic toc again in the context of china and potentially national security. joe? >> we will becky, how could that not be an

advantage? to have seen everything that anti-boomers have seen i've seen all the stuff that the millennials and the generation x. i've also seen all the other stuff. how can that not be an advantage? >> wisdom is an advantage. >> how can they look a skans when they know more about however boards >> come on you thought the same thing about your parents at one point. you don't realize how smart your parents are until you are older. >> when i was going to school uphill both ways, no, i didn't >> joe, borrowers backed away as higher interest rates chilled the revieflales back over 3.9%

as a result refinance applications fell 5% and were 8% lower than one week from a year ago. the eligible pool of homeowners who stand to benefit are higher now. applications to buy a home fell 1% and were 19% lower than one week a year ago. home buyers have been pulling back as affordability weakens. you can see that in the size of the average home which is close to a record high we'll get the record housing starts and builder sentiment again due to that affordability sentiment. >> thank you investors will be pouring over the fed's minutes release this afternoon to any indication when they'll start to taper the bond buying program steve, we'll be looking at these

minutes but they are how hold now? i feel like things have changed from six weeks ago sn. >> we've had additional reporting. looking at the details about what they are talking about. short, medium or long, we look to the options and clues of what kind of taper. there should be some detail in there. maybe because of the over $120 billion. the potential time line and what becky is talking about used to be november, december for the announcement now they are talking the possibility of the september announcement and the discussion of the length of the taper of 8 to 10 months and looking at how

quickly they bring down those mortgages. how fast it is all done. the fed will reduce asset purchases. it begins tapering in october. it will still buy $660 billion pushing the balance sheet up at the moment, markets givethe fed the benefit of the doubt despite the opportunity, little movement of the expectation that rate hike comes at the end of next year. >> i think because the talk of the taper is still so gradual, i don't think it would surprise too many to say maybe we start this taper as it goes slowly, what's happened this week has changed the perception they don't feel the gradual taper. it doesn't feel like it? >> especially if you think there is some momentum to the ee

cou con my the fed is not hot this year they'll still add more than a 4 half a trillion. there is no talk of running that down at all and talking about a rate hike until the end of next year maybe you pull that forward. big deal the bigger issue is what's going on in the p b-- bond market if you see more impact of the delta variant and the economy coming >> we've spoken to brian cornell. not just the numbers they've recorded not seen that yet. maybes that one read of what's happening from the economy from

the front lines. steve, thank you we'll talk to you a little later. >> andrew. thank you. coming up, cushing the covid surge. new york city mandating the vaccine at eateries and venues we'll talk to the owner of star restaurant groups. let's get a check on the markets. the dow off 44 points. nasdaq looking to open about 32 points higher. the s&p up mbeay a little over a half a point we are back after this in our effort to build the world's safest cars. we've created crumple zones and autonomous braking. active lane keeping assist and blind spot assist. we've introduced airbags, side curtain airbags, and now the first-ever rear-mounted front-impact airbags. all in the hope that you never need any of it. ♪ ♪

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new york's vaccination requirement has gone into effect the most aggressive step taken to curb a surge of the delta variant. consumers will have to show prove of vaccinations at those part of the starr restaurant group. joining us now and how he sees it impacting his business is steven starr, founder and ceo. looking at the papers. mostly saying the same thing

g grumbling, griping but most people in the business, even co karping. support in e-mails and letters and the occasional whacky email telling us we are violating their constitutional rights. the staff can't wait all of new york is behind it most northeast cities. in this part of the country, it is a win/win, for sure >> give us a snap shot of where we were not with this latest news but we were closed down it was awful a complete resurgence maybe

three months ago where are we right now with the latest fears and the delta variant? >> we went -- when this first started, i truly believed this was all over when could they have this vaccine. i thought it would be years, then there was a miracle of the two or three vaccines. it was in the summer, happy days the banter you should never get too excited. it ain't over until it is over the variant hit us and it was like a stomach punch i think we have to have cautious optimism now let's be careful let's vaccinate ourselves.

it ain't over until it is over >> in terms of opening up, i've been in a lot of restaurants where there are plastic chains separating parts that are not open not because of covid but they don't have the support staff to serve all the customers. is that still manifested in any of your spots? >> yes it's the most bizarre, surreal thing i've ever seen i make the comparison to the avengers movie where hawk eye is there, everybody is there and he turns around and everyone is gone we have all these employees and all of a sudden, they are just gone they don't want to come back they don't exist it is very strange we can blame the unemployment checks we think that's part of it we are hoping there is not a

bigger reckoning >> you might hear you are dating yourself with that hawk eye reference. >> i get all these references too. it is okay to be old just makes us wiser. i had a question for you this mandate basically means kids underage 12 can't eat out in the city until the winter when vaccines become available for them is that a big deal do you have a lot of kids in the restaurant what does that mean? >> we are interpreting this as vaccinating everyone but with people under 12, we are going to let them in with masks that's our interpretation. if you know something more

specific than that, please share that >> i don't it is confusing. >> we've been told in new york vaccination. kids can come in mask them. in philadelphia, totally ridiculous you have the option of vaccination or all masks but kids under 12 can't come in. so that makes no sense they are sort of giving you incentives to not vaccinate and just mask. vaccination is key >> steven, given what we are now seeing the rise of breakthrough cases with the vaccination, what are you doing in regard to masking or not for employees >> we are having our employees mask for the time being.

