recognize that rather than having travel bans which is going to increase the panic and it is probably going to lead to others to be discouraged from sharing their data we need more vaccines there, we need to collect the data and help them with medical assistance. >> gilbert garcia. that does it for us other on "the exchange. "power lunch" starts right now and welcome, everybody to "power lunch. i'm tyler mathisen melissa will join us in just a second here's what's ahead this hour. news out of washington president biden meeting with major ceos on the agenda, the supply chain and getting goods on the shelves this holiday season we will bring you the details of that meeting in just a few moments. call caps struggling, the index sold off hard on friday. it is having a hard time finding its footing today. but a five-star fund manager sayings there are some gems in

the rubble. and twitter -- without jack. dorsey out new ceo in what the future holds for the social media power house, and square, which now gets a full-time ceo. >> or a change stocks bouncing back from friday's selloff the dow right now is up by almost 1%, .9% the s&p 500 is up by 73 points, 1.6%, and the nasdaq is up by more than 2% solidly salesforce, ibm, microsoft and apple some of the biggest movers getting a lyft, united, marriott and royal caribbean, all moving to the positive. let's go to bob pisani. >> we have a rally, but it is choppy only three stocks are advancing for two key declining a of the the new york stock exchange. that's not a broad rally all the power is in the tech stocks

apple, microsoft, salesforce, it's cisco, it's intel but all of the consumer names, merck, disney, verizon, for example, r all a lot weaker. this is not a unilateral advance that we are seeing as for the rest of the market semiconductors are the strength in the technology sector nvidia is complete round trip. 246 thursday, 214 friday, back to 330 a round trip for a lot of the semiconductors energy is up, there are concerns about travel-related movements as we deal request new variant all of these are nice ounces but it is not close to where they were at the close on thursday. no exactly a round trip for energy finally, melissa mentioned some travel and entertainment stocks. the cruise lines and the airlines are notably underperforming other parts of travel and entertainment

the hotels are doing a lot better and the companies that provide live entertainment are outperforming. what this tells you is people are not sure about going on long trips but are still interested in going to hotels even if it is just on a local level. back to you. >> thank you very much even with today's rally, omicron is going to hangover the markets for a while as drug companies are scrambling to come up with ways to deal with this new variant. experts say the key is getting people vaccinated. some plates, including west virginia, have less than half of their residents fully vaccinated let's bring in meg tirrell for the latest details hi, meg. >> hey, tyler. the latest is that we have not yet detected omicron here in the united states according to the cdc, although many experts believe it is probably here and we just haven't found it or seen it yet over the weekend, though, learn

being a dozen countries in addition to the countries in south africa reporting cases of omicron. you can see them here in the yellow our neighbor in canada one of the latest to report some cases. the new york governor warning, that's not very far away from new york, and already having declared a state of emergency because of the transmission this state is already having. a lot of worries about the state that the country is already in but a lot of questions about omicron itself the world health organization yesterday providing an update saying it is not known whether the virus is more transmissible, whether it is outcompeting delta or if there is just a surge going on for another reason there. they do see increasing hospitalizations in that country but the w.h.o. saying, et cetera not clear if it is due to increased severity this variant or simply because more people are getting sick in general. they also note this variant may come with an increased risk of reinfection if you have already had quid a key question, what impact will

this have on the efficacy of the vaccines we folk with pfizer's ceo this morning about their anti-viral drug he says he doesn't exhibit it to be impacted by this new variant. >> it was designed with that in mind it was designed with the fact that most mutations are coming in the spikes or the mecke niches that they are coming. it is not related to the spike that gives me a very, very high level of confidence. the treatment will not be affected the oral treatment will not be affected by this veers. >> guys, we are hearing the same thing from merck, with his pill which is going through the fda process. it does not kpapt that to be impacted biome kron variant. we will have to see how the drugs get through the fda. a spot of optimism there. >> a couple of questions

the we know yet how different this variant is from other strains of the illness that we have seen before in other words, the chemical or molecular structure. and does that make it a trickier one to inoculate against >> yeah. so the main part that a line of scientists are focused on are the number of mutations in the spike protein, about 30 mutations there. particularcally in the in the receptor binding domain. it has a larger number of mutations, many more than we have seen with delta or beta for example. we haven't heard that that will cause a particular challenge for updating the vaccines, that they can tailor the vaccines to the omicron spike, for example, but it could be a major reason why it could escape the vaccines more than other variants. >> is it any surprise given vaccination rates and how much better the vaccination rates

