preparing for a closely watched meeting later today. and cathie wood buying the dip. reviewing some big purchases of zoom as well as robinhood. details straight ahead wednesday, september 1st, 2021 "squawk box" begins right now. good morning welcome to "squawk box" here i'm becky quick with joe kernen. andrew is on vacation this morning. equity futures are higher. i don't know if you were watching yesterday, joe. we didn't see new records for the s&p and nasdaq it would have been the 13th record for the month for the s&p. fell just short of that. stocks didn't fall by too much the s&p down by 6 points were you watching the nasdaq it was down by 6.66.

>> i didn't see that final close. there were some other things that i was watching yesterday, as a matter of fact, which we'll talk about in a second and how it might impact the business world. well, we couldn't -- no, i mean, we couldn't possibly -- we don't need to enter the fray of how we characterize what we've seen over the past couple of weeks. that's not what we do, but there is quite a bit of commentary on what we've seen. these are some big things. the black and white shot or the greenish sort of shot of infrared of the final -- >> the final soldier. >> that's going to be like what we've seen that's going to be one of the most iconic shots. 24 this is a 20-year saga that's ending this is going to be one of the things that maybe our kids' kids read about one day. >> right

>> maybe it will be implanted into their brains by then. maybe reading will be out. >> hopefully not yeah watching the markets this morning, you're going to see some gains dow few tears indicated up by 116 points s&p futures indicated up by 14 we will see a new record interday high at the nasdaq. nasdaq needed 29 points for the new high the s&p is short of what it needs. it needs 15 points it's sitting on the verge of what would be a new interday high treasury yields, you'll see the 10-year note is yielding 1.314%. it's september 1st you know what that means, that we've just finished this month we should take a look at how the market has performed if you are watching you saw that the dow gained 1.2%. that would be a sixth positive month in the last seven. the s&p 500 was up by 2.9% and then the nasdaq was up 4% for the month.

russell 2000 small cap index outperformed for the month it was up by 2.1%. despite a decline of 1.1%, the dow transports finished higher by 1.4%. transports are still more than 9% from the all-time high. if you look at the financials, they were up by 5% energy stocks were the worst performers the only sector to decline as well crude pricesfell 7%. if you are looking at trading, wti up 27 cents to 68.77 reminder for you, opec and its allies are meeting they're expected to stick to plans to add 400,000 barrels a day. lumber prices fall back down to earth. down 22% in august and now off by about 70% from the high they set back in may. >> this is what i was watching yesterday. president biden addressing the nation he defended his decision to end

the u.s. war in afghanistan after nearly 20 years of conflict seeing the era of u.s. nation building is over. >> we succeeded in what we set out to do in afghanistan over a decade ago and we stayed for another decade it was time to end this war. let me be clear, leaving august the 31st is not due to an arbitrary deadline, it was designed to save american lives. i was not going to extend this forever war and i was not extending a forever exit >> president biden avowed to defend the u.s. against evolving threats from terrorist groups such as isis without getting involved in another ground war let's see. the next story you were going to talk about -- you were just going to go -- leave it at that and move on to theranos.

i was watching it. were you watching when this happened did you see the end? i thought in a -- nothing about that speech was funny. nothing about the whole situation was funny. he turned around, the president, and was leaving and there were dozens of questions being shouted at him and at one point he turned around and he turned around and he walked back to the podium and everyone thought the same thing he's going to answer questions he picked up his mask and turned around and left. didn't you think he was coming back to field a few questions but -- anyway, we have a free and fair press sometimes maybe i don't like it but other times i do like it "the journal" -- if i tweet out in retweets are not endorsements, is that possible to tweet out some of the commentary on what we saw yesterday or should i just --

because it does affect the next 3 1/2 years. that's the last point that "the jou journal" makes >> i don't think anybody questions that i think people have been that i go for the last couple of weeks. >> do i tweet it out for people who don't have a subscription of "the journal"? i'm not going to tweet out "the new york times." maybe it's not unfair. >> i think you are allowed to express your personal expressions on twitter. >> is that fair? >> yeah. go ahead now. >> you get busy with that and we'll get back to this >> i want to think about it. you know, sometimes i feel like having a relaxing day and i don't feel like saying something -- >> really? >> you know what, yesterday i -- one of the reasons i said i was watching, there was supposed to be a baseball game on. did you see -- >> i thought that's what you were going to be talking about. >> i know, but it got canceled

unceremoniously because i think -- we're going to see the effects of ida later today. >> we are. >> i think it was in cincinnati yesterday. the reds were supposed to play the mets i had a game i was planning to watch. today there's a bunch of them on. >> it's supposed to rain today too so we'll see. >> oh, my god, later flood warnings, all kinds of stuff happening from pennsylvania, new jersey, new york, all around. >> that's right. we should tell you about the theranos situation the founder, elizabeth holmes arrived at court for a criminal fraud case they have been scrutinizing a pool of 200 potential jurors to find 17 needed to serve on the trial. that trial is expected to last four months. of the first group of 40 potential jurors, 1/3 said they had some familiarity the judge said exposure to the story wasn't enough to cut

potential jurors from serving if they said they could be fair and impartial. nine jurors who said they weren't vaccinated against covid were cut. >> crowd strike earnings are lower. they raised their full year outlook. goldman sachs reiterated the stock was a buy. stock's up 22% over the past three months it isn't the only one. sentinel and palo alto networks both soaring we'll talk to dan ives about the runup in the security stocks. in the meantime, when we come back we will talk portfolio strategy as we kick off trading. dow futures off by 118 points. s&p up by almost 15 and the nasdaq indicated up by 33. as we head to that break, check out the most recent purchases in the ark invest portfolio cathie wood adding 194,000 shares of zoom for $56 million

that stock closed down almost 17% yesterday. she also added 260,000 shares of robinhood which started the day lower but then ended up rallying to close flat on the day

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500 posting its seventh straight month of gains but can this rally continue in september which historically is the worst month of the year for stocks for more on that let's bring in greg branch. managing partner at veratos financial and lisa eriksson is with u.s. bank wealth management lisa, let's start with you you're optimistic. you're looking at things glass half full y. is that >> absolutely. we're really positive. what we see is a robust picture. so we've got a picture where most macro indicators are on solid levels as well as good ongoing trends if you look at the second quarter earnings report we have had a nice spate of earnings releases in addition, if you look forward, the full year forecast continued to stay stable and/or

rise that is a fundamental backdrop for continued projection of upward stock price movements. >> greg, you've been watching the fed and i know what they did last week surprised you. you maybe thought that the fed would be forced to act sooner than it looks like they're going to >> right from a strategic perspective i thought those great second quarter earnings were an opportune time to do what we know they had to do and that is capitulate that the labor market no longer needs accommodative energy policy. so as lisa said, the second quarter we saw 83% of companies beat their top line expectations and 86% of companies beat their bottom line expectations i expect the third quarter to be similar. the problem is between here and there the market is looking for something to focus on as we see by the sideways activity it's not to discount the multi-year growth story.

i certainly concur with that, but we do have some acute dangers in the meantime, namely i worry that we continue to grow the labor market in terms of the supply of jobs faster than we are growing the availability of workers. that will keep wage pressure high i worry we've added stimulus in the means of the s.n.a.p. program where we've provided 20 billion in stimulus. we've allowed states to recapture and repurpose the american rescue plan to extend generous unemployment benefits. >> i don't know of any states doing that new jersey has the fifth highest unemployment rate. our gov noor has said, no, that's not going to happen that's not appropriate >> we'll have to wait and see. at the end of the day that's going to prevent the bounce back we were expecting when they roll off if some states do choose to employ that. we also haven't yet seen delta be -- have a deleterious effect on the labor market. we've continued to have epidemic low jobless claims

that presents a risk as well that that job growth will continue to outstrip our supply of workers providing a nontransitory form of inflation in the way of rising wages. >> you think in a couple of months when we start seeing results for the third quarter it will be enough to make wall street have faith in it but between now and then you're not sure what happens to stocks? you think that they wobble from here >> if the fed drops in on us in september, we're past the earnings reports and the surprises and that's the sole thing that this marked is going to focus on. to those who say this is priced in i harken back to losing 900 points in the course of two days it's not priced in until the fed is definitive in what they're going to do. in september between second and third quarter earnings reports, this is what we're going to do. >> lisa, what do you think do you think it's rougher sledding once they actually start doing the taper? we lost 900 points over two days

but we're sitting at all-time highs right now. >> to your point, becky, the fed actions are going to have a key influence on the market. what we see so far is markets have really reacted fairly well to the messaging including chair powell's speech last week at jackson hole what we're hearing really overall is a message where they do believe that they want to continue to support the market and ease into some of that tapering and ultimately some rate increases but in a very supportive ay. so overall it really appears that, you know, the fed has the market at its back so that, again, is helping to contribute to some of the optimism that we have on the markets going forward. >> greg, let's talk about some of the stocks that you like. financials were the best performer for the month of august >> i think it will be bifurcated until we see an imminent betterment of the net interest market environment

continue to favor those big conglomerates that have capital markets at their back, that have advisory fees at their back, issuance at their back that's been driving the performance when you look at the goldman sachs, morgan stanley, ubss of the world. ai i'll continue to favor those we've seen a spate of activity much like we haven't seen in the last two decades when we see evidence that it will start to improve, i'll go broader in the sector. this is no longer a valuation trade. valuations we've seen a year ago, nine months ago where some of these were less than tangible book were crazy. it's a bet on the earnings continuing to see consistent earnings growth. >> lisa, you're yaoverweight on the u.s. large caps. why is that? >> we like emphasizing u.s. equities mainly because of the positive macro backdrop because

of the monetary policy we've talked about earlier if you look more broadly at the global environment and we check our health checks whether it's in developed economies globally or emerging economies, we see similar trends while the pace is not exactly the same around the globe, what we see is continued reopening activity and recovery. so that, again, provides a very nice backdrop for our company's, particularly the larger ones to do well. >> lisa and greg, want to thank both of you. good to see you this morning >> glad to be here. coming up, it's jobs week in america specifically, that big friday number. adp private payrolls later today. and then the grand daddy of them all. friday morning, up next. new data on hiring from the cnbc cfo council. as we head to break, here's a look at the two best performing s&p stocks in august penn national gaming and etsy. two companies betting on

