case numbers out of south africa monday, december 6th, 2021 "squawk box" begins right now. good monday morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" right here on cnbc i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. and this morning we're looking at a mixed picture for the u.s. equities market. dow futures indicated up by about 100 points, s&p down by 3 points and the nasdaq indicated down by about 112. that follows the model from last week last week down across the board for all the markets but the dow lost the least, down by just under 1% for the week the s&p was off by about 1.25%. the nasdaq was the big loser

down by 2.6% for the week. the dow is now 5.4% off the all-time high. the s&p 500 down about 4.3%. and the nasdaq is down by about 7% from its all time high. watching this this last week the dow was down for the fourth week in a row that's the first time that's happened for all of 2021 treasury market is another big thing to watch after the jobs report, that was a weird jobs report, with the headline number bad and the unemployment rate dropping the 10 30 year is yielding 1.71% and the ten year yielding 1.387% in asia the hang seng dropping nearly 2%, dropping lower by tech tech stocks. two news stocks were added to the benchmark.

and china announcing it will cut the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves that's the second move this year we've seen a lot in china -- or rather asia across the board p it's been something. and then joe, we've got bitcoin. >> just looking up, i wanted the exact quote from the el salvador president. he may have used the f blank blank blank ing. >> i think what's that he did. >> really? >> i think that's what he -- it's a family show. >> el salvador just bought the dip, he tweeted. missed the bottom by 7 minutes followed by a laughing emoji elon musk is suddenly president of el salvador i think. >> it was saturday morning, right? >> yeah. >> i think -- we say it got to 43 i think it got -- i had it

printed at one point on one of my services like 41. but anyway, 42 i've seen everywhere the price of bitcoin plunged that's a big move from 65 to 42. you can get 50% moves in this thing, down and up it was 28,000 not long ago and then went back to 65 down more than 17% in 24 hours it dropped a low below $43,000 on saturday, down from 57,000 on friday morning, which was down from the mid 60s strategist mat matt mali said it looked like somebody got hit with a margin call and forced to sell they're talking about derivatives based on bitcoin that are leveraged you can have some type of relationship to bitcoin futures, ramp up the leverage and small moves get you a big return goes the other way, you get a margin call and then you have to liquidate. he also noted it was thin on

weekends >> how thin? >> you bit's about the fed, too, and speculative assets if interest rates go up because if the fed tapers or tightens at some point, anything speculative becomes less db -- it's a knee-jerk kind of reaction. >> you said you thought it was the other instruments. my understanding is outside of the u.s. you can get leverage on certain sites 100 times just straight up on bitcoin, no >> on bitcoin itself that would make more sense unless the tail is wagging the dog, the dog can leverage too. it's volatile. these are -- you know we're talking about multiple bs. we could hit t. >> how thinly traded is it to be a thin traded market to make that sort of exacerbation? >> the total -- i mean, the total market is, i think of crypto, is one of the major tech

stocks, right? it's somewhere around there. so still not that big of a market and then you've got the people that will never sell and then you have some people that bought recently, i think, and they were all up briefly but now think if you bought it 55, 60, 65 start getting that dry throat, that tight feeling because it can really move here's what we were talking about. on saturday the president of el salvador tweeted the country bought 150 coins for an average of 48670 we just bought the dip later tweeted he missed the bottom by 7 minutes. this guy is classic. down there trading bitcoin as president of the country ether also -- i read a couple of times last week it was outperforming bitcoin well, not for long

but it's almost 4,000 we'll talk to michael sonnenshein at 6:30 a.m. eastern it's tough to be a stacker, don't you think? because stackers, a lot of stackers bought at 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12 can you really -- can you really like save up $50,000 to buy on -- i guess they do. they buy -- >> well, they buy -- >> i'm thinking of myself. >> most people buy in incremental. >> i would have trouble buying at this level. i think i bought it as low as 4900, or something i'm afraid i'm afraid to go back in, i'm not -- i guess i'm not a stacker. i'm not a gigastacker. >> you're not diamond hands either. >> no p. i'm definitely not i got maybe -- i got maybe a third of what i had initially. but -- >> i wouldn't call you paper

hands, though. >> no, not quite paper i'm letting it ride now, whatever happens, happens. and my kids whatever happened -- you know, so >> last time we had -- >> i'm just saying, if you think it's going to 100, you should buy it you should buy it here, sorkin, becky. if you think it's going to 100 because you get it at 45 or 46, you should buy it. but i'm afraid, that's a lot of money. that's a lot of money to put into a bitcoin we're talking 1% problems again aren't we guys the. >> i was going to say, the last time we had anthony on the show he had made a comment and this is when it was trading in the mid 50s, i want to say that he thought something like 70% or more -- i have to go back and get the tape, maybe it was the opposite, it was 15 or 20% of the holders had gone in at higher prices this is when it was in the mid 50s so when you get down to the 40s, what percentage of those holders

got in -- >> after. >> -- are basically out of the money relative to those holding. part of the argument if you remember about why they thought this was a unique investment was because a huge number of the holders, back when it was10, 12%, were just holding. >> still big numbers like that. >> for two years so the question is, what percentage are holders -- how do you -- ho -- >> hadlers. >> i don't know. you need to be one to know how to say it, probably. >> so -- >> so what's between diamond and paper? i'm not sure >> rock hands? >> i tell you, that even with what i have, watching it when it's worth -- when it was in the mid 60s and you see it go -- that's -- because i'm letting it ride i'm not going to worry about it but you do say, oh my god. you hate to see anything just go

away >> final -- it's the same with every volatile. >> right i could have used that >> he had gone in, he said i can't watch it anymore it was too painful, every day to watch it up and down. >> i'm letting it ride but, you know, if i was thinking it's going to 100, this was -- you know, we missed it the guy in el salvador obviously has -- >> it's a question of your true conviction, right? >> yeah. i don't have true conviction about too many things. >> no. in the meantime, let's get to comments from fed chair powells and other officials last week that said an important shift is under way at the federal reserve. steve liesman joins with us more and so much of what i read over the weekend was the 180 that people think the fed has done at this point and trying to get their heads around that. >> now they've done the 180

becky, they're not going to be traveling in that direction. a major shift is under way at the fed that amounts to the beginning of the end of the massive pandemic easing policies the fed not only likely to speed up the taper in the december meeting but could speed up a series of steps to remove accommodations perhaps earlier than the market has priced in. perhaps amid the issues on the table soon, obviously the faster taper and how soon to hike, how fast to hike and even eventually the thorny question of balance sheet normalization. that would potentially be reducing the size of the balance sheet. it comes as the concern of inflation has taken center stage. it's clear that a faster taper is a means for the fled to have flexibility to enact rate hike sooner than next year if the fed goes to a pace of $30 billion a month. it could be in a position to hike rates as soon as the mid march or early may meeting

so gaming out options would need to begin soon. jim bullard said he wants to get to live meetings for possible rate hikes as soon as possible no fed official, including jay powell has pushed back on the market pricing for two rate hikes next year. currently the market has priced in the first hike for june and more strongly in september a second hike is gauged likely by november public comments suggest fed officials have not made up their minds yet about when to hike the decisions come meeting by meeting and the path of the virus. it looks like debate is about to begin that would give the fed flexibility to hike earlier than timing currently priced into the market. >> the timing is weird on a lot of fronts, right after they kind of made this pivot we got the weird news on friday with the unemployment report and the household number >> then you've also got the variant.

this new omicron variant that we just don't know a lot about yet. >> yeah. you know, i think the -- part of the big news last week was fed chair powell saying you know what, a new wave or new variant is more likely to be inflationary than it is to affect demand or create weak aggregate demand that's the way the fed looked at new virus waves each time. that's part of the pivot out there. >> it makes sense watching with this happening with wages and getting people back into the work place too gives us a lot to think about on this monday morning. steve, thank you. >> sure. we have a lot more on squawk this morning an update on the variant what we're learning from the numbers out of south africa that is next you don't want to miss it. plus later, congressmen sprinting to finish business by tend of the year

we'll talk to kevin brady to see what is on the schedule. you're watching "squawk box," looking at a live shot at the nasdaq market spot in times square