have been in wealthy areas that we would see variants coming out of africa? >> well, i don't think a lot of people think it's a surprise that undervaccinated countries might see more variants because where there is more spread there is more opportunity for variants to arise there is also a high number of people in south africa who are hiv positive, and they may not get as much protection from the vaccines so somebody with a compromised immune system who gets the virus, there is some thought they could incubate it for a long time and it has the ability to develop all of these moe mutations. not surprising to see this coming from there. >> fascinating meg tirrell, we appreciate it. the president convening a meeting with ceos and major retailers, skrum products firms and grocers to address the supply shortage and the supply chain. >> today president biden is expected to project confidence in the supply chain and executives are expected to say

they have plans to make sure on line and in person shopping is not disrupted. a variety of retailers and grocers from best buy to samsung to etsy to kroger are meeting with the president to discuss the health supply chain and economy. heading into today's meeting the ceo of food lion told cnbc the company has quote ample supply for customers. the white house has for weeks been making the case that shelves will be stocked for the holiday season and the supply chain issues are getting fixed pointing to comments from the los angeles port ceo that the number of containers sitting at ports has fallen by third. of course the variant could challenge that if it causes labor shortages. president biden is going the li out a new covid strategy this thursday but dr. fauci says definitive information won't be available for another two weeks. of course just before christmas. >> is there any expectation there is going to be an actual plan that originates out of

this it seems to me a lot of supply chain disruptions -- nothing can be done about them really? >> certainly, any progress, if you talk to players in this space, melissa s slow-going at best that's why they point to some of these statistics as small more sells of progress. the white house has in an information gathering mode on this very issue for the better part of the last year as some of these issues have been worsening. even so they point to earn prosecution retailers like walmart as signs that consumers are shopping, that items are available, and that they are not running into these issues. inflation, of course, has also been rearing its head in this time one interesting note that i have hadered from several white house officials i talked to is if the omicron variant -- if it does slow down economic growth, yes, that is a bad thing but one possible silver lining could mean lower demand means lower price, especially in the price of gas at the pump energy prices calling quite a bit in the last few days. >> will that offset the

inflation potentially cause by more shutdowns abroad and more problems with the supply -- so many thinks going on ka la tausche, thank. stocks moved higher after president biden today said shutdowns are off the table for now. we have two market watchers with us one guest has comes names to buy into the volatility. the other says u.s. markets remain in what he calls a bubble let's bring in stephanie link of high tower and david rosenberg at the rosenberg research. david i am going to go right to the heart of the matter. you say the market is still in a bubble i want you to address that even more leaping off the page in my notes is your assertion that inflation is going to basically collapse and very quickly fall to 1.5% from where it is today, somewhere around 5 or 6%. >> right well, i mean the second point, on inflation, is pretty simple

we have a firming u.s. there are a. nobody talks about what it constraint on dome snick inflation that poses and we are seeing the commodity complex, which started the road on this inflationary situation we have. commodities across the broad front peaked out and rolled over so i mean a lot of my thought process is based on my assumptions. but i have seen this run-up, the cycle of goods-related inflation come and go in the past. this will come and go. people think supply chains will neveret giksed again i don't believe that for a second when you trace out what i think service sector inflation is going to do, i know it remains near a 13 year high, that's sticky but the arithmetic will take you down well below 2% that's not priced into the market that's the view on inflation you could argue that's a bullish view as far as risk assets

my only complaint about risk assets in general, it is not just equities. it is corporate credit it is residential real estate. it is just the extent of the valuation. we have a 40k multiple in the s&p 500. 40 it was in the 30s before covid started. and interest rates, bond yields are almost the same now as they were then. the point i am making is that only 2% of the time in the past century has the market been this elevated in terms of the real classic long duration price earnings multiple. it is a free standard daviation each for people who say well it can be justified by low interest rates, well, that used to be true at the multiple ten points ago, you could justify that we found even when you normalize the current lit the s&p 500 is still 15% above its intinsic value. >> david, you made a strong and eloquent case. let's see what stephanie link

thinks about it. do you want the bush back on anything david just said >> i will push back a little bit. we have to watch the new covid strain, any developments, travel restrictions, states of emergencies, cases, hospitalize'ses. but we have medicines that exist, medicines that work and more medicines that are coming and we have high vaccination rates. 0% of the u.s., they are vaccinated that compares to south africa, 59 horizon are not vaccinated we need more team to get vaccinated, and hopefully over time that will happen. this comes along the backdrop which i thought was a strong economy. october and november data is good compared to the summer slow down wages are up, jobs are plentiful and initial claims are at a 199 low. ism services are at a record the consumer, 70% of our economy, is doing pretty good.

