ones high quality and show consistent raises over time. >> okay. josh brown >> bristol-myers flirting with a new 52-week high, going higher >> steve weiss >> gxo analysts keep coming out they don't understand it but put buys on it this stock is the only stock like this trading in the market. logistics company. >> thank you "the exchange" is now. and thank you, scott hi, everybody. i'm kelly evans. here's what's ahead this hour. new credit card spending data show even more of a slowdown than the retail sales report told us earlier this week. one portfolio manager said the consumer has never been healthier. he'll give his reopening pick that climbed 88% over the past year plus, the march outage in crypto platform binance happened to coincide with a drop. we talk to the private equity firm bank rolling this lawsuit

about what kind of precedent it could set. and is the delta variant and new mask mandates in major cities bringing the rebound in restaurant visits to a screeching halt. we'll talk to the cfo of pf chang's about that come take a walk with me as we check on markets this hour. you wouldn't know it was a big down day this morning. dow was down well over 300 points we fought our way back to flat with a seven-point gain. up 15 on the s&p up on the nasdaq let's look at material names taking a hit as commodity prices fall freeport mcmoran down more than 4% cleveland cliffs down 5% goldman lowering third quarter gdp estimate to just 5.5% from 9% all of these are some of the worst performers in that space before we move along too quickly, kathy wood this morning also said she expected more down side pressure in the commodity space especially from a lifting

dollar that brings us to technology which is outperforming today nvidia and cisco earnings positive stock reactions setting the tone, offsetting weakness in the hardware names nvidia hanging on to a 5.5% gain robinhood shares down sharply today. here they are almost 8% lower. this after posting their big loss last night but also expecting volume to slow in the month ahead earning them some criticism why go out on a limb like that. hood under the hood not looking so good today. the impact of the delta variant starting to show up. steve liesman has his road back barometer. michelle meyer is head of u.s. economics at bank of america with card data speaking to this trend. steve, let's start with you. >> the effects of the delta variant are showing up in the high frequency data. flattening out the upward slope of the recovery for some parts of the economy but revealing outright declines in others.

open table reservations were actually above their 2019 level in june. now they're 9% below jpmorgan card spending tracker for in-store spending is down 3.9% from -- compared to january 2020 it has stopped improving and ukg shift work, that's a high frequency proxy for employment, it slipped 2.4% in august most of the weakness in the data looks to be linked to the south and the southeast where the delta variant has exploded, hence the census this comes from the delta variant. ukg work shift numbers are down in every region of the country for august looks to be a seasonal component to it. but they're down much more sharply, you can see, in the southeast. that's that second red bar there. growth in open table bookings in florida and texas kekleined sharply. down much less in california and new york that again suggests a delta connection there had been, by the way, a steady increase in spending in

stores according to jpmorgan's credit card data but the gap looks once again to be widening with the data that shows the spending for card not present. that's the online spending there. wait until you get to the end. the gap widening goldman sachs just slashed third quarter growth forecast because of delta saying that both consumption and on the production side. others may follow suit if the weak data we've seen in the south spreads to the coasts and up north >> steve, stay right there as we turn to michelle meyer you've got data showing a slowdown and especially in leisure spending airports, hotels, restaurants and bars. >> yeah, we've been actively mining the high frequency data some of the indicatorssteve mentioned are top on our list as well as our own proprietary data, bank america credit data there is a clear impact from the delta variant in the data. and what stands out the most is

this proxy we've created for leisure services spending which has airfare, lodging, restaurants and bars and entertainment services this peak on a two-year growth rate right around the first week of july and has been steadily slipping since then is a clear downward trend, lost momentum and some categories seeing outright declines. so we do think in the high frequency data that the services economy which was booming and was the main source of growth throughout the spring and early summer looks to have stalled out. >> this is a big news flash if we want to call it that. where are you on the fed taper at this point? >> similar to what you were just referencing about the forecast changes we've seen across the street we were pretty early with taking down q3 gdp. we've taken q4 down 4.5% we did that on the back of the credit card data and retail sales that confirmed the card data what does it mean for tapering i think this clearly takes the