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variant. yesterday georgia became the 17th state to find the variant meg tirrell joins us now >> in the u.s. more cases reported in multiple states. we are learning a little bit more about the characteristics of this variant and of these cases. some of them are travel related, folks having been to southern africa others are community spread. most of them so far reported to be mild. a mixture of vaccinated and unvaccinated folks we did hear about one case in new jersey where the person was fully vaccinated, sought emergency department care. but we do not know the extent of that, and some pointing out that could be a typical breakthrough case, she had moderate symptoms. there was a report over the weekend out of south africa from a regional hospital system looking at the sweer severity cases. the authors saying it's different from the fourth wave

there from previous waves. they report the majority of the admissions are for diagnoses other than covid p it seems a lot of people are there and turn out to have covid, they didn't realize they did. many fewer of these patients require oxygen in the hospital and they report the covid-related hospitalizations, the stays there are shorter, two and a half days compared with eight and a half for the previous 18 months this is also from the same report they look at the deaths from covid. and they have not yet seen them tick up, that's the orange line there where you see the sharp increase in if cases, that's the blue, this fourth wave of what's thought to be mostly omicron deaths have not increased there. but deaths and severe disease both lag by several weeks. we could be seeing the early data and not seeing severe disease manifest we're seeing younger patients going into the hospital in south africa so we know that age is related with more severe disease

as well. older people are more vaccinated in south africa but perhaps a glimmer of positive news if this trend holds. >> can we talk about transmission, because there was also two other -- again, all anecdotal but a party that took place, as i think you know, in oslo, where effectively 120 people got it, including some that weren't even part of the party who happened to go into the same room as the party like an hour after the party was over which to some doctors seem to suggest it hangs in the air and has a measles like quality similar story in denmark where 150 people got it at the same time >> these are scary things to hear about, the number of people getting infected, these super spreader events p some of the world's first with omicron we don't know if it's that much more transmissibleable the things that seem firm it can

reinfect people who had covid more easily. some folks are talking about whether the time from infection to infectiousness is more with omicron. but more work is needed to be done on all of this. i don't think all the cases have been sequenced so we don't know they're all omicron, the expectation is that many of them probably are but it's frightening to hear about that level of cont contagiousness if that is the case. >> in terms of severity one of the questions in the data out of south africa is it wasn't affecting older people and we hadn't seen it in enough people for long enough time to know whether we were going to get, unfortunately, to hospitalizations or deaths or the like are we now at a point where we can -- are we at that point or when will we be at the point to measure this properly? >> we're still only really in the first few weeks of this wave, which is just remarkable to see how quickly the cases

have gone up so it will probably still be a few more weeks until we see that there's also a marked difference in the vaccination rates among people over 50 and under 50 in south africa so perhaps that is playing a role here. if so, does it show that the vaccines do provide protection, which is something we all really want to see. we are expecting perhaps even as soon as the end of the week we could see the lab data on how well the vaccines protect or kneutralize the omicron variant and from there we'll hear the decision making on updated vaccines we keep hearing it's a few more weeks and we're all inpatient to know the answers. >> meg tirrell with the latest great to see you thank you for everything appreciate it. joe? i have a couple of things, you guys i still go between omicron and omicron. both are acceptable in the dictionary but if you think about it, it's

omega. >> right and it's omni. >> but it would be o-micron and micron is a word used a lot. and it's actually little o and big o. big o to me is oscar robinson. the great player. >> i think o' henry. >> but we skipped the 13th letter. >> because we didn't want to say the new variant. and the next one which is pronounced zi. it's spelled xi, x-i-. >> who said they did it because it was a common surname and they didn't want to pick it up. >> exactly it's pronounced xi anyway. >> it's one of the top 200 surnames in china. the top 100 surnames in china cover 85% of the population. >> but it's little owe o and big o, it's used a lot for the 15th of something >> i've been sticking with

omicron, but i confuse myself. >> i'm with o-micron that's acceptable too. >> that sounds like a tech company. >> i go with oomm. >> you used to do that, but you stopped. >> meditation. >> laughing at that. >> to do it. that's what i used to do. >> i look at your mood ring and a lot of times i see it's angry purple when you used to do oomms -- >> it's not a mood ring. it doesn't change colors. >> my readiness, joe, today i should be 89%. or not 89. my number i got an 89. >> that's hot. >> that's pretty good. >> that's good that's good for all of us, right, beck? >> it is >> coming up ray dalio this guy you know what, andrew, i wish i hadn't been so nice that day i was shaking my head, i was anyway, faces some backlash for

comments -- really, the united states and china are equivalent on human rights, really ray? you did well here. how's that $10 trillion you have for comments he made about china on "squawk box" last week. he clarified his statement over the weenekd. oh, okay we'll show you what he said. ♪♪ care. it has the power to change the way we see things.

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the biden administration is expected to announce a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 winter olympics in beijing this week that would mean no u.s. government officials would attend the games, but u.s. athletes would still be allowed to compete lawmakers have been pressuring the president to make the move to take a stand against china's human rights abuses. chinese government officials have warned of a robust chinese

response if the u.s. or other countries were to launch boycotts sticking with china, bridgewater societies founder ray dalio speaking out over the weekend to clarify the comments he made over the week on "squawk box" about china's record on human rights and the government, quote, disappearing people. >> into the policy of disappearing people. i'll give a little bit of a perspective of that. okay what they have is an autocratic system and one of the leaders described it, he said that the united states is a country of individuals and individualism. and that's what it's -- and that's what it's about he said in china it's an extension of the family. he said, if you look at the word country in china it consists of two characters, state, family. and that has to do with confusion and that's very much a

top down as a top down country, what they're doing, it's that kind of strict parent, they behave like a strict parent. >> here's what he said over the weekend. i didn't mean to convey that human rights aren't important because i certainly believe they are, and i didn't mean to convey that the u.s. and china deal with these issues similarly because they certainly don't i was attempting to explain what a chinese leader told me about how they think about governing i was not expressing my own opinion or endorsing that approach my objective is to help unde understanding. understanding and agreeing are two different things and that's what was lost in the interview i'm sorry my answer lacked that nuance and caused confusion. it caused a lot of criticism mitt romney taking to twitter calling his friend -- describing ray dalio as his friend and also, quote, brilliant but then saying the comment was

effectively a moral lapse, but there has been quote some consternation. the other piece of consternation that's happened as a result of this is inside bridgewater itself because the company's president, devon mccormick, is perhaps set to maybe make a run at the senate as a republican in pennsylvania, and that has caused, according to some reporting, its own disconnect inside the firm over this issue and whether his comments could be used effectively against mccormick. so lots to unpack and lots going on there >> yeah. >> dr. oz, dr. oz -- >> also running there. >> i do think -- >> jersey is pretty close. >> i'm thinking i might -- no. i probably won't not this time around probably won't through my hat in the ring. >> i was going to say the two

things fascinating to me about dalio's comments one it is worth noting and in fairness worth saying -- i don't know if it's in fairness for disclosure for bridgewater they have an enormous amount of money from the chinese in their fund. >> really? >> i think that plays in all of this. >> that might make a difference. i think we figured that. i like when he said i'm not an expert after telling us -- you heard him pontificating again and asking about genocide and uyghurs, i'm not an expert >> and then the second part, as you know, because i followed up on the question, i didn't really believe what he was saying -- he believed what he was saying. i will generously say that i think that he really -- that the way he was ascribing it was the way -- was what he now in this clarification says he was trying to do, which is to say this is how i think they think about it, i'm not sure this is how he

thinks about it. i'm sure that will be up for debate. >> i've argued both sides when you decided not to go to saudi arabia, come on. we all have to make decisions as a country on where we draw the line and a lot of times you just -- you just can't draw the line necessarily when there's so much going on. if you took the moral high ground on every single situation in multi-national relations, i don't know what the world would look like. >> it would be impossible. but where do you come down on the diplomatic boycott of the olympics >> reporter: >> i don't know i'm looking forward to the olympics i wish china would be nice, stop the genocide, stop the disappearing don't hold your breath we're blacked out now i'm sure. >> in some placiesplaces, yeah when we come back we'll dig into bitcoin's weekend selloff and what could happen next if you check out bitcoin this

morning it's down to 47,629. that's higher than some of the lows reported over the weekend we'll talk about that in a moment and coming up at 8:00 a.m., mohammed el-erian joins us "squawk box" will be right back. hey lily, i need a new wireless plan for my business, but all my employees need something different. oh, we can help with that. okay, imagine this. your mover, rob, he's on the scene and needs a plan with a mobile hotspot. we cut to downtown, your sales rep lisa has to send some files, like asap! so basically i can pick the right plan for each employee. yeah i should've just led with that. with at&t business. you can pick the best plan for each employee and get the best deals on every smart phone.

