good thursday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber coming off two days of rallies into the close futures are green as the market hangs on to optimism s&p needs about 16 points for an all-time closing high. vix below 19 today tons of data before the holidays quote, nothing has been good

enough as omicron spreads, the president responding to the nation's testing challenge let's say it's a comeback rally as stocks look to extend days to close out what is this holiday-shortened trading week and we're keeping an eye on evs. eloon musk says he's almost done with stock sales nikola tweets about its first delivery a loy to get to today, guys, the good hospitalizations studies out of the uk and south africa you opened your show last night by say maybe omicron this time is finally on the run. >> look, i have to believe it is, only back something that david has talked about, the antiviral. if pfizer can get things beyond 220,000, maybe the government needs to give that formula to a lot of other companies and

omicron takes the course of south africa, and we get some sort of vaccine from walter reed, though dave will say, the fed has to tighten even more if we can get the public health situation under control, i do think the can unwill get back on track, with or without fed tightening. >> as carl mentioned, othf coure we are getting data that shows that omicron is milder i don't know in that changes behavior in the near term, even before the antivirals become widely viable. >> david, we're stuck with this in the united states of, i don't know what's happening, omicron seems to be concentrated in the northeast. we haven't seen an outbreak in the south, though there's some in tex, that would indicate there's a difference between people who are vaccinated or

not, though the president has endlessly schedule, and the transportation secretary just said, if you're not vaccinated, you've got to get vaccinated is there any information between the difference >> i think we know there's a significant difference potentially in symptoms, but, you know, as for data, again, i've been wonder about data and if you're fully vaccinated i get it's still conceive believe worse, though not clear that it is with omicron. yeah, well, that's -- i just think we have to see whether we have a date with 4 munz,000 people who get it. we'll have to see whether we have a super spreader. more important for, carl, we have to see whether it peaks, that it goes as quickly as it's going in the uk and in south africa if that's the case, that's the

theory i have, which is that you are going to be in a situation where it's entirely possible were peaking if we peak and 2022 starts out strong, i think that instead of the numbers we saw this morning when was anemic, i think we'll have good numb earp and could handle two or three tightenings and continue to advance. >> it would be niles to return to that problem, jim, no it's for, mars at least in the uk there's an estimates that one in every 45 residence had covid last week versus one in 16 the prior week you mentioned the president. i know you've been critical about the testing roll-out david muir talked to him not only about the testing shelves are. >> and more. >> empty shelves, no test kids, is that a failure?

>> i don't think it's a failure. you could argue we should have known a year ago, six months ago, two months ago, a month ago. i've ordered half a billion of the pills, 500 million pills -- excuse me 500 million test kits that will be available to be sent to every home in america if anybody wants them the answer is, yeah, i wish i had thought about ordering half a billion pills two month after before covid hit here. >> nearly two years into the pandemic, empty shelves, no test kits in some places three days before christmas, when it's so important. is that good enough? >> no, nothing has been good never. we're going to find out more he says pills, but he means the test kits. we are slowly assembling more and more into the toolbox.

if we can put that last piece into place, that would be a big thing. >> i really feel the president is not credible on the tests, not just because he called them pills. >> i think there aren't any of size available in this country you have to go overseas to get them do we want chinese test kits maybe he can get them, this is very much like -- remember when presumption said we had the masks. we didn't have the masks why don't people say we don't know, we're going to try, but we don't know i know from my reporting behind the scenes, carl, they don't have the goods they don't have the horses >> i don't think -- i think a lot of people doing their own

reporting behind the scenes can tell you the same thing, david it's different to get a test of any kind even if you can get in for a pcr, the delay of the results makes the timing almost makes the results irrelevant. >> they certainly care about the disruption of their lives, as you are expected to still quarantine for ten days, as the two of you know very well. jim, how many more days you got left >> i've got three. which means i'm going to the eagles/giants game and going proudly. that's kind of what -- when the eagles go to the super bowl, i should be so -- i'm going to be double, triple everything by then which do you think is less likely, i'll be superman or we'll be in the super bowl.

>> i'm going on a limb to say i don't think the eagles will be in the super bowl. what do i know i'm a jets fan i know absolutely nothing. >> nothing at all. the ownership there is also questionable. >> yes yes. i think that's a fair point as well carl, i hate to move too far afield with football, but the fact is i looked at football for how quickly you can be vaccinated, how quickly can you get it, how quickly you can come back, and it seems like they're not using the same rules. >> look at texas a&m, unable to play in the gator bowl you could have everybody quarantine -- quarantine and still play, but whether it's the nba, nhl, college football, pro football, we have repeatedly used sports as a lens to see how businesses in general are sort

of managic the effects of this apple shedding a bunch of stores it's a perfect time to pivot to the market why the action the last couple days, why is the vix below 19, and does the low volume make that unreliable? >> even in 2007, 20208, 2009, these were great days. one of greatest correlations is there really is a santa claus rally. sometimes it does extents into the first week in january. i also think there's no real news in the absence of real news, we have to go back to people looking together lists of what look good, buying what looks good david, i know you don't necessarily want to hear it, but it's an nvidia market. >> explain to people what that means, and what is the contrast is that you're actually pointing out there. >> people are buying winners, okay i mean, they're just buying

nvidia there's nothing happening in nvidia it's going to look good when you said to show you own it. alphabet has a real winner no one wants to show they even disney, yes there you were, david, with a back drop of a crowded theme park, yet people take that gem of a company and they will not buy shares the dogs won't eat it, david. >> at least for this year, it's been a tough go. we can also point out the second thumb last year, with the direct to consumer. just to come back to nvidia because it's a name we talk about so often it had broadband eclipsed an $800 billion market value, making it for a time, probably still the seventh largest company out there in the u.s a momentum name, up 125% so far

this year. >> it really is -- people with high performance look at the data center and nvidia dominates. if you think video games are going to be big, which i do, we don't see any cessation. if you're going to be omniverse, metaverse, you've got to be in nvidia everything starts with nvidia when it comes to the future and the omniverse. my take is this was not a big year for nvidia versus what i think will happen. >> okay. so more to come? >> okay? i mean, okay i'm saying, jim, that's for imposters, what do you do? okay >> got you right? >> how about this. ♪ hallelujah ♪ >> wow, that reminded me of the old squawk days. it's not bad

[ laughter ] >> people didn't know what it was. i've got to tell you, we haven't heard from zuckerberg yesterday, but i bet you in the end, if you have the life-like avatars, the only play to get them is in nvidia i talked to myself when i was out there. you could not tell whether it was me i was brilliant, because he programmed me. [ laughter ] >> do we need to reboot? jim, you mentioned availability of chips and components. the commerce secretary was on cnn and said she doesn't think omicron will have a long-term impact, but we did have a lockdown in the chinese city yesterday. we'll be watching that closely. >> the chinese -- the gdp is

plummeting president xi, emperor xi, they have to get the gdp up that's how he's graded, and the gdp is looking bad. we have claims, durables, personal income in spending, new homes on the way, we'll hear more of david ace interview with bob iger, as futures are hanging in there on this final trading session of a holiday-shortened week don't go away.