i think people feel better, even if you get vaccinated 10 times, if you have masks on, i think you feel better. >> is that more in your mind for the employee's safety given that a waiter or waitress will spend lots of time with unmasked people or the safety of the customer or both >> i think both but more of the perception of the customer walking in knowing that his server is not only vaccinated but has a mask on too. >> then finally, i also wanted to ask you, given all the outdoor dining happening now in new york, how long do you think that will last and what will that do to help the business make up for all the lost revenue during the worst of the pandemic >> i thought it was all over and we were going to start taking

things down or limiting them i think we should keep them up invariantly until we are in the clear. i think there should be not police but some sort of standard or aesthetic police so some of them don't look junky. many of them, many of which are mine, look beautiful i think they have to be pleasant to look at and not poorly constructed. >> eventually, these measures will end in supporting people and causing people not to come back to work there are other things i think in your view are not going to end, that is people who want to go to work in a restaurant you may be permanently paying a

little bit more. does that mean, i don't think i can afford voodacon now. do you think you can get me a table? seriously, will prices be going up naturally because of the structure of the business? is. >> yes yes. i'm worried about this here we have the pandemic. here we have people wanting to get paid more. believe me people are negotiating the salaries way up because of the demand. the government has its minimum wage increases and food is going up already food costs are off the charts. so, yes, we'll be charging more money for food i'm a democrat but i don't -- business has to be looked at you have to have blinders on businesses can't just increasing costs. you can't increase cost, labor

without passing it on to the customer eventually with all the mandates and things going on, we'll be charging $49 for a piece of chicken. eventually, the customer is going to say, it is not worth going out to eat we have to be careful. i see a time when maybe people will think twice about going out to a restaurant if we don't get these costs under control. >> very good we'll have to leave it there good luck. >> thank you >> i've been to some of your spots. it is such an experience to go to a great place in new york maybe paris or something like that it is great. we want everything to get back >> thank you one other thing. in the end, we talk about gloom and doom, i do believe as bob marley once said, everything is going to be all right. >> i know some of bob marley's

sons, you must be much older than me. you are dating yourself. ziggy and others we'll have more on vaccinations and the delta variant with dr. scott gottlieb in just a bit >> we should all do an outdoor voodacon dinner. when we come back, facebook looking to jump into the digital wallet game with its app novi. a rare interview discussing the world of crypto. today's aflac trivia question, what year was roblox released? the aflac duck is just covering for sophie. same way he got me money to help cover her hospital bill

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welcome back here is the answer to the trivia question what year was roblox released?

the answer 2006. the concept first developed in 1997 first called dynablocks. still to come, facebook planning for a digital wallet novi. david marcus will be with us plus dr. scott gottlieb on the latest from child hospitalizations and the need for a booster. stay tuned

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welcome back to "squawk box. an update as facebook plans for its digital wallet novi. making the case for stable coins. he argues with proper regulations stable coins can unlock enormous opportunity for innovation joining us now, the cocreator. we were talking about something in the context of libra. i know it has been renamed

tell us where facebook stands and where you stand now on what this project is supposed to be >> good morning, andrew. it is actually diam. last time we spoke, we were just starting the journey we had this big vision for protocol of money on the and 25, companies that you know well and that you see often here. it is built its technology and network. it continues to engage with all of the regulators and policymakers around the world to make a case for the new network

and protocol for money that can fix the massive problems we are seeing today across the world with payment systems particularly here in the u.s. at home it feels like our payment systems are completely antiquated and leave so many people behind. it is so important to upgrade our systems and ensure we can lead our country when it comes to our payment systems >> the last time we spoke in the context of libra, you know the introduction did not go well there were lots of questions in watch. partners who joined and were no longer on board. questions about facebook and trusand what the role of facebook should be have you solved any of those issues >> i think we've solved most of

them if not all. if we rewind a little bit, libra was a big idea we had white paper, we had a big idea, we had partners that could help develop this and the building around the idea it started a healthy debate about the roll of stable coins and how these should be configured and regulated the process, it created a lot of healthy conversations and made the whole thing a lot better when i think about where we were then and where the project is now, i feel like it is night and day. the way the reserves are configured, the way the network is configured from a client standpoint, it is a different world. in the meantime, the world has

evolved in the last two years in a huge way stable coins and the rest of the cryptocurrency has exploded. we have a market cap across all the crypto assets in multiples of trillions now and the world has complete lid changed. our payment systems haven't evolved at all they haven't evolved in over 50 years. the problems we set to solve when we started this journey are still here today in the meantime, we have competition from china, from all over the world where some countries and companies are leading and we are falling behind that's why i'm back on this program as well because i feel like it is time to make a case for us to lead again now that we are ready to roll