good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box. on this monday morning you are seeing the dow powering higher it's now indicated up by about 173 points so it's picking up speed over the last half hour or so s&p futures have turned positive as well, indicated up by about 8 points the nasdaq is still down, indicated down by about 070 points this morning after a drop last week of 2.6%. lucid group said it received a subpoena from the s.e.c., probing the business combination between lucid and spac capital

lucid said it's fully cooperating with the s.e.c., but the stock right now down by about 16%. this is worth paying attention to because lucid shares were down by about 10% last week with weakness in the ev market. it's now trading at $39.71 >> the big piece in the front page of the journal about the russell. the stocks that are out ahead of themselves, when the fed changes tack a little bit it's not necessarily the magnitude of the move it's the direction. >> the russell also getting pressure from the new variant out there because small businesses have a harder time competing for labor and with other things you could anticipate happening if things took a worse turn with the variant. the russelle was down last week for the fourth week in a row, the first time that happened in 2021 as well too i think the dow transports were

down for a fourth week in a row, too. >> we should develop a cnbc multiple, overall multiple not just for stocks, for russell, s&p for everything. >> throw in crypto. >> nfts. >> how would you begin to do that >> who's the guy with the red up here, orange down here, worth 800 gazillion dollars? what's that guy's name >> rothco. >> that will skew the entire thing up. >> well, art in general. >> it would be hard to do. but whatever we came up with, it's very high right now i don't know if it's ever been maybe 99 it was that high. >> that sense of liquidity and money sloshing around. >> yeah. that measure like the cnbc multiple the price of bitcoin plunged over the weekend joining us with more is michael

sonnenheim a couple things pointed to, when the fed says it's going to taper more quickly or become less accommodative more quickly one of the reasons people love crypto is because -- or bitcoin, there's only 21 million. so it needs -- you need central bankers to keep debasing currencies for bitcoin to make lot of sense is that enough to start the selling that we saw last week? >> i think, joe, there is really no stranger in the crypto ecosystem to volatility. i think the ecosystem knows it, investors know it. waking up to a move where bitcoin is down maybe 20%. i believe this is about the fifth or sixth draw down of that magnitude we've seen alone in 2021 and so investors know this comes really with the territory. i would say, though, it's less about price movements and more about how investors' attitudes are changing we released our third annual

study around bitcoin and examining those attitudes. now the study shows that over half of investors surveyed are thinking about bitcoin as a long-term investment we've seen a big uptick in female investors as well as more mature investors 55 to 64 investing in the asset class now. >> the idea that there was some positions being unwound in terms of leverage, what do you know about that was it on derivatives related to bitcoin or as andrew pointed out, was it locations you could leverage physical bitcoin? was that a big reason for such a quick, violent drop? >> we've seen this before, there's a lot of leverage in the system that does get unwound i believe this weekend there was over a billion dollars of liqu liquidations that occurred and there are places where you

can get outside leverage on bitcoin trades so that does lead to some volatility when you do start seeing dramatic movements in price. >> you're so nice about -- in talking about it i guess you're used to it. it leads to some volatility. if you bought it at 65,000 and you woke up saturday morning and you saw it at 42,000, that's not your grandfather's, you know, cd -- and no one expects it to be that but that's even rare to see in even the most volatile segments of technology or small caps, whatever those are big moves, michael, you're used to it, something we need to embrace? >> i think so. investors know it comes with the territory. whether it was the number of draw downs we've seen in 2021, or just zooming out over a longer time horizon. you do see the price continue to have the series of bubbles and

bursts where the price moves dramatically, you see it pull back in bases and continues to move on to take on new all-time highs. now, obviously if i had a crystal ball i could say that the price would continue to move upwards but investors know if they can't stomach the volatility, probably not the right place to be investing. >> so the question from here -- >> where do we go? >> if you are going to add, stack, you'd stack right now you'd be buying right now? you'd spend -- like el salvador bought 150 at 48 and change. would you do that? >> i think most investors, at least the behaviors we see at grey scale are using pull backs in price to average down on their positions. especially as we think about institutional investors the ability to dollar cost average

into a position and think about it on over a longer time horizon, they use the pull backs to build the positions over time >> i was going to ask you something. and etf, on physical bitcoin would be a game changer. that's probably never coming, though, is it? >> that's a pretty sour view of it our team has been working on this -- >> never's a big word. but you talk about years >> well, our team has been working on this with the s.e.c. since really 2016. and, you know, this year having now several bitcoin futures based etfs in the market is a meaningful milestone thinking about where the crypto ecosystem as a whole is going. but really what we see now is a landscape where there's now, bipartisan support for bitcoin spot etf here in the u.s and as recently in the last week, a letter was submitted to

the s.e.c. and the aca citing the s.e.c. needs to level a playing field thinking about futures and etfs, we believe it's a matter of when not if a spot etf comes to the market. >> michael, thank you. >> thank you >> appreciate it are you a gigastacker? would you call yourself a gig gastacker? >> i think hearing you this morning you have to go from joe squawk to know hodle that's your new name. >> we have the o-micron and omega. i might be a micron stacker, maybe a little thank you. >> thank you coming up when we return get ready for the trading week ahead. let's take a quick look at the futures right now. looking at the do you up 202 points, nasdaq looking to open lower by 50 points up. s&p 500 up about 11.5 points opinion all of this coming after

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welcome back, everybody. activist hedge fund engine capital is reportedly pressurin kohl's to consider a sale or

separation of its online business "the washington journal" says engine sent a letter to the retailer urging it to explore the move to boost the stock price. engine capital owns a roughly 1% stake in kohl's, this follows a similar strategy of sacs, looking to spin off. guys, i don't know you think about the strategy here and i'll go out on a limb here this sounds like this is a corporate raid to push somebody to do something like this, because all the retailers with success are the targets, walmarts, the companies who have invested in online and used the stores as part of the online strategies to fulfill things, get things back and forth to make it easy for the customer. if you're talking about spinning it off because the valuation is tripled, looks like you're trying to take advantage of crazy market valuations at this point. but i don't see how it's

profitable long term. >> this is not engine number one or engine number nine. $400 million, seriously -- >> engine capital, owns 1% >> we don't have that, we can raise that >> to push companies around. >> really, 400 million if i were kohl's i'm scared. >> the stock is up 2.7%. it's such a short sided idea >> right i think i'd throw away the -- i guess we got to talk about these things >> we do. >> we saw a small amount, they -- you can make noise, but -- >> that's because they were able to take advantage of the issue around esg >> esg issues and getting everybody else to go along with it. >> this is harder. much harder, i would think. >> we'll talk much more about the retail business in the next hour with ckniie drexler "squawk box" will be right back.

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ready. ready. welcome back to squawk box nasdaq off the chief investment officer cofounder. co-chief investment officer also with us this morning good morning to both of you. i'll start with you. we are all starting to make sense of where you've got to think fed or omicron it seems like the market is looking past omicron at this point. >> good morning.

i think it is a bit of a perfect storm where you have the market coming into the system again and tapering a bit more quickly and furiously. if i look at the data, the economy is actually growing and getting stronger the jobs market was muddled but unemployment rate was 4.2% there is a lot of savings in consumer bank account. it feels like the economy is growing and we don't need the successful fiscal month. i think the reaction is a little bit over done. >> is sylvia right >> i did at the bond priced. what we are doing is concentrating on equities still.

we are still constructive on equities going into next year. we have a barbell strategy as it pertains to value and growth we are light industrials, specifically machinery and conglomerates. we like technology, software and services part of the sector as well as we like financials so we are maintaining and looking for opportunities when we see that pull back market >> sylvia, what do you think of the pull backs one of the things we don't talk about enough is the month of september big questions about folks selling ahead of the end of the year for tax purposes >> that's a factor a couple of things happen including

cryptocurrencies you have machine trading those algorithms are set when stocks fall below the 200-day moving average, others start to sell i think you have some is of that investors are taking profit off the table. others are recognizing tax losses for harvesting to offset some of their other gains. i agree the best way to consider this if you do have money on the side, take a step back, take a breather a lot of the selling is emotionally charged. the end of the year usually does come with a santa rally. that might come off a lower level. i don'treally see an epic reason for the market to continue to pull back. i would be buying and picking my spots. >> sylvia and kevin, thank you

for joining us the best way to start the week coming up, could be the busiest day this day for holiday shipping plus 17 statesreporting cases of the omicron variant we'll get the latest frodrm . scott gottlieb two big hours on deck for "squawk box" after this.