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as you know, it's been a few days after the interview with bob iger it was a unique opportunity. jim, you are just talking about the stock and not particularly -- i know you like it, but in particularly positive terms as we end the jeer we can remember august of 2015, the first time that disney's ceo, mr. iger at that point, acknowledged the beginning of weakness in espn and you could see people decoupling from linear television, and what the company was going to do about that ever since then we've been talking about the future of sports rights, espn as a property what you do.

you've broad up the metaverse. i certainly had an opportunity to ask mr. iger about how he sees the future for what was once the growth engine at disney >> i happen to believe the future of espn is very bright as long as it continues to hold on to sports rights and continues to migrate in terms of how thee sold to consumers. i think we're in this interim period of time, a bit of out with the old, in with the new. i guess the question that bob will deal with, do you accelerate that, try to accelerate it, or hold back as long as you can. that's not a decision i'll make, but i believe the future is bright if it can make a

successful migration >> you're competing against those insurgents, so to speak. who knows what apple or amazon might be willing to pay for those sports right it could be unlimited if they don't care about the return. >> it is hard to compete with companies that are approaches things like that, either because of their size or just their ability to take on bigger risks. i think we're well positioned, though espn is quite a good brand it has amassed a phenomenal collection of sports risghts, which i think is using well, which i think has to migrate, but the question is at what pace that's not a question for me to determine. i think if he remained, i probably would have pushed it

pretty hard. >> how do you even do that >> first, you have to make sure the rights you are buying gives you the flexibility, and secondly you have to make sure the relationships give you that flexibility as well. i'm not suggesting i would have pushed it harder than bob, but i'm suggesting i would have pushed it harder than i had. >> did you ever think about selling it, de-conglomerating it >> it came up a number of times. think about it, yes, we talked about it often we always reevaluate our asset base, with an eye toward what is best for us, for the shareholders and the company in the long term. it's complicated tax basis is low, you have partnerships then there's a variety of other things to be considered as well.

it's come up interesting, jim, isn't it that, you know, listen everybody always thinking about doing anything it doesn't mean they're going to actually do it it would seem that espn -- >> where is the metaverse? >> where is metaverse for espn, you mean >> yeah. i mean, where is isolation why can't we have a camera on every single player? why do we not take fantasy football to its heights? what is the problem with embracing gambling an aggressive? i feel espn is still the way when it came out you have a guy like adam schefter, how is he promoted he has to do everything on twitter, for heaven's sake i think it's time to get control of the narrative they have done exactly the way they were before we got

interactive. they're in 2010. that's why they're where they are. they're not expanding. their gambling plat is ridiculous they gave up on fantasy in terms of being in control of what i think 55 million people do they're resting on their laurels. it's just a big mistake. >> i have heard you not be that critical of that pick heart property >> i can tell you that gambling is for real, and dis in could own that, but maybe they feel it's unseemly? i don't know you have to own it if you're in sports you have to. >> once again we're going up against what the disney brand actually means and whether or not it involves some kind of

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gold. your strategic advantage. not slowing down here, as the fda authorizing merck's covid-19 antiviral pill. david, we thought this might be coming earlier in the week, but we finally got it. we did of course, as our viewers know, we've been following it from the earliest days in terms of its development throughs licensing to merck, and then the trials as

well the interim analysis that looked better than the final analysis, but still enough to say, yeah, this will be a positive therapeutic for people remember, you know, again different mechanism than the pfizer drug. the pfizer antiviral, which is a p protease inhibitor, approved by the fda yesterday. there is more peer review available immediately, more courses and sooner as well in the new year as well million potential, the u.s. government already have been stepped up to secure a decent supply and manufacturing already have been taken place. jim, to that point think work by different america

inform mechanisms >> i do know that dr. topol is one of the best, with an important interview in the "new yorkers" magazine, suggesting that the national defense act, where we just -- they can -- ten companies could do it. that would be our hope to get this thing done quickly. it's not being done quickly. >> there is a possibility, carl,

you could take them better better supply on the merck side, though the wires are pointing out not authorized for use in patients younger than 18, wrafs paxslovid was approved that's a distinction >> it is going to be used for perhaps the most vulnerable populations, so typically people who are older. at i've made the point a number of times, there are a number of drug interactions people will need to be aware of, whether people are on, you know, if they have reduced kidney function or blood thinners, even statins, there's drug interaction we've been talking about them for such a long period of time. this potential keep people who are unvaccinated, who get covid,

from going to the hospital and/or, of course, dying >> today gilead, we had news their drug reduces hospitalizations this is the thing that drives me crazy. suddenly we find out about gilead, and that's been out there with remdesivir for ages the narrative is completely lost i semphasize that, what they should be doing, no one really knows. i blame the fda for putting out these things like, here's a press release. no, let's get some data. david, you just gave us more advice than the fda did, and you don't even play a doctor on tv >> no, just been dialed into this particular development for some time, as you guys know. >> but your reporting shows me

that i can trust you more. >> you've been critical, and potentially for good reason. >> i don't play for dinner >> there would come a point in the not-too-distant future, where you do, in fact get covid, and a lot of this is dependent on testic, as we know. your doctor will prescribe that you teak one, if not both, of these antivirals at home, five-day course, and, you know, that bats down the virus very quickly. officely reduces transmidsibility very quickly, and you move on. as we said from the early days, a lot better than tamiflu, which many people still take when they get the flu. >> we've been waiting for these days a long time it does raise the more complicated discussion, who gets the short supply in the -- it a

disincentive to get vaccinated from this point forward? >> we were reading overwhelming hospitalization. they just don't -- once the healthcare workers get it, i hope the first million go to every hospital in the country, then the next to the nursing homes. prioritize if they can't make it all at once, we have to give it to the people at most risk for dies and the people who help us the big board, it's pegasus digital mobility corporate, at the nasdaq it's roc energy, as we're back above 4700. we were just looking at week-to-date gainers the top of the list is all

travel names you can draw your own conclusions about what the market sees in the face of the surge we are seeing. >> the market is so stupid look, let's buy delta, carnival, norwegian cruise bookings.com it can't go every single day like this. you go for the consistent good companies, including the industrials. you have a theme going, but the idea that we're on again, off again, news out of china, that maybe the casinosare okay, david, my travel trust unfortunately owns wynn. we got a whisper that maybe the prc mayor may not be happy with what's going on in macau the market is thin, you can go buy 50,000 shares and move it. what is that about, david?