our novi wallet and provide benefits for people to move money around the world for free. we feel it is time to make a case for it again. >> explain this. my mother on most days tries to watch the program a little bit she would say, explain stable coins. i'll ask you to explain and why you think they are important and why you think they are better as you say than a fiat currency >> they are not better at all things but definitely better for payments let me backtrack to make sure i take the time to do this right you have different types of cryptocurrencies leading the pack is bitcoin, which i see more of as an investment asset but not agrea

medium of exchange yet other coins which are highly volatile the problem is that they are not good medium of exchange because you have to make sure that the value of the asset you use or currency you use is really, really stable. stable coins were created. they are not all equal for every dollar someone purchases you have a reserve one for one backing that dollar. the call of those reserves change depending on what stable coins you use. for the very, very high quality ones, i would argue that they are safer or more stable than any existing wallet on fiat that are not as safe but are one for one backed

and to some extent, bank accounts that have a fdic backing. so stable coins are stable they keep a value. in the case of a lot of these, they are pegged to the dollar. you put a dollar in and you have the guarantee you have a dollar backing it so it retains the value to the dollar there is no new money creation because it is backed one for one, unlike private money when you use a credit card or all sorts of instruments we use for payments then the value those bring is you can now divorce this unit of a dollar we talked about from the existing rails that are costly, not incorruptible and not open and leave many behind the sole purpose in my mind is leveraging new rails, new

protocol for money on the internet that enables us to innovate, cut costs and bring people along >> david if you succeed if stable coin succeeds, tell me who loses? i'm assuming traditional banks, credit card companies, stripe? how do we think about that just so we understand what the landscape will look like >> it will create more competition in the payment world. the stack of payments is not all equal. there are a number of companie that take the value and little cut. there are also a number of players that take a big cut. the main culprit here is the fact that we don't have an open network. i often compare to telecoms.

back in the day, we paid 25 cents per minute, then the internet happened and enabled people to actually communicate for free in unlimited ways facebook played a big roll in that with whatsapp and messenger. before that, it was only the wealthier people who had an opportunity to communicate in an unlimited way. the value of stable coins and underlying rails, is to open up payment and innovation and those like ourselves who are challengers to come in and reduce cost and broaden access for people around the world which is long, long overdue. >> what do you say to those folks who say, i don't trust

facebook i think they have misinformation on their platform, privacy issues, they say money is ultimately, maybe more than anything is about trust. that's what cryptocurrency is trying to solve so many trust issues what do you tell them? >> a couple of things. first of all, it is definitely true we still have work to do to regain trust that we've lost along the way in the past two years, i would say when you think about the way we've approached this, we could have launched a regular wallet. all of the wallets out there that would have created all of the discussions out there that we've seen what we have happened there, we've created a wallet garden that would reduce the cost for people within our own app and our own walls but we'd leave the

current system behind by building this closed system. instead, we tried to basically have this approach that creates a new underlying protocol for money on the internet. we brought a number of companies along the way. the dm is not completely independent. i sit on the board that's basically the extent of our role we believe we have an opportunity to create a layer that enables all votes to rise what i mean is that the approach they've provided to take on this approach is actually one that enables all the wallets and developers to build a layer that enables people to send and receive money between wallets and by the same factor enable

people to move from one wallet to another, so leave facebook to another wallet that will give them the same benefit because there on the same network. >> before we go, the last time, when you announced libra prices of bitcoin went up bitcoin has not moved today or it actually moved down does this wallet allow for other cryptocurrencies in it or just these stable coins >> the first case is really payments that's what we want to focus on is enabling people but over time, we'll look into including more as ets and expand from there >> appreciate it great to see you this morning. look forward to following your progress coming up, dr. scott gottlieb and biden administration plans to push for

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a big lineup of guests still to cox in the next hour, we'll speak with tennis icon billie jean kingalng tki and more with marcie frost about the markets and much more.

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the biden administration expected to call for a third shot for those fully vaccinated. would be administered about eight months after the second dose of either vaccine joining us now, dr. scott gottlieb serves on the boards of pfizer and illumina this is not a huge surprise. what does this mean? how will it practically work out? >> it remains to be seen it will be some announcement today based on what some reporters are saying also publications coming out about breakthrough infections at nursing homes but i think it will be consistent to the information leaked showing rises

among nursing homes. more and more breakthrough infections which is an indication of declining immunity you worry about that i think as the administration rolls it out, they are likely as they've said in the public statement they've said so far in the press. they are also likely to narrow it to those higher at risk people who have high risk medical conditions i think this will be the first traunch of individuals who will get the booster and those who got the original vaccine so they are further out. it would also include health care workers they are also eight months out from the original vaccine at this point one final point. two things going on here you do have some indication of