good morning, a major shift is under way at the fed.

steve liesman joins us with why investors could see a speedier end. a wild weekend for crypto. bitcoin back under 50,000 after dropping 17% after just 24 hours. buzz feed said to go public but not without troubling headlines. the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now good morning and welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm andrew ross sorkin along with becky s&p will open higher

the nasdaq looking to open lower, about 18 points off treasury yields right now. look at that 10-year note. look at that 1.39 # 7. the other story of the morning or maybe the weekend was cryptos. i'll show you where bitcoin is now. $23,507. ether at $4,000 after a bit of a tumble over the weekend. >> we didn't even talk about the 10-year, did we? >> the 30 year had an even bigger pressure put on the yields on friday that felt the lowest since january of this year. >> making headlines, lucid relating documents to the

electric spac. down another 12. in donald trump's new social media venture and digital world acquisition have entered to subscription agreements to raise about $1 billion in pwac is trading higher this morning. we continue to watch the tech arena in china tech stocks there under pressure alibaba is overhauling and name its new ceo naming two new units. one for china digital commerce current chief officer toby will succeed as cfo starting in

april. that amounts to the beginning of the end to the pandemic easing policies could begin discussions about a series of steps perhaps all of it earlier than the record has priced in a faster taper, of course. how soon to hike how fast to hike and even the request of what size the balance sheet should be. the pivot comes as inflation has now taken center stage among the dovish officials giving the fed flexibility of hike rates if needed, maybe as soon as the midmarch, early may meeting. he wants to get to a, quote, live meeting of possible rate hikes as soon as possible.

a push back on the market of rate hikes currently using the rate hike for june, you could say may as well the second hike likely for november public comment suggest fed officials of when to hike. on the economic data and virus it looks like the debate is about to begin with flexibility to hike earlier to currently place pricing in the market. >> what is the current outlook in your mind for how far the fed might go in this rate hiking cycle? >> anderson, we are going to get new information on that at the december meeting the fed will fill out their projections for the economy and the outlook for rates. what we are going to look for is

that long run rate how much that matters is unclear. we've had the back and forth take a look at the chart this shows, first of all, if you look at the top line the long run rate has come down over time the second thing, the fed fund rate has never gotten to the fund rate except for one brief moment where it touched fairly before the fed backed off. certainly, it is a lower long run rate than the fed has previously affected. likely to come down that long run rate, maybe even the september s&p. it hadn't done it in the last 10 years or so. >> okay. steve, we'll see appreciate it. >> coming up, buzzfeed going

public today but not without some headlines the company's ceo will join us live check out this morning's biggest pre-market movers. energy stocks are all up watching "squawk box" at the nasdaq market site in time square it's the most joyous time of the year. especially at t-mobile! let's go to dianne. can you tell us what's happening? yeah, i got the awesome new iphone 13 pro and airpods, and t-mobile is paying for them both! oooh and i get a free year of apple tv+ and this is for new and existing t-mobile and sprint customers.

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welcome back to "squawk box" on this monday morning the futures are pointing to the green for the dow and s&p. the dow up about 234 points s&p up nasdaq down by about 48 but not as much pressure as we've seen this morning oil prices worth checking in on. prices down again last week. a drop of 2.8% this was the sixth week in a row. wti up about 2% to 68.2% a barrel >> big story today

buzzfeed set to go public despite some drama leslie picker joins us with more >> that's right, set to make its debut after americaing via spac. that doesn't mean investors and employees are happy about it a mere $60 million remains in trust. the name apparently comes from the address of the avengers headquarters in a marvel comic the company will have gross proceeds of about $150 million in connection with this merger >> the redemption is the highest and more than double this average rate of 42%. share holders were casting the

ballot, the leader walked off the job for about 24 hours they've been bargaining contracts and were seeking more than 1% the annual raise a spokesman telling cnbc in response, quote, a bargaining session where we look forward to making more progress becoming the first publicly traded company in our ranks and equity for more deals ahead. nbc, the parent company of cnbc is an investor today's debut will be watched as a proxy for interest in big tall media companies. >> quite the story, leslie we'll be speaking with buzzfeed's founder how much did you think this is a

signal for the rest of the market if at the end of the day, you are ending up with about $16 million. thinking maybe you would have more cash on hand i think it definitely changes for a lot of companies these redemption levels are the highest of the fourth quarter, more the average of this year it is definitely not the norm but not unheard of and something that is a possibility. >> explain it maybe to the

audience when an investor invests in a spac before the de-spacing, not only can they get their money back but with interest when you see an investor group go into a spac early, it is not clear that is some signal that they support the deal or what's about to happen next >> that's right. that's right there are two things you can do with a spac. what is interesting here this deal got overwhelming share holder support and a vote in favor of the deal. that's because they have a way better option. you can choose to redeem at the $10 ipo price if you so choose to while supporting the deal you don't really care because you are getting your money back with interest. almost invariably these deals do doesn't mean you won't redeem.

a lot has to do with wear the shares are trading at the time it was trading well below those $10 on friday as well. that makes it more attractive to redeem if you can get your man back also, if you get the sense and that stock could call on the listing day, that may be another reason for the merger to take place. >> thanks for breaking that down fedex expecting a major spike with today expected to be the busiest day of the holiday season we'll talk about the bigger trends in retail with industry veteran mickey drexler stay tuned, you are watching

"squawk box" and this is cnbc.

welcome back holidays always a busy time for the nation's shippers. this year, even more variables frank holland joins us from a fedex facility in new york

>> good morning. fedex says this could be the busiest holiday season it will deliver 100 million more packages this year than it did in 2018. and over the record setting season of 2020 e commerce will grow by 13% this year total number of packages exceeding the daily available capacity on you al shipping networks ups, fedex and the post office overflow packages also hurts margins and profits. omicron could boost online shopping but early shopping has lessened to strain on the network. >> we are seeing a lot of the best retailers leaning in also

improved transit and lowers cost >> ontime delivery is air proxy that affects many. fedex and ups isgood also good you can see both charged as prepandemic volumes and add some other factors you can see for both, that step increases. a few other factors to consider and during cyber week, that's up

by 13% also, the number of out of stock items increase changing decisions for shoppers this year. back to you. >> wondering if all the headlines frank, i wonder if you have any labor issues or shortages just wondering about the supply chain and things i wonder myself. >> out of stock items up 285% over 2019 also a lot more people buying early >> that was my next question you had the graphic ready to go.

>> is everybody making more money doing that groundwork and leg work have they gotten nice raises to stay on the job working as hard as they do all of the companies have had to increase and had bonuses to increase the top talent frank holland, thank you thanks foregoing out there for us new york has a city that is a garden city. we have a state. >> national retail federation says holiday sales could blow past expectations and agree

people are indeed spending also that retail isn't fully back the chief executive officer. former chairman and ceo. >> let's talk about this we know demand is strong what do you mean when you say retail is not fully back >> if you look at it, the real beginning of business improving was probably more towards the middle of the year i think it is stronger for sure because we are up against those numbers not back 100% those challenges

could start the beginning of the year things are good out there. with those shortages, that could help margins for sure. we are all doing a lot better. we have a startup. we are hard to categorize by the end of the year, who knows >> i think some of the big box retailers as maybe having the best times they've had in terms of profitability and problems. you look at a walmart or target some of these companies that never slowed down as all are you thinking more mall-based or smaller retailers

it is about goods that you felt like. >> you mentioned big retailers they are back but it is very weird out there. people were buying a lot of sweatshirts and casual clothes i say not everyone is back i've read earnings reports were it wasn't challenging. i think not everyone knows what will happy called it we are up against a snowstorm.

bricks and mortar are getting stronger rents are getting higher we opened our second store on madison and 87th street we still feel the trends. that really caught wall street by surprise with problems they've run into what do you think when you look there? i think they are a great company. they'll get it back at some point, i'm sure. everyone has gone through their issues they've had a tough quarter, tough half i think they'll come back. one of the things we've talked

about this morning is the pressure engine capital own about 1% of the shares they are trying to get kohl's to runoff or sell its digital presence you probably have to have a very tightly controlled mechanism what are your thoughts on this that seems like a opportunistic way. >> they are so embracing each other that again, this is personal i'm not an expert on that at all but it sounds very, very

challenging and difficult. you now have two brands and not one how do you split them off. different teams. i don't get it again, it is not my job. >> you are a retailing expert so i would take your opinion on that >> i always go by common sense it doesn't make sense to me. all the companies i've ran gap or wherever. made well. i could imagine splitting them off. it seems like the agitation. i know kohl's, i don't know people going after it.

