it even and at-home test to show you are not picking up anything more at that point pretty good advice we get the chance to talk about this tomorrow, will, you will be right back here in >> drnly looking forward to it >> i love the pinstripes see you back here tomorrow right now it's time for "squawk box" on the street [ music [ music playing >> good thursday morning, i am scott walker, carl, jim, david, they all have the morning off. let's look at futures now. we set up for one of the final trading days s&p opposite higher, nearly seven. dow is going for the sempt day in a row to the upside the s&p 500 notching its 70th record close of 2021. it looks like it will add to that the nasdaq is higher nearly 14

points our look continue with the markets. s&p off its 70th record close. the dow having the longest winning streak since march samsung warning lockdowns in china may disrupt manufacturing. another down day for didi after that crackdown from the chinese government but we do begin with the market. as i said, the 70th close for the s&p 500. we will got get the best year. that was in 1995 with 77 but it's been a pretty darn year and we're streaking towards the finish as well. >> i did a little quick back to the envelope math, it's one out of every four trading days we closed at a record so if it seems like we have been this broken record of you know record close for the s&p 500 it's because we literally have that's at least once a week if

you kind of do the math. we have been at a record close it's been remarkable the most we could see about 72 interesting move you highlighted with the tenure, maintaining levels at one-and-a-half percent at this point if time. bitcoin as well had bigger moves. the prior equity markets seem to be chugging along as we end this year at this point in time. >> we struggled to get above 150 on the ten area and got above it, got attention, rick santelli yesterday suggesting that okay now we were finally able to get above 150, we can push over 160. i don't know if we will do that,

certainly something to keep the eye onto the mark at large, technology stocks, et cetera, how we seriously start thinking about the rate hike that is to come. >> when you think of the traditional textbook correlations we tend to expect in the market, especially here in december, we haven't seen much of them i guess with the exception of growth but with regard to the way the fixed income markets trade, i think a lot of people think there is that return to normal next year with regard to the pivot in fed policy you and i see there hasn't been this much opportunity. it will be interesting to see.

>> even more remarkable about this late-year surge and the way we will finish 2021 is the backdrop that we are doing it against, 488,000 new covid cases in the united states next. just astro nom cal numbers and the market's ability to look past skyrocketing cases, but the disruptions happening throughout the economy around the world but we're new york transit police and fire departments having disruption. hospital systems we talked all week about airlines, now we learned that jet blue will cut back service into early january weather is an issue. most especially, we're talking disruptions taking place people calling in sick because they're too sick anecdotally it's across a broad

array of businesses. i got a call from my auto dealer i was supposed to take the car in for service they called me preemptively and said we need to push it back we have too many people out sick we don't have enough to service vehicles it's anecdotal it is spreading throughout the economy. >> to your point, a part of that was influence into why they changed the quarantine guidelines they noticed there was such a tight labor force to begin with. of course, if you have someone catching this extremely contagious virus, but then is out ten days, that can cause a real impact on the economy, of course, that's led to some controversy with people wondering whether the cdc is prioritizing profits over health and safety, the cdc would argue they believe the science backs up the ability to quarantine for five days, and mask after the fact that way, they can get the economy back up and running. we showed you a headline from the "new york times" today about this debate over what it means

to be fully vaccinated that's another thing corporate america is thinking about aswe head into the new year there are all of these plans to get back into the office in january across wall street, across corporate america that was the date by which a lot of companies said, okay, employees, you will have to be vacc'ed at this point in time. now everybody is rethinking this, with most projections that omicron won't peak until mid-january, potentially late january at where we are in this cycle so this idea of fully vaccinated, does it incorporate a booster if you have two vaccines is that enough if you need a booster, is there enough supply to get it? givenwhere we are at this poin in time, i was talking to my son yesterday who has to wait about a month to get the booster because there isn't enough supply in order to get it. i think all of those questions are something that people will grappling with as we start the

new year >> yeah, no doubt. it won't surprise me if we go to fully vaccinated being boosted as well. as we talk about this issue and the disruptions, it's not on our minds. it's on dr. fauci's mind as well he was on "closing bell" yesterday speaking about this issue. why those druls u rules were changed. let's listen >> we need to keep society running in the sense there are other many deleterious effects health wise effects that society is crippled in the sense of being functioning to keeping critical things going. so in order to address that, they looked for a balance between what is safe and scientifically based and what could get us to keep society running. >> you know, the other issue to consider when you listen to dr. fauci is a part of the cdc