>> it's a quiet time of year we know that these are the last trading days of the years, though people have been working from home for forever, so i guess it doesn't matter, including you. >> david, working from home -- i think i should be wearing what you wear when i'm at home, but this is what i wear at home. it's different last night i came down for dinner, i eat dinner in my tie, then i watch hitler apocalypse, next thing i know, i'm lying down, and off comes the jacket. >> the tie never comes down. the interview you did, priceless, to me that's 24-hour wear now >> thank you. >> that was an interview and a half. >> i still hope that zegna sends me that cool jacket.

>> we'll keep looking at your vest >> thank you, thank you. i want to change it up and come back on jd.com tencent selling what was a significant stake in the company. they own some others, i think some pin duo duo >> pin duoduo it's obvious that xi does not like anybody who is a chinese oli oligarch, but i wonder if this doesn't make him more popular through the vast middle class. i believe there's a split in that country i think xi feels he gets more popular when he punches the wealthy. i think that's one of his so-called campaign issue when he's up for election next year they don't really have real elections, but i don't think he's going to be an emperor. there's too many things going

wrong there. >> he conceivably will be in a position he will be as powerful as any leader in china we have seen, certainly in our lifetimes. >> at the same time preventing social unrest is one of the key things that any leader in china has been focused on. most people there are not wealthy. they have created an enormous middle class, so catering to them might not be the worst thing you could think about, jim. >> right that's exactly what i'm thinking you get a combination of catering to them, get 9 economy going, and then he's got a long runway carl, one of the things i'm worried about in china, i'm trying to figure out how much clean air is for olympics, and how much is there's just not enough demand. i can't figure it out. when you look at a stock like

alibaba, doesn't that signal that demand is waning in china those spac-like. >> we got the downgrade earlier in the week on baba. i don't know if you saw intel apologizing to the chinese about suppliers in a province, sort of echos what jamie dimon had to do a few weeks. >> what time is pat on today pat's on as much as iger i think you have to keep it off your bow, your proxy, that's also an issue. i just think any company that is trying to wrestle with that issue, like some of the french companies have, it just crushes your business, just crushes it

you've got to be careful david, you know that stuff [ laughter ] >> years ago when i did -- many years ago when i did my first -- >> remember when you were usin burners? >> yeah, and my computer was never the same never ever >> you had cameos on "the wire." did you use more burners than inthat is marlo? omar >> omar, i love omar marlo is scary, but not in "bosch." >> marlo in "bosch" is my hero it's like, he's really res resurrected himself. >> he sure has so much nicer than harry speaking of content, we talk about streaming, stay-at-home,

but "spider-man :no way home" the number one theatrical release of 2021, on its way. >> we had adam aron on monday. going going back to disney, why do you have to have a personal lockdown why shouldn't disney plus be everything for me? instead of looking at appear the plus and watching season 2 of "the morning show. why doesn't disney step up and give me something because i'm locked down with millions of other people. >> i think they're trying. there's only so much content you can produce in a certain amount of time. >> don't they have something lying around >> you said that, really what's the problem with a lot of different platforms to go to, you know

you won't get rid of your disney plus, are you? are you cancelling it? >> no, i like disney plus, but i thought they would -- like you could pivot. if you're pivot if you're one of these dinosaurs? amazon seems to pivot all the time netflix pivots >> yeah, they do you could make an argument that disney did a good job of pivoting as well in creating a direct-to-consumer when they were in the linear big for a long time. >> that i was brilliant. but so did paramount -- how about peacock? >> they're much larger, so -- i mean, the question is -- >> i just want customer loyalty. when you do a 360 of what we want, i would like more content right now from disney plus they're all over the country, david, there are going to be people quarantined for ten days. what an opportunity for one of

these outfits to say, we hear you, we know what's going on, we're putting together additional content that we weren't going to show until january, boom, so we have something to do. i can only watch "hitler apocalypse." >> this is only about you. he has three days left, he wants out -- >> thank heavens the nfl plays every night. >> at this point the cdc will just change their quarantine guidance, david, just to get him out of there [ laughter ] >> they have to. >> and the dogs are driving me crazy. i go do you and my wife is eaeat ing captain crunch in her pjs. i want out >> maybe i'll come down and wave from the street. do you want me to do that?

>> man, it's fine. its just leave it out there. i have friends that say, leave yourself out there my daughter is even leaving it out there. nothing. this is just nothing nothing! i've said my piece on what to do on day 9 of quarantine but disney plus could have helped me. have you watched the beatles thing? i've heard that is good. >> no. i watch episode one of "yellowstone" last night carl's being mean to me. >> it's tough love it's tough love. jim, three difficult stories on amazon. one is they're masking up again,

and bloomberg with an interesting piece on how some internal documents showed that nearly a quarter of new alexa users stopped using the device one two weeks. there's some friction there. >> i thought that was just incredible look, but then again, it's adeck dotal. all my friends are alexa integral, but david, i think alexa is something that -- that is not a fad i see a lot of people adjusting to it. i mean, don't you think that's a rather odd figure of the tu turnoff? maybe they don't have enough programming. >> i've never been comfortable with the whole idea of listening in all the time to everything. no >> you don't use your alexa?

>> no, i don't we only use burner phones in my family you know that. >> quarantine, alexa is one of your friends i talk to siri a lot anybody. i'll talk to anybody. >> this is getting even weirder, carl i'm going to take this back to a name we haven't talked about, nikola starting to detail some actual deliveries let's put up a two-year, if we can on that. one of the early spacs, and what was the high -- i got a high there -- well into the high -- 65. >> that was when that truck was barreling. remember that? >> yeah. they settled with the s.e.c. earlier this week, you know. >> for a lot of money. >> for $125 million. flow they have more to come, they say, in terms of their first customer delivery, which is completed, of the truck

>> well, good they're making a big comeback there >> when i was going over the stocks that worked the ones that haven't worked,ening connected to ev >> by the way, david, i think the spacs are not making a comeback. >> they're going to end the year not looking particularly good. there's so many different iterations, right? we've got spac that announced the deal, but yet to close it. those are all -- we have spacs out there that have gone public that obviously have not announced a deal yet so you can lock in a return with at least the optionality that

there's something that the market briefly likes, or hates, and redeems enormous amounts of it there's the cnbc spac 50 one of then announced the deal, that looks horrible, just horrible to your point, another 9% this month. that's after a deal has closed that's stalls terrible blackstone the grills. traeger, that's been miserable, weber is a disaster. what we need is a good new grill company. [ laughter ] >> carl, send it over to you all right. guys, nasdaq is now green for the month. s&p is above the record close from december 10 you can see the major averages holding on to green.