>> you do have concerns about the middle of the year what about that point? >> i'm always kind of pessimistic and i run scared my entire career. no matter how good things are, i'm afraid no matter how bad, i'm afraid. i'm afraid in this business right now, it is incredibly strong writing orders and picking goods. i think the middle of the year starts and people are buying a lot more wardrobe runs we need a lot more we are not even a sweat company

and there we are fooling around. now we have a lot of sweats to outfit the entire nb and major league baseball and all that were getting back to discipline. i hear comps and i see what is going on as you mention. as soon as the business hits that area, those are the questions. do i do more instagram or maib or e-mails or tiktok or whatever a lot of people, i think spending so much time on the

marketing pieces i'm not sure what their percent of the marketing it is all about the product. i was having lunch and ran into someone who started a great company. she said to me, it's all in the product. remember that. >> but it is speaking about other issues you've got to speak about great marketing and product. that's what we do. what we've always done >> kind of the merchant we've turned to. you have too many sweats but you are still wearing denim. does that mean jeans are still in >> denim is never out.

the denim i'm wearing is not an advertisement. it is a work jacket denim. one of our best sellers. it comes in four fabrics i just love the body we reorder it constantly denim is a forever fabric. probably the biggest fabric in the world maybe. my first day at gap a million years ago, the first thing i attacked was denim we were running a business with unwashed rigid denim which is trendy at times. that was a denim denim, chinos and casual our mission is to own the best of those categories but not basic, you can buy it everywhere it is very hard to buy a jacket like this. i would stand up and model but i won't. >> mickey, it is always a

pleasure hearing the trends with you and finding out what will be fashionable before anybody else figures it out great to see you today thank you for your time. we'll see you soon >> thank you take care. still to come this morning, we'll talk to dr. scott gottlieb about the spread of the omicron and the risk it possesses for the winter and later, buzzfeed going public ahead of a sc.pa stay tuned to us here on cnbc.

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good morning welcome back to "squawk box" checking the futures above where we had started the show they had fallen. and we are up 100 points now we are back indicated where we were but the nasdaq continues

to deviate treasury yields back but omicron certainly has had the bond market and on this young group. bitcoin now actually up to about 47 and change to 48.7. other crypto-related stocks. down 48% if you don't think of it as digital gold and back to thinking i'm going to use it for transactions number one, i'm going to pay tax on it. number two, worth $6.51 day and

$4.50 by time you use it i don't know that it is feasible i think digital gold is what it is if an average house 20 years ago cost $100,000, it showed what it cost in bitcoin as it goes forward it is interesting because bitcoin has gone up so much that the price 15 years ago whenever it came out back to that, you paid x amount, can you buy the house now for like $8 based on how much it has gone up. so housing prices have done this if you had bitcoin it has kept up with a declining buying power of most currencies.

we'll see whether that continues. with the big swings, each year, it is higher highs and lower lows >> when we come back, dr. scott gottlieb on the morning headlines including the spread of omicron you are watching "squawk box" and this is cnbc ♪ ♪ wow, we're crunching tons of polygons here! what's going on? where's regina? hi, i'm ladonna. i invest in invesco qqq,

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[ buzzer sound ] guys, we're on. now? -huh? omicron variant. i thought i'd mix it up. dozens of cases found in 17 states according to the cdc director and with us now, dr. scott gottlieb he serves on the board of pfizer some good stuff has happened with regulators and an expedited approach saying we need a vaccine. that was probably good i'd like you could comment on what we need to know about the sequence added to the common

cold, which is the coronavirus which makes it more transmissible and makes the symptoms milder potentially. why do we think that >> i would be careful with that sequence data. more important is that data on the ground the south africans are busy delivering crisis of care. in new york, it is very hard for busy clinicians to deal with the patient care this is where they'll do more on the ground to help we can have some insights. the doctors are doing some very good work.

we had a report over the weekend in the hospital in the district in a busy part hard hit by this variant. some what encouraging showed 166 patients admitted, they found 38 covid findings most were there for other reasons and found to be covid positive of those with pneumonia, all found to be positive still showing those with vaccines are getting less sick some to tease out, the critical request is are people getting less ill because they've been previously infected with delta or is this an innately less

virrulent virus. they have additional cell u all cellular immunity, they are able to fight off the disease >> it is a moving target let's try to anticipate what we should be concerned with. we had thanksgiving. still some unvaccinated individuals and some breakthrough is delta because it is bad, really bad more transmissible and really makes people sick, are we going to need to have our eye on the delta variant or do we need to worry about the new spread of this variant >> omicron is not a wide-spread transmission right now the actual risk is exceedingly low and we have good protection.

delta is the immediate risk. a lot of people will get infected with delta even still they find that immunity p isn't going to be protected. what we know now, things still appear to be effective getting boosted and vaccinated probably getting more people vaccinated if it spreads here is more important i worry about states with low vaccination rates. i'm confident now. that describes a lot of states in the south right now, which i think could be vulnerable to omicron. they've seen prevalence really collapse because of that delta immunity because of a big wave of infection we have clear evidence of people

being infected so far, we haven't seen analytical work spreading. seeing how well the two-dose vaccine is protecting. we'll have to look at the neutralization data and see if there is a delta between the two and three doses. i suspect there will be through the protection in this >> if you are boosted, you may even be a symptom attic and even spread omicron >> if i had to put a marker down, you would find that boost isn't nearly as protected in this infection as it is with delta and other variants to date much more protected against severe disease and what we hope would be the outcome here. that evidence pierces the immunity but not become

symptomatic. or become severely ill these are answerable questions i think world health bodies need to do more trying to assist in data collection. they need to be on the ground. the cdc needs to be employing countries. that is passive. we need to do more on the ground and insist more documentation. >> thank you today is monday. i expect to see you again soon thank you. coming up when we return, buzzfeed founder joins us as his company prepares to go public today. stay tuned you are watching "squawk box"

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and mommy always keeps her promises. oh, no! seriously? hmm! it's not the same if she's not here. oh. -what the. oh my goodness! i don't suppose you can sing, can you? ♪ the snow's comin' down ♪ -mommy? ♪ i'm watching it fall ♪ watch the full story at www.xfinity.com/sing2 it's a spac and the deal includes a complex network nbc universal an investor in buzzfeed joining us is the founder and ceo jonah -- so many questions about what you're going to the next, but also about the

transaction itself, you know you're raising about $16 million in equity, on top of that a convertible note that brings us up more than $100 million -- more than that, actually but i'm curious, when you think about this transaction, if you could do it all over again, you would still do it this way >> thanks for having me, andrew. i'm note an expert on spacs or investing in any particular vehicle. the thing that was so great about this transaction, it allowed us to go public and do an acquisition at the same time. that's why the vehicle was attractive to us digit at media has really struggled to consolidate and get operating leverage so with the spac transaction, it let us to have public, have a

public currency, and so we're very excited about the transaction and being able to become a public company today. >> so now that you're a public company, tell us what, therefore, comes next. >> with buzzfeed, complex, tasty, we're bringing together the best brands in digit at media. we are excited abouting with the pioneering company that will be a comp for other players in the space, really show that digital media can be a strong business we reach so many mill len adand gen-z consumers that are hard to reach in other ways. it's an exciting time.