manufacturing are over 50, they have been over year now. and business investment is starting to pick up. financially on inflation, i think it is stickier than expected if you look at wages and salaries, the average over the last six months, that's up 11.4%. that's the stickier part of inflation. i think it's here to stay, in addition the rents that are up about 5% annualized. i think growth is better, but inflation is higher. and i think the fed can taper. we have got to get through this new covid strain, though. >> you added positions, stephanie, added two position, i should say american express stood out to me because that seems like the reopening trade on steroids in that it is very exposed to travel and specifically very exposed to corporate. >> yes, it is. and it was down 9% on friday as a result it is now my largest financial because i think leisure travel has come back. it will stay strong. it is above 2019 levels. it is the business travel we are waiting for. that's a 2022 story. in the meantime, the company heavily invested this year so if

demand comes back, you are going to see positive operating leverage to earnings i think the stock is trading substantially cheaper than mastercard and visa. i added to that, and added to my apple position just to make it a little bit bigger. >> david, given your view of inflation, of where stock prices are now, what would you tell me as an investor to do either sell? buy? stay the course? what >> i have been saying all along i think investors should be row balancing. i would definitely be trade withing up in quality i think the economy is going to slow precipitously because nobody talks about the fiscal withdrawal i think the economy is going to slow more than expected. i have done the work on it it is not just an opinion, we have done the analysis inflation is going to fall next year more than people think.

if your view is that inflation is going to remain sticky, here's the problem -- the people who think inflation is stuckey are most bullish on the stock market if inflation doesn't come down, if i am wrong on this view, the fed's primary concern is inflation, the highe it lasts is going to seep into wage asks they will be raising rights. we are going into the station with such a flat yield curve it won't take much to flatten it or invert it. you can't have it both ways. it is not about what the economy is doing in october. the stock market has a discounting mechanism. the fed raises rates and feels what it thinks the mafed is goig to do. we are going to have a flat market 20 months from now. if the interest rate landscape shifts it is going to be big trouble for a lot of assets

classes. >> david thank you stephanie link thank you as well interesting perspectives, we appreciate it. coming up, a black friday in store traffic fell 28% from prepandemic levels shopping habits are chaging. and athleisure names that can stretch your return. the trading nation team is watching key levels. we will tell you whether it is a buy. stay tuned

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welcome back to "power lunch. after a decidedly negative plaque friday trading session, the retail etf is relatively flat on this cyber monday. but many individual retail stocks are on the move amazon is up sharp will he on what is expected to be its biggest day of the year. other online players aren't so much, stitch fix, et ceteray all lower wayfair. off price and discounters largely higher burlington up more than 3% costco up 2.5% burlington getting a buy rating upgrading by citi. specialty names are split. urban outfitters, victoria's

secret and carters higher between 2 and 3% chirp's place down row vie and kontoor brands are also lower on the session. >> courtney reagan, thank. the holiday row tail season didn't start out as strong as expected despite some crowded malls. traffic at stores dropped 28 compared with 2019 levels. online retail sales came in at $8 billion versus $9 billion a year ago this comes as president biden meets with ceo's of retailers today. do you think retailers are holding back in any sort of way, either promotionally or the array of goods offered on black friday because of supply chain issues, the fear it won't have the inventory to meet demand >> it could be a piece of it i spent the weekend die jessing a number of the reports you mentioned coming out

black friday for years has shifted. it has lost its relevance. i think black friday 2021 was extraordinarily disrupted for a number of factors. supply chain was one of them the chatter everywhere about supply chain disruptions likely caused shoppers to shop even earlier. earlier never, potentially october. that may have shifted some sales away from the black friday holiday. i spent a lot of time with my kids on friday in the mall the mall i went to was crowded but one factor i noticed a lot was there was in price promotions i have been doing this for a while. i think that may have also been the lack of -- the lack of price promotions on black friday may have also been a cop trntributoo the drop in sales.