let's go to bob pisani hey, bob. 4712, we're above that right now. we'll look at the sectors. we got the inflation numbers, hot, but basically in line that's good news in line is fine. we have cyclicals up today tech still holding up, and health care is a bit below consumer staples have the big leading group. since powell got more defensive on november 30th, things have changed, but not that much consumer staples have been up, industrials scyclicals are flat tech got hit initially after powell got aggressive.

the tech sector is up since then, because apple has been so strong, but elsewhere there's been modest damage cathie wood's ark innovation is downs. it's worth repeating what the narrative is and why we're sitting essentially at new eyes. the basic idea is omicron is highly contagious, but those fully vaccinated with a booster is not as dangerous. there won't be a massive shutdown the bottlenecks will ease in the first half that implies the fed may be less aggressive you get the idea, but a lot depends on the idea we're not shutting down and we'll get control in the first half of the year as for next week, yes, we started famous fabled, sacred santa claus rally. it's very specific, it's the

last five trading days of the year, first two of the any year. you get positive runs. the average is about 1.4%. our thanks to the great friends at the stock traders' almanac. here's why people are optimistic about next we're in the last week, it was 41% of the time you hit the highs typically the last week of the year. that's why people are feeling optimistic thanks to my friends over there at data trek we'll see if we can close there for the new year the only concern i have is it's setting the bar pretty high, guys, for going into the beginning of january i did i see most of the beatles special, it was fantastic. you get to see them creating the

songs on "abbey road" and "let it be. it's so beautiful to watch them change the tempo you know the songs, but it doesn't sound like them. it's a beautiful work of art watching artists create something out offin nothing >> i'm going to watch it, as well as mr. cramer, as he finishing out his quarantine later this morning on "techcheck," dwayne johnson with talk movies and tequila. that's at 11:00 a.m. eastern let's give you a look how treasuries are faring this morning, yields have moved up sharply. you can see the ten-year getting closer to 1.5. the 30-year bond is 1.887 we'll be right back.

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quick reminder always get in on the cnbc investing club with jim. sign up and find out more at cnbc.com/investing club or use the qr code on your screen the dow briefly got above 36k where we have not closed above since november 16th. we're back in just a minute. ♪♪ ♪♪

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or live chat at calhope.org today. let's get to final stop trading of the week. >> he yeah carl, citi couldn't resist taking a shot at peloton, cuts price hard 58 and 33 and points out that the big offering at 46 in november is still just kind of sloshing around this was one of those stocks that truly was meant to be a quarantine stock and if you take a look at it, it's not succeeding this time around. maybe it just got to be too high of value it has been a disaster this year just terrible stock to own terrible >> if i'm not mistaken, jim, it is the biggest year to date loser on the ndx, at least that's what i remember from -- >> it should never have

gotten -- >> just a remarkable turn. >> down 76%, carl. look, i think it's a great product. i think the fact that it's a $12 billion company is maybe still too much >> jim, how about tonight? >> all right i got a company called boxed on. they came public yesterday and rang the bell. as soon as they rang the bell i mentioned this is an interesting company. costco delivery. i can't wait to speak to them. this is a creative group headquartered down the block in me now in quarantine maybe i will visit them. >> jim, david and i are looking forward to getting you out of quarantine, making sure you have a great holiday and then looking forward to congratulating -- >> i'm sick of this house. >> your birds in the super bowl next year -- >> that actually is a given and i've got that -- i've got reservations sofi i'll call that guy and, you

know, will give me a whole box i'll pay for it. don't worry. going to be the colts. i think the colts get it. >> there you go. that's my prediction. >> jim, happy holiday, man. >> colts/green bay david, when do you show bob iger liking the packers next week? >> next week we have so much more of that to go. >> "mad money" 6:00 p.m. >> you're the best >> we will miss you. we'll see you tonight, jim in the meantime. >> thank you. >> all we need about 25 points or so to get a fresh all-time high on the s&p. we're back in a moment. holidayg and you can feel the magic in the air. 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+. upgrade to the iphone 13 pro and airpods both on us.

only at t-mobile. and this is for new and existing t-mobile and sprint customers. like me! back to you. uh, hello!? we are going to t-mobile! i think you're going to like it here. umm, why is everyone... throwing things at me? look, as cfo it's my job to be ready for whatever's next. that's why i have my finance team, randomly hurl things at me. it's also why we use workday. it gives us insights, so we quickly pivot our strategy, people, planning, you name it.

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." the cme hq with breaking news. the last breaking news before the big holiday. we're looking at sentiment december final, the mid month read was 70.4 that improved by 0.2 to 70.6. if we look at current conditions, they alsomove but in a different direction from 74.6 mid month down 0.4 to 74.2.

finally, expectations, what may lie ahead jumped up the strong fres 67.8 to -- 68.3 one-year inflation 4.9, you had to go back 13 years to 2008 to find a higher number that moved down to 4.8. that's the same final read that we had in october of this year it's still very lofty. we haven't seen many of these numbers over 4.2 since the last 13 years finally 5 to 10-year inflation our last look was 3% there's been a lot of 3% if moderated a bit to 2.9%. on new home sales for the month of november expecting 770,000 seasonally adjusted annualized units. the number now 744,000 last month had a huge revision from 745,000 all the way down to

662,000. and to figure all of this out head east to diana olick diana? >> yeah, rick. we're going to have to be careful with this number because when you look month to month the census shows it was up 12.4%, but that massive revision in october, so we have to take this all with grain of salt i'm always looking at the prices the median price was $416,900. that's up close to 19% year over year so just amazing price growth for newly built homes. we know it's because of the high price for the commodities that go into a new home, lumber is spiking again. we have higher prices for steel, concrete, everything that goes into a home. we've heard from big names like lennar and dr horton and toll brothers the luxury builder, they have huge backlogs of homes because they're waiting on supplies, waiting for these to come in. the prices are higher and pushing the prices higher and they are slowing sales because

they're concerned they won't get the homes done quickly enough and get them to their customers. again, that's why you're seeing the lower sales, that's part of it we want to say that mortgage rates rose dramatically in november based on signed contracts during the month so people out shopping during the month of november, those higher mortgage rates having an effect on home sales. not a great way to go into the new year carl >> diana, thank you for that wrapping up just a host of data today on the macro font, both you and rick thanks so much good thursday morning. welcome to another hour. i'm carl quintanilla with david faber and leslie picker. morgan brennan has the morning off. s&p just a stone's throw from an all-time intraday high as the rally turns to a third day and we look for some more tools in the toolkit to fight covid. >> that's right. merry christmas eve eve. we're about 30 minutes into the trading session. here are three movers we're watching today starting with nicola, shares getting a boost