>> we were profitable last year, even profitable this year, significantly more than last year so i think there's a great path for profitability in this space, and we've been able to achieve that so, looking at the operating leverage you get, it's something that digit at media has been lacking with a lot of smaller players. with more scale, you have the ability to invest in commerce, invest in advertising, invest in technology, and really building a modern platform for media. i think part of this transaction was top raise cash so you could make those investments clearly the amount of money you were able to raise in the end was not i think what people

imagined what you began. >> we raised enough cash to operate our business and acquire complex. operating with fiscal discipline is really important. having a lot of cash would be nice, but it's important to use your cash in a way where you really are understanding your inputs and outputs of your business and investing wisely. we've been able to have a business that generates cash is more important than just, you know, raising a ton of cash. >> but, joa, we've known each other for quite some time. what dunk when you saw the rede redemptions? you had to think something. >> we entered a spac market that was very hot even not very good companies were raising at very high valuations, raising a lot of cash you know, we have just this year, not three, four years out, we have over half a billion in

revenues we're a real business in the midst of our process, with you sea the spac market get ice cold we anticipated high redemptions. we structured a deal so we knew we could get public and buy complex regardless of the redemption levels. we really anticipated this, and feel excited about complex joining us and being public today. >> what kinds of businesses would you want to acquire? >> huffpost, a well-known brand, it's already, you know, from losing money last year, it's already contributing tower our profitability this year. that was a great one for us. complex is another strong brand in sneakers and music and food and lifestyle. it has a male-skeweddemographi

to the company it's really strong brands, really engaged audiences, great new monetization, and the opportunity for a bigger company with shared services. >> just to put a fine point on it, more commerce driven, momp subscription driven? >> when we buy a new company, we're ability to extend those business lines to that business and make it a stronger, more diversified business >> jonah perreti, thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you. coming up, when we return, we'll have moment el-erian's take on a volatile week last

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good morning futures mixed as we get ready to start the trading week the dow showing sizable premarket gains, but the nasdaq is pointing lower. bitcoin is showing some stability after a super-volatile

weekend. at one point it lost nearly a fifth of its value and troubles for softbank after a spate of bass news surrounding some of its key investments. the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. good morn, welcome back to "squawk box" here live from the nasdaq marketsite. i warned you guys, does monday not come fast, compared to friday was that not unbelievable? >> time flies when you're having fun. >> i said, enjoy the anticipation of the weekend, because it's basically already monday on friday. >> then this should be your favorite day of the week >> right, right. >> friday is coming. >> i'm trying to figure it out

i'm trying to be happy all the time we all need to try that. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross-sorkin the nasdaq, though, makes me sad, down 57 points. i'll go ahead over it. treasury yields just don't make me happy or cede, just confused. >> so figure that one out as we're tightening, spoicedly. in the meantime, let's also ge a check on crypto. bitcoin hovering around the flat line this morning. that comes after a pretty wild weekend during this the cryptocurrency plunged as much as 17% in 24 hours

joe said he sauce it 42 and change, maybe even 41. that's after friday's close of $57,000. matt mailie said the drop may by attributal to a trader getting hid with a margin call combined with thin weekend trading, but man, that's a doozy. activist investor is pressure kohl's to sell itself or separate its e-commerce business engine owns about a 1% stake kohl's shares are trading higher this morning new in the past few minutes jack-in-the-box is buying del taco for about $175 million. jack-in-the-box set it could control about -- and notably it says 99% of del taco's restaurants have a drive-thru. not a bad bet.

>> that is huge. that is huge, huge news. yak in the box has a darn good taco synergies. >> do they merge the taco operations for cost saving >> maybe stores -- >> i love both of those chains we don't have them back here >> we don't. >> i don't think i love both of them. i'm thinking about what i got at each one of those right now. what a great deal. thank you for bringing that to me and the viewers. >> anytime >> let's get back to the major averages on multiweek losing streaks. the dow on its longest since september of last year mike santoli never lived -- did you ever live in california, mike >> no. >> are you familiar with either?

>> i'm familiar with them. i have experienced them, but never part of a my routine i'm not much of a drive-thru person i haven't gotten very far. i got here and stayed here. >> and you've gotten very far. we're proud to be part of that in a small way. >> i appreciate it let's take a glimpse of where the markets have gotten to here. in a lot of respects this is the third 5% pullback we've had this year if you look internally it's been undergoing one of the more selling puts down at least 10%, 15%, a very rapid liquidation of crowded positions in the market, so it seems acif, on those metrics, we shouldby at a logical place pretty soon where the markets gets some traction giving up almost half, that low into the november highs. all of that stuff comes together, assignments relatively

upbeat, but there were some signs of some distress of forced selling and funds being trapped. i think in part, take a look at the average russell 1,000 stock over the last several months, compared to the s&p 500. that basically tells you the typical stock has gone nowhere in six months, and that's been a pretty big spread with the s&p 500. the damage below the surface, much more severe than the 5% we've gotten as a haircut. that's both of makings, a bit oversold and springloaded, but also tells you a more of a selective environment take a look at the credit markets it's a bit of a deciding vote, and we're going to have to retrench a bit more, so you see the underperformance here by the riskier corporate credit it's not dramatic on a

longer-term scale, obviously just a recent bout of risk aversion we're seeing here, but you have to monitor it if it gets worse and we are in a bit ofa spiral or financial conditions are tightening, you have to worry about whether money is flush what i do find interesting, is we're seeing more rotational out of the big, expensive nasdaq names against, and that could tell you the rotation is being restored, which got thwarted when we were dealing with two things at once, the hawkish words from jay powell, alongside the unknowns of omicron. maybe the market can find its footing. >> yeah. we will see. >> how should i raise my questions to mohamed >> has it overshot on the down

side or, you know, what is it telling us not only about the outlook for the fed, but whether the fed will be successful in retrains inflation. that's one interpretation of it. >> i guess if they tighting, it takes a couple tickets off. why is the 30-year look like this >> so last week was very technical in nature. the data confirmed that. people got caught offside. they were long equity, short bonds. you had the double shock on that

trade, first the omicron variant, and then chair powell's surprise announcement. last week was technical, but more general ly a yield country that is starting to senate more concern about a policy mistake having to overdo it later on >> is a that's what you think the message is in that's pretty complicated, that they're not going to move quickly enough >> those the worry, okay that inflation has become, as i've said in the last few weeks the major threat to the markets

that they have underestimated the major threat now it is exiting that call, but it's doing it late we are going to have a policy mistake, which will at in the short term the stagflation. >> if you look at commodity prices it's dropped for the last six weeks in a row so i guess what you're talking about is the biggers concern it works its way

into wages. >> you're absolutely right we're going to something that neither the economy nor the markets are wired for, which is inflair that persists above 4% for a while. what tends to happen is you have an initial dislocation s. it should be something else, but initial dislocation that is not taken serious ly it's wage earners behaviors and price seder behaviors. so if we shouldn't pay attention to the level of yields at this

point, my guess is we should soon. which means that quleelds start moving up. i suspect you will see that, but this is a very technical market. i don't think people appreciate the extent to which markets have been distorted by these massive performing of central banks. they distort markets in a different way. are you talking about rate hikes that you think should be

happening sooner >> that's why i've been -- you wanted to built optionality. you didn't want the taper and rate increases happening bunched together the economy was doing a lot better in terms of the recovery now that we have left is so late, it's hard to argue what is the best way of doing this i do know, at the minimum, next week they have to double the rate of tapering double it. then keep wide open when they're going to raise interest rates. >> is there any way to do this without the stock market freaking out >> there is, but the window is

narrowing. i'm going to use the phrase of founder of gramercy. you saw it in the cryptomarket, so just be aware there's an extra technical, you make it illiquidity, but they're doing it as a smaller rate >> it is a 180 and it's interesting he chose tuesday in the midst to do it. some people would have preferred to do it much earlier, me, or wait until the fomc meeting. otherwise, why choose that time? >> i think he has realized what now the majority of economists -- not all, but the majority realize, is inflation

is not transitory, and that mischaracterization meant we lost critical time when we should have responded. >> what's an investor to do today, that's a problem, if you have 6% inflation, do we really want to be -- you want to be. >> we always pressure your teem. the build back better build goes through, texas congressman kevin brady is going to join us, a shot of d.c. right there, and then you don't want to miss a

big versus view, his first since he was released from jail in 2019 for securities fraud. stay tuned yoreu' watching "squawk box" on cnbc