>> traffic doesn't matter, but if consumers are buying at a higher price it is better for margins. where do you come away on the push/pull. >> that's good question. we are looking at what we learned over the last days, sales were weaker than expected but offset will be higher margins or profitability for the he radio tailers because there is in the as many price promotion. i think the bigger question is where we will go from here cyber monday -- we will get data on that over the next several hours or day or so that will give us another piece of the puzzle. look, it seems to me -- i think there is another big factor behind all of this we have been talking about this with your clients. as the covid crisis is abating, you know, i think spending is shifting back towards experiences, away from goods i think that's also a fact neuro what we are seeing that could continue to play out through the

holiday season, maybe what we saw on black friday was an indication of that dynamic. >> we have had a juicing up of travel at least so fares we stay free of the omicron development. people have been talking about the death of athletes sewer for a long time but you like nike, lulu, and under armour >> the death of athleisure i think has been way overblown i was saying that prior to the covid crisis as we look at the consumers potentially shifted through the crisis, i think coming out now people are dressing even more casual that's an incremental positive for names like lululemon, nike and under armour as people look for high quality but more comfortable and casual clothing. another positive for nike and

lululemon is we are shopping more on line these companies have well built out, very powerful direct infrastructures. they are able to really connect with consumers directly. i think that's another big positive for these brands as we think about kind of the direction of retail. tyler, to your point, i think the idea that athleisure has died has been way over popped. >> we were hearing that three or four years ago from some analysts >> everybody wants to be comfortable all the time. >> that's right. it stood the test. brian nagle, appreciate it. further ahead on the program today, tough to contain, the port of new york and new jersey set to shatter records this holiday shopping season. we will take you there live when "power lunch" returns.

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welcome back i'm rahel solomon. here's your cnbc news update at this hour. the white house says federal workers will not be punished until next year if they feel to meet president biden's covid vaccine environments officials say it will provide for time for education and counselling for the roughly 3.5%

of employees who have not already complied by getting a shot or requesting an exemption. gomez attempting to keep more employes. they will increase retirement contributions and ipo provide unpaid sabbatical for long time employees. >> two brothers in kept condition built a 47 foot high christmas tree bared with barrels of bourbon they are accepting donations to help families buy affordable christmas defendants they are hoping to get the tree into the guinness book of world records. last year it was 35 feet this year it is bigger they are getting closer to a record. >> there is a record for everything out there thank you. it is time for today's power movers hertz shares are moving.

they announced a repurchase program. pot stocks are getting burned, lower down today and for the month earlier. finally, wynn resorts in the red. alvin chao and ten others were arrested on a gambling racket. ahead, dorsey stepping down as the ceo of twitter. what it means for ci miasoaled giant as well as square. when "power lunch" returns

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90 minutes left in the trading day. let's get you caught on in the markets, stocks, bonds, and commodities. the big news that twitter's jack dorsey is stepping down as ceo nasdaq the leader on the day, recovering nearly all of friday's losses. bitcoin is back above 58,000 bond yields rebounding after money flooded into bonds on omicron fears. rick santelli is in chicago for us rick >> we slid about 16 basis points

on the shortened session on friday we have recouped about five basis points as you see on this two-day chart. but there are lots of asterisks here because we are headed up towards the 170 level as you see on the september 1st chart but what happened is of course we got up as high as 164 close i guess what i am saying is we are on an extreme selloff pushing yields up when the variant scare hit. so it really took a lot more steam out. but if you look back, especially at boone bund yields also starting on september 1st you can clearly see we moved more than bunds bunds were only up about one basis points that was with hotter inflation, whether it was in parts of germany or parts of spain. we didn't see much of that reflected in bund yields or the currencies here's a two day of the dollar index. i was in friday. there wasn't much flight to safety in the dollar but as you see, the dollar