temper off the table, to announce the taper in september. i think november is still in play, if you see signs that the economy is coming back to -- you know, stronger growth. if the covid number comes down if this proves to be a proper wave in the pandemic and you see a rebound of activity, i think november is very much in play. there is a sense within the minute that fed officials want to get going on tapering they only want to do so if the data allows for it >> i'm tweeting this so give me a moment i know you're probably digesting this as much as i am we've been reporting about how the fed is getting ready to announce the taper in september. now michelle is telling me that september is out the window for them >> well, first of all, nobody is talking about a taper decision by the federal reserve that is divorce from the economic data i think the question becomes this it becomes a question of risk management and here, i guess i'm going to part a little with michelle on this which is, there's a bunch

of folks at the fed who are worried, not necessarily about inflation right now, but inflation down the road and want to position the federal reserve to be in a position to combat inflation if they need to. and they are kind of in a hurry to get into that position. and really it gets to the data because what i'm seeing in the high frequency data is not the declines we saw when the alpha variant came around. i'm seeing things top off, go flat a little bit in terms of their growth or their return back to zero and i'm seeing some stuff dip down a bit i don't think it's huge right now, and i don't know that it's enough to sort of stop the fed in their appointed rounds of trying to get that taper going to have the flexibility to fight inflation. >> michelle? >> yeah, sure. i agree. fed officials, many are itching to get going with taper. but only to the extent they think they are meeting the criteria for substantial further progress toward the employment goal if the next jobs report ends up being softer because of what

we're seeing in some of this high frequency data, it will prompt them to wait until they can gather more data, more evidence about what comes next for the economy. so to me, the best -- though most likely scenario is in the september meeting. they put out kind of placeholder for a taper. greater guidance about data dependence to get going with taper and depending on how that data and that data being the jobs numbers progresses, they can go ahead and announce it when they think the coast is clear. >> wow fascinating stuff again. high stakes jobs report. high stakes taper and with the end of the unemployment benefits and everything else feeding in at this moment, it's going to be an interesting few weeks michelle and steve, thank you very much. michelle meyer with b of a and our own steve liesman. despite the spending slowdown we've been discussing, my next guest says the consumer has never been stronger and will be able to keep the economy's engines going. i see him nodding. there's sandy villry,

co-portfolio manager of the villry balance fund and make your case. >> the last data on the consumer we got in july was worse than expected and my point is that, you know, you've got consumers that still have over $2 trillion in excess savings from the three rounds of stimulus household, you know, household net worth still near highs 401(k) balances near highs i think when the employment situation gets better, so we've got 9.5 million unemployed but 9.2 million job openings so i think as kids are going back to school, parents can go back to work and the unemployment benefits will run out in september all this equals a pretty solid situation for the consumer despite the fact that we're seeing a recent slowdown on certainly the furniture and the good side of the equation as opposed to the services side so we want to buy these dips in here and if you get some news

around tapering and certainly going into september, which is the worst month for the market of the year, we want to see that as an opportunity to buy the reopening plays and look forward to the next 12 months. >> sure. and it will be interesting to people because they are a little more under the radar which of these is up 88% i can imagine first hawaiian and caesars should be up nicely off the bottom last year >> cesars has been fantastic and a lot of times you can bet on the horse, the jockey and this is one where tom reed has done a phenomenal job that we're betting on the jockey. they just made a $4 billion acquisition of william hill. they'll be getting into igaming and spend another billion dollars on online gaming and igaming. so i think this is going to be a continue to work out pretty well their peers tend to trade 11 to 13 times cash flow they'll make $10 a snare cash flow eventually. we think it's a $110 stock the perfect type of stock we

want to buy on dips. we do like first hawaiian a lot as a reopening play. >> one point on first hawaiian you hear people going, well, spending is slowing down maybe they'll not taper in september. if they do you've seen bond yields drop half a point all summer long with that idea baked in that must make somebody nervous about the financials >> yeah, exactly so when you see yields going down, that's going to be a tail wind for technology. i'm going to take profits in technology as it has that tailwind and when yields go down you see the ten-year where it is that will be a tougher spot for financials i want to buy it and go against the crowds and yields will go up later, probably in the year, if not next year and that's when financials are going to start to get a little net interest margin and make some money and so i want to buy things when they're contrarian and undervalued >> if rates don't go up, maybe a little different story let me ask you about palamar technology it's a pnc insurer, right?