efficacy over time that's not surprising. we thought this would become some kind of annual vaccine. you have a raging variant. we are two variants removed from the original strain. it is good news those vaccines cover it but not as well >> the thing that frustrates me the most is this mixed message, which is get out and get vaccinated if vaccinated, you are safe if you are not, you are a sitting duck but by the way, if you are 12 or under, we are going to take our time looking at when you can get vaccinated that is beyond frustrated as a

parent of two kids under 12 one of my kids is higher risk. >> this is a challenge fda is going to be cautious. they've asked for more data and longer trials related to the pediatric vaccine. i think this will be a late to midwinter event more likely for the vaccine from 5 to 11 they may make an earlier decision with the widespread transmission of the spread so far, we don't believe this is more dangerous in children the reason you are seeing more rise in kids in the south is because we are infecting many more kids with the virus at this point. we are not really detecting that you are having many more kids getting infected kids are at risk when they go back to school this fachlt we want to make sure we do

everything we can to avoid outbreaks and why they shouldn't be tying the hands of the schools. we need to go into the school year with a sense of humility of what we don't know about the delta variant and use tools like masks. keeping kids in defined social pods and improving ventilations. >> the figure is .01 percent, that's one in 1,000. so one out of 1,000. you would think it is one out of 100 if we were to test everyone? >> right when you look at that .1%. you are looking at those that have gotten infected

>> i just want to follow up. >> frankly, it is impossible to say because cdc isn't collecting data i think the infection rate is lower than those unvaxinated certainly the rate among those hospitalized is a lot lower. cdc is not reporting when i talk to doctors and hospitals and ask what percentage of people in the hospital are vaccinated, they are saying about 90% of the people admitting are unvaccinated the people vaccinated getting admitted are older and with health conditions that put them at risk. >> trying to preface it. i don't understand the pathology of a disease where you are asymptomatic and yet have the

same levels of virus as someone unvaccinated you could you not be sick but fully infected in terms of viral load do the b cells not prevent replication? they just prevent you from getting sick or are viral levels much lore? could they be just as high as a really sick person as someone totally asymptomatic >> first of all, the nazal swab of someone infected and you are seeing the vaccinated people, the secondary immune cells are kicking in to fight the infection. you could be transitly infected with the virus and fight it off and never really develop symptoms that's what is happening in a lot of these cases >> in terms of people who will

get this third booster, it will hopefully prevent. how much do you think it will prevent against getting the infection itself it does seem to be if you hang around in a room for hours on end, possibly in an office all day with somebody who has a breakthrough infection, it appears a lot of people are still getting it >> first of all, let me prefas it with an answer, it is impossible to know my believe is that it will provide protection even against the delta variant. what we believe is happening, it is creating such high virus levels early that overwhelming declining which is why you you are seeing vaccinated people becoming infected. the booster boosts by 5 to 10

fold getting much higher amount of antibodies in the blood. >> we are seeing governor abbott has tested positive and taking regeneron even though it appears he's asymptomatic or doesn't have symptoms. can you speak to that? >> i got asked about this. i think it is an appropriate use of the drug now. it is approved now the governor is older. he's 63 years old. underlying medical conditions that could put him at higher risk i don't know his precise medical condition. i quite frankly think we are under utilizing this drug. we could be helping more patients making wider use of this antibody. >> if you test positive, you should try to get regeneron? >> anyone with any risk factor should talk to their doctor

about seeking out this drug. >> thank you when we come back, sports icon billie jean king will join icchus quk eck of the futures right now. big hour ahead frmt -- [music plays.] ♪♪ ♪♪

♪♪

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good morning another big day from the retail sector numbers out from target and lowes. china escalates its crack down on big business. technology and delivery targeted today, the country's uber rich a live report coming up. and we'll talk about the delta variant's threat to live sports. we have a special interview with former tennis pro billie jean king the final hour of squawk starts now. good morning

u.s. equity futures this hour indicated off a little on two of the indices we follow. the s&p and the dow, the nasdaq up a little. we are down but not out yesterday. it looked like it could get out of hand with 400-plus points a little less than that. similar action we saw home depot as a problem target with good numbers people at this point selling the stock a little bit treasury yields up quarter of a percent. some of the stories investors will be talking about today. the federal reserve will be in focus. that meeting will be released at 2:00 p.m. eastern time looking at the comments for any indications as to when the fed may start tapering millions in

bond purchases t-mobile now says the personal information about 7.8 million customers was compromised in a recent data breach including birth dates, social security and driver's license information the good news, no financial information was stolen from t-mobile but can't you get some of that if you got the social security number? it seems likes that where it all starts >> that's the credit card you can cancel but the other stuff with more bigger identity and that's a bigger problem. >> target beating analyst estimates. comp stores also came in shares of the retailer are