after saying it completed delivery of the first electric vehicle and more were on the way. the stock still down more than 30% year to date jd.com shares sliding on news that china based social media company ten cent would distribute its stake to shareholders in the form of a $16 billion dividend las vegas sands with company operating shares in macau rising following the end of a 45-day public gaming result that might hurt industry profits. >> thanks. another name we're watching this morning is merck with the fda authorizing its covid-19 oral antiviral pill meg tirrell has the latest, they're both approved, pfizer and merck. >> we saw the second clearance just in the last real hour from the fda for merck and

ridgeback's molnupiravir it is cleared for high risk adults, folks at increased risk of progressing to severe disease. but the fda did put a few more guardrails on this than they did on pfizer's drug, specifically saying it's authorized for these folks when alternative treatment options aren't accessible or appropriate. they also did specify it's not authorized for kids under 18 because there could be risk to bone and cartilage growth and a warning for pregnant women because of potential risk to fetal growth all of this because of the way the drug works and interfering with the virus when it's replicating. we also saw slightly less efficacy for the merck versus pfizer's 89% this being reserved for when other treatment options are not available or appropriate the pfizer drug has drug drug interaction so some patients it may not be appropriate to ftake

the pfizer pill. there will be more merck drug than pfizer. the white house detailing its medicine cabinet looking at supply in january, only 265,000 courses of the pfizer pill, 3 million of the merck pill. we can take the if cleared because it has been cleared. we have some antibody drugs still in the medicine cabinet. astrazeneca's is cleared as a preventative for perhaps folks who can't get the vaccine or don't get enough benefit, about 500,000 courses available of that and 300,000 of the last treatment antibody standing from gsk. all of these are going to be needed, still in too short supply as we're seeing cases spike from omicron we're above 160,000 average daily cases on the seven-day average. the cases are going straight up. what's going to be important to watch what happened with the hospitalizations and deaths over the next couple weeks. so far, they have not seen the same spike we haven't seen that in other

countries and going to hope to keep seeing that guys >> meg, i'll come back on that in particular because people for a while in the investment business were watching closely the south african numbers and they've plummeted whether both cases, hospitalizations which never reached the level under the delta wave and even ventilation and so many other things and i guess there is a hope that as quickly as we go up here as quickly as they have in south africa >> absolutely. you know, we've seen a lot of symmetry in the spikes in the past and if we see that kind of symmetry here as well, this wave could be a lot quicker it will be more drastic going up and the big worry, of course, is the number of people getting infected an having to isolate. that could affect health care workers and other industries, so will we see that policy change as you were talking about last hour that will all be really important here too >> meg, given that we have both pfizer and merck approved, do you think there will still be a need for treatment guidelines to

prioritize who gets the limited supply of pills or at this point do you think we have enough that can really cover our bases amid this omicron spike >> no. the treatment guidelines will be key. i asked about this at the white house covid briefing yesterday and dr. fauci said the nih will come out with guidelines how to prioritize within the high risk groups because the merck drug is going to be reserved for folks for whom some of the other treatments like the antibody and the pfizer pill are not appropriate, it will have to be determined who should get the drugs, who should get the merck drug and whether vaccination status comes into play is going to be a key question because, of course, we know the vaccines do protect well against severe disease so will these be prioritized to the unvaccinated? that raises ethical concerns as well a lot here that needs guidance. >> like everything with this pandemic, nothing is easy. everything is complex. thank you for following it meg tirrell. turning to the broader markets, stocks aiming for a

third straight day of gains. the dow firmly in the green about half a percentage point higher, nasdaq up a third of 1%. joining us is david bailen david, thank you for joining us. happy christmas eve eve to you given everything that meg laid out with regard to omicron, we've got these antivirals that are, you know, approved now, you've got some studies across the globe indicating that omicron is perhaps less severe than other variants, you know, would you describe that as a sentiment shift with regard to how the market is treating the pandemic today >> two things i would say. number one is that the market is taking, you know, each successive wave of covid and having less impact on the market and frankly having less impact on the behavior of individuals, whether going to retail stores or going out and actually having recreational activity. so as, you know, unless we have a very different type of variant, what we're seeing is just simply not having a level

of market interaction. as we look to next year, it's going to be a focus on earnings, it's going to be a focus on companies' ability to be resilient and use technology and really is going to become a market much more focused on actual results than on the virus. >> i was actually just speaking with a source yesterday who is in kind of the equity capital markets world saying that investors are gearing up to focus on fundamental, cyclicals, things like that as a rvalue investor i feel people have been waiting for the last decade to come where value is once again in focus for a long time. do you believe that 2022 is the year for value investors >> not necessarily i think that there are fundamental shifts that happen to be necessary for client's portfolio now. focus on larger cap stocks on dividend shares and more focus on industries like health care you've been talking about and

more profitable technology companies. all of which i think are going to profit as this recovery matures. 22 months into really this cycle and we're coming rapidly to what i would describe as a mid-cycle, short cycle of an economic recovery even though it doesn't feel like that because of covid. clients need to be much more focused or investors need to be more focused on what's in their portfolio. in terms of value stocks specifically, only those that actually are going to benefit to above average growth and above average earnings have a shot here they will not just simply be a market evaluation. people have to be selective in their portfolio construction >> speaking of portfolio construction, david, what happens to the classic 60/40 portfolio mix if we get compression on equities and bonds continue to sell off in the face of a hawkish fed? >> you have i think hit upon the

question, you know, when we talk about citi's outlook, clients think they have too much cash. they think they can be opportunistic in market time they simply can't do that. is the he second thing they can count on bonds, we think they're going to be a negative return for the short and medium duration bonds in their portfolio this year and they have to look at dividend substitution, companies whose earnings are going up, dividends going up, who may be doing buybacks and therefore have the much higher probability of generating a positive rate of return we're going to tilt portfolios to equities, those kind of equities more than 10% of all of our recommendations fall into that one bucket. if you're out there thinking about your fixed income portfolio, there really is no reason you want to add to it today. we expect earnings to grow up 8% each of the next two years and