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we've got results for the latest cnbc cfo abc des council survey looks like businesses are still struggling christina joins us now with more good morning >> good morning. i'm going through the abcs employers right now, they're bowing down to workers in the hottest job market pay hikes, free iphones, clench two college tuition.

our latest cnbc survey shows businesses are still struggling to find those workers. when we conducted the survey back in q1, 19% of cfos said it was harder to fill open positions. now 69% of those surveyed fall into that category which is why they are coughing up the dough a majority say that their company is experiencing rising wages including nearly 90% of u.s. cfos surveyed. a rise in the delta variant concerns has some people discouraged from returning to the labor force. even though a majority of cfos say they've reinstated or extended mask mandates especially mere in the united states, but the post labor day return to the office appears to be falling apart some like google, ford, lyft have pushed back the return to office start date to 2022. nearly half of all cfos in our

survey also say they've delayed return to office plans 1/4 have said they've mandated all employees be vaccinated in order to return to theoffice the resurgence of covid-19 cases is casting uncertainty on future plans yet again and it's making it harder, harder, and harder for employers to make the road ahead longer and bumpier joe? >> we need to pay attention every day, kristina. we figured if we got to 70% like europe that it would be clear sailing. what happens with breakthrough cases are so common now? the whole idea that the vaccine was going to be a cure all is -- well, we know that it's not. it certainly helps, but i don't know what that means, back to work >> that makes it difficult for employers now because are they going to force everybody to get vaccine? are they going to force everybody to get their booster shots?

a lot of unanswered questions which is why so many employees are left in the dark as tow when they're returning to work. is it going to be a month from now? 2022 some companies even february of next year. there are a lot of unanswered questions, confusion hence, why we're still sitting at home, some of us. >> exactly we are going to be bringing guests back here when we bring guests back, do people not wear masks? do you mandate do you do the remote camera work we're back with even with the vaccine we're revisiting things we did. >> that's true >> zero tolerance. if you're going to be as safe as you possibly can, that's what we're going to see from employers. thanks, kristina have you been on when i wasn't here >> i have. you've never introduced me and i've actually never met you in person either. this is our first, you know, conversation on live tv. yeah sort of. >> in today's world, meeting is -- we have to live with that. >> we don't know how tall each

other are. that's unfortunate i don't know what you look like. >> i did get your name pretty darn good. you've got to admit that. >> yeah, you did i was a little worried you were perfect >> they told me like six times in my ear and then i practiced it's not that hard. >> flawless. >> it's not -- >> it's 13 letters it's intimidating. i'm not. >> kristina. kristina took me a while but i did get kristina. >> thank you, joe. >> other jobs news walmart says it plans to hire 20,000 employees to help keep merchandise moving ahead of the holiday rush the roles will be in supply chain. a mix of full-time, part-time. they will be permanent, not seasonal they will range from order fillers and the average amount is $20.37 an hour.

joe, to your point, i thought this year back to school was going to be totally different. our kids start tomorrow. same anxieties that we had last year at this time. >> yeah. >> into the great wide open, here we go >> yeah. what about next year what about -- you know, are you confident? >> yeah, by next year i think it will be a different story, i do. >> hope so interesting. >> yeah. when we come back, we'll talk about the latest recovery of hurricane ida. we'll take you to the french quarter. the latest problem is water quality with treatment plants offline. yesterday's s&p 500 winners and losers

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welcome back first trading day of the month of september you can see this morning things are off to a good start for the bulls. dow futures indicated up by over 100 points 107 right now. the s&p indicated up by 14 points the nasdaq indicated up by 30 points joe? recovery efforts underway in the gulf coast after the region was pounded by hurricane ida still no power in new orleans. temperatures are rising. frank holland joins us now he is in the area. was yesterday. frank, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, joe right now we're here in the world famous french quarter. even now you would see a few people back here partying behind me as you can see now, we're in the dark 500,000 people in the new orleans area, they're under a boil water advisory due to damage of water treatment facilities in hurricane ida. the city of new orleans telling people to conserve water

1 million people are without power. the entire city without power. now a total of 988,000 in louisiana without power and air conditioning during a hot and humid august small comfort as i mentioned that's down from 1 million yesterday. at this time there's no timetable for that power to be restored. yesterday we saw hundreds of people lining up in the heat on foot or in their cars with the engines turned off to conserve gas waiting for water, food, tarps to cover damaged homes we also saw many others lining up at gas stations looking for fuel too fill up their generators or fill up their tanks to try to get out of town. we spoke with one man who said new orleans is home and will always be home he and his family, they don't feel safe right now. >> we can so we getting out of here, you know what i'm saying it's going to take them too long for us to get out of power our water is garbage, we on the

west bank. >> reporter: for those that are staying by choice or don't have any other option to stay, there's a lot of concerns about finding food and water in the coming days and even about safety even with about 5,000 national guard troops trying to keep the peace during the tense times in the city the white house has declared new orleans a major disaster they can apply for fema aid. a lot of people tell me they need help today. >> need it need it now. need it fast, frank. let's hope that happens. i guess it's no consolation to say the levies mostly held and it's not going to be nearly as bad as it could be that doesn't help people that need it right now. >> reporter: joe, in all fairness, a lot of people are counting their blessings they're very grateful, that we're not seeing widespread flooding and that people don't have to be rescued it's very hot. limited food no cold drinks, no ice while it's not as bad as it was,

it's still not great here. >> thanks, frank we look forward to an update later in the show. when we come back, google is the latest company to push back the return to work plans we have new survey data from kpmg on the future of work that's next. later, dr. scott gottleib will join us to talk about the surprise leadership changes at the fda and potential impact on vaccine approval two people leaving who have been heading up that program for a very long time. also a reminder for you you can watch or listen to us live any time on the cnbc app this is ashley. she's a posh virtual receptionist. she'll make sure you never miss a call or an opportunity to grow your business. you can't be in two places at once, let posh answer.

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that's because you all have the same internet. xfinity xfi. so powerful, it keeps one-upping itself. can your internet do that? . welcome back, everybody. google is pushing off the back to office date until 2022. the ceo said yesterday beyond january 10th we will enable countries and locations to make determinations on when to end voluntary work from home depending on locations employees will receive a 30-day notice before they're expected to come back to the office. sticking with this topic, professional services firm kpmg surveyed 400 of some of the cfos of some of the largest companies in the u.s. and compiled their findings on a range of topics

including the future of work joined us, paul knopp, kpmgu.s. chair and ceo. good to see you, paul. we're looking out three years in this survey. that's tough right now what are the assumptions that we're making about the next three years? because we're right back in the soup in terms of the delta variant and in corporate manager's face right now are the pandemic or covid. >> absolutely, joe good morning good to be with you today. what our survey found was that ceos are really confident over the next four years over their own prospects. domestic economy and growing confidence in the last survey. there's a high confidence of m&a and companies continue to digitize it comes in the face of a lot of

uncertainty with a lot of uncertainty not only of covid but future of tax changes that will come on the global stage and u.s. cyber incidents and those are serious issues we're facing. ceos are remaining very confident. when you mention the future of work, ceos named this our top operational priority that was the employee value proposition. we're all very hyper focused on people and organizational cultures >> so many things go into the calculus now post pandemic just listening to everything you say, yes, supply chain related to the pandemic but also related to, you know, we haven't built up certain capabilities in this country. we've got to do that probably again. companies have flourished during the pandemic which sort of gave everybody, some companies, a blueprint on how to deal with things like this and are they

better prepared? do they feel better prepared i we continue too see variants and this situation i think they know how to handle it and maybe successfully maneuver through these. >> joe, i think that's correct companies are proving to be very resilient. we're very optimistic about the vaccines that digitization effort that companies were undertaking before the pandemic and have rapidly intensified their efforts to digitize their business models, business processes, i think ceos are feeling confident about how they're able to do business in a more digital economy in the future that presents some challenges as i mentioned earlier. questions around how digital 2r transactions are taxed we're feeling really good about how the vaccines are responding to the virus i realize we're in a difficult situation right now.

i think they are -- ceos are very optimistic about the future. >> now we know how valuable employees are given how some companies are having a lot of trouble. you said that. that me entail letting people work remotely for a while to feel safe because it's not either/or with the vaccine as we're finding out right now. people are still going to want to wear masks, still want to socially distance and there's still going to be remote work. i guess you need to be more accepting of that if you want to retain key employees. >> no doubt about it, joe. flexibility is the operative word red hot labor market a lot of employee burnout in today's environment. a lot of disruption from remote work we need to have more shared office space in the future more flexible time for our employees. we talk a lot about this hybrid environment. we're still trying to design that hybrid environment for a

future ready purpose i think a lot of us will experiment with what that entails as we move forward in the future no doubt about it though, it's going to involve a lot more remote work and probably a lot more flexible space that might be closer to people's homes. the ceos also reported, joe, they want to see employees come back to the offices from time to time to collaborate and create ideas. that's going to be very important. the employees that return to office from time to time have reported being very happy, seeing their colleagues. i think this can be a real mix or hybrid approach for many years in the future. >> really? no, no, i'm kidding. you mentioned something that i want you to drill down on, and that is the -- you're thinking -- the ceos are thinking about the tax implications we're hearing i'm wondering, if we go to 28% corporate taxing, if we have a

new global minimum tax for companies that operate all around the world, are they thinking about those things? is that likely will that be a headwind in terms of margins and is it stg to prepare for? >> joe, absolutely we are helping companies scenario plan using visualization tools. there are interdependencies between the taxes, the taxes in the u.s. that will likely increase under the biden administration and the oecd is looking for ways to minimize the digital taxation there's a will the of interdependent changes happening potentially in the next year or two. we need to look at all of that plan for those scenarios we do see leading ceos very much planning around what those taxes might do to their balance smheet and income statements and it's top of mind for business leaders. >> this new, kinder, gentler