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welcome back to "squawk box," everybody. the futures on this monday morning looking pretty bright, at least for the dow and s&p dow futures up over 250 points, but the nasdaq, which was the big loser last week, is indicated down by about 29 points this morning. joe? >> bec, thanks announcement of international leadership changes lynn martin is replacing stacy cunningham as the nyse president. martin is currently the president of meantime sharon bow unwill become the chair of the nyse. when we come back, we do live to houston. i don't necessarily thing that houston has a problem, but it's the center of energy universe on this week. and brian sullivan is at the

2021 world petroleum congress, and will join us next. he's such a great sport, that he's going to tell us he's ready for this hit even before his big hit. what do you have coming up >> reporter: there's not a lot going on here, joe, because it's early, but later on you'll have a couple thousand of the world's leading oil and gas executives and employees representing hundreds of companies here first time the conference has been in america since 1987 this is an industry facing existential existence questions. we'll talk about that more after the break here on "squawk box" there's no single action that will lead us to carbon neutrality. but there is a single source of essential sustainability intelligence. s&p global sustainable1. uncover risk scenarios, reveal transition pathways, and optimize your net zero opportunities

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. welcome back to "squawk box. the futures right now up 237 on the dow. the nasdaq has trimmed its losses, now down about 30 premarket. the s&p indicated up just over 16 points, andrew. >> thanks, joe we'll talk some energy this morning as energy leaders are taking center stage as the price of u.s. crude holding. brian sullivan joins us from the 2021 world petroleum congress in houston. good morning, brian. >> reporter: good morning, andrew this is an industry, a critical time for one of the world's biggest industries, which is facing an existential existence

question in 10 or 20 years, is the price of oil going to be almost worthless, because the industry and the world is transitioning away from fossil fuels, there would be way too much supply, or are we grossly overestimating the speed of the transition oil will become, because it will be underproduced, more rare, thus more expensive those are the big two questions over-averaging everybody here. we aramco here, exxon mobil, all the biggies, and over the next two days we'll answer some of those questions, try to say, where does this industry go? it's been an industry disinvested for esg reasons, an industry that some people say will simply not exist, at least not in its current form in the next 20, 30 years, and also an

industry trying to move it did reach some of the 2050 net zero carbon goals, that they can do it in a traditional ways this wings like carbon capture or creating a different gasoline for the engine that's what aramco is trying to do we have a great guest lineup for you. the ceo os of chevron, diamondback centering, pioneer, baker hughes, and a few more as well you never know who else we may be able to grab. it's early here, but this place will be crowded the first time the congress should be here since 1987 >> i've talked about the remarkable amount of investment that seems to be going into things like carbon capture and things, yet if you look at that

number relative to dividends and buybacks, they still outpace the r&d work that's being done in this space by miles. >> they do, and this is driving some people nuts it's not driving shareholders nuts, because for ten years, andrew, as you know, oil and gas investing was kind of a wasteland. i'm sort of being metaphoric, but that's the truth now investors are saying we want or money back. either buy our stock back or dimebacks energy, for example, we'll be speaking to their ceo they're a great example. what they did to free cash flow is soars they're given more in buybacks, but to your point there's another side to this industry -- if you want to exist in 30 years or 40 years, or whatever the number may be, you had better do things like occident and aramco is doing, the carbon capture

devon energy, putting in the carbon back, so it doesn't go into the atmosphere trying to reduce that 1.5-degree temperature climb that everyone is focused on. yes, it's a delicate dance that they have to choose from how much do i reinvest to try to come up with new ideas, or do i give it back to investors, as the industry -- kind of like bp has said, sort of slowly winds down in the next 20 or 30 years. >> i'm looking forward to it, brian. there's a fascinating environment that maybe you return to the monies and those investors invest in startups and other folks doing this work, but doing it in a different way, given they don't have the legacy baggage of some of the other companies. perhaps, to each his own brian, we look forward to your reports throughout the week.

>> thanks, andrew. when we come back, what should investors learn from didi. and congressm man kevin bra will join us and don't miss our exclusive interview tomorrow with david solomon on the markets, the fed, the omicron variant, and much more stay tuned yore wchu'ating "squawk box," and this is cnbc

welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc. take another look now, though, at the price of bitcoin. we're seeing about $48,428, but we also want to show you another chart. this is of microstrategy this is much lower you may remember it's invested significantly in bitcoin i don't know, guys, did they leverage as well i feel like that was a bit of a leverage play. >> i don't know the answer to that i know that interview got a lot of attention

that guy is truly an evangelist. at the end, it's like the entire company, like 95% of the market cap? >> it is a bit of a leverage play they have raised some -- that's what it is >> you would imagine that's where i got the term gigastacker. he's probably gigastacking today. we find out at the end of the quarter just how much. there's breaking news from mayor de blasio. the city is putting in place a vaccine mandate for private city employers. the city is also expanding the vaccine man dade for indoor

dining, fitness and entertainment to include children 5 through 11 who are not eligible for the vaccine and now requires at least two doses of a vaccine that would be up from one. i don't know what that means with j&j, which is still a one-shot vaccine >> and mixing and matching boosters, i guess? >> that's a big guess. >> i was going to say, there is evidence that one shot two or three weeks after one shot you have more antibodies than someone who has two shots after six months so i was wondering whether the adeno-vector gives you any additional -- that is also the basic question, if you've had covid, and you've had antibodies

of the actual virus itself, whether that in cell mediated is good. >> i imagine cities will start requiring a booster, a third shot that would be the next step. >> exactly all right we will wait and see in the meantime president biden has signed a stopgap government funding bill, but democrats are hoping to make significant progress on passing the build back better bill that could spell big tax changes. joining us is congressman kevin brady, lead republican on the house and ways committee we don't want -- we kneel military construction projects, and address threats from our two -- the biggest elephants in the room, the co-elephants

i don't know what russia is doing outside ukraine, and i don't know what community is going to do with taiwan. these need to get done you think this is going to get done this week or will it be tied to the dead limit before the end of the month? >> great question. i hope it's not. i'm pretty confident the debt ceiling will be lifted on time for a couple reasons it seems like the discussions are confident, at least that is my sense and they have the backup, they can pass a reconciliation i agreed with you, they could get it done this year. there are some outstanding issues left in the senate, feels like, again, from the house side, feels like they're making progress on there. i don't know the times there,

but there shouldn't be a major road block to getting the authorization act done before christmas. >> does that need to get done before the democrats move to try to do the -- what they're calling basically a $2 trillion build back better bill >> it seems to me again -- this is all being negotiated in secret, so i don't know. in the bill now, we heard from the committee for the responsible federal budget closer to a $5 trillion true cost of that bill, but it looks like they're not going to finish their work under next year at least that's what we are hearing from the senate side of things for the most part they ought to be slowing this thing down, given the economy, inflation, given that we're not getting people back to work. my view is she could suspend it until we see the president

getting a annual on healing the economy. >> since there's no republican backing for that bill, it comes down they need all 50 plus the vice president for reconciliation that puts certain senators -- which is kind of weird -- i don't know what happened to tester or mark warner, i don't know, but that leaves manchin and sinema so stick out like sore thumbs in the party, and the slings and arrows they're feeling. it's almost like, apparently there are right on target.

what will this do to the debt? how will this help the economy the truth is this build back better bill hurts in all of those regards. you can't add a trillion of new taxes on job creators and think it helps the economy you can't drive $5 trillion over the decade in the economy, thinking dozens for inflation, especially since there are provisions in the build back better bill that discouraging americans, in fact, encourages them to exit the workforce i would argue this doesn't make sense at all >> can you tell me what -- right now there's no way manchin goes for the paid leave he said it won't that's in the house bill just in the sausage-making category, how would it have to work is there any way it gets done this month go to the senate, then it goes back to the house?