wasn't affected dramatically we are hovering very close to 16.5 month levels that we haven't seen since july of 2020. oil trading, closing for the day, bounce, back from friday's selloff, on pace for its worst month since march 2020 brian tell sullivan is tracking oil for news the tale of two days friday the 15% drop on brent, the worst trading day of all time going back to 1988. today popping back a lint. a lot of demand optimism, people realizing that lockdowns at lest right now in many places are simply unlikely. the political will, the human will, who knows, not going to happen we had record gasoline demand last week. four day stretch from wednesday to sunday, everybody in america was driving. jet fuel demand domestically should remain strong even if a couple of flights a

week are cut off between the united states and the african continent. that's pretty much meaningless we have the poe peck plus meeting on thursday as well. the release of the spr will come that's just a couple of days' worth of supplies. traders, researchers, oil analysts are bullish on the price of oil longer term even though we are in backwardation where the future contract is worth less than the current contract all eyes will be on the opec meeting thursday to see if they keep that 00,000 barrel a day addition or pull it back which i am told might create just a wee touch of political controversy >> thanks. >> wild speculation there. >> brian sullivan. twitter shares down 2% now after officially spiking when the dorsey news broke. the company jack is reeving. kate rooning following square the company that now gets a full-time ceo. we start with steve kovach

almost as if the square would get a full-time ceo but then sad the know jack was actually going. >> exactly it. he has been the visionary between a lot of product tough that twitter is working on including crypto, which is probably what he is going to focus on as he puts 100% of his time in square and this new guy is the guy building it. the former cto part of blue sky and also building out abilities to make crypto payments through twitter. >> steve, you said that he may well focus more on crypto in his new role is that your understanding, or that's your speculation. >> that's a speculation based on what we know he's interested in. itis it's notable the memo he sent out to employees today didn't really explain why he is suddenly resigning from twitter other than to say it was his decision alone and he has the pieces in place now with this new ceo and brett taylor from salesforce as chairman of the board to really run the show

with him out of the way. >> i have been wanting to say this all day, i don't know jack -- i don't think anybody really does. but this was not really anticipated. was it or was it? >> it was kind of a surprise because if you remember over a year ago, close to two years ago now elliott management was pushing for jack dorsey to leave. they came to a settlement. and now a year and a half, almost two years later elliot is getting what it has wanted. >> so we are waiting now for the president to come and talk to us about supply chain things, something that twitter obviously doesn't have to worry much about. let's go to the president right now. >> heck of a job you are doing this morning i provided an update on the omicron variant and told the american people that it is a new variant that's

a cause for concern, but not a cause for panic. and we are going to fight this with science and speed we are not going to fight with it chaos and confusion and we believe we can deal with it unthursday -- on thursday i will put forward a detailed stream to help deal with this new variant. and that is not shutdown or lockdowns. it's more widespread vaccination, more boosters, testing and more in the meantime i have said the best protection against this new variant is to get fully vaccinated and get a booster shot i urge all americans who haven't done that, get it done today there is no excuse there are 80,000 places you can get it done. there is no reason it is free it's available and if you qualify for the booster, get it done today now to the business at hands i know it has been an incredibly

busy time for all of you here today. and that's a very good thing from my perspective. then again i am not doing all the work you all are doing all kidding aside, it really, really matters i remember -- i think we all do -- last year. families celebrating the holidays apart from one another or on video for fear of spreading the deadly virus this year, thanks to scientists, researchers and doctors who developed the covid-19 vaccines and the nurses and other front-line workers who saw to it that it was administered, many of them, your employees, in your stores, who were able to have very different thanksgiving as a consequence of that than last thanksgiving we uniting with friends and family i think maybe most important, with a little more hope arc little more hope and fewer americans were worried about putting food on the table. and hunger is actually down 14% this year in the united states of america

4.5 million more americans than last year had the dignity of a job. that also means we are looking toward the holiday season which is a lot more like the ones we had in the past. consumer spending has recovered to where it was headed before the pandemic early estimates are that black friday sales are up nearly a third since last year. and in-store sales were up by even more than that. i believe it was 40-something percent. i don't have the number. i think it was 4%, something like that. and so we are hearing some reports from small business saturday i don't have the numbers yet i am sure some of the people watching this on line are also doing a little cyber monday shopping right now that's why i brought everyone together today