workplace where everybody gets to plan their own hours, work from home if they want to, is this transitory, like the fed thinks inflation is? i wonder how much of this is because ceos want to do this and how much is because they have to because of the labor shortages everywhere >> becky, i think it's a little of both to be honest with you. employees have been working at home very effectively over the last 17, 18 months there are work life harmony benefits to that we need to calibrate we're listening to our employees as we try to design the hybrid environment of the future. we also believe that we need to have them come together to collaborate and create ideas we built a $430 million learning development facility in florida that we opened in january of 2020 and closed in march of 2020 we recently reopened it and following cdc guidance, we're only allowing vaccinated

employees at this time to that facility but when they come back and create and learn at that facility, they really have reported, you know, really being excited about what we're doing to bring people back together but there's no doubt there's going to be a balance. we have to be future ready i think that future we're still trying to design as we look at what employees want and what employers need and try to balance those two things in the future >> what kind of assumptions are ceos making about the business cycle interest rates not going to stay here forever, paul there are some -- there are some troubling inflation. there's some troubling headwinds -- other headwinds on the horizon that i guess we've seen in the past nonetheless, they could be very -- you need to deal with them >> you do. as we go onto the future, certainly there is the prospect for inflation. inflation is here today,

obviously, but increasing interest rates is obviously of some concern into the future but we do see leading ceos modeling for all of those possibilities. there's a tremendous amount of liquidity in the markets today by some reports $1.5 trillion of investable cash which is reflected around the high m&a. companies wanted to strategically transform their platforms into m&a and digitization i do think they are paying close attention and they're erasing prices, increase prices and obviously they're looking at the future as monitoring fiscal stimulus has created a strong economy for us we need to think about longer term what that might do to interest rates. >> paul, thanks. appreciate it. i said cfo we had the cfo survey.

this is a ceo survey >> that's right. >> we're getting it all covered here at some point, i think, in the corner offices anyway, who are we missing hr. >> how about the employees >> yeah. the valued employees >> worker bees. >> we're very valued we can ask for anything want to -- >> i don't think there's a mcdonald's around here. >> probably not. >> anyway, when we come back, cybersecurity stocks soaring over the last month. analyst dan ives will join us to talk about the run up. right now as we head to a break let's take a look at the biggest pre-market gainers in the s&p 500. pvh leading after they reported a strong beat on earnings and revenue. company issued strong third quarter guidance the stock is up by just over 7%. "squawk box" will be right back.

falling this came morning after the cyber security firm reported better than expected second quarter results last night the tech company also seeing year-over-year growth of 81% new sub description customers of driven by a spike in recent cyber attacks. joining us now is dan ives dan, you recently raised your price target on a lot of stocks in this sector because you think

demand will be very strong, right? >> i think it's white hot. because of the shift to cloud, just more and more threats across enterprise and governments. you're seeing not just from crowdstrike but others view it as a golden age for cyber security what you're seeing under the new biden standards this will go well into 2022 in my opinion probably subsector of tech that's the biggest outperformer over the next four to six months. >> however we did see stronger results from crowdstrike they came in with good earnings but the stock is off 3.5%. is that because expectations are built in that are incredibly high >> what you see with these names, these stocks have been up in the last 18 months. you should have a knee jerk reaction i view it as a noise in my opinion you look out six to 12 months the growth and

cycle here, we think it's a $300 billion land grab for cloud security names like crowdstrike, zscale or others, these companies are in the sweet spot. these are stocks that will continue to relate despite the knee jerk reactions. >> you did this based on your own channel checks what did you see in those channel checks >> things that you're talking about on the program, remote in terms of employees working more and more from home you're seeing that across the board. also right now only a third of the way clue the cloud transition as companies move to cloud, that's something that cyber security becomes front and center and sort of a new area you're going to see spending which is part of what we're seeing across the board. not just enterprise but government these are the threat levels that are unlike anything i've seen 20

years probably in the sector that's why it's a golden age for cyber security these are stocks that continue to be in the sweet spot and that's what we're hearing from a lot of ce level especially in this high level of security. >> sea level being at the cyber security firms or executives at other companies who are actually saying yes i'll put my money where my mouth is, i'll spend more money on cyber security >> sea level, sea search, security officers. to give you some example we think we're looking somewhere between 21%, 22% growth for cyber security and next year sustainable levels many of are invested in terms of cyber security the biggest things, you talk about these moves kwloto cloud, amazon, microsoft, security goes hand-in-hand the sector is way hot but we're still in the early innings of a

transformational growth cycle and seeing that play out in front of us. >> how does one cyber security stand out from another which is your favorite our favorite is zscale they continue to really own what i view as sort of the cloud market this is almost a salesforce.com of cyber security. that's one that sticks out i would also point out, you want to play the federal opportunity. names like cybra that play on the federal side which is even more important when you saw the white house meeting, just given what we're seeing on the threat level. >> dan, thank you. great to see you today we'll talk to you soon coming up we'll talk about rising number of pediatric cases of covid and race to get the vaccine approved for children. futures right now are higher across the board

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open what historically has been the toughest month for stocks. will this be a september to remember >> bracing for the remnants of ida. the new york city under a flash flood watch. a live report is minutes away. pressure building to get children under the age of 12 vaccinated we will speak to the president of the american academy of pediatrics as millions of children return to school. the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now. good morning and welcome to this 7:00 a.m. hour of "squawk box" on wednesday, on the east coast. we're on the east coast. it's september 1st i'm joe kernen along with becky

quick. andrew is off. we're starting september like we finished most months recently with u.s. equity futures finding some buying interest, up solidly this morning dow is up triple digits. nasdaq at a new high s&p, that will be a new high here's what's making headlines, not that this is related to what's happening on the stock market but a little over, this is, a little over an hour away from adp's monthly report on private-sector employment. economists expect the u.s. economy added 600,000 private-sector jobs during august august report from the government will be out friday morning as i'm sure you know if you have watched us before fidelity investments is on a hiring streak. plans to hire another 9,000 employees amid a surge in demand for trading and investment services it's the latest in a series of job additions for fidelity which

expects its total workforce to grow by 22% this year. walmart also in hiring mode. it plans to add 20,000 workers as distribution centers ahead of the holiday season although it says these will be permanent positions even though it's before the holiday season planning to raise wages for those work >> they have to if they will find 20,000. hard to find workers no power, fresh water in short supply and rising temperatures recovery from hurricane ida cannot happen fast enough. >> reporter: all the state of new orleans is without power including the historic french quarter. right now about 20,000 utility workers from 22 different states are descending on the new orleans area to help get this local power grid back up and running. yesterday cnbc getting a drone

view of a fallen transmission tower that was knocked down and damaged by hurricane ida this is one of many. these towers and key transmission lines, damaged in the storm expected to take weeks to repair. crews are manually carrying cables across highways and putting them back on poles energy utility for this area say redundancy is built into the system but it was wiped out by day. there's a desperate search for gasoline for people to fill up their generators or tanks to get out of tornado people are lining up at gas stations people said new orleans is and always will be home but right now too hard to live here without power, without air conditioning, with many stores being closed largest hospital system also holding a briefing updating people on what they are dealing with many of their facilities had to be evacuated from ida. most facilities now running on back up power. health care workers are bracing for another spike in covid-19.

>> with everyone leaving, traveling, sheltering in small places, gathering in groups together, now people might be returning to the city and region, will there be another spike in our covid-19 patients or infections? big concern for the hospitals here >> reporter: the health system says it is actively working to re-open it's covid-19 testing and vaccination sites. the chief medical officer saying it's a top priority because the entire state of louisiana has been deemed at high-risk for covid infection. here in the new orleans area about 53% of people are vaccinated compared to 69% nationally 91% of the people in the hospital with covid-19 here in the state are unvaccinated becky, back over to you. >> frank, i had heard that some

local authorities maybe some state authorities don't want people to come back just yet because of the infrastructure problems you're talking about. >> reporter: i can't speak to that officially but we have talked to different police officers and people here in the area that are very concerned about people coming back as that chief medical officer mentioned we have people sheltering in close quarters, no air conditioning if you're inside a building. limits ventilation there are concerns about covid rising and concern about where people will find enough food, ice. ice is at a premium. two days ago people were racing in trying to buy all the ice they could to keep some of their food cold and drinks cold. >> what's the situation like in terms of hotels? where are you guys staying >> reporter: we're staying at a hotel. the hotels don't have power or air conditioning i'm lucky because we have beds to sleep in, a roof over our head we don't have a hole in our

roof we were at a give away where a council person was giving away tarps. >> hang in there thank you for the great reporting. >> reporter: thank you >> high frequency jobs data is showing the impact of the delta variant. steve liesman joins me you weren't doing to share -- see i remember what you said i know you don't remember what i said as we saw yesterday what did you say, you weren't going to share your work for this jobs report >> reporter: no. i said i was going to check ou the high frequency data first which is what we're going to do right now, joe because the high frequency jobs data suggests some down side risk to the consensus which is 720 for the do you jones

delta variant looks to be sapping some of the strength out of the labor market rebound. hr software company ukg found hours worked fell 2.4% between mid-july and mid-august. it points to payrolls being stronger or weaker compared to the prior month. growth declined in all regions of the country fell hardest in the southeast down 3.6%. that, of course is where the delta variant has been the most widespread further evidence of a delta connection comes from home base. they gather data the from 60,000 businesses overall saw 4% decline in employees working in august. most importantly home base registering a decline in the strong job growth in leisure and entertainment. another sign of the delta variant. august not a typical month of

strong job growth. goldman sachs looks for big gain in education workers still forecast is for below consensus of 600,000 senior economists at goldman sachs emailed me yesterday and said the delta variant has a larger drag on consumer confidence, service consumption and labor market than we initially expected federal reserve looking for what it calls substantial further progress in the job market to begin reducing its asset purchases. i'm going to call it 500,000 above 500,000 could be enough. the fed may want more confidence that its seen the worst of the economic effects of this virus now. >> okay, they have lately what is the standard deviation from the mean then for adp. how have they been doing >> it's not been doing well. i did not -- i always calculate

in the half an hour before the number comes up. i didn't calculate it yet. not been doing a very good job at all, joe. >> we'll look at it anyway and talk about it. because we need as much, until friday anything we can get, any nugget we can get. >> but, joe, real quick there's a reason why we're focusing a lot on this high frequency data. it's done a better job in pointing the way that's why we give it to you all. we give you this number and the adp number and the error rate coming up at 8:15. >> great you'll remember i asked for that thanks steve something to look forward to also when we come back walmart making plans to hire for the holidays the company facing fierce competition for workers. will it pay off for investors? we'll find out after the break before we head to the break

let's get a check on the markets. dow futures first day of september indicated up by 120 points sapp sapp and nasdaq would set an intraday high s&p up by 15, nasdaq up by 33. "squawk box" will be right the next generation of visionaries. rule breakers. game changers. and world beaters. we were built to perform on the biggest stages. but we certainly aren't here to do what's been done before. and neither are we. at palo alto networks, we are ready to secure our digital future. as companies innovate to transform, we innovate to outpace cyberthreats.