if that's the case it is better to own what i would call conservative equities than fixed income in this environment. >> it's the same story we've been seeing for years now. we can talk about, you know, higher multiples and worries about the market getting a little ahead of itself, but at the end of the day, what are you going to do if you're out there looking for any sort of return >> right i think that the critical difference now is that companies that have no near term probability of profitability, a lot of the high-tech companies or tech companies have simply by flyers with no visibility on profitability, those are the companies that are going to really get hurt an they have been over the last two months but not going to come back in that same frothy quality as we go into the mid-cycle investing period because the market is going to discern, you know, between those that are going to offer real rates of return now, versus those that will be hypothetical in the future and

tilt much more to those that are going to deliver returns today that are real and visible. >> that would be a substantial sea change like we haven't seen over the last few years or so. thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> thank you so much have a good day. >> as we go to break, take a look at road map for the hour starting with the supply chain slowdown and whether it will start to ease in the new year. the deputy director of the port of new jersey and new york is going to be with us. the rough year that was for chinese technology company stocks such as jd.com, baidu, alibaba, all down well over 20% year to date >> a closer look at the rally in casino stocks, names like las vegas sands and wynn resorts among the top gainers on the s&p this morning more "squawk on the street" ilahd. n'goway.stl ea - stand up if you are first generation college student. (crowd cheering) stand up if you're a mother. if you are actively deployed, a veteran, or you're in a military family, please stand.

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for just $30 per line per month when you get four lines or mix and match data options. available now for comcast business internet customers with no line-activation fees or term contract required. see if you can save by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities. shares of tesla up over 8% since monday elon musk says, quote, he's almost done with the share sales after he completed stock plans. joining us former tesla board member steve wesley, new street analyst david fergu. good to see you both pierre, let's deal with the stock selling and ask whether or not the shares themselves have sort of escaped the whole discussion >> yeah.

i think tesla has lost about 25%. that's not much related to tesla. you can get another high growth name like nvidia, have been similar, broader market getting away from very high gross names that mostly reflects concerns about inflation and to some extent the broader concern in recent weeks about the omicron variant. on what specific about this, elon selling, these things have been in the headlines and conversations, but i haven't seen it moving the market that much except yesterday. yesterday doing the math to elon's tweets, you can see he's pretty done selling his stock and that created the significant buy signal across the world. you see now people buying into tesla simply on the fly. >> yeah. that's been interesting to

watch. and then it does allow us to get back to a discussion about fundamentals and specifically the competition, whether or not that's the legacy oems or nicola of some of these chinese names that are saying they've got models that are better than the y. i wonder how you think that landscape is evolving going into the new year >> you bet first on the last question, don't forget, elon has a net worth of now roughly $250 billion. in terms of competition, here's the big picture. everybody is realizing the whole world is going electric, tesla is the clear leader and they have a big advantage the big advantage is not just the name i.d it's that they've now built factories in the u.s., opening new ones in austin, berlin, china. they have a cost down advantage in battery costs, and they have a shipping advantage because they have production facilities on every continent

make no mistake, others are coming at him. i think volkswagon may be in the best position to challenge them along with the chinese for most people, chinese aren't in the picture but china makes over half the world's evs today, they are the largest auto buying market and they're moving quickly. also, remember that 67% of the world's batteries are made in china so they're going to have a cost down edge on some of the other makers expect to hear a lot about firms like neo, and others, coming quickly. first time in my life to see chinese vehicles on american shores but they will be just as tough as the japanese and korean vehicles a years ago. >> the reason i ask, engine number one, historically the activist investor known for shaking things up at exxon recently wrote a white paper about electric vehicles and noted that there is a world for

gm and other incumbents to be very competitive in terms of evs and that companies like tesla and rivian should be concerned about that do you believe there is a place for incumbents, traditional combustion automakers here or we will see the newer players and does there need to be consolidation to compete >> you asked two or three good questions there. let me tackle them one at a time first, the whole world is going electric and the costs, the reason for that, is the electric vehicles are not only faster, they're safer, more fun to drive, but for the first time in our lives they're about to become cheaper and that's because the cost of lithium ion battery has gone down 90% in the last decade. they've said that's nice but we're getting started and planning to take the costs down another 50% in the next three years. so the big question here is not who wins the $100,000 car market

or $50,000 car market it's who is going to win that $25,000 car market that's an interesting smack down between tesla, volkswagon and the chinese. gm and ford will have to pick up the pace great to see ford committing $30 billion to development they should have started five or six years ago. it's going to be a fascinating smack down tesla will be on top for a few years to come and see who takes it away if anyone. >> back to tesla for a moment. you mentioned the stock sales sort of at least coloring some of the trading of late but as we head into next year, what are you going to be looking for, as particular milestones on which the stock will perform or not perform? >> i think next year is going to be very interesting is a clear indicator of what's going to happen over the next decade. next year, first that you have

literally at scale of tesla unlimited demand people are waiting for their car and it's going to keep going like that for the full year. limiting factor for tesla is production next year, you see berlin and austin ramping up going to create a lot of additional production and nice acceleration in revenues. the atiddition, because you hav so many that want to buy tesla, tesla is ticking up in price today. this is going to impact numbers only tomorrow because these cars are being sold for more and next year next year, why you see new factories ramping, you see margins expanding further, so that's a very, very good setup for the stock and then coming back to what steve said, to date

tesla has barely more than 1% market share in the auto market, so over the next ten years you'll see the same thing, even if traditional makers manage to survive the transition, which is going to be very, very challenging for them, they're running behind tesla on cost efficiency and technology, it's going to be tough. even if new entrants come in, like tesla could take 10 to 20% of the market, right, that remains very, very conservative and that's 10 to 20 million cars maybe in ten years from now, which is 10 to 20 times more still extremely powerful for tesla. the stock is going to keep trading between 50 and 100 times earnings for a long time we expect north of 20 at the end of 2024. at the end of 2022, 2023, stock trading 75 times that, $1500, that's where our expectations

are. we're very positive on the stock positions. >> wow it's smack down is the right word for it, steve it's going to be a fascinating couple years it already has been. guys, appreciate it. happy holidays thanks for the time. >> thank you. >> thanks, carl, thanks leslie. >> as we head to break, the top gainers on the s&p for the week with some travel names leading the way like carnival and expedia. you have citric systems up about 16% on the week. pretty remarkable. we'll be right back. stay with us.