saying that you don't need to test to get out of the quarantine period or these new rules simply because there aren't enough tests to go around, for consumers to find the tests. look, it's been a debacle really in terms of the testing. it's hard to find them the cdc is scrambling as a result to make that sort of statement that you don't even have to test negative to get back into society as dr. fauci and others want us to be it adds another kur everyball into what is a difficult equation to solve. >> there is so much confusion out there. little things. what kind of mask is actually protective after you fin arab five-day quarantine, should you be wearing a cloth mask, an n-95 or kn-95 there are so much out there that's misunderstood there was also a really good

shot this morning on "squawk box" this morning, kind of talking about the mixed messaging with regard to vaccines and the ability for people to digest the fact that their vaccines will keep them out of the hospital versus not prevent a positive test. this is from dr. kavita patel. >> i will take the responsibility so much of what we are trained in epidemiology and medicine is interpretive science when we talk in november of 2019, 2020, rather, when we talk about the miraculous efficacy. most people didn't understand what efficacy was. which did not translate that to say, by the way, america this means that people will get infections it was intended to not -- it was intended to prevent hospitalizations and deaths. >> the idea, the messaging from the beginning was, look, the vaccine is not intended

primarily to keep you from getting covid. the intention is to keep you out of the hospital. so that's specifically what she is referring to. yet as we said, the market has had an ability to look past every headline of late for sure as it relates to omicron, because we think it's less testify e severe thus we keep hitting these record highs, 70 for the year from s&p for more on the marges, let's bring in our market guests, adviser, rockefeller family office cio jimmy chang it's great to have you with us jim, you look at what the market has been able to look past are you surprised at how resilient it is when i tell you we are still doing 480,000 plus new cases of covid a day >> surprising the market, for that matter, the economy continues to find ways to grow, despite not just the omicron

variant and its goal which has yet to be fully run. also ahead of the new variant, we already saw dramatic labor shortages. we saw all kind of shortages in terms of commodities the fact that this economy and the mark that correlated to it have continued to drive hooe higher, surprised us a bit but we were already prepared to ride some increased volatility this year, because of what happened last year, the sudden smooth and steady rebound, we learned a few less zorns how it did not just saw the the course but better our portfolios but to ensure that we are taking a safe but still profitable route >> getting a little spoiled, too, aren't we three straight years of double digit gains, now we got some tough sledding coming on the hill in front of us. the prospect of high interest rate, more active fed.

what is '22 going to look like in '21 we have the perfect alignment of stimulus and a vaccine to help normalization. next year will be the first time in a number of years the market has to stand on its own. they will get more on the monetary side. on the mon tar side, the tide will be returning. liquidity will be receding at some point i believe it will be a historical year. the third year tends to be choppier tipypically in the third year i' a challenged year. >> jimmy, to follow up on that, you think market activity will be bifurcated, there will be differences between stay first half of the year and the second half of the year what should investors be expecting and how should they put money to work for them now?

>> i think the first half of the year, we will benefit from the strength being 2021. some of the disruptions will lead to first sales delivered in the first half, there are some inventory restocking we will see acceleration in the second quarter as we get the young omicron. those are positive drivers at some point we've run out of inventory and things will start to deceleration. my projection is late 2022, we will decelerate back down the trend line, perhaps below trend line, to pass the first half possibly more driven by the vic lickal stocks and second half you want to position for higher quality more defensive names. >> jim, you are also expecting a more volatile 2022, what is your recommendation for investors how they should be positioned? >> one area you can look at is healthcare, a clear laggard this years ago benefits from

necessary traffic demand on a going-forward basis. being able to pick up balance sheet blue chips in that sector for long-term investors. it goes down in price. we agree the second half of leisure likely to rebound. too early to try to trade back na updraft we have to see how medical data plays out. we think a good mix between growth and value not just here at home, globally, makes sense across capitalization ranges and you need to be more reactive, more selective. we don't think, to jimmy's point, it becomes choppier, more difficult to figure out where the opportunities are. that doesn't mean there aren't any. the wild card for us is china. with regard to china, whether or not it stops imposing self-inflicting wound on its own market and of course the rip him effects, whatever it does on the global markets long term, we'd love to be able to build our position in china

at discounseted prices near term, they're exceptionally volatile. >> happy new year. i appreciate your time very much. >> thank you coming up, tesla's big surge with stock up almost 40% for this quarter alone but the auto maker announcing a recall this morning. the shares are down 1.7% in premarket trading. we'll look at how you should play tesla in 2022 more "squawk on the street" ahead. here. aspercreme arthritis. full prescription-strength? reduces inflammation? thank the gods. don't thank them too soon. kick pain in the aspercreme.