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new employees to help keep merchandise moving ahead of the anticipated holiday shopping rush will the move pay off for investors. here to talk about that move and some other stocks to watch, stephanie link one of the things they told me you want to talk about is the holiday season it's september 1st it might be the delineating date not even labor day september 1st, holiday season. let's get ready. what do you want what's on your list? what your getting me >> it's a surprise we have a couple of months to go in fact, these companies are all going to be hiring people, especially on the retail side because you got to get ready for the christmas season, holiday season this is what every company is trying to deal with.

not just walmart not just retail in general recall last year at this time walmart also increased people by 20,000 in their ecommerce business the he question i have can they find these people? they have to pay up. they did indicate they will increase wages by 34%. that's huge. that's on the heels of them raising prices in february, wages in february. what will this do to margin. they have to raise price the whole entire retail landscape. have to raise price. it will be very interesting to see the response from the consumer it's worth watching. >> what about the consumer the so delta is around i know that. it seems a little bit different. people are out much more than last year. they got, you know, stocks at all time highs housing prices are at all time highs. unemployment rate has come back down to the fives. a lot of stimulus checks

everybody has made money shouldn't this be a big christmas season >> i would think so. i know everyone is a little stressed out about the university of michigan scenement numbers and confidence numbers from yesterday but if you look at some of the weekly data it shows the consumer is just fine. to your point, yes, people feel better people want to get out savings rate is up almost 10%. historically it's been 5%. there's money to be had. there's spent up demand to be had. i like the consumer very much. as i mentioned before, i own tjx. i love that store. it's up 6% on the year it's the ultimate re-open. everyone wants a treasure hunt and then the housing exposure. you can pick and choose. that's on the retail side. i have a lot of re-openings like wynn resort, match.com those kinds of things. i do think those stocks offer real value here. they lag tremendously especially

since the may time frame >> would you favor or at least revisit brick-and-mortar the digital side of things since it's slowed ever so slightly during re-opening sometimes the stocks have gotten hurt. are they cheap now what would you favor in terms of the holiday season for retailers? >> i think we all know omni channel, digital is on fire. i would love to get back into something like a target. it's just had such enormous run but they are doing all the right things in terms of their products, in terms of private label, in terms of diversifying with their offering to the customer there's plenty of ideas out there. to me walmart is too expensive target is expensive but doing the right things i like the tj story very much. again i like he some of these other re-openings because i think they offer some real value.

vale resorts a fabulous story and been stuck in the mud. there are plenty of names out there on the consumer side and i feel good about the consumer >> vale, outside side. we got to get there. easier to get to than aspen. >> this is true. >> how about big tech? >> i like big tech but it's not exactly undiscovered right? i think who doesn't own kind of like faang so there was this company yesterday, it will be up 20% today. that's the name i like heading in to the quarter down 13% on the year nobody knows what this company does or who it is but they blew it away. what i do like about big technical and areas where i see opportunity is enterprise i.t. spent. we saw microsoft

now we have add a plan enterprise spending is coming back and that's where i think is more value versus the faang names. i like the faang names but they are overowned. >> what microfactors have caused that why is the spending cycle coming back >> because it was dead a year ago. right? because, you know, now we're starting to re-open. and everyone was spending on different things right? they were all spending on cloud but they were also spending on zoom on stay-at-home technologies so now this year it's back to work, some companies back to work and i know it's getting a bit pushed out a little bit. these companies haven't spent on erterrify price i.t. in over a year now they got to do that again and that's the new cycle >> the re-opening, you're still going with that. i guess we all are if we had to

think aboutit because the vaccine may not be perfect but seems to be much better when we didn't havea vaccine we're going that way there are some question marks about, you know, when and masks and everything else, social distancing those have come back but overall you're looking past that and saying re-opening is still something you can play >> i think so, joe i think so i'm not an expert on the timing. but i thinkit will happen. let's watch the school season. that's obviously a very big part of it as well. but i do think we'll get back. there's spent up demand. why i like re-opening is because they lagged. they were the leaders from january to may then from may to the end of july they lagged substantially. i got wynn resorts down 31% from its highs. so i'm just looking for opportunities in the market that aren't picked through and where i see as we re-open there's a

lot of operating leverage to that so that's where i see the value at this point. >> okay, chief investment strategist at hightower, ste if a knee -- stephanie link cnbc contributor. >> thank you for having me >> coming up, august you a to sales are on tap automakers and dealerships could be facing a fork in theroad. if you see one take it customer demand remains high phil lebeau will tell us what to keep in mind later pressure going to expedite vaccines for children. we'll speak to the president of american academy of pediatrics about that and return to school. >> announcer: time now for today's aflac trivia question. what was the best performing stock in the s&p 500 in 2020

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at palo alto networks, we are ready to secure our digital future. as companies innovate to transform, we innovate to outpace cyberthreats. so you can embrace technology with confidence and make the next day safer than the one before. we've got next. >> announcer: now the answer to today's aflac trivia question. what was the best performing stock in the s&p 500 in 2020

the answer: tesla. the s&p 500's controversial new addition that joined the index in december, gained 693% in 2020 that's more than triple the return of any stock that spent the entire year in the index so much for the doubters many automakers will be checking with august sales and a slump is expected as inventories dry up phil lebeau has more >> reporter: if you've driven by an auto dealership lately it's not your eyes fooling you. a lot of them are very sparse. that's because there's just a short supply out there when we get the august auto sales a little bit later on today we're not getting them from gm or from some of the other majors, but you will get them from a number of the automakers and what you're going

see is that the new vehicles at dealerships on average, they are only there 26 days we're is going to see a rather low new vehicle sales rate look how quickly vehicles are selling. this is the number of vehicles at a dealership selling within ten days that means people pre-order them, they come off the shipment carrier and out the door almost half the vehicles that were sold in august were there less than ten days huge change compared to august of 2019 and that's been steadily ratcheting higher during the pandemic new auto transaction price a record high, $41,780 incentive. you're not getting much of a deal it was down more than $2100 compared to last year. let's take a look at toyota, general motors and ford. what you're seeing here are stocks that had a nice move at the beginning of the year. you heard talk about ev investment since then they really haven't done much over the last three

months by comparison take a look at the auto dealer stocks they have been fairly steady throughout the last year not only because of optimism that they are going to be doing well on transaction prices for new vehicles but more importantly used vehicles which are going at a record pace right now. so we'll get those numbers later on, becky. bottom line is labor day used to be three, four, number five day in terms of total volume, in terms of weekend for new vehicle sales. it's not going to be that this year still a lot of people out there looking but slim pickings if you haven't already done your work in advance, maybe placed an order at a dealership, et cetera >> phil, profit margins for the dealers you make a good point, look it's the used cars that are helping them out more than anything but for the automakers are profit margins up or down. they are making a lot more but i guess they are paying more to get the supplies that they are getting that are being delivered. >> their profit margins are up

we saw that in the last quarter. their profit margins are up. you're seeing north american profit margins for general motors and ford not at record highs but close to record highs. i haven't checked. we've seen them all go up for the automakers >> phil, thank you great to see you we'll hear more about this later today. becky, what do you think the used car salesmen are like right now? >> i have some experience. >> i know. what would they be like if it was a seller's market, right >> it is and i had a really bad experience with one up here and i had a really great experience with one down at the beach it depends on where you are. >> can they act like, you know -- >> some of them certainly do i have to say the one we bought from was fantastic prices are higher. you have to be willing to pay that >> but could play hard to get instead of tracking you down

>> i was ready to pay cash for a car. they were such jerks i couldn't justify it i walked out the door. >> where was that? what was the name of that dealership >> it was here in bergen county. >> still to come, lee savio beers, from the american academy of pediatrics. plus we'll talk about the president's plans for a capital gains cost and debt. who ill pay the most stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc heidi heitkamp