>> yeah. this is a very interesting story. just focused on places people don't want to go earthquakes, actually back to hawaii, they do, you know, all sorts of -- yeah, earthquakes and things along that line so we're pretty excited about this one and their technology just gets so granular their underwriting is much better than any of their peers and they continue to take share total adjustable market is enormous they just scratch the surface. as they offer more and more products the tam gets larger over time. we think this will be a good one. it's been beaten up and just a great one to put away in sort of small cap land right here. >> we get two very different pictures of the 61consumer and e economy. yours more a story of staying power. thanks for being with us >> thanks. sandy villere. binance is facing a legal battle an outage cost them millions

we'll speak to a firm helping with the legal bills and what could be a landmark case for crypto plus, macy's blew earnings estimates out of the water and hiked its full-year forecast we'll break down the quarter and ask whether this growth is sustainable. we're back in a moment this is "the exchange" on cnbc at usaa, we've been called too exclusive. because we only serve those who honorably served. all ranks, all branches, and their families. are we still exclusive? absolutely. and that's exactly why you should join. this isn't just a walk up the stairs. are we still exclusive? absolutely. when you have an irregular heartbeat, it's more. it's dignity. the freedom to go where you want, knowing your doctor can watch over your heart. ♪♪

welcome back nearly 1,000 investors are expected to seek damages from binance after the crypto exchange experienced an outage that froze accounts on a big down day it's being called a landmark case for the crypto industry dom chu is here with denails >> di nance has become one of the most popular transaction platforms in the cryptocurrency universe but the world's biggest digital currency exchange by transaction volume is now the target of what could become one of the largest international consumer arbitration cases in history earlier this year, the crypto currency world was rocked by increased regulatory pressure from chinese regulators. assets like bitcoin, ethereum and others plunged in value but when traders using the binance exchange tried to exit their positions, they were met with system outages that prevented many from getting out before losses were sustained. binance did issue a statement saying its policy is fair and

that it compensates users who experienced actual trading losses tied to system malfunctions but does not cover what it calls hypothetical or unrealized profits lost. a group of traders is now looking to take legal action against binance and they've secured help and financing from private equity firm liddy capital, a swiss-based company that specializes in litigation finance. it is pledged to provide $5 million in funding to help claimants win their arbitration case against binance so joining us now is david kay, the chief investment officer and executive chairman of liddy capital. thank you for joining us on this "exchange" exclusive can you take us through, david, what exactly brought this case to your attention. you specialize in litigation finance. why binance? why this case? >> yeah, thanks for having me on you know, it's interesting so we are the first private equity firm that is on the

blockchain we're financed from the blockchain and focused on litigation financing what really got me involved in it was that we pledged to put 5% to 10% of every dollar we raise into nonprofit-making opportunities or circumstances for example, people who lost $25,000 and were scammed and so we set up something called scambusters and through our scambusters initiative, we got an email about this case, which was amazing. i sat down i met with the group, and we hammered out a deal. >> so what exactly does a deal involve with litigation finance on your side of things you are putting up this money. at least $5 million. what are you expecting in return you mentioned some of these nonprofit-type cases is this one of them, or are you expect something sort of a cut in terms of the overall case in the event you hypothetically win this >> good question this is not a nonprofit case this is a case where we're going

to commit at least $5 million and we will get 30% of any amounts that we ultimately get from binance in exchange for financing 100% of the costs and taking 100% of the risk. traders that were harmed, binance has broadly ignored. there is now an option you can come, sign up at binance claim.com and you can join us. and if you join us, there is no risk no out-of-pocket cost. we will represent you. and we will have this issue, this question, this important question that is out there about how does this new kind of company -- a company without regulation, without offices, without headquarters, how do consumers interact with them can they be held accountable >> how do you expect regulatory bodies from around the world will treat this particular case? will it be precedent-setting will it influence policy in key crypto trading type markets

around the world what exactly do you feel as though will be the outcome in the event that you are in some ways, maybe not wholly, but some ways successful with your case >> i frankly think that's the best case scenario for binance you know, whether it's better for binance to lose or win this case if the answer is somehow that they can avoid regulation in any jurisdiction around the globe, and then as a result, not have to face any potential compensation claims from customers that it hurts, i mean, dom, the last 50 years, developed countries around the world have created a system to protect consumers both generally and in large, complicated financial transactions if this can't be regulated, and there's no place for customers to seek recompense, i think you're going to see regulators have to step in. that means that they won't be in

a position to protect their citizens, to offer them an option i mean, when you set up an exchange, you and i couldn't just wake up one day and set up an exchange. there are rules. you are required to have certain amount of assets in country just in case something like this happens, and importantly, you are required to submit to jurisdiction in that country so that the regulators and the government can protect its citizens so i think this is a really important case it's a landmark case both for crypto, period. >> that's very, very interesting, david it's kelly i have one question. would you distinguish between binance's global operations and what it's doing in the u.s.? this is still a heavily used platform >> yeah, i would i think that -- well, let's put it this way. you have entities like coinbase who are trying as hard as they can to follow regulation and i'll tell you, our group is made up of futured and leveraged