welcome back take a look at shares of tesla, shares up more than 50% for the year, though, so far but this morning, the auto maker announcing a recall of 500,000 electric vehicles over malfunctioning issues. we now discuss what to expect next from tesla in 2022. are these headlines concerning to you do you think this will ultimately be material for tesla? >> we don't think so i think we have seen material in terms of the recall. but we think given the records are so new, you are going to see these rolling recalls. multiple suppliers but a lot of these could be software or updates that could

result fairly quickly. so again, i think this is a new segment. we are starting to see some improvements that need to be put in and can be done in a bit. so it's not a major hardware update you don't think is the issue, they seem to be par for the course >> there was a piece in the "wall street journal" how tesla's silicon valley oriented roots helped it stave off the issues related to the chip shortage that a lot of other auto makers faced this year. but what about other supply chain issues, logistics and labor staffing are these things that tesla will still need to contend with and be mindful of as we head into 2022 >> i do think this is a massive sector for the industry. if you look at the ev mark, it's clearly the 100 person unit over the next ten years or so if you look at the side of the market,

the legacy automobiles, they are declining, a negative 5% so as you see this massive growth numbers, they had to bring the best on. for tesla specifically, we would highlight a couple key things, number one, that i have two major facilities coming online or ramping a2022 and supply constraints should deviate in 2022. number three, battery is a big chunk of the costs of cars those costs have come down especially as commodity costs are not peaking. and don't, i would also remind have you new models coming up for tesla. so we see another strong year as you look at 2022 so >> know, it's interesting. you have a buy on the stock.

your price target is lower than where the stock is trading now, at least in techls of what i see $950 i want to ask you about your bear case. that's what jumps out to me in your note. you say with legacy oems, tesla could see a significant increase in competition my issue with that is, isn't your bear case the base case that's already happening >> yeah. so number one, on the price targets, the stock is up 50 person year-to-date. we have been, you know, so i think there is still room there. so i think that's basically the stock you are seeing in the price targets. in terms of competition, this is a technology and gas trade so competition is again fair game it makes you know the incumbents or tesla's tighter drive better performance, better come out ahead. so this is not new

you see competitions there the question is, if you look at tesla, they are highly driven here very integrated models we see these as the next trillion dollar as well. but, competition is not new. i don't think it changes the landscape as all the problem, though, for the competition is they have a huge combustion engine portfolio. the question, is how do you balance a declining accomplishment, probably 70 person probably more than that, while they are focusing more on the electric side. tesla and rivian, it will be in a much better spot in terms of having a much nimble portfolio focusing on the technology side. it actually positions them butch better >> well, they certainly, have a lot of market share at this point in time. i think you said 19% in your latest note. so we'll see what 2022 brings.

jay, thank you verymuch nor joining us today. >> thanks a lot. all right. coming up, what cathie wood tweeted about inflation and take another look at futures. record closes, several updates for the dow. we will extend that as well. we have a long day ahead of us we will see more "squawk box" in the stetre when we come right back

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welcome back to "squawk box" on the street. mark santelli joins us we want to start with two largest memory chips, samsung and micron saying xian could add the curves have resulted in thinner staffing levels and might cause delays in d-ram chips. mike, these stocks, too, the semi space has been one of the hot areas, able to start trying to look beyond some of these disruptions. >> yeah, it's got a feel that, in general, investors are leaning on this idea that it seems temporary, it seems localized. then of course, you know how things are in the semi chip world, if anything hurts supply, it firms up pricing, may say

maybe we won't go from shortage to glut some of the bears have been saying obviously obviously, a really strong group. you wouldn't be surprised if it found an excuse to come in a bit. for now and across the market, people are deciding not to completely reposition or revise their overya'al outlooks based on today whether it's localized shutdown restrictions at the moment. >> we're looking at the opening bells now. mike, stay with us i want to show you this. the opening bell at the real time exchange, big board education, renewable energy and esg spac project energy, re-imagined acquisition court. so we can talk about the open. mike, you know, again, we're not going to have the greatest year ever in terms of s&p record highs. that was in 1995, where we had 77 we've put 70 in the books. so it looks like we're going out with a bang.