lower. we'll go much deeper into target's earnings later. probably not deeper than you got into right from brian cornell in that extended roof top interview from time square >> i'll tell you a couple of things first of all, the market sold off yesterday because of those weaker numbers coming out. brian cornell said he has not seen a slow down in the current quarter or from the delta variant just yet that's important the stock has come down. it was down 4.5% now down 1.8%. not a single number that they put out that would lead to any disappointment, i would think. the stock is up 80% this year. they are building on strong growth from a year ago

one observation being on the roof anyone who says new york city is not back i can hear the traffic it is more than you think. a lot taking place out there joe, i know you are looking at it i'm up above boy, you can hear it >> i've seen a couple of things that made me wish i was up on the roof naked people you know >> new york. >> also humid out here, say. my hair is getting bigger by the minute >> it is that's okay though we like -- a lot of men would hope for that. that their hair would get a little bigger. >> especially jersey guys like you, joe >> with the mullet

>> earnings out this morning from another home improvement giant. the latest on lowes. >> good morning. lowe's earnings coming in $4.25 adjusted $47.5 billion respectively raising the four-year forecast calling out the business environment remains uncertain. lowe's total sales did fall 1.6% u.s. comparable sales falling 2.2% compared to 135% in the same quarter in 2020. comparatively, rival home depot's cost and u.s. comps grew 3.4 percent. u.s. comparable sales outperformed 14 times.

lowe's has beaten home depot's comparable sales this time, home depot was stronger lowe's has been working to attract more home improvement pros stronger across decor categories as well. diyers at home depot as well shares up about 5% pre-market after selling off yesterday along with home depot. barely underperforming home depot at this point. moments ago, i spoke to lowe's ceo who said, we know there are uncertain times but we are extremely optimistic on long term outlook for home improvement industry we believe our consumer will continue to invest in their

home responsible for 420 basis points on sales he said, quote, we 2definitely saw it on the average ticket which is up double digits inflation impacted that by up to 400 points. a developing story we want to talk about. big business in china comes in the form of the president going after its ultrawealthy eunice joins us. >> calling for stronger regulations. a meeting on managing financial risk quoted saying china should shun unreasonable and excessive income and encourage more companies to give back to society more the state media said in the past the communist party was

prioritizing some people to get rich first now priority is common prosperity for all this is a term we've heard recently the theme is seen as a key motivator behind the recent crack downs behind the tech industry in education, bring the cost down for parents and food delivery, make sure workers are the priority ride sharing to ensure price sharing is fair. and saying china would set an upper limit that ride sharing apps can take to ensure fairness for the drivers. the sector of the priority is to make sure consumers have protected data later this week. we are expecting lawmakers to

unveil the privacy law on friday companies here have already been getting the hint there have been several donations and there has been a major jump in corporation donations. especially from china's big tech firms. other information they are getting. they should expect the government will have a larger say in their business and they should be sure to fall in line they risk punishment the it industry said 43 apps including tencent were found to have illegally transferred user data so there is a lot of uncertainty around this because of the way the government is continuing to regulate so many sectors >> fascinating shift over there.

we are going to shift gears now and bring you new data on electric vehicles. the trillion dollar infrastructure package the house is weighing is a big part of that >> i hear from people regularly who say, is there one difference between the charging stations or is one better than another there are a lot of variabilities whether you choose one or another in a public environment. >> jd power out with a survey among owners that said tell us about your experience when it comes to public charging stations what do you like what do you not like they found tesla's charging stations super chargers or destination places like a hotel, those

topped the list. they have more than 2,100 super charger stations worldwide the real focus i think people will be interested in is the fast, charging satisfaction. the level two which will take longer and then your fast charging tesla is number one because of chargepoint, electrify america and evgo the extra charging stations, you've got about 105,000 stalls in the country less than 5,000 fast-charging stations that's what people believe the biden administration should put as a priority. if you do that, you'll get more people who say, yeah, i do want to have an electric vehicle because i know i can quickly charge up when i'm done. take a look at the charging

stocks ev go and blink. the biden administration has 500,000 as the target they would like to add as part of the infrastructure bill. i'm not sure we'll get there but that is the goal at this point not all charging stations are the same tesla is number one, it is their own eco system ease of use, ease of pay that's why they rank at the top. thank you. coming up, news out about a new streaming service venture from viacom cbs and our parent company. and we'll talk about the delta var variant's impact stay tuned to more from cnbc

that i should get used to people staring. so i did. it's okay, you can stare. when you're a two-time gold medalist, it comes with the territory.