products traders when the cftc came out with regulations about a year ago that touched on crypto, coinbase and others that are trying to follow regulation, they shut down their futures and leveraged trading products they aren't operating. binance ignored it now look where we sit. >> david, finally before we let you go, kelly and i have been talking at length today about this particular story. what exactly do you think will be the reaction from binance when it hears this arbitration case being brought it's being brought in hong kong. the claimants, what kinds of stories will tay tell to try to persuade the arbitrators over there to rule in their favor >> i mean, we're -- i'm as curious as you are to see what they are going to say. i'll tell you that they've set up this private dispute resolution mechanism it costs $65,000 per case, okay? so you have to pay for the

arbitrator and the center. based on their view of this contract, if even the 700 people in the discord group want to bring a claim, that's $45 million that needs to be paid just to be heard so i'm very curious what they are going to say we hope that they will come, do the right thing by their customers. if they don't, then we're going to need to see how their system has been working and what happened on that day and other days and let it see the light of day and have an arbitrator decide whether a trader -- okay, there's one person in our group who had $12 million. bitcoin started to go down he tried to close out his transaction. he had pictures and videos of him trying to close out the transaction. he could not close the contract and by the time the site got up, binance had completely liquidated his account he had zero dollars and zero cents, notwithstanding that he

did everything right you tell me whose responsibility is that? is that his? we don't think so. >> david, very interesting thanks for joining us to explain how this will work, what's at stake and how it will work david of liti capital. coming up, amazon is shopping for space as it reportedly opens several large physical retail locations. is an amazon department store coming to a town near you? plus a decades-long drought is forcing federal officials to declare the first ever water shortage for the colorado river basin. up next, how the growing water crisis out west is a new focus for wall street.

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welcome back to "the exchange," everybody dow has turned lower again as you can see. it's down 75 points right now. about 85 it's dropping as i speak we were briefly higher at the top of the hour but down 300 at the low so nowhere near that the s&p at 5 nasdaq up 42 in terms of sectors, tech, staples and health care among the leaders. there's tech with a gain of 4% notable mover to the upside while energy is by far the biggest lagered, down 3% and crude on its losing streak we heard kathy wood talk about that this morning. also korean shares the k-web is down another 4% today. alibaba, jd.com and baidu are shedding as well 3% to 6% on concerns about beijing's tech crackdown. kathy wood also had some issues with the near-term possibilities for these names. take a quick listen. >> we have never said the

chinese names are uninvestable what we have said is because of the social engineering, it seems, or re-engineering that's taking place in china that the valuations associated with these companies are damaged and we don't think they're going to go up any time soon >> she also said the way china nationalized its after-school education industry seared the memory and left a lasting impression remember, a lot of these names are down 40% to 60% from recent highs. over to rahel solomon for a cnbc news update >> here's what's happening at this hour. the taliban breaking up another protest with gunfire this one near the airport in kabul where we see a long procession of cars and people carrying an afghan flag that's really become a symbol of defiance unclear if there were any injuries on the news, evacuating the thousands of americans still in afghanistan. and a look at who is leading the taliban and how they'll govern afghanistan. that is tonight at 7:00 p.m.

eastern. r. kelly's sex trafficking trial they testified he often videotaped their sexual encounters and demanded he dress like a girl scout. she said her relationship with kelly started when she was a minor. defense lawyers questioned if she was stalking kelly which she denied and the biden administration says that it will erase student loan debt for more than 300,000 americans. the plan applies to people with disabilities that leave them unable to earn significant incomes. the loan forgiveness could total more than $5.8 billion you're now up to date. >> always chipping away at it. macy's commuter question, luxuries comeback and pets got us through the comeback. today's retail edition of "rapid fire" right after this