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. pediatric covid cases are currently on the rise as the delta variant continues to spread across the country affecting many children as they return to school cases are up over five times as they were earlier in july and child hospitalizations because of covid are at an all time high joining us now to talk more about this is lee savio beers, the president of the american academy of pediatrics. dr. beers, thank you for being

here this morning. this isn't just a disease for adults any more. >> that's absolutely right really it never was a disease just for adults but now we're seeing so many cases that we're seeing the impact on children. >> with that backdrop, are you surprised that the fda is asking for more information about the clinical trials and expanding those trials for kids who are ages 5 to 12 before they will approve the vaccine information. >> you know, this is something that we think really needs to be approached with a lot of urgency given the sheer number of children affected by covid, particularly with the spread of the delta variant. you know, there needs to be an urgency in the way that we approach the authorization of vaccines for kids. of course, absolutely we need to follow very clear and thoughtful safety procedures but we think both of those things can to be done at the same time. >> the data, i think, for pfizer

has been a moving timeline, as a mother of two young kids i was a little concerned i thought maybe we would be getting these vaccines by late september early october. then the timeline changed to late winter. early to late winter potentially depending where we would see it. where do you think things stand right now. what your hearing? >> we're hearing the same things you are. we've heard estimates from as early as halloween to as late as early winter we, of course, hope for the earlier timeline and also heard the manufacturers will be ready to submit their data by the end of the month that's encouraging to us we're helpful it will be earlier on that timeline but, of course, we have to wait and see what the data looks like >> the cdc is taking an unusual step and threatening doctors saying they can't prescribe these vaccines off label for kids ages under 12 and i one that you want to see the data first

if you were able to see that data next month would that make you feel better about off label prescriptions at that point? >> we also do not recommend off label prescriptions for, off label use of the vaccine for children less than 12 and the biggest reason is we know during the trials we are using smaller doses of the vaccine for children and until we see and know that we have to make sure we feel urgency about it but also need to make sure it's done safely >> what your seeing now in terms of hospitalizations. is the delta variant more viral, is it a situation where it will spread more quickly among unvaccinated and we're seeing break through cases too. it's a game changer. >> that's a good question. of course as you probably noticed the data lags a little behind data of cases it's hard to know if delta is a

more severe disease in kids or just that, you know, just like in adults the more people, more kids are infected more will get the disease. what we're seeing is dramatic increases in cases and really dramatic increases in hospitalizations and this is particularly true in some of the states, you know, largely in the south and midwest where we're seeing surges. in those places we're seeing pediatric hospitals are running out of beds. kidsare having to wait long times to be seen it's really putting a tremendous stress on the health care system as well as we're also seeing just a whole lot of sick kids there. >> i know the american academy of pediatrics is recommending kids do go back to school in person there was a lot of mental grief that was caused by not being in schools last year. what do you say about doing that in areas where there's not a very high vaccination pick up

and masks are not mandatory or maybe not even allowed >> we have guidance on this. we have all throughout the pandemic focuses in on the point that you just made that it is really essential for whenever we can to get kids into in person school i think one of the things we learned over the past year is we can do that safely even in areas of high spread but it does require measures in the schools. our strong recommendation is that we need to do everything we can to get kids back in school safely and what that involves is universal masking for children and adults over the age of 2 good ventilation some sort of regular testing protocol that can vary depending on the school district you know, physical distancing, keeping kids a little bit distanced where can you, where space allows putting all those things together and layering those things together we can get kids back to school safely. as adults we need to do our part to make sure we're creating a

safe environment for our kids. >> what's your biggest concern with the delta variant and issues and higher pediatric hospitalizations we're seeing? >> you know, many concerns i'm concerned about our kids who are getting sick and also knowing that many of those kids actually are over the age of 12 and those are illnesses that could have been prevented with the vaccine that's one concern i'm absolutely also concerned with the impact this could have on families. you know, this is going to be the case with delta, we have tens of thousands of kids in the united states who lost a caregiver to covid so that's a concern as well. then i think i'm also concerned about our health systems particularly in areas where we're seeing big surges, you know the health systems are getting overwhelmed and health care providers, physicians are getting overwhelmed too. >> dr. beers, i want to thank you for your time today. we appreciate it >> thank you for having me nine the next hour, former fda

commissioner and cnbc contributor dr. scott gottlieb will join us when we return, a check on what's moving in pre-market. futures this morning are in the green. first day of september right now dow futures up by 122 points s&p 500 by 16, nasdaq by 42. as we head to a break let's take a look at this morning's winners and losers in the s&p 500. we'll be right back.

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welcome back to "squawk box" i'm dominic chu mere with your morning "market movers". we'll start with a earnings story in campbell soup that stock is up fractionally, half of 1% it came out with earnings that were better than expected. revenues were better than expected however they did post a full year forecast that fell below some analyst expectations. they continue to face head winds from rising commodity cost and labor increases in terms of wages. also watching a couple of analyst moves for a couple of

big mega cap technology communication services type names. apple shares higher by half of 1% helped along a little bit by an upgrade by analysts over at wolf research to a neutral rating they were underperformed despite apple rise they think apple's relative supply chain strength will help it and share gains for apple's iphone in places like china. facebook shares are lower after its get downgraded to equivalent of a hold rating they think a lot of the ad and data they had with regard to iphone suspending ways people can track your usage across apps will hurt it over the longer term facebook shares down as well then we'll end on shares of robinhood which are down fractionally they had a solid day yesterday sec is looking to evaluate some of share plans by shareholders you may recall back in august that company robinhood after it

just went public and surged said that about 98 million shares were going to be sold by various inside shareholders as part of the move well now the sec is going to take a look at that registration to see if that resale will pass muster back over to you >> robinhood, things have been -- i guess not out of their control but talked about them every day i think this week. >> coming up, a key and controversial provision of biden's tax plan could cost families millions in additional taxes. robert frank has a preview robert >> good morning, joe opponents call it the death tax that could be a death knell for family owned business. who will pay the tax and why it's under attack even from democrats. that story after the break

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biden's plan to tax appreciated capital gains at death also known as step up is one of his most cherished tax proposals and one. of the most controversial. robert frank joins us with a look at the real numbers he behind who would pay and who wouldn't pay hi, robert >> good morning, joe opposition to that plan is growing even within the democratic property. biden proposed a capital gains

tax on income over $1 million. current law let's individuals inherit with no taxes on the unrealized gains a coalition of farmers, small businesses and other lobbying groups says it hurt family farms and family companies they say it would force them to sell to pay that tax of perhaps 40% or more and they say it would take away an important wealth building tool for minority entrepreneurs i moaning the new opponents and surprisingly, former democratic senator heidi heitkamp she has long called for higher capital gains tax. now her new not for profit or the one she's lead is called save american family enterprises. they are laushlging an ad campaign that showcases small family companies that are under the threat biden's plan would exempt family farms and businesses that continue to be owned by those

families it allows 15 years for families to pay taxes on companies not exempt or those being sold the white house says less than .3 of 1% of taxpayers would actually owe this tax since couples get a total exemption including real estate of up to $2.5 million only those making more than that would pay that the white house said it would raise over $100 billion a year over a decade. but even that number under fierce debate right now. back to you. >> joining us now to debate, well i don't know if we'll debate it, what's being called biden's death tax. former u.s. senator heidi heitkamp she's also a founding board member of the one country ambassador they said you and i were going to debate raising taxes. who will be on the raising taxes

side, heidi? maybe robert maybe robert will be on that side have you always felt that way or was there a change of heart people say now you got this organization and you've got, i don't know, skin in the game or something. did you change your mind or have you always been opposed to this, what they are calling a death tax. >> let's kind of get this parsed out right which is the first case you deal with is the capital gains tax rate you and i know we have debated this, i believe should be more equal with earned income i don't think that unearned income should be taxed at a lower rate than earned income. the second piece is how do you calculate that tax when you have step up basis it creates an incredible loophole i have not changed my position on the need for stepped up basis reform the piece of this that i find most troubling is all of a sudden for the first time we're

going to be taxing unrealized capital gain and you remember, joe, when we were debating or talking about the wealth tax and talking about some of the proposals from maybe the more progressive members of the democratic party during the debate was really to take a look at, at the end of the year we'll decide which are capital gains even though they were unrealized my position always has been you ought to realize the capital gain if i can give an example, which i think kind of says it all for me it's an example of minnesota lake property. okay so what's happened in lake country is property has appreciated dramatically, which means rich people come in, they build a house on something tha they tore down, pay $1.5, 2 million for the lot. they are sitting next to a family owned cabin where people have owned it for years and years. let's just take this example to the next level so the one guy builds a $2 million house on a million and a

half lot he has a $4 million basis. the family owned lot probably only has a basis of $30,000 but now because of appreciation of that property that property is going to have huge capital gains. let's say the owners of those two properties die the guy who inherits the property at $4 million, owes absolutely nothing because there's been no capital gains. the truck driver, let's say, truck driver sam who makes $100,000 a year all of a sudden now has a tax that he owes on inheriting that property not because he wants to sell it or because he feels particularly rich you know family assets are about more than a balance sheet. family assets are about where we work, where we live, where we recreate, and when you look at taxing unrealized capital gains, what you're doing is opening up

a pandora's box that won't be closed for a long, long time >> your willing, then, to say that if you don't realize capital gains they will never be taxed and can be passed down generation to generation a lot of democrats that's the whole point. they want it they want that they want to tax everything. >> well, i don't think that's true if you look at what, in fact, has been the kind of trajectory of this issue, one of the great irony is that george w. bush, if you may recall, eliminated stepped up basis and went to carry forward basis when he did his phase out of the estate tax. you might recall who negotiated ten years later package that went through congress. it was then vice president joe biden who basically rolled back the basis adjustment i think we need basis reform i just think that when we're

looking at this, to immediately -- to immediately tax upon death or upon transfer without realizing the capital gains is not the way our tax code should work or does work. what it will mean for american businesses certainly small businesses and farmers is that that money that they could use basically over that period time to invest in their businesses, to invest the sword hanging ove their business >> robert is still with us when biden loses, heidi heitkamp, i'm not sure what to think. that doesn't make the prospect very good for us >> well surprising many people don't know heidi was the state tax commissioner in north dakota she knows a lot about taxes. my question to her is okay, this example you set of the truck driver who owns property that's been in the family for year that i think people understand.

but the issue here and the revenues people like bill gate, warren buffett who basically as we've seen with his articles have been allowed through this loophole and others to basically because these gains are not realized and, therefore, won't be taxed, they've been able to basically have almost all their wealth throughout their lifetime, billions of dollars escape any taxation and that's the real issue and according to you that should still happen >> no. let's go back and take a look at what they are reforming and in stepped up basis you got to realize that when you're looking at warren buffett he's going give his billions away and even in the democratic task proposal they still allow for a stepped up basis or tax avoidance for donations to charities. and so this isn't going to affect warren buffett.