then the big question will be what comes next? if we can take some of this momentum and carry it into the new year >> yeah. actually, in other respects this year will end up resell himing 1995, 2013, 2017 these are years i have been mentioning for months now, where you had minimal pullbacks. lots of rotation market really all the surprises seem to come at the index level to the upside as opposed to underneath the surface then what comes next, it's kind of interesting you rarely see a great year like this both repeated but you also see it rarely give way to a truly damaging year so it teams e seems as if it's logical to expect expectations a bit. we will not compound it every year this year we do 30%. we have doubled off the december low. it doesn't owe us anything but interestingly enough, there

has been enough wear and tear on the surface, they have catch-up it's not as if we were barreling into the year as we did in 2018, where everything thought it was great, getting better. we had a corporate tax cut and a momentum blowoff was very dramatic >> mike, i'm curious -- >> let me ask you this >> go ahead, scott. >> sorry, les. i noticed what do you make between the divergence between the s&p in this last burst, if you want to calm it of the year, the fact that bitcoin as i look at it right now is down again. it's at 47, 2. there was a correlation between risk, speculative assets or the tracking of the s&p and bit count. now it's diverging a bit what do you make of that >> the bitcoin's characteristic this year have matched up most closely with the real kind of high adrenaline risk appetite plays that all peak in the first quarter. right so that would be spacs,

ipos, no profit tax, the arc-type portfolios. all of that stuff had a dramatic vertical peak in january/february maybe a little later than that that to me is a bit more rhyming with the cadence of bitcoin returns. also, what is it up 500% in the last two years so it's really tough to say it's been tracking anything else. yeah, there has been correlations on a day-to-day basis. i think some of that stuff when it becomes less fun and you had a ton of hot money entering near high prices, it has to have, it's more than digestive you have a questioning period, what was real? whavs pure momentum? it becomes a little less fun that's a huge aspect of crypto right now. what's the point with the real world manifestations are not really there yet i think all that stuff is at play you know in a couple of months, if we were to be flat with

bitcoin at these levels, you are talking a 12-month year decline for a market basis >> can we extrapolate any of that to the involvement of the retail investor? the first half of the year, in particular, they were such a big part of the market it became a part of the main stream themes, vernacular, that were all created in this environment, people were staying at home and trading more do you think that has dissipated and we'll see retail action, whether it be in crypto or whether it be in some of these what we call mean stocks in 2022 as well? >> you know, leslie, first of all, it peaked, that fever activity did peak in terms of retail options volumes and the flows through the retail brokerage channel, but it has come down not to prepandemic levels it's still elevated and there is more public participation. it's probably going to migrate around the market. it won't be in the same tickers

that captured people's attention back in january, february. to me, there is a broadening base of public participation it's happening in a less concentrated way, where you have this social phenomenon of these stampedes or individual stocks i think the crypto world is very alive with a lot of people discovering it and, therefore, it's very alive with a lot of people just kind of being very opportunistic and selling the next coin or promoting other promoters. if you put the bitcoin symbol in a tweet, look at the reply okay everybody has been told you need to promote this. the other person will tell you who you to trade bitcoin it's a little bit overwhelming and a little bit sobering. >> it is remarkable, to be honest in terms of volatility, do you think the effects of retail traders could actually be magnified next year as we think of liquidity, obviously, people have less of an attention span if they go back to the office

and are no longer receiving stimulus checks that know longer want to trade. the fed is looking at potential rate hikes people say that could create more volatility, especially in smaller cap stocks, which tend to get the intention here. could we see a repeat of gamestop you think given that bam backdrop >> i think a lot of that reckoning has taken place. the leadership of the market from the first quarter of this year i mean almost all that stuff had you know been down 20, 30, 40%. look at the cloud names. any of those areas so i feel we kind of had this process going through on a rolling basis. in terms of whether there is less liquidity, consumer balance seems okay account balances are way up. so there is a lot of fuel in the system and i've never been that much u much of a, you know, a kind of a believer in this idea that the

fed by setting the benchmark rate where it was, buying bonds and creating reserves is so directly fueling or giving ammo to some of the speculative trade. i think it's a lot more about crowd technology, sure, it's influenced by what the fed is doing or might do. in general, it's hard to make that case. >> guys, i'd love to call your attention and certainly get both to weigh in on a tweet we saw this morning from hedge fund manager bill acman, it was really a quote tweet if you will, reacting to some thoughts from a well respected voice in the medical community. he runs the medical department out at university of california san francisco talking about the possibility of some very positive trndz relating to covid over the next month, month-and-a-half to couple of months, how omicron can peak and