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welcome back, everybody. this is a very special edition of rapid fire. all retail so many stories here right now this will circle back to our discussion at the top of the hour and help explain what is going on with the consumer here to break down all the headlines, bob pisani, courtney reagan and the ceo of j. rogers

nippon enterprises let's start with macy's. shares are soaring after a monster second quarter on pace for their best day ever. the department store beat eps estimates. there's macy's up 22.5%. also a $22 equity. they beat estimates by more than $1 on eps. crushed sales expectations they doubled basically their full-year guidance reinstated the dividend. approved a buyback program the ceo still sees two questions marks for the retailer listen >> back to offices in flex right now. a lot of companies shifting their date about when the back to office will be. everybody is talking about hybrid and how does that office worker, when do they come back are they comfortable coming back and are they going to shop in our stores that's a question mark and international tourism, we go not expect to come back in 2021. >> courtney, here's my question. what was the deal with macy's in, you know, this sounds like a dumb question, during 2020 i imagine that department stores were pretty rough but maybe here

and there there were some bright spots. i mean, if we're going into a pandemic-light environment for the winter, what is that going to look like for macy's and why don't investors seem to care they seem to think it's all -- all wonderful times ahead. >> yeah, good question, kelly. macy's, of course, considered a nonessential retailer. it was mandated to close its doors for quite a while. it had some pretty good traction on the website which the ceo now says makes up almost one-third of total sales it was even more than that during the pandemic because customers didn't have the option to shop in stores. overall, 2020 wasn't a good year for a retailer like macy's and things have started to pick up and some people are pointing to what we call revenge spending or coming out of hibernation and wanting to treat ourselves to a new dress or maybe some new makeup for the first time that we've seen friends or gone to an event for a while. so i asked macy's ceo, is this

something that's really sustainable or is this just sort of a moment in time where pent-up demand is getting unleashed all at once? he says he does believe that it is sustainable and that macy's attracted 5 million new customers during the quarter the trick, of course, to keep them coming back which i asked him about. and he says, you know, he has strategies in place to do that with their website, the app, the stores, new vendors. but it's funny with the delta variant, i'm worried, admittedly just personally, about what could happen, but none of these retail ceos really are they haven't seen it yet in the data they haven't seen the slowdown, even in the areas where they are reissuing the mask mandates for their associates >> very interesting. we also saw kohl's topping estimates. growth driven by higher in-store sales, rebound in customer traffic. we've been talking at length about how sort of troubled to the point of going extinct department stores are. what is this news flow now telling you? should investors be a buyer of

these stocks or seller of the strength >> these two are going to play well and i think what we're seeing is, these are -- penney is essentially gone, sears is gone. none of the players are still there in the space and, you know, we talk about not that many stores closed last year because majors didn't close that many. but there were about 30,000 retail stores closed perm innocently last year and 100,000 restaurants. that may go somewhere. and we're certainly seeing right now it go right into -- on your back people are buying clothes, shoes, accessories it's great if you are a vendor and it's great if you are one of these third party sellers right now because they are the only place left >> sure. there's kohl's up 8% give us perspective on these stock moves. >> well, as usual, i'm the ker mudgeon here is there a fundamental reason to own department stores? is there a mega growth story

argument for me? i see them still losing market share long term. i see them losing to target, to walmart, to costco even tjx and the discounters so given that, there's a secular decline story. i don't understand the whole argument the question is what is the right price to own them. macy's may not disappear but the question is what's the right price to own them given the valuation. >> let me jump in. bob, let's also let this be a peg to move into our second topic. "the wall street journal" is reporting that amazon is looking to move into department stores this whole idea is so horrendous, what does amazon see here and what a strange, ironic twist of fate if amazon emptied all existing department stores only to replace them with its content. >> i've been telling you since 2014 that amazon needed a thousand stores and they should just go buy kohl's and save the

aggravation. i've not changed my mind about that amazon has been a bad brick and mortar retailer. they could buy talent, they could buy private label, brands if they went out and bought a real retailer and let them run that business for them assuming they do it themselves, the reason they're doing it is very simple. they are not growing fast enough online anymore people like walmart are actually growing a little faster online than amazon is just look at percentage gains. so they need that -- they need to take that money back from the other players because they only do half of the retail business online in the country, only half but the rest of the retail business is out there, 80% of it is still not online. they need to be in the stores. everybody needs stores everybody needs to be online, including amazon >> courtney, what they're doing if they bought kohl's, that would just be selling kohl's inventory. amazon is saying we have a lot of our own brands. i think i've purchased many of