what's also interesting and i want to make this point about farmers. 40% of the land in this country that is in agriculture is not farmed by the person who owns it in fact, farmland is owned by a lot of billionaires and a lot of wealthy people if you exclude farmers are you going to exinclude the people who own the land because what could happen exactly in this proposal is when -- because the tax is immediate, when someone inherits it if they can't afford to pay that tax they then will sell the land. that lapsed will go on the market and be adding to consolidation of agriculture overall. so i'm trying to sound the alarm both economically and plumbly for democrats that this is not a path to walk, which is taxing unrealized gain. you can look at different strategies for stepped up basis, for realizing some income tax

when that asset is eventually sold, but the disruption that this would create for small family businesses and for farmers and for family assets is just not worth the pain. in fact, ironically when it's polled, 70% of democrats agree with me that death should not be the taxable the event. >> well the whole wealth tax idea which i love the way senator warren talks about it. two or three cents come on. completely ignores a stock can go up 100% and then go down 50% and you pay taxes on the 100%. it's just not intellectually honest to say we can do that then she will bring up property tax. we deal with property tax every year but it's not the same thing. >> the one thing i would say about property taxes, joe, is that we live in a country where

a lot of americans are house rich and cash poor it's fairly oppressive in many states >> you conflate north dakota and minnesota all time we bring d.c. in and merge minnesota and north dakota and we have 50 states. you were born one minnesota but you did all your political work in north carolina. i'm sorry, north dakota. >> but can we just get this, i was born in minnesota thing fixed. i was born in the hospital the only hospital close to north dakota and that was in breckenridge, minnesota. a day later i was in north dakota is there some kind of sign in app? >> we got to go. senator, thank you robert, thank you.

heidi is on the right side of this one i'm in shock thank you, heidi when we come back, dr. scott gottlieb will talk to us more about what's happening with delta. "squawk box" will be right back.

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breaking economic news the monthly unemployment report now 15 minutes away. september stats it's traditionally the year's worst month for stocks but that hasn't held true lately mike santoli will bring us the seasonal story plus we're headed to the farm. food prices are rising this might not be good news for the nation's growers a live report shows in decatur, illinois as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. good morning welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc live from the nasdaq market site in times square i'm joe kernen along with becky quick

andrew is off. futures are looking pretty solid. dow is up 130 points the s&p would be at another new high 17. nasdaq up nearly 50. treasury yields have been in that 1.25, 1.3 zone. 1.32 a little above that >> let's get you caught up on stories that investors are likely to be talking about today. first of all, lucid shares are dropping stock closed down about 3% yesterday. this morning down by 14.5% and if you check out shares of campbell soup they are ticking higher after the food producer posted better than expected earnings however full year profit forecast is below what the street was expecting as the company deals with higher input costs and a constrained labor market that stock still up .6 of 1% southwest airlines pilots are suing the company over changes

made to working conditions as the covid-19 pandemic took hold. they said those changes should have been bargained with the union. now to the broader markets and what investors could perhaps expect in the month ahead. mike santoli joins us now from the new york stock exchange. i changed that intro it said you would tell us what investors could expect in the month ahead. i don't want to put that kind of pressure on you, mike. so give us some -- >> investors can expect whatever they like. i just won't tell them whether it will happen or not. let's handicap this a little last september 1st if you want to dial back a little bit we were riding this huge momentum push to the upside, very steep ramp higher, led by the big nasdaq stocks. then we had a flash correction right now on the s&p 500, one year, this very orderly chunk higher this was that very last remnant

of the momentum push then you went straight down we're up 28% on a one year basis. we corrected back on september 2nd of last year from a high of about 3580 there you see not quite 1,000 points higher. take a look at the tendencies for september. for the full year. if you look at the average seasonal performance of the s&p 500 over a calendar year this is the last 20 years. if you averaged all 20 years together this is what january through december likes here you see typically that's the period that we're dealing with when we the talk about august into october tends to be choppy the percentages are vastly different this year. much more about the shape of the curve. we had something similar a late february kind of february/marceloff it won't match up perfectly. just this idea you don't have a seasonal talent. what do you want to look for, to see if risk is rising. credit is one thing. can be an early warning sign

credit markets have been very stable and firm. take a look at the performance of high yield debt relative to the overall pool of corporate and. government debt. that's the aggregate high yield obviously outperforming all year not making new headway not necessarily this rush to buy the risky stuff but holding together fine. another thing i would watch, we've had these magical rotations where right now we had a growth scare in the economy and that's benefiting the big growth stocks. that's holding up the s&p 500. if those triages slip and fail and you have more of a struggle to have an answer for when certain parts of the market back off that's something else. the final thing is usually you have to have vifve investors get overoptimist i can to get a surprise pull back doesn't seem investors are really over enthusiastic in the short term but heavily exposed to the market. everybody allowed their equity

exposures to go up a lot as the market appreciated you never know how that's going fit together but right now it doesn't seem as if there's a lot of flashing warning signs in the market. >> there hasn't been any just days that you just go wow this is a roaring bull. kind of been the inverse of when, like in a down market you have those really sharp corrections which usually don't last very long then you have the slow steady decline which could mean we're headed lower than you think. maybe this means we're heading higher than we think because it's not getting anyone too excited. >> boring is bullish low volumes. sellers tend to mean you go higher >> never short a dull market all right. we'll see. thanks, mike joining us right now is sam stovall. sam, you've been studying the markets, seeing what's happened

recently you got some good news and some bad news but let's be optimistic let's start with the good news >> all right, becky. good morning the good news is that as of the end of august we've had three very impressive milestones take place. first off, the year-to-date performance through august was in the top ten, actually it was number nine going back to 1928 also when you look at 53 all time highs through the end of august that was actually the highest on record going back to 1928 and we also recorded seven consecutive months of positive performances there have been 14 other years in which we had eight or more. so a lot of good news out there, you know, as mike santoli just mentioned we are, the bull market is taking the escalator and as joe mentioned the bull markets take the elevator. usually step ups slowly tend to

be fairly positive >> that's all good what's the bad news >> the bad news is this momentum heading in to september historically really has not undone the challenge that september typically presents to the market over the last several decades what we've found is the market has fallen more frequently than risen in september, and it's the only month to have both an average decline and frequency of decline. but when you then say what about following all time highs through august what about following year-to-date performances? what about consecutive string of advances the numbers don't look any better we're still looking at only about a 44% frequency of advance in september about a 68% frequency of advance for the remaining four months of the year but with that said, i would say be aware of it so that you're emotion don't become your

portfolio's worst enemy and remember that of all the times of 20% or less since world war ii we got back to break even in an average of fewer than four months so history would say you're better off buying than you are bailing. >> okay. what joe and mike also talked about is this issue of the cash on the sidelines how many people are kind of waiting for that 5% drop so that they can jump in i just wonder how much of that prevents us from ever getting a 5% drop. it's been a long time since we've seen one >> absolutely. watching your program this morning since 4:45, basically every other guest is talking about how bad september is and usually when everybody is looking for a bad september it doesn't happen in the last seven years the market was lower four times in september, so the percentages even recently have held up but at the same time it means that the market was up three

times in september over the last seven years. so, you know, my feeling is continue to focus on the fundamentals, also look to the technicals because fundamentals might tell you what, technicals tell you when and how far. >> i hear from lots of strategists as you mentioned everybody says look out september can be a scary time but i also don't hear too many people say you should sell right now. they say it can be a scary time bath lot can move this market higher including earnings, just including momentum, including a lot of things along those lines. i haven't heard too many come out and say look out below, time to sell. is that a concern? >> well, from a timing perspective or a duration of advance, it is a bit of a concern because we have now gone three times as long as the average between declines of 5% or more since world war ii, so as brooke benson once said it's

a matter of time my response would be no not on a 5% to 10% decline. people keeping money on the sidelines waiting for a 5% decline will get that after the market has risen 10% >> right sam, i know you love statistics like these but when you look at the overlaying issue, the one thing people come back to again and again is that there's nowhere else to put your money the fed has set the situation where you have to be in stocks not to mention all the government stimulus money that's out there, people working from home have more time to put money in the markets and more interest in it too. what do you think about those ideas >> i think they are absolutely right with the ten year yield hovering around 1.3% that's actually more attractive, the stock market is more attractive than bonds and stock market offers greater capital appreciation potential also when you look to high quality, dividend to risk type

stocks that pay even superior dividend yields well then income investors should start thinking like landlords and say can i consistently get this monthly payment? so, i think in general because there are substitutions to fixed income usually in the form of equities that too will help the market in the near term. >> thank you sam landlords found out that they can't get the consistently that monthly payment coming up, breaking economic thws e adp employment report. the numbers and market reaction when "squawk box" returns.

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relax people, my wireless is crushing it. that's because you all have xfinity mobile with your internet. it's wireless so good, it keeps one upping itself. switch to xfinity mobile and save hundreds on your wireless bill. plus, save up to $400 when you purchase a new samsung phone or upgrade your existing phone. learn more at your local xfinity store today. welcome back to "squawk box" adp reporting private payrolls gained just 374,000. disappointing for adp for august payrolls july revised down to 326,000 that was a huge misread for adp with the government reporting more than 900,000. so good sector did 45,000. that's okay in a normal world not in a rebounding post-pandemic world. service sector very strong but not as strong last month

nonfarm payroll estimate for this friday 720,000. again adp coming in very weak looking at it by business type, 86 for small business, 149,000 for medium and 138,000 for large. so it was spread across different types of businesses, but just, again, not enough relative to the estimates that were out there for adp or dls. you look at it by industry, leisure and hospitality doing its part, 201,000 but off the pace that we've seen before. education home services pretty good across the board. got gains bisector again just not enough relative to what was expected a word of caution. joe asked about this in the last hour here we go here are the error rates for adp. we looked at it over the course of the pandemic. what you see is that before the pandemic adp's error was 65,000 per month on average during the pandemic if you take

from march '20 on, it's 851,000 a month which is huge. these are absolute errors by the way and recently it's come down to 337,000 a month and so it's just been way off, very difficult for a lot of indicators not just adp to figure out what's going on in the economy during the pandemic. if you look at month by month the two line charts, what we're looking at as first reported not revised numbers. it's up some month, down some months, but just all over the place relative to trying to predict. joe, put that in your pipe and forecast it. >> i'm putting it in yours and throwing back to high frequency data that you talked about earlier. the adp number that we have. and now the, you know, whether it's been accurate or not in recent months. put all that together, and what do you think for friday? >> you know, i think you have some down side risk.