>> yes it would have to probably the true question here is does senator martialing insist on the true $1.7 trillion if they does, this bill has to trade dramatically they all may appear that way, so i think the big question is, will senator manchin insist on the true $1.7 or so trillion bill if knock they'll make changes in paid leave, likely immigration, could make tweaks on the corporate minimum book tax i think it comes down to the key question for senator martialing. >> obviously, you know, he's not shy about his allegiance

he's a, but he said -- did you read this today, congress mast >> you need to not focus on the price tag. the media has been tough on biden as it has been on trump. did you see that i did not, but i don't know what world they're in >> the bill is paid for, according to, and delivers very -- is there any way the republicans could ever, at least, consider some of these things -- it would be nice for people to go into the workforce we added 12 years of education, would it kill you to add in

more >> the claim this is paid for just got yeah, so look the taxes, the spending programs, the fact they're divorcing -- created by republicans, was an incentive to help people reconnect. it is now the largest -- under this bill, the largest welfare we think exactly the wrong thing going forward. in the child care area, the way they designed it, the bottom line is if you're a family making more than $65,000 a year, your child care costs go up, by some estimates, the liberal policy group about $13,000 a year

it's a way that sounds great, but the underlying part is very darnelling we would do better economically without this bill than with it we've got too go, but are they going to get this thing through before the end of the year >> it seems like every day more doubtful >> so you would give it 50-50, 650-40 >> it's hard to know >> who knows i don't know, it's very important for speaker pelosi, for president biden and everyone else >> pretty good basketball team just not good for the american people

that's the problem. >> congressman, thanks for your time. >> thanks. meantime, new just out on tesla. reuters reporting that the s.e.c. has launched an investigation into the company over whistle-blower claims on solar panel defects. the stock is down just a little bit now, about 2% on that news, but we will keep our eyes on tesla today. coming up. jim cramer's take. and more when squawk returns

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let's get down to the new york stock exchange, check i with jim cramer. jim, i've been waiting to talk with you all morning the nasdaq has been under pressure all morning, it's been struggling even after it was the biggest loser of last week what is really happening here? is this a moment in time to kind of mark and say pay attention, this is some sort of an evolution? >> i think so. becky, this thing starts every morning like 4:00. at 4:00 they start bombing these stocks, which to me is program programmed activity. i don't know how many funds are dumping expensive, going into less expensive we mistakenly call them risk on/risk off.

all i can tell you is it's endless. if you want to key in on it, watch nvidia and amd those are two of the best. they just get shelled every single day some are saying docusign might have caused it, that's a false tale people just feel inindividually has moved up too much. it was a great quarter with a fantastic conference call, it just doesn't matter. so i think you have to watch these stocks, wait until the selling of whoever is doing it, maybe it is liquidation. i think it's out of a more expensive, into a cheap, but becky, i can't tell you when. >> can you make some sense of what's happening in the treasury market, with the ten-ee below 1.4% sitting at the levels -- what's happening when the fed is finally starting to talk about tightening to see the pressure

on the long end? >> i have to believe it must be a huge amount of treasury for sale against, it's front running, what the fed is going to do. i don't know to me, we had -- now we have flight to -- this is part of the risk on/risk off failure to really identify what's going on. we have plenty of people who want to dump bonds at all costs. i think all we're going to do is fuel the fire of i would say, conjecture no one really knows what's going on i really want to have a conclusion, but if i do that, then i know it's just -- i just am falling prey to, i would say guess does that work i don't want to do this. >> this makes me feel better about not understanding what the heck is going on here. you can't make sense of this sense of the.

>> you can't why do you start selling at 4:00 a.m. what is the point of knocking down inindividual atat 4:00 a.m. is apple the new treasury? >> now apple is up two bucks from the get-go. if you watch the 4:00 a.m. trading, just say, you've got to be kidding me? are people doing 24-hour trading, and they open their hand at 4:00 a.m.? i don't know >> so steven cohen over the weekend may be investing in this 24-hour trading plats form is there room for this >> i think it does take off.

>> the idea of an individual or two being able to unravel things to a certain extent, there's weird things happening. >> it's wrong in the sense that how many people came in on saturday, who trades on saturday i tweeted dupont, it was quite bullish, that this isn't an asset class. no asset class drops 20% on a saturday afternoon what kind of thing is that i don't want to dignify it in the same way, i don't want to dignify taking a run at kohl's there's a lot of things we could react to, but then we're just making things up. >> the action at kohl's meeks zero sense to me, jim. the idea you want to split off the digital arm of it? you can't be a retailer that's going to stay in business, and

not have it completely intertwined. >> absolutely right. i think there's a lot of people doing dumb things. i don't want people at home to look at what's going on with stocks and draw any conclusion. >> kohl's is up. >> i mean, i league at the companies that gone public, almost all you are getting crushed. individuals keep losing money. i don't know, to me it's kind of ugly better to go to draftkings, fanduel, take your chances there. >> candy crush robinhood? they're all the same thing >> we'll see you in a few

minutes. you can sign up for the new investing club with jim. or just point your phone right at the code on the screen. it will take you directly there. a reminder as we head to the break. you can always watch or listen live using the cnbc app. stu stay tuned. this is cnbc i've spent centuries evolving with the world. that's the nature of being the economy. observing investors choose assets to balance risk and reward. with one element securing portfolios, time after time.

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welcome back to "squawk box. check out shares of softbank they are falling hard, helping to send shares lower the ftc decides to sue to block nvidia acquisition alibaba shares are also on the move it says it will reorganize the international and domestic e-commerce businesses, and what has clearly become a regulatory crackdown. joining us to talk about this is mitchell green, lead end capital founder. good morning. >> good morning. we're trying to understand what is happening right now in china, the move by didi from the new york stock exchange to the hong

kong exchange, and just what it means in the broadest context for investors in the u.s. thinking about chinese companies? >> thanks so much for having me on i think, you know, we all know that when -- you have to step back a sect which didi went public a while back, it did it at the angst of the regulators we knew something was coming i i think a lot of people did expect there's a lot of uncertainty among a lot of investors relating to what a delisting means. i think it's important that the chinese are talking about how they're going to -- adrs are fully fungible, but i think until it happens there would be a lot of angst among investors obviously there's u.s. there's

also people that -- i think it will be a messy process until it happens. >> mitchell, i think the larger question is do you want to own these things at all? the wrinkle is that there's a lot of u.s. investors who own uber, for example, which happens to own a huge chunk of didi. >> yeah. that's one heck of a great question i think in terms of china, it would be the biggest economy in the world the next five to ten years, the biggest chinese economy in the next five to ten years. i can't tell you over the next 6 to 12, 18 months where these things are going, no clue. they seem pretty beaten up now typically you make a lot of money when the world is buys things, but i can't tell you where they're going to be. i mean, they're cheap, but nobody can answer some of the

regulatory questions like, i think in the long term, they probably all work, but in the mere term,who the heck knows? >> let me layer on another idea. right now, there is enormous pressure, i think, on u.s. investors, and frankly investors in the west about whether to invest in china at all clearly this debate that emerged on our program when we were talking to ray dalio last week, caused such a firestorm. i wonder whether those type of fire storms change the dynamic with which some of the big investors in the u.s. and elsewhere think about china? >> in the near term i totally agree. i didn't actually believe that when i heard people talk about it, and then i went and spoke to some big managers that are, like, friends of mine. i also had lps call us, why the

heck would we want to own chinese equities, so i think people are afraid to print a 1231 number. now, again, though, you buy things and the world hates them, and they terms -- if you bought china when the world hates china over time, you typically have made money, but the regulatory thing, i do not believe the premier wants to completely destroy the chinese economy. but, like, i can't prove that one way or the other anybody you'll have on the program can't as well. >> what do you think the risk or opportunity is for u.s. companies that are operating in china -- now we're not just talking about investing in china or chinese companies, but now i'm thinking of apple, tesla, which has made a huge investment long term, are those going to be great bets or are you looking at that in a

different way? >> i agree with that i think they will be great bets. chinese are talking a lot about allowing more u.s. companies or more foreign companies into the markets. we do nothing in line financials or banking, but i think there's been talk about us, maybe sort of serum aspects they may be opening to foreign markets it's a giant mark with a billion plus people on it, so people around the world want to get into it. obviously if you talk to the folks at google, they would be like, yeah, we aren't allowed. offense lid it's a may massive untap opportunity, but in china you're playing by their rules. >> mitch, thank you for joining us are you coming from like art basel or something >> no, hartley it's our new york office it's a complete fake painting behind me. definitely not real. thanks so much, though

>> great to see you. >> cheers. we're going to take a final check of the markets before we hands things over to the folks on "squawk on the street." the nasdaq is looking to open -- it's actually come back. >> almost. >> we wait long enough, but we don't have time. >> make sure you join us tomorrow "squawk on the street" begins right now. good monday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street", i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer david faber has the morning off form the ten-year yield remains below 1.4. a busy week ahead. our road map begins with covid variant volatility for stocks and crypto's weekend blowout ev watch, shares of luci