them without realizing it. even i've been looking in my amazon prime account and saying i don't watch the video. i don't think i need the two-day shipping all i do is go to the grocery store every couple of weeks. i offer it as one little consumer who has been a member for 16 years going, i don't know is it worth 100 and whatever dollars? >> yeah, exactly, kelly. and jan makes some really good points we showed a chart about how amazon's growth is really struggling when it actually comes to the physical stores they actually do have physical stores if you think about they own whole foods, amazon books, these four star locations, the amazon go, but they struggle with that revenue build there. and wells fargo says they are actually the number one apparel seller in the country, surpassing the other traditional retailers. >> i believe it. >> and other traditional retailers will tell you, see, we told you all along you have to have stores and you have to have online and so when i asked jeff about it, he said, look, i'm surprised

it's taken them this long to do this when i asked the kohl's ceo about it, she said, yes, of course we have a partnership with them already with their returns program and selling some of their goods and we already basically compete with them. and to your point, a lot of the other retailers had to catch up to compete with the two-day shipping i think maybe everyone would say the right answer is to have both and to do it fast, well and have the right brands so everyone is just copying each other's strategy what's old is new again. >> bob, we've also got to talk luxury and pets, though, so with -- >> ten seconds omni channel is fine but let me just say there's less here than meets the eye. $480 billion in revenue from amazon $22 billion from macy's, okay? they'll not move the dial much doing this yes, it's a little learning thing for them maybe they'll pick up a few new customers. there's less here than meets the eye, although, yes, we play

homage to omni channel >> if we included target as a traditional department store, it would view the whole category in a very, very different way i mentioned luxury let's mention the sector because it's also been making a major comeback this quarter driven by record savings and government stimulus over the past year and a half also rising vaccination rates. tapestry just beat for coach, kate spade and stuart weitzman i want to let you song and dance about how much you love ralph lauren if they -- give us a stock pick. what's your number one stock idea for our audience right now? >> okay. my number one stock idea is not just ralph lauren. it's all of the vendors. vf, ralph lauren, levi's contour. vendors and brands are going to win going forward and they're going to win during this period where everybody goes back to work and everybody goes back to school and everybody needs clothes and everybody starts to travel the brands are going to win.

higher end is probably better. capri and tapestry probably better and denim will be hot as heck. contour and levi's should be great. i'm going to pick the category the category is strong brands to return to work and school. >> all right very, very good. a quick programming note the ceo of tapestry will be on "closing bell" later to talk about the return of the luxury consumer an exclusive interview we have to mention the term of the day which is furry annuity before we go here. we're talking about petco which also had robust earnings for the second quarter the shares rebounded after dipping in the red the ceo was on "squawk box" and said 10 million pets came into households last year and he calls this the furry annuity saying it will play out for years in their favor >> i'll tell you why people like animals. because animals are easier to get along with than human beings >> my dad always said the dog doesn't talk back to me. >> the dog doesn't say by the

way, i don't like your tv habits and personal hygiene they don't give you a problem. you see the headlines? more people love their pets than their family 38% of dog owners love their pets more than their partner that's a real headline one-third of parents prefer their parents over their kids! that's why this is doing so well i agree with this story. >> people are insane for owning pets people have to walk them like eight times a day and pick up after them at least a kid you stop changing diapers after a couple of years. >> i mean, if you have a dog, but i have a cat he's very easy and he loves sitting on my lap this work from home thing is like his dream i totally understand why people spend a lot of money on their pets i think petco is going down the right road with all they are trying to do and adding services in we just want to be able to pamper our pets because they make us feel better and all these sorts of ways. but you also have to really win online when it comes to the commodity products you can't convince me to go to a

store to get my cat litter and cat food ship that to me. offer me a service, maybe i can bring my cat into the store. >> but that stuff is heavy we have a new furry friend on our street in the past week. it's still continuing. bob, courtney and jan, thank you all very much. it's the smallest sector in the s&p but the best performing one in the month of august why investors are taking a closer look at utilities and shares of pfizer bloomberg reporting that a hedge fund has built more than a billion-dollar position in this company. jim cramer will be sure to ask 00.meaen he's on "mad money" at 6: p. stern time stay with us