i wouldn't be surprised to see in the 500,000 or 600,000 range we're expecting a big influx of education workers. unclear adp would pick that up it could be on the government side there's some private-sector education workers. it's all very weird. we can't compare to it a year ago. we maybe should go back to 2019 but that doesn't work. it's been very difficult plus the drag on delta adp saying puts a dent in job growth so it's just all over the place. been very difficult to figure out. i think, joe, if you take a step back and say the markets' general opinion is that things will get better. we don't know when and we're happy it seems to me to say okay if not this month or next month then three months from now it will get better. >> yeah. we know what we're talking about. trying to figure this out as we go along, break through.

all this crazy stuff still front and center, disease is still front and center. >> joe, did you notice that i remembered what you said from an hour ago >> that was because it was today. the other thing was like it had been -- if hit been a couple of days everybody knows how many dead concerts you've been to so nobody expects you to have any long term memory at this point >> joe, i talked to seven fed officials last week. i'm sorry i forgot your conversation >> man i hope you get paid a lot. well you do. seven fed officials. awesome. all right. hard to keep them all straight thank you. lee lease. before we go to break, how about today's jumble he had been addicted to online sports gambling. but after he quit he was better.

that weird >> that is weird >> i read that wait a second. >> like your horoscope speaking to you >> we're heading into the farm to ask if there's going a battle for equipment sales. jane wells, are you going to mention hogs or bacon or anything, jane or just equipment? >> not yet but the day is young. i'm at the largest outdoor farm equipment show in the country. with soy prices up 20% are farmers in a buying mood well come on down to decatur, illinois when we come back

grain prices are high but farmers may not be in a spending mood with challenges on the horizon. jane wells joins from us the farm progress show in -- okay, i'll say it correctly this time, decatur, illinois. kicking the tires on some of the tractors and combines. jane, good morning >> good morning. you're an indiana girl, you should know how to say decatur but i'll give you a pass look this is the most powerful combine in north america

it has almost 800 horsepower all the equipment makers are doing well you would think with grain prices and soy prices up 20% farmers might finally be in a buying mood. it kind of depends drought is hitting some regions hard for example in north dakota only about 10% of the corn crop is looking good but if you're lucky enough to grow around here, it's been a goodyear >> this shows all the moving parts of the combine if a buzzer goes off that means something is going wrong >> mike stacy farms 2,000 acres. he decided to pull the trigger on a used combine for 400 grand before trade in. he expect as bumper crop but not a bumper profit margin >> fertilizer, fuel has gone up since last may of 2020 30% to 80% so prices, you know when our

prices go up everything follows. we have good prices this year but what will the future hold. you always wonder. everything that goes up comes down and we hope it doesn't come down too soon or too fast. >> the biggest problem for equipment maker right now like automobile makers is parts farmers have two overwhelming concerns right another move to remove the ethanol mandate from gasoline and half the nation's corn crop goes to ethanol. the second issue, efforts to remove the step up basis in inheriting property. the president said they would ekempt family farms. guys not all farmers believe him. back to you. >> we were talking about that earlier, and there are democrats who are not in favor of this either we had heidi heitkamp, the former democratic senator from north dakota on with us. she's not in favor of it >> no. many farmers think the idea is dead on arrival.

you don't want to for the second generation, third generation of farmers to sell the farm to pay taxes. the president has specifically said he's not going to do it in farm country in the midwest i have to tell you, not a lot of people are joe biden fans and if they are they don't say it >> jane one of the points you made is that farmers see these high price but they are concerned about how quickly they will come down things go up, come down. people in the midwest are a bit month conservative they've seen these trends over time do you think this is different from what they've seen in the past or is this the same steady midwestern view of the world >> i think it's both farmers are always worried that good years won't last. not surprised it's a bad year. there are lower supplies right now and the drought is going to only make that worse so that will keep prices elevated. if you're lucky enough to have a good crop, if you're in the dakotas or parts of minnesota

it's not going to do much good to have corn prices or soy bean prices >> what is that? i want to trade in my hummer i want to get one of those how much does it fly? how much does that thing cost? >> this is called a combine and it's used to harvest crops the particular teeth on this run is great this starts at 1.1 million new but they have financing for you, joe. i just think it looks like so a monster. somebody joked like this looks like something we left behind for the taliban. >> i was going say that. it looked like a black hawk for a second i thought i would go the other route i want to tour around suburban new jersey in that. i bet people will give me some room 1.1 million is a little pricey >> it's beautiful. >> it is beautiful

who makes a stint. what's the maker of that >> finn which is owed by adco. adco is up 38% deere super40% they are all doing very well this year. >> does it come in other colors? i can get -- never mind. >> why would you want it in another color? this is the coolest color. >> combat green. wow. okay thank you. thank you, jap be careful getting down. becky, you want one? what do you think? >> little bit too much vehicle for me, but i like it. >> could you have your way, i think. >> yeah. for sure >> a transinformation. >> it does look like a transinformation i like it. jane, thank you. when we come back, dr. scott gottlieb on the big news from the fda. two senior vaccine regulators stepping down. questions about that and what that means about the future for

vaccine approval you're watching "squawk box" right here on cnbc nly 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. are we still exclusive? absolutely. and that's exactly why you should join. today, things can be pretty unexpected. but your customers, they still expect things to be simple. and they want it all personalized. with ibm, you can do both. businesses like insurers can automate it processes across clouds. so agents can spend more time on customer needs. and whatever comes your way, you've got it covered. saving time and improving customer service,

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welcome back to "squawk box" futures now, up 127 on the dow nasdaq up sharply at 65 points that's a new high. same with sapp up 18 treasuries are back up a little bit. from that 1.25%. now 1.31%, becky two of the fda senior vaccine regau ulators are steppg down telling us what that means is meg terrell. will this vaccination process take longer. >> these two officials announced their retirement mariann gruber is the head of fda's office of vaccines and research phil krause is the director. this came is raising questions

my own reporting suggested there's some discold front, some discontent at the fda in how the white house handled the booster discuss. essentially coming out and saying people would have the opportunity to get boosters at the end of september before the fda has gone through the review process. also some reporting suggesting these folks might have been disgruntled over the cdc's role, front running the fda. i posed these questions at the white house covid briefing yesterday and asked if they are concerned about the pace of the approvals and trust in thefda. here's what he said. >> fda is the gold standard and we're all grateful for the tireless work of the senior team and the whole staff at fda, especially during the pandemic fda has strong leadership in dr. woodcock and peter marks >> acting commissioner coming out with a memo to staff saying

in part we put together a plan that will allow us to continue prioritizing science while meeting timelines that are important to ensuring the end of this devastating pandemic. there's a lot on the fda's plate when it comes to covid vaccines. the boosters ahead of that september 20th plan for potentially making them available broadly. vaccines for kids. pfizer's vaccine for one age 12, that's expected to come up in the november-december time frame and they have moderna's application for full approval. a lot for the fda to be doing on vaccines right now >> meg, you didn't answer your question about whether there was concern about politicalization or concern about the cdc what's the scuttle but >> he was reading from a paper he reiterated their confidence in the fda but the reporting i'm doing suggests there's concern

about political pressure and a similarity to the way the biden administration handled these boosters, essentially getting in front of the fda to all the criticisms of the trump administration last year on pressure on the fda people i'm talking about is there's a similarity in those two situations and worried and a lot of disappointment in the scientific community that these two respected regulators have stepped down at this moment when covid regulation is as important as ever. >> but political pressure to move the vaccines faster than they felt comfortable with, or political pressure to slow things down? because there's different political pressure out there depending on which side of the aisle you're looking at. >> that's a great point. the political pressure essentially to come out and say we need boosters and we're going start making them available september 20th there's a caveat in that line from the administration say pending fda's review of the boosters and making them

available through the normal regulatory process is this backwards. normally what happens it goes through the fda then through the cdc. but here you have the white house leading the charge saying we need boosters, we'll start making them available on september 20th as long as the fda signs off and that's the pressure people are worried about. >> these two people who are stepping down i know they have lots of expense and been there for quite a while. how old are they >> i don't know their ages mariann gruber had been in that role for 32 years. they were close to retirement anyway i'm hearing various frustration behind-the-scenes. joining us now, dr. scott gottlieb former fda commissioner and cnbc contributor he also serves on the boards of pfizer and alumna.