ramp up. if we can throw that up. ackman was reacting to a thread, he says, this was the omicron scenario i was hoping for, presented by an extremely credible source, very bullish for the economy, growth and likely equity markets. leslie, he has been pretty public in how he's been positioned in the market he said for a while now he has been long equities, he's hejd through a short in treasurys he was expecting interest rates to go up it's more specifically on the shortest end of the curve, the two-year way outwaiting a short he would have in the ten year as well and it's my understanding that they're still positioned that way, expecting the fed will have to raise rates sooner than expected but again even in the face of that he's still long equities. he's just hejd through that

mechanism. >> yeah, it makes sense if he does believe, obviously, the science with omicron indicate bullishness and that the economy is roaring, that people would put on such a hedge. he remarkably to remind our viewers paid several billion in the early part of 2020, when he put on a different hedge related to some of the coronavirus market-driven volatility that we saw at that time and then subsequent was very pressured into bike equities, long equities doubling down on the long holdings he has persian square is up 27% this year following gains of 70% in 2020 but, guys, i wanted to draw your attention to a bit of news that i have on partners, they are scuttling jana the takeover of the survey month momentive this is according to a person

familiar with the matter jana hired proxy solicitor d.f. king they need to approve this deal, so both stocks plummeted on the announcement their efforts in hire ac proxy solicitor would indicate that they are actively reaching out to investors to kind of team up in their efforts to make sure that this deal does not get approved however, it is ra irfor deals to be voted down on both deals. some people will wonder what happens if the deal is voted down i was perusing the merger document as one does on you know a holiday week the proxy filed in connection with this deal will then include in it some opinion with some projections indicating kind of where they see the multiple of each companies, a forward multiple of 12 experts and 7x

multiples for momentive is what they determined to be an appropriate value looking out at least one year in terms of their enterprise value relative to sales there. now, the shareholder vote is slated for february. this is run with to keep a close watch on because it is kind of a rare sight we see these days, guys. >> yes >> we'll keep an eye on it >> the market has nor cloud deals. >> yeah, the markets -- >> mike -- we -- >> sorry, go ahead. >> i knew this was going to happen at some point >> three different places. yeah this is bounds to happen >> let me ask you this, mike just react to what we were talking about with ackman, the idea that you can be long equities and bullish on the other side of oem krorngs still expressing a hedge to a short in treasuries, expecting the fed to be more active, still having a more positive view on the

overall stockmarket? >> i think it fits together. i question how much that differs from what the overall market is actually positioned for at this point. i mean, i think everybody is more or less feeling that this is a relatively brief surge that's going to burn itself out. nobody is really thinking too much to alter their growth outlooks and then the shortened has already been a good short in terms of treasury. we price it into the three price hikes. >> all right mike thank you very much for joining us we appreciate it before we head to break, it's time for the bond report with chicago pmi data due out in just moments from now. let's take another look at how treasuries are fairing you can see the ten year is trading right around 1.539 percent for a deem but in the red for some of the longer duration notes there. we'll be right back after this break. break.

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>> welcome back to "squawk in

the street". our december read on chicago pmi is expected to be up at 62.0 improvement 63.1 so a bit better than expected and this is after the 61.8, which was our november read, that was the lightest read going back to february of this year. we see that yields just a whisker under 1.54% in tens. as you look at the entire curve, we're up 66 basis points on ten. when want to see if we will be below 50 or closer by the end of 2021 "squawk in the street" will return after these short messages

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forward. it's not very surprising yesterday we talked about that samsung announcement, potential disruptions at their plant in xian, micron has come out with essentially the same thing here. there are obviously localized issues whether this broadens is not clt now. but that's certainly a little bit of an early warning sign you see most of the major semiconductors on the weak side. just take a look at buybacks, see today on my trader talk.cnbc.com. this is a historic record for buyback, $850 billion, the old record 2018, $806 billion. the question is, not buybacks, is do they reduce the share counts lower share count means higher earnings per share that's what you want to do when you buy back stock unfortunately the overall evidence is no while there is some companies like apple, for example, oracle, actually reducing their share count, share count in the s&p