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talking about her new memoir i'm still trying to figure out who are the other 90 people of the century who were as influential as you who are the others >> there are many. talking life magazine. i do know no presidents were mentioned. a couple other athletes. mohammad ali and jackie robinson were the other two >> in the olympics, some athletes found it difficult to perform at the best level

without the excitement of the fans watching. do you think it would matter for you playing today if you were playing tennis in an empty stadium? >> that's your job as a professional athlete we are entertainers. i would wrap my mind around everyone around the world watching try to bring that in with me there. every athlete is different, every person it is difficult. we are trying to worry about safety there is media contracts media content is huge. it is a huge revenue stream. there is gaming, betting there is a lot of income streams coming in as you have these matches happen as well as any other sport. it is vital these athletic

contests happen. i did love watching the olympics i must say this year, i loved it it is just fantastic for tennis, it was great they kept it on one channel, i think it was the olympic channel. i thought that was so helpful. >> so many things in your life i'm looking for the quote in your memoirs back when you started, you were living -- the world that you wanted didn't exist at that time the world that you wanted to live in. >> it still doesn't. >> that's what i wanted to ask you, does it exist now >> no. >> i couldn't help thinking, we've come a long way baby remember the old ads for virginia slim?

>> our sponsor >> that really put lady's tennis on the map we've come a long way. a long way to go we've changed and helped us along. >> you brought up an important thing that happened in 1977 when eight other colleagues were called the original nine, inducted to the tennis hall of fame that was the birth of women's professional tennis. all of us in our 20s were willing and actually a couple teenagers were willing to forego our careers for future generations. the three things were there any girl in the world if she's good enough would have a place to compete. number two, we'd be appreciated for our accomplishments, not only our looks number three, finally, to make a living playing tennis.

we had all come from amateur tennis where we were making $14 a day and then getting equal prize money in the majors in the grand slam was really important to us because we were getting different percentages. probably like 30% to 40% of what the guys were getting. they were getting ready for events we did finally get equal prize money in 2007 and 2004 first one was in 1973. we are really lucky that we finally did that so women's tennis in the leadership you look at, well, forbe's magazine they finally had a soccer player this year at number 10

leading up to equal pay and equal work soccer is trying very hard with he need more sports for women. let's face it. baseball, american football, nhl, there is nothing for women yet. not with the top players >> you said we are not there yet. another point you make each generation has work to do, a continuation of what the last generation did we have made progress in racial issues and sexist issues >> we've made progress, yes. >> lgbt. but you've pointed out that next generation has to take the progr progress and take it even further. >> that's a coretta scott king quote. she's had so many struggles. freedom is not really won.

you have to earn it and win it in every generation. that's why black lives matter. it is so important that everyone continue to fight for freedom and reputation by everyone >> becky >> hey, billie jean, it is becky. it is great to see you i wanted to ask you about the tournament with bobby riggs. how much did it worry what would have happened if you didn't win? >> it weighed on me tremendously that's probably one of the reasons i won the match because of that thought. if i do lose, what will happen we had gotten title 9 pass in 1972 which is the first time private universities, high schools, colleges, when they receive federal funds they had to spend it equally on men and women. before that, we had classroom

quotas for women, if you wanted to get a doctorate at harvard, only 5% of the classroom was for women. in title 9, we got athletic scholarships for the first time. we couldn't even get a credit card on our own still. i had a lot on my mind women's tennis was only in the third year of professional women's tennis i didn't want that to go south. i didn't want the men's to go south. it was social change not just about tennis. you couldn't get on a tennis court after that match our games exploded after that. >> amazing 90 million people. billie jean, i want you to weigh

in on a lot of things. the simone biles and naomi osaka. and rene richards. you talk about after it was all said and done, you said everyone was happy renee richards was able to play a great lady after the decision was made to include her, people were happy about it across the board. can we translate that to how to handle this today. >> dr. renee richards was phenomenal in that she was a transgender woman. we were the first to have a transgender woman on our tour in any sport. it was a great education for me. she's a great friend and my

opthamloogist still. with naomi speaking up about mental health. simone did the right thing it helped the u.s. to win medals naomi spoke up about it. you listen that right now during covid, more youth are having challenges they are depressed it is not right. it is good when you own it and speak about it in the book, it talks about me having an eating disorder. s sexuality challenges and to take ownership of your own feelings is very important.

>> how do you think balancing the issue of mental health and being a great performer. in many ways, a great athlete, when you put on a great performance on the court, it is about being able to tune out distraction, the noise or what might be described as mental health issues we all confront. >> it is good we confront them we have a platform in sports i always try to think that pressure is a privilege. i grew up dreaming about playing at wimbledon i always ask myself, am i going to make pressure a friend or a foe? we are performers. we are athletes but we are really performers. we entertain we are part of the entertainment world. when we grow up, it is really

important we have rookie schools that explain the challenges because part of our job is to speak to the media the media -- without the media, women's tennis would not be where tit is at we would not be getting the money we are earnings. that means traditional as well as social media. with he need both. i know when i used to sit in the room after every match and talk to them. they were mostly guys and eventually women we are all helping each other have a job and make a living i always thought you can either make them a friend or a foe. i love writers and people who write. i always got along well with

them i spent a tremendous amount of time i try to get athletes to understand if you want to be a performer or professional athlete. this is the obligations that go with it. it is not easy i listen when young people speak because they are the next generation of leaders. they make change, positive change we've got climate issues all kinds of issues. this mental illness, it is important we address it. i don't know if there is a different way to do it i always take five minutes and say, i can't talk to everybody for five minutes throw my racquets across and tell everybody to get out. after five minutes, you are ready to go do my job with the

media. >> we don't remember the environment. there were still separate lunch counters in my lifetime. we didn't know how difficult it was for you. there were times you've probably thought i wish i could have been more but no one has been better or done more. looking through the book i wish we could talk more. breaking news. we have to go. please come back on. you had to struggle. you are who you are now is a product of just an unbelievable victory overall those struggles. good to have you >> thank you i appreciate it. meantime, rick santelli is standing by with breaking economic data. rick, the numbers? is. >> yes, our july read on housing starts a disappointment.