take a look at shares of jd.com down over 9% following news early investor tencent will deliver most of its stake in the company to shareholders a $16.4 billion dividend essentially but all that potential, all that distribution could lead to additional selling pressuring the stock. when it comes to so many of the different big chinese technology companies that we focus on, certainly such as alibaba, there's been a lot of damage

done this year, whether it's regulatory in nature and the crackdown that's taking place. when you take a look at alibaba, leslie, that's a 5 year, puts in perspective the loss we've seen this year of 50% in its market value. obviously last summer or -- i forget now, the ali pay never happened, series of regulatory crackdowns to speak and overall concern about the chinese consumer and their spending patterns this is a well-owned name amongst hedge funds. one reason why they failed to outperform the broader market yet again as well. >> yeah. it's been a source of significant negative alpha for a lot of hedge funds this year they were really positioned in the middle of the summer to be overweight chinese stocks relative to other areas and, of course, ever since then, some of the regulatory concerns sent the stocks plummeting. alibaba and jd not looking for recovery into year end which is

important for institutional investors as they publish their returns for investors and so, you know, just taking a look at some of jd's top holders, tiger global, d 1, some names in there that have not yet been able to recover the losses that they faced on some of these holdings, you know, throughout the year and made up for them by some of the other high growth u.s. domestic tech names that also have been suffering amid this. i think it will be interesting once we start to see the full year returns come out. those are some of the names you want to be taking a look at. >> i have that letter in front of me, down 12% from december. they were down 30% in january when they got caught up on the meme stock craze on the wrong side of it huge hedge fund, 36 months accruing that money. interesting overall, didi, we all know that's going to delist, being hong kong i guess. another sort of reflection of the difficulty this year for so

many chinese technology companies. >> yeah. i think two of the big lessons of the year have been that they can throw tape bombs from a government standpoint much bigger than the u.s. does, whether with private education or casinos or e-commerce and a lot of growth prospects, the global growth prospects for those names have been kept in check by obviously withering geopolitical conditions between the u.s. and china just a remarkable change of landscape so far this year still to come this morning, how retailers are combatting major headwinds for the new year with supply chain disruptions still intact and inflation sending cotton to a 10-year high we're back in a couple minutes. we love our new home. lots of windows, great light- but the birds. they're back. yes, i hear them. uh-oh. why are these birds so angry?!

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xfinity rewards are our way of thanking you just for being with us. enjoy rewards like sing family fun nights! rent sing for $1 then belt out all your favorite tunes from the movie with sing karaoke. plus, see sing 2 in theaters with buy-one-get-one free fandango tickets. join over a million members by signing up for free on the xfinity app. our thanks. your rewards. welcome back i'm rahel solomon. here is your cnbc news update at this hour. as christmas approaches, the omicron surge apparently not stopping a lot of americans from

traveling. the tsa says that it screened more than 2 million people at airport checkpoints on wednesday. that volume is higher than what it was on the same weekday in 2019 before the pandemic meantime in northeastern china no one is moving very far in the city of 13 million people, in its first day of a strict covid lockdown in response to 52 new cases recorded on tuesday. china has a zero tolerance policy on covid as it prepares to host the winter olympics in february. the united kingdom, more than 100,000 new cases recorded wednesday, the first time that has happened the government estimates one in 45 people had covid in the week ending december 16th and it's a record high and does not include the big surge in the last few days carl, back to you. >> thank you very much retailers are facing a number of challenges this holiday season supply chain constraints are the obvious one, but rising input costs are another.

here to discuss, co-founder and ceo paul trouble to talk about the differences between input costs this production season and what you're looking at for 2022. i was surprised to hear that in some ways this year may be mild compared to next >> yeah. i think it is. you have to look at the apparel production cycle 6 to 12 months. fabric and inputs we would have bought six or eight months ago is not affecting the price of goods today. fast forward to 2022 and we're seeing increases 10 to 20% because the united states has made less cotton over the last two years and we buy our cotton from the south west united states and down in 2020 and they've been ramping that up but not meeting demand our hope is that is temporariry and get through that without passing it on to customers and

hopefully have some creative things like transportation costs as we pick that up. between the material and transportation costs in the end so far what has been most acute and which do you think you would expect to see a reprieve in first? >> most acute has been transportation cost. making clothes have not been difficult. our factories in europe have been scaling back up the challenge is getting it to the united states. typically all retailers and brands like to ship things in by boat ocean freight. really the cost of that prepandemic has gone up 200%, 300% in some cases it's not really the cost but the time used to take six weeks to bring sweaters from italy, for example. today it might take five weeks to book it and another two months to get in for this season like a lot of people relied on air freight it's more expensive and still challenges there in booking capacity, but that was the price

to be paid for getting everything in for holiday. making sure it was a robust holiday season i'm hoping that the logistics side works itself out and that the input side is just a temporary issue with supply and ramp back up on cotton production and stable it out next year. >> has it been a robust holiday season what does demand look like in terms of a pull forward maybe as people are concerned about getting their holiday gifts in time as well as any end cases that you've been -- indications that you've been seeing in the omicron effect in the last few weeks or so. >> happy to report demand has been great almost like everybody looked at their closet in october and said it's time to go back and buy and fill this back up with goods we're 35% up in october per clothing almost another 40% in november, and there was a great push people coming out and buying things like dress shirts and sweaters and even blazers. products we hadn't seen coming off the shelves the holiday prior. that's a part of more

interaction. december towards christmas slowed down, a product of a lot of fear around empty shelves and supply levels and maybe not getting packages in time for christmas. we didn't really experience any of those challenges and i'll say that the local domestic carriers have done an amazing job of getting packages to customers prior to christmas we started our winter sale today. demand has been robust and we hope that continues into january. >> what about margins? i read in the producer notes that you're planning on taking the higher cost, higher input costs and not passing those on to consumers is that the plan for the long term or do you hope these inflationary pressures work themselves out midway through 2022 >> yeah. i think it's a wait-and-see approach our initial -- we make a shirt, anywhere from $100 to 150, $185, and i think our customer can handle a little inflationary pressure that's not our intention, to pass it on to the customer in the near term.

we've been working hard to do better in margins and increase those in other parts of the business we have a cushion near term. our plan is not to pass it on to customers. if this lasts for a year, year and a half that story might change we're producers, retailers and the apparel business you have too much or too little, whether in inputs or inventory, and it ends up shaking out in the long run. for us we have a price and a product that people love and we don't want to change that and pass that on to customers. >> we talked to zegna earlier in the week about whether or not the pandemic has brought about structural change in men's fashion. i mean the kind of thing that will change a design for years to come. you're seeing noncommittal, they think the tie will be around if you want to look especially sharp. i wonder if you think there will be that scarring on the design trajectory in men's. >> et change because of the pandemic it was massively casual.

we've hit peak sweatpants where there's enough in the closet and they're ready to go back and engage we saw the re-emergens of men's formal clothing, blazers, ties, weddings andevents and we saw people buying made to measure suits but they weren't necessarily the navy or black, but something more fun for a wedding or event i think people love to put their best foot forward and partial interaction demands that the more we have more events happening the more people going back to work, i think they're going to go back to classic pieces that have been around for hundreds of years. there's been a casualization of society, no doubt about it, even our collection is more casual, but the reality is, i don't think it's totally changed where men's where is and people are exciteded to dress up again. >> the fact that we can talk about that brings us hope that maybe we can blow through the covid interruptions which we obviously are seeing continue today. paul, best to you.