the businesses gathered here today represent a broad swath of american shopping. brick and mortar and on line stores, national and local be fromry chains, our nation's largest retailer and maker and sellers of toys, electronics and health supplies. i want to hear from each of you about what you are seeing this holiday season, how well prepared are you to have products you need on your shelves, and know how you have innovated to overcome the supply chain challenges you have, and kept workers safe from covid-19 so that the american people can have a holiday season they have been long hoping for n. particular, i want to hear about the challenges facing smaller businesses the small businesses are so important to our communities they don't have the same leverage as many of you do and final looks i want the hear

your ideas on how the federal government can continue partnering with you all to keep shelves stocked so american consumers can get what they need and some of you have been working with my port envoy to get goods through our ports faster we have seen some progress in that effort with the number of containers sitting on docks for more than eight days down by more than 40% this month we keep building on that progress i would like to start the conversation, meg, with your permission, by turning to meg ham, president of the food lion. food tis, to state the offense, big part of the holiday season your grocery store chain has a large footprint. you are in ten states with over 1100 markets how did thanksgiving go? can you the me about your company's ability to get the products you need from our

suppliers and on your store shelves. just talk to me a little bit about that >> sure. first of all, i would like to say thank you for allowing us to come together today to talk about this very important topic. and, certainly, the pandemic has had an impact, as you described, how customers do their grocery shopping and what customers are buying what they do when they do their grocery shopping first and foremost, i would like to say that our supply chain has -- is strong and robust. and we have ample product inside of our stores for customers to choose from touduring this holi. however, they have changed their shopping patterns, and there is our second thanksgiving, as you mentioned, during the pandemic and holiday season is incredibly

important as it relates to food, but i think also as it relates to our country, and especially with thanksgiving, a time to come together to maintain traditions to start new traditions, to maintain some sense of normalcy, and to move forward with covid, as you have said and so thanksgiving is an incredibly important time for us i think, first and foremost, we started with an immense amount of planning to be ready for the business and for customers to be able to buy what they need to at our stores and we worked very early with our vendor partners to get clear on our forecasts for the business and what we could do together from a logistics stand opponent to ensure they have the supplies they needed we had the supplies we needed to get to the

customers. so it was a great collaboration and partnership as we move forward. so wlits everyday items or important items during these holiday times around fresh collards where i am located or canned cranberry sauce, we worked very differently to figure out how to move the product, how to work with local farmers to get product directly to our stores to ensure customers had what they needed >> how much work with local farmers? >> we have a large local program across all of our footprints and it's an important part of our produce business specifically, and all across our store we have local products we have strong partnerships across the store one last question -- i don't want to dominate this, but what -- was there any one product that was harder to garner than others that was needed -- not needed,

but, you know, looked for for thanksgiving >> as you know, there are so many that are special to individual people. would know what they are, and we worked really hard to get all of them we couldn't get one kind, we had another brand. so there wasn't one particular one that was focused on being able to provide this special times during this time of year >> great glad you had it good are you looking forward to -- you don't have any numbers or ideas on what you expect from saturday or today. >> we are happy we had a strong thanksgiving holiday season and expect that that will continue into the christmas celebrating season as well we have our own supply chain see we have our own distribution logistics network that works with our partners to move product. and and we also really appreciate the infrastructure investment and jobs act

finalization that has helped move us forward. we will substantially improve the roads and the bridges to help the seamless supply of product across our -- >> i think people underestimate just how out of sync or infrastructure has been for so long i think that people who live near that bridge that certain trucks can't go, near that fire station where you have to go ten miles around the creek because you can't go over a particular bridge, sidewalks, highways, et cetera so i am looking forward to that being a lot better thanks to companies like yours. >> we are planning for a great december holidays. >> all right doug, i know you run a small outfit [ laughter ] >> walmart and i want to tell you

something. i don't remember when you all -- it is not a question, but i'm just curious -- when you became the largest food retailer in the country. but i have spent more time walking through the aisles of walmart than i want to admit because there is one right down the street where i live in delaware anyway, how are things looking for you this holiday season, doug, and across both retail and the grocery side walmart has been working closely with my team to clear bottlenecks and i really appreciate the help in the ports of los angeles and long beach. have you seen any progress in the ability of a company like yours to get boxes off the docks faster, to get product from the docks to your shelves? can you talk to me a little bit about that >> yes, sir, i can thank you for the question thank for your partnership, thank for shopping in our stores