1,534,000. the weakest since april. last high we had was in may. excuse, in march sits at 1.725 million. it has come down a bit it was a bit better than expected $1,635,000 looking at last month, of course, revised from $1.598 to just $1.594. very subtle revisions. maybe these misses are for reasons outside of the big three which are affordability, supply chains and labor it is hard for me to pick it out. maybe going back to school the cycle of when homes sell these things eventually affect the building rates

for all practical purposes, we are low on homes that 7% number down 1.650 which stands at the june final read for starts i'm sure they'll touch on these numbers all day. it probably isn't going to affect the markets as they are about ready to open in inweties and 1.7% on 10-year notes. pretty simple to note. you continue to see yields top out in the mid to high 1.30s back to you. when we come back, where are the nation's biggest public pension funds putting its money? stocks just off all-time highs ceo of calpers

the good, bad and ugly for what's already been a big week for retailers. stay tuned for more on cnbc.

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we are midway through a weaks that been heavily focused on the retail sector dropping more than 1% based on renewed fears due to covid-19.

we've seen quarterly beats he said the current quarter is also off to a strong start >> america, we are more cautious right now with the delta variant but i'm seeing a very resilient consumer who is physically out shopping and getting ready for life back to school and back to college. with he th we think they are going to go back to celebrating halloween. they'll be cautious but they want to get together with fr friends and family >> joining us now, jessica, let's start with you first to talk about target. there have been a lot of questions about what happened with retail sales.

brian cornell sounded like he's seeing the consumer and they are out there and they are strong. what do you think about retail over the next month or so? >> we are very excited about the consumer that has come out after lockdown we are still seeing consumers being cautious and take on a new life as they begin to shop and start connecting with other consumers out there. we are seeing those out shopping and ready to wear and looking for style and comfort as people are heading back to the office foot wear as well has been doing very well. the consumer is happy to be back

out as more retailers have come out. we've seen those retailers again. target has been excellent and i'm sure we'll continue to see that going forward >> that report was excellent the street was off a bit would you take this as a buying opportunity or is this a reflection as to how well the stock has done at this point >> i think the stock is up about 40%. seemed to be target mitigating through that we are still bullish on them >> lowe's have come out with strong numbers

that stock, lowe's shares actually higher. that's the one retailer that has reported better than expected. why do you think that is they were down because of what they saw from home depot >> what's happening right now. i was talking about home depot on your show yesterday the data we were seeing was extraordinarily nuanced. he was talking about strength and the consumer the bottom line is tracking better i am looking at the big theme here lowe's, target, sales are

slowing. it is a matter of how we interpret that the big question right now where the spending reverts back. that's a lot of the reason we are seeing the reaction in the near term. >> sales and growth and numbers are up not the numbers we saw a year earlier. they are still growing off a year ago. >> target is a 9% comp the 3% comp that they did. the others are moving around

looking at the stat slower than it was in the first quarter. >> which stock out of any of these would you buy quickly? >> i like lowe's equivalent to buy in that price target if you want to play home improvement, i think lowe's is the better opportunity home depot is a great company. there will be an opportunity to buy both of them but right now you buy lowe's coming up, we'll talk markets. ceo of calpers the california pension fund worth nearly half a trillion could be down a couple of

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that begs the question where are managers making the results. the largest pension fund of more than $470 billion. great to see you all making sense of where we are in this market i don't want to say we are near the top but factually at a top the question is, does it go up or down from here and how are you thinking about it?

>> good morning. the way we look at our portfolio is really this upside down analysis we are more concerned about the risk to the down side. we do not have a lot of technical assets relative to our benchmarks remember we have 60% to equity risk fixed income and private equity is a top performer we announced at 21.3. >> when you talk about that upside, down side risk, how do you see it to the extent you are calling for it and a correction could be in order? what does it look like to you? >> roughly 80% funded as a pension fund something we pay very serious attention to that down side risk is much more dangerous than shaving off a

little bit of return as you indicated earlier, we think valuations are historically lofty we are not bearish necessarily but we do believe we are not being compensated for the risks we'd be taking we have to take a little bit of risk off the table and put in a little more down side protection thinking the markets will begin to normalize in 2022 >> what does downside protection look like? >> we have done work around factor weighted equities and sor benchmark in the past. in the past we held about 1,100 companies, we did do some work there to reduce the number of companies we're holding, not reducing the diversification opportunities we had, but really reducing some of the risk and now holding about 5,000 companies. >> it looks like you had a remarkable outperformance in the world of private equity. are you going to be devoting more money to that space is