happy holidays, come back in the new year good to see you. >> absolutely. thanks so much for having me happy holidays >> for more on the supply chain challenges and port to port transit times, let's bring in the deputy director. beth ann, we hear about l.a. and even savannah in terms of significant delays and so many ships offshore waiting to unload for days, if not weeks not as much about your key east coast port why not? >> yeah. first of all, thanks for having me you know, up until this week, quite frankly, we've only had two or three ships at a time offshore the reason for that has been the availability of labor, long shore labor, as well as the investment we have made in our port facilities in infrastructure in the last decade allowed for us to have the capacity at the marine terminals to handle a 20% increase in cargo that we've

experienced so far this year. >> all right you've seen a 20% increase, but you haven't had the delay times others are seeing. you know, i wonder, are you benefitting from other ports delays is there some shippers making a decision to come to your port as opposed to perhaps savannah or does that not really work in your favor >> he we cannot solve the problems of the other ports that are experiencing, you know, such dramatic backlogs. however, there are certainly a number of shippers and ocean carriers who have decided to reroute their cargo through the port of new york and new jersey. we've been able to handle that cargo and to do so, we believe, in an efficient manner, and we're hoping that that will remain here in the port of new york and new jersey and be the new way of doing business for those customers. >> beth ann, a little bit longer

term, i wonder, to what degree will you be a beneficiary of any new infrastructure spending and what's the earliest do you think we might start to see sort of proof of performance for any new investment that comes along because of the law >> yeah. sure the infrastructure investment funds is certainly going to be beneficial to the port of new york and new jersey and all of the other ports, but the reality is, is that it's a competitive grant process. that process alone takes anywhere between 6 to 12 months for it to materialize and then, of course, after you get the grant, you know, you need to go through all of the procurement processes and what have you. construction of major infrastructure so the infrastructure funding is not going to solve any of the supply chain problems that we're experiencing today but it certainly will help address what we in the port of new york and new jersey expect to be a doubling or tripling of

our cargo volume in the next 15 to 25-year period. that funding is important and needed but there are other operational improvements and capacity improvements that need to be made in our ports and through the supply chain in order to handle that volume as well >> how is your labor force weathering omicron at this point in time? obviously the northeast has been hard hit in this recent wave do you feel like you have the staffing to be able to handle the amount of cargo coming in? >> yeah. so this is a challenging period of time, even without omicron. every year, you know, we see as other businesses do, we see vacation time and a number of folks, you know, taking vacation time, which does put a strain on labor available labor and does create a few challenges at our

terminals. layered on top of that now, we are seeing an increase, of course, with omicron thankfully, the international longshoreman's association, our labor, our terminal operators, all have a series of processes and procedures, health and safety, as top priority that they have put in place in order to prevent as best as we can certainly workplace exposure and keeping that workforce healthy so again, it's a challenging time we have seen an increasing, but we do have people out on vacation this week and next so that things will be certainly a little bit slower, but nothing to panic about christmas gifts as we've just described, i think paul described, are on the shelves and santa will be very busy this weekend. >> we are all looking forward to santa's arrival. beth ann, thanks for your time and appreciate it. >> thank you for having me and happy holidays to all of you.

meantime big show coming up in the next hour we're going to talk to dwyane johnson about the film industry, his tequila brand, his energy drink brand and a whole lot more streaming, coming up on meechcheck" at 11:30 eastern ti we're back in a couple minutes.

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." new data this hour on hotel occupancy rates with omicron risks putting a dent in holiday travel plans seema moody has that for us. hey, seema. >> hey, leslie, that's right the number of travelers checking into hotels did decline over the last week to 54% some experts at sdr are pointing to seasonality factors and omicron. the city posting the highest hotel occupancy over the past

week, florida keys and once again new york city at 74% a slight dip from last week. this as covid cases continue to rise in new york city by around 30%. i was just speaking to a couple who left manhattan early because they could not get an appointment for a covid test and that's why many experts often said that getting these drugs to market will give

travelers more confidence and be a big win for the broader industry this as a royal caribbean cruise ship, odyssey of seas was denied entry into two islands after 55 fully vaccinated passengers and crew tested positive for covid so just another reminder of how itineraries continue to change depending on the covid situation on board leslie >> seema, the thought on quarantining on a tiny cruise ship cabin may have given people pause and they look to book out in 202 you'll track it. thank you. as we head to break, let's look at some of the top gainers on the s&p this morning. we've seen big moves in casino operators but tesla and citrix is leading the way. we'll tell you what's behind the rally in casino names next don't go away. jerry is here! j! mate, how are ya!? it's so good to see you.

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♪ obviously fin trading you would think on a holiday-shortened week, but dow did get above 36k very briefly s&p 4727 ten-year 25 for the first time

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the stocks of gaming companies are getting a boost this morning this following the end of a 45-day public gaming consultation contessa brewer has that story for us contessa >> hi there, david how little news is required on a slow news day to move these particular stocks. take a look at macao up right now as you can see melco is up 7% sands, wynn and mgm relies least heavily from revenue from macao all getting a boost. it's the result of a public comment period citizens of macao put in their own two cents what should happen with casino recessions up for renewal next summer generally people think there should be more local control, more government oversight and more promotion of non-gaming aspects of the business. and a majority said, hey, they

would like to have six or more concessions, which industry insiders say largely lines up with an expectation that would give the sub concession in the full status. analyst carlos calls it a nonevent look, this is one of the steps that has to be accomplished before tackling the issue of renewal next year. that issue takes up the head li headlines, largely but covid is a much thornier ne near term problem. the resurgence is a head wind that these macao casinos have to overcome, david. >> yeah, contessa. they locked down some cities in china again, haven't they? >> yeah. exactly. and because of that, they're not seeing that cross-border traffic, the all-important border traffic is so important for those daily visitors they have the bridge now to hong kong, but they have to open it and keep it open >> contessa, thank you

contessa brewer. as we come to the end of our show here on "squawk on the street," quick look at the ev makers, tesla shares soaring once again, soaring is a little strong nikola is soaring, tesla is surging. rivian is down and lucid group also a $62 billion market value that will do it for us on "squawk on the street. "techcheck" starts now ♪ good thursday morning, welcome to "techcheck" i'm carl quintanilla with jon fortt and julia boorstin today major averages will try to make it three in a row on this holiday-shortened trading week s&p is less than half a percent from a record high but the nasdaq still