i would like to take the opportunity to also thank our associates because they are doing an outstanding job and have been through this whole period that continues up until this moment we think we are going to have a really good holiday season we shared our earnings results a couple weeks ago and we told everybody that and we shared that our up more than 10% so what we're overalled concerned is supply chain and have more inventory and have inventory to support the business we are seeing progress port transit delays are improving. two thirds of what we sell here in the united states is grown or made here. the products from outside of north america the port issue is a big issue and seen a lot of improvement. because of what you all did with overnight hours and because of the teams' work to reroute to other ports, to extend the lead times and have other createive

solutions we have seen an increase of throughput in getting containers through ports and where we have been focused we have seen 51% improvement in that flow through and helped a lot with categories like toys which are so important for christmas. so we'll keep working to make sure we are in a good position going all the way through the season we expect it to be strong and there are a few items as there are every year with toys or electronics we wish we had more of but we're in good shape and appreciate the partnership. >> thank you you've been really cooperative i can't tell you how much we appreciate it and i was really pleased quite frankly and proud of the cooperation between business and labor and the

importants in southern california it made we feel good that you were there it didn't take much to convince them that we should move go to 24/7, 7 days a week. anyway, thank you for -- >> takes us all of us. >> sure the heck does. all right. well, i guess time to go over now to brian [ inaudible questions. >> you have been listening to president biden speaking with executives we heard from the ceos of walmart and food lion. let's get over to kayla and courtney i'm not sure if anything happened that wasn't on the playback it felt like a pulse check i don't know if we expect policy to come out of it. >> this is part of a regular

exercise that the administration is engaging in you heard the president referencing to doug mcmillan of walmart they have a regular conversation and the white house press office scirculating the more optimistic comments the white house providing rosie statistics compared to the numbers at the top of the show different than the white house is saying and projecting a message of confidence in the economy. >> mcmillan said that of course walmart reported earnings a couple weeks ago and a continuation of this enthat delays are actually improving. >> absolutely. he shared a couple statistics and not sure if that was what he was seeing improving or generally overall in retail but

increased throughput at 51% increase over the southern california ports and the retail industry association gave guidelines of things done to give some more relief in the supply chain longer term. >> thanks. all right. up next, small caps, big losses. the russell crushed. are more declines in the little guys on the way?

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♪ i had a dream that someday ♪ ♪ i would just fly, fly away ♪ small caps shares bouncing back today not as much as the other major indices. the russell fell friday almost 4% let's bring in chris retzler that mutual fund up 11% so far this year. welcome. why were small caps seemingly so whacked friday compared with their bigger brethren? >> we had a lower volume day on a shortened trading day. but we are also in the tax loss selling season for investors when you separate out small cap growth and value, growth is challenged since february.

investors are taking the losses which are valuable going into the year end and that's somewhat accelerated on itself. today we are seeing some recovery but i think that we are in volatile times. >> so you think a real contributing factor is tax loss selling. why did small caps underperform for the year in a strong, strong economy? >> so the previous segment talking about supply constraints and supply chain have really significantly hurt small cap companies that can't get enough content. it was probably a consistent theme we heard through the earnings season this last quarter had they had more product they could have sold m more when we see the constraints alleviate which i think we will next year to filter through small cap companies to begin to sell for the demand that's

there. >> at the same time, in terms of inflation, it's believed that larger companies endure inflation more how do small caps fare on that front if inflation sticks? >> i think that the labor costs seen increase over the year is going to stick but if you do begin to see transportation costs and logistics improve that should be an improvement to the companies where they have had to expedite transportation from overseas again, it is more the value names that i think are going to benefit in a higher inflation so that's energy, financials. in the growth side of things we really need to see the supply chains improve for medical devices, for semiconductors industries like that we need to see that improvement. >> thank you, chris.

we appreciate your time today and good luck for the rest of the year. >> thank you. >> nice to be here with you today. >> i think i'll be back tomorrow. >> not bad here. thank you for watching "power lunch.." >> "closing bell" starts right now. ♪ welcome to "closing bell." i'm wilfred frost at the new york stock exchange. the major indexes back. >> welcome back. >> good to be back. >> i'm sara eisen. welcome, everybody look at what's driving the action investors are weighing the risks and unknowns with omicron, the newest covid variant the pfizer's ceo is confident the treatment pill will be effective against the strain president biden said lockdowns are off the table. tech is led by gains by the chip stocks and tesla twitter is i