500 is actually a little higher than it was several years ago. this seem odd. they've spent hundreds of billions buying back stock and the share count is higher. there's two reasons why this is happening. number one, buybacks are being replaced with more options executives, like a giant spinning wheel, executives getting more options even as they're exercising the buybacks. secondly, remember, the market is higher. higher share prices reduce the amount of shares a company can buy, so a million dollars doesn't buy the same amount of shares did it a few years ago. that's two particular problems with buybacks. this is all part of this debate about what to do with cash flow. companies are a awash in cash flow you can buy back stock, increase dividends, reduce debt, do capital investment, you can do all sorts of things. the one thing i can assure you about 2020 the buybacks will keep coming because corporate america is flush with cash we may or may not have a record year but we're going to start

off with a lot of buybacks today, kroger just today announced another $1 billion buyback. they've been actually not only buying back stock but reducing their share count for the last several years. 1 billion buyback for kroeger that replaces the old $1 billion buyback and they have a $32 billion market cap if they keep reducing the shares that's a good sign you know, this is not going to go away, this debate this is a big political issue. leslie, there's the build back better program that pipresident biden is trying to get through, a 1% tax on buybacks built into it the build back better program is stalled in negotiations right now, but washington has been outraged about this for many, many years saying most of the time, the buybacks just enrich the corporations and executives involved this is still going to be an issue in 2022. leslie >> maybe the companies are looking to get out ahead of that, even if that means buying back their stock at or near record highs this year thank you for breaking that down a number of transports, speaking

of all-time highs, this week, csx, union pacific and norfolk southern jp hunt and old dominion has rin this year. thank you very much for being here let's get into it. what are your top picks heading into next year >> i mean, we're at an interesting time, super positive here at deutsche bank on the fundamental kind of supply and demand picture you know, u.s. consumers, household net worth is over $140 trillion, nonmortgage debt as a percentage of net worth is at levels we haven't seen since 1965, so the demand picture couldn't be more positive and in that context there's a lot of investment opportunities the problem we see when we published this in our 2022 outlook report, the problem is multiples.

you know, when we have high inflation and higher interest rates it's almost always a negative for equity valuations it's through that lens in which we're being a little bit more selective in our stock selection. specifically, for top picks, the two ones i would highlight are xpo logistics and night transportation knx in particular is the largest trucking company in the country and these two companies have the biggest potential for narrative change where we're not too worried about the multiple compression risks that is brought on by inflation and higher interest rates. >> just to flip that on its head, where are you worried about multiple compression, the biggest risk to the downside >> it's undeniable that the transport sector has actually enjoyed a very strong run over the last four or five years, that's really been the call that we've had for the last several years. but in that context, the sector as a whole is not overly expensive relative to the s&p

500. there's not a lot of clear indicators of where we're most concerned. however, if you're sticking with that narrative change, a company like ch ogton, the largest truck brokerage company in the country, a high return company, what covid has done is accelerated the customer adoption of the digital brokers which poses a risk i would say from a narrative change perspective is more concerning to us given all the traction that these digital startups have in a covid environment. >> interesting i'm curious what your channel checks reveal with regard to staffing and labor issues that have struck all sectors across the economy it feels like with regard to the latest omicron variant? trucking and logistics have had a hard time staffing pretty much all year for the last several years. are you seeing this really affect their ability to meet demand >> well you have to look at it from a different perspective if

i could. i would say that, you know, people and labor are a proxy for capacity so in freight transportation when capacity goes down, pricing goes up an you have really seen at deutsche bank publish a few months ago this term we're calling in the golden age of transports, largely because labor challenges are allowing companies to reprise their business at a rate that we've never seen before. it's not just labor shortages associated with covid which are obviously very unfortunate, but it's also the u.s. government instituted an alcohol clearinghouse, alcohol and substance abuse clearinghouse 18 months ago, which has taken out a lot of potential drivers from the pool, due to some issues with respect to the clearinghouse. we've seen 70,000 drivers that are reduced in their pool of drivers that are available that

exacerbates the problem with covid and labor. >> thank you very much for sharing that perspective with us appreciate it. all right. coming up a look at buying opportunities in tech for 2022 as apple marches towards a $3 trillion market valuation. will it get there by the end of the year there it is. 'rba o"sawonhebove 182.86. wee ckn quk t street." i like that prime cut. -aflac! -i love my gold jacket, but that aflac blue feels so right. when you feel right, you coach right. i know that's right! prime never believed in double coverage, but health insurance and aflac...is money. ♪ must be the money ♪ and i know how coach prime feels about money. -aflaaaac. -♪ aaahhhh ♪ now that is what this jacket needs. ♪ must be the money ♪ get help with the expenses health insurance doesn't cover. at aaflac.com

good thursday morning. welcome to another hour of "squawk on the street. i'm scott wapner with leslie picker take a look at markets trying to keep the street going as we end 2021 the dow going for eight in a row, up nearly triple digits as we speak s