his new book called "uncontrolled spread." so these breakthroughs that we're seeing with people that are vaccinated, i attributed it to, perhaps people that were not, you know, not young, maybe their immune systems weren't as good as a young person but how do you explain break through cases in young people with strong immune systems and does that mean that the variant is getting around the vaccine because it's a little bit different than the original one the vaccine was designed for and then why do a booster that may not be as specific to the delta variant? why not do a new one why not look at what the variant, how it's different and design a booster that would be better i can't figure out where these breakthroughs are coming from. >> generally we're seeing

breakthroughs among people who are older and who are vaccinated longer interval ago. when you look at the totality of the data there's reports of breakthroughs across spectrum including in younger people when you look at the data that's been made available out of the uk and israel, generally the breakthroughs do break down by time and age you see more pronounced in older individuals who were vaccinated. that doesn't mean there aren't exceptions what we think is happening delta creates high viral loads early in the course of the illness if you have declining antibodies it overwhelms your defenses you get infected and then you are dependent on secondary immune cells like memory b cells and t-cells to kick in to fight that infection to prevent you from getting sick. it takes a couple of days for those secondary immune cells to kick in. in the meantime you get

infected eventually those cells will kick in and will prevent you from getting serious disease and being hospitalized so this is really the debate among the public health crowd because what they say is maybe we don't need boosters because vaccines are doing their job in protecting people from getting hospitalized the premise never was it would prevent all infections we just took for granted the early data showed the vaccines were very effective in preventing infections. the reality and concern is that if you see rising infections among people particularly more vulnerable people that will start to translate into worsening outcomes among those individuals and that's the argument for boosters. >> the if vaccinated people can give it to one another then you find somebody who is unvaccinated doesn't have the worse case scenario taken off the table. so that's not a good outcome we were not on camera but you updated me on another study, in

this case that showed, that vaccine immunity was at least as good or maybe better than natural immunity you got one study that seemed to indicate something else and another one that seems to indicate what you've said all along with isolating the spike protein might give you even a morrow bust immune response than natural immunity >> right this was a study out of the uk actually well done a better constructed study than the israeli study that suggests natural immunity was morrow bust study out of the uk was a prospective study. i want showed the opposite i don't think that we should draw any single conclusionfrom any one of these studies i don't present the study as duelling study to say one is right, one is wrong. whether vaccine induced immunity is better or worse than natural immunity

immunity can be reduced. you can reduce a vaccine you don't want to reduce an infection. to acquire vaccine infection induced immunity you have to get the infection which is something we want people to try to actively avoid getting a vaccine has a lot of attributes i do think the studies lead to a different conclusion which is that the immunity conferred by natural infection seems to be robust and durable it lasts at least six month, probably longer. we don't know how the severity of the infection could relates with the robustness you get. with sars and mers people who got more sick had more durable immunity we don't know if it's the case with the sars covid 2 immunity my hunch it won't last perpetuity it last as period of time. in israel with their green passing order to qualify to get

a green pass you have to demonstrate you got vaccinated now, again, they have the equivalent of a vaccine passport or immunity passport in israel which is something i think a lot of people who are proponents acquire immunity naturally and forego vaccinations would be against. i don't know how we account for that but there's a sizable number of people arguing we should recognize acquired immunity >> scott just in terms of meg's report the fda, you obviously know the organization well are you concerned about these two people leaving the vaccine program? >> well, look, it's unfortunate. these were two very experienced hands at the agency. they were going retire at some point. they were there a long time as meg said i would hope they would put off their retirement for many years

and stay on the agency they both retired about the same time there's a deep bench in that group. i think this evidences some frustration coursing through the agencies, particularly with cdc and the way they are encroaching on the fda's affairs this the is the job of the hhs secretary to make sure operating divisions are staying in their lanes. we see the cdc enencroach on regulatory regulations cdc is not doing their day job even as the they are trying to do the fda's job with respect to boosters and white house interference, i'm hard pressed to see that here. the white house, if anything, the fault of the white house has been that they haven't taken a real hand on approach with these agencies particularly with cdc and directed some of their activities i think the white house has taken a posture they won't be directing these agencies whatsoever and that's a reaction that they've adopted out of

their perception that the trump white house did interfere. the biden white house wanted to revert to the opposite extreme i think they should be intervening more frequently particularly with respect to cdc to prod cdc along with some of the thing that agency ought to be doing i'm hard pressed to see where the white house has been intervening. the issue with the boosters was a decision made by a counsel of the leaders of the different agencies including fda and my presumption is that the reason they had to go out and do that and back into this september time frame is you need to prep that you just can't wait until the date that the the agency makes a decision that it's going to authorize boosters and say we'll get started now. the there's a lot of logistic cal planning it takes months to start getting operational. they need to start that now in anticipation the regulatory agencies will make that decision fda leadership was involved in the ultimate recommendation put out or soft recommendation put out. >> that makes sense. what is the cdc doing to

interthe fear? we did see when it comes, to you know, doctors prescribing off label the vaccine for kids ages 5 to 12 the cdc was pretty strict and threatening when it games to doctors what are they doing mess with the fda >> a lot of this was most pronounced around issues around the j&j vaccines the cdc stepped in front of fda and adjudicating a vaccine safety which would normally be an announcement fda would make they you surprise usurped that. fda needs time to reach a determination, make a conclusion and issue it publicly before cdc's convening panels and issuing conclusions. they acted as a de facto drug

safety regulator they didn't work in what i perceived as a cooperative fashion. and other instanceas well wher the cdc issued public proclamations that revise the labelling on the vaccines before fda has a chance to adjudicate the science and reach an independent conclusion they are functioning as a vaccine regulator when what they should be doing is providing advice to physicians how to properly use vaccines within the context of the conclusions reached by fda that's cdc's job they issued advice. when we come back the newest mean stocks grabbing trader's attention right now. but first check out energy prices this is ahead of today's opec meeting. >> and the worst month since october. wti was down 7% in august.

up by ten cents right now. the s&p nigeria sector fell 3% exxon and chevron each down by 5% stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" and this is cnbc. frank doesn't need a posh virtual receptionist, because he cloned himself. while his clone does reception work, frank can go to meetings. visit a job site. and even finish work early. you look really lovely. frank? frank...i trusted you! but if cloning isn't right for you, just get posh. virtual receptionists who can answer and transfer your calls, because you can't be in two places at once.

welcome back among the sectors to watch today, china electric vehicles are taking a hit nio trimmed its production

guidance for q3 because of covid related disruptions. we're also watching some other things, becky. >> yes we are two more companies prepare to g. the arc fintech innovation etf is up by about 6% over the last month and the global x fintech etf up fnearly 10% the top performers were upstart holdings which was up by 90%, affirm up 71%, and marathon digital which was up by 47%. when we come back, if you've been watching the ticker this morning, you've seen sprt go by often. we're going to talk about the latest meme stock when "squawk box" comes right back.

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just a little over half an hour until the opening bell on wall street. dom chu joins us now with a look at some of the morning's top premarket movers the dow's not up triple digits anymore, dom >> the dow is now, but you know what, it's been a slow grind higher people have kind of been getting used to this idea that the

markets don't go crazy one way or the other one stock that's going higher by a lot this morning is pvh because the company behind big clothing brands like calvin klein and tommy hilfiger posted better than expected profits and sales and boosted its full-year forecast that's why those shares are up 10% on earnings. also check out what's happening with some of the big kind of meme stocks that we've been keeping track of support.com down 6%. amc up about 1% and gamestop up 2% those kind of moves, support.com is down 50% since its intraday highs we saw just this past week then as we often do here, becky, a check on some of the popular searches on our website from yesterday's full-day session number one goes to zoom video. number three is apple. robinhood comes in at number four and wells fargo coming in at number five zoom video and robinhood were

recent ads to some of the arc funds managed by cathie woods. the rest of the top ten and top 50 highlights are on twitter right now @thedomino. dom just mentioned support.com. for more on this apparent meme -- egor, looking at this, i read through your notes, just want to make sure i understand this properly, support.com is one of those stocks you think where the big short squeeze might never come why don't you explain that >> sure. good morning, becky. thanks for having me and we see some of the miami stocks like the og meme stocks of amc and gms, the buyers pushing up a strok price, and then you've got a short squeeze in act two we've got the act one in stocks

but unfortunately there's not enough short selling to have a big effect on the stock price. you've got 10 million shares shorter than bbig, and 6 million shares shorter than sgrt even if most of those guys cover it doesn't affect the stock price that much. you've got over half a billion shares traded during the past week. >> so anybody who's jumping into this thinking, okay, i'm ready to play and i'm going to see these big gains, you're saying it's kind of like waiting if gadot. >> you're going to sit around for a day and another day and see if the short sweet shows up. you know, i'm not saying there's not going to be a short squeeze in these names there could be the support.com shorts it down over 200 % over the past month it's only 6 million shares of shortage risk, so it's a drop in a bucket to the daily trading volume. >> you put ticker symbol bbig in

the same camp. >> it's another name, i see a lot of these meme stocks from my twitter account. they're pinging me for information objn the short side they've been asking about bbi fwg a lot. the stock is up big. the shorts are down 80%, but again, what is 10 million shares going to do if, you know, trading volume is over 3/4 of a billion dollars over the past week. >> igor is your sort of thesis there's only a limited universe in stocks that can really be retail darlings, meme darlings like this, and it's not going to be so easy to pick other names that do the same sort of pattern that we've seen so far in names like amc and gamestop. >> yeah, you've got to look around it really means you've got to look for stocks that have big

run ups and stocks that have bigger short interest. if you're looking for an act 2 in the short squeeze, so you look at stocks like clover, mmat, workhorse, wayfair, blink charging these are all stocks that have had runups and have the shortage risk that can create a short squeeze that matters. >> you're a believer in meme stocks i would guess if you're spending this much time researching it. >> i research the short side so this is a big topic i look at meme stocks, i look at stocks that are trading up and down in the market, but what i see is a big change in both retail investing where the momentum investing is a big part of people's strategy on the long side of the retails, these people have a fervor and a great backing of certain stocks and you'd be ridiculous not to take that into consideration if you're investing on the long end short side. >> the short side has always

been easy. i've never seen too many people who can be successful over a are long period of time trying to do that i guess it's a lot tougher these days, though. >> you'll see some meme stocks where the shorts do make money you'll see something like sava where it's a meme stock and it's really a timing issue. if you're a good trader you can make money of these shares support.com, they're up over 20% in the past month. if you're good, you're good and you're going to make money. >> thank you >> thanks for having me. >> great to see you. >> a final check on the markets on this first trading day of september. summer flew by, did it not >> yes >> just under 100 points on the dow. we were up triple digits for most of the session. a little bit lower as we've seen recently, the

morning doesn't necessarily mean much about the rest of the day, although there's been an upward bias that would be new highs in the nasdaq and the s&p we can also take a quick look at oil. there's an opec meeting today as well, and then the ten-year, which was at least for now above 1.3% all right, becky quick, we'll see you tomorrow >> yes, sir, joe kernen. we'll see you. "squawk on the street" coming up >> good wednesday morning, and welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm david faber with leslie picker and mike santoli. we are live from the new york stock exchange jim and carl both have today off. let's give you a look at futures as we get ready to set up a half hour from now, you can see we are -- that looks higher to me, i'm going to go with that. our road map does start with the september setup for stocks the s&p is coming off what is a seven-month winning streak the backdrop for the rally and the investor