this. >> we believe that that will be necessary in our future, a portfolio four years ago when we took the board through our asset liability cycle, that portfolio four years ago was expected to return 7% over a 20-year time frame. that same portfolio is expected to return 6.25 today, so as we're working our board through t candidate portfolios, asset allocation, it is likely we will have several portfolios to present to the board that would increase private equity, private debt, and likely put leverage in some capacity. >> what does it say about the public markets that you're getting meaningful, looks like out performance in the private markets? >> i think, you know, for us when we look at the valuations that are happening in the public markets, valuations in private markets obviously lag by a quarter. but the out performance for cal pers in the fiscal year quarter

through march 31st on private equity was just over 44% so it's an asset class that's been the highest performing asset class for us as an institution. many other institutions have seen out performance here relative to public markets i think some of that is consumer confidence i think some of that is just the nature of, you know, the way the private equity companies are managed relative to their public market counterparts. >> and what is the cal pers call if there is one on interest rates? >> we think that tapering in the bond markets likely that announcement happening later this year. we do thing swiftly following that we will begin to see interest rates adjusting of course what we're interested in is the trajectory of those increases and something we will certainly be paying careful

attention to. >> i can't let you out of an interview without asking you about crypto lots of corporations obviously thinking about crypto. endowments putting crypto into their funds. how do you think about it? >> the team has spent a little time, i think, contemplating crypto in the portfolio, but you know, currency risk is still of quite concern to the team, and i would not see us putting crypto into the portfolio in the near future >> is there a calculus, though i mean, how much time have you guys spent looking at it at this point? >> i don't think the team is pending considerable time as we're looking through asset allocation, we're looking at where opportunities are that is not an area that we're spending a considerable amount of time in, but i do know that we had some of our analysts do a perspective or state a perspective on whether or not they thought it was positive or

neutral for calpers. we're not bullish there yet. >> let me ask it to you differently, if we had this conversation in five years, would you bet that calbpers woud have some crypto in it >> i think it's a possibility we would have crypto about five years out possibly. >> five years out. if you think it's going to be out in five years, whether you do it now. these are the great conundrums of our time. marcy, thank you for joining us this morning appreciate it. >> thank you. let's get to cramer, standing by looking at -- just hit another quote on targets come back a little, jim, it reminded me of home depot in that when things reopen, your online sales might not be as robust, or growth might not be as robust as it had been is that sort of what has people concerned, if that's the word, or the stocks are have just already moved so much? is it really a problem with the

results of home depot or target? >> look, accommodation couldn't have been more bullish the sales are great. what i'm reminded of is that amazon's not up for the year people just feel like that part of the eequation, the online equation isn't working brian's got a terrific combination, great stores, and he's got shipt, which is amazing. i think everything's colored by the fact the statements that home depot made, we're not doing the same kind of business we used to on the weekends. they've got pro, which i thought was going to help save home depot. but it didn't, the stock got clocked. lowes at least was surprisingly good versus home depot, and lowes was down a lot this has become a total battleground area, and i think, joe, i've got to tell you when i combine what dr. gottlieb says with what you guys have been talking about with the interview that was so good with brian cornell, i come back and say,

listen, we've got to stop fretting we would be -- we're too negative, and what we're really reacting to is the stocks have run up to the point where we thought that everything was perfect, and that's just not the case things are really good, look at these stocks they've had an amazing run, joe. i'm not as concerned >> the charts, it sort of reflected in what we're looking at there, jim. we will see you for a lot more announcements in a couple of minutes on "squawk on the street." we'll be right back.

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let's get one last look at the markets this morning red arrows across the board. s&p futures off by about 6.5, the nasdaq off by 13 this comes after a down day yesterday, a rare down day for the s&p 500 and the dow. s&p was down by 7/10 of a percent yesterday. the ten-year note right now looks like it's yielding 1.278%. the concerns resovolved around retail sales if you looked at the government's retail sales, a little bit of weakness this morning we heard from target, better than expected numbers across the board numbers showing growth and same-store sales better than 8.5% that stock off by about 2%, maybe because of the huge climb we've seen in the stock over this year. lowes shares also betterthan

expected, and that stock is the one rare one up by 3.8%. we heard from home depot and target and walmart yesterday, both those numbers better than anticipated. we'll see how these things shake out. that does it for us today. make sure you join us tomorrow, joe and andrew, see you guys later. right now it's time for "squawk on the street. >> good wednesday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer at the new york stock exchange, david faber has the morning off. stocks look to head to losses after that worst decline in nearly a month we got retail earnings rolling on from target lowes, tjx, and we'll learn more from the fomc minutes. the retail rollout, target and lowes with results we've got the numbers. plus, fraud hype noise and confusion, why one fed official is slamming th