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interest rates it's the focus of the sector nomics dom chu has more >> it's been an underperformer over the last year to date period but over the last couple of weeks you've seen a big uptick in interest in those utility stocks but as you can see here, still a big underperformer that white line is the utility sector only up about 10% in the same time the s&p is up roughly 18 now if you look at the reasons why the dividend yields are a big part of that story why it's getting so much more interest when interest rates fall it makes the dividend of these companies look more attractive the sector overall in the orange/yellow line up there has a dividend yield around 3% versus about 1.5% or a little less for the overall s&p 500 now as for the stocks that have the biggest dividend yields in this particular ector, take a look at these particular names if you look at ppl, 5.7% yield pinnacle west capital, 4% yield. firstenergy, 4% yield. con edison, southern company,

some of the biggest and they've all been positive over the last year to date period and 12 months it's not like the yields are there because the stock has fallen so much i would note this. check out the first energy trade. the best performing stock in the sector in 2021 and it has that 4% yield it's up about 27% in that time it's the reason a lot of traders are still looking at the valuations of these companies. they may still have some room to grow, especially in times of market uncertainty >> they are getting up there dom, thank you with covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths all up on the delta variant, is the restaurant resurgence poised to come to an end we'll talk to the ceo of p.f. chang's about all of this next

welcome back restaurants are bracing for a potentially grim fall and winter as the delta variant surges why new data shows consumers are pulling back on restaurant spending will this with the labor shortage derail the rebound? joining me is damola adamolekun,

ceo of pf chang's. it is great to have you. can you tell us about momentum what is happening on the ground? >> yeah, no. you hit on the main things we are dealing with we have seen a nice rebound in terms of sales since regulations eased and consumers started to come back out. the issues we see are on the cost side with labor, sales and managing through the inflation so we're dealing with these things and with the delta variant you are seeing an increased difficulty to get staffing vendors have issues to get supplies and exacerbating the issues of the pandemic. >> i saw you and had to google to find out about you. you made me feel old but you stepped into the role last year in the middle of the pandemic. tell me your strategy for pf chang's and i can't imagine when

you came in you thought in the fall of '21 we'll be dealing with covid still what do you do now >> yeah. you know, my background is help lead the transaction to acquire pf chang's which is my employer for paulson and company and came in with a strategy to focus around, number one, driving in-restaurant sales by focusing on the guest experience. making sure the experience and food match having a great time coming to the restaurants and focus on the off premise sales and that was a key part of the thesis buying the business in 2019 had no idea covid was coming but an area we developed in the year before covid and that really let us transition people from dine-in when that got shut down and that helped us get through the pandemic in a relatively compared to the industry a

strong position. >> absolutely. one oh thing, my people -- this guy hates ghost kitchens what is your beef? >> i don't hate ghost kitchens i think they work for certain people the thing is our food is all made from scratch. we roll dumplings by hand. we cook in the wok it is more expensive and time proco p consuming and need sales and it doesn't work for our concept we benefit from pf chang's on the side of the building you don't get that with the ghost kitchen. you limit the sales volumes and we can't reduce the cost structure past a certain point and doesn't work for us but if you make wings or burgers or fries that's easier to cook and you can survive with lower

sales. >> a nice sales pitch in there i didn't know they were hand done maybe i need to experience it again for myself. >> absolutely. >> good luck we appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. >> damola adamolekun, ceo of pf chang's. as climate change wreaks havoonhec t west coast we'll talk about gains they're seeing. , your sales rep lisa has to send some files, asap! so basically i can pick the right plan for each employee... yeah i should've just led with that... with at&t business... you can pick the best plan for each employee and only pay for the features they need. rush hour will never feel the same. experience thrilling performance from our entire line of vehicles

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welcome back u.s. officials recently declared the first-ever water shortage on the colorado river california deals with widespread drought. we have more on the companies working to help solve the water crisis. >> kelly, water as a commodity is scarcer than in decades and there's the first ever water shortage only the colorado river

to trigger water cuts in several states come january 1. so 60% of the state's population resides in south carolina and that region just issued a water supply alert calling onall to conserve and prepare for continued drought. to make matters worse there's problems at an l.a. sewage plant after a massive spill reduced the water recycling capabilities so as a result of this water predicament water stocks are benefiting and all higher on the month. even water resource company themed etfs see better returns they're all up double digits year to date the drought could affect chipmakers intel and taiwan semiconductor planned to open facilities in arizona and need a lot of water

to clean and cool but the cuts will affect agriculture in the state. with clean water becoming a scarce resource water is more valuable than it's been in decades and so are the companies that supply it. >> fascinating thanks that does it for us. but "power lunch" begins right now. welcome to "power lunch. this hour, volatility grips wall street as the market confusion creating new opportunities for investors. our guest has a stock picking strategy including names that might surprise you forging ahead. illumina closes the deal with grail. the ceo is here to explain. a perfect storm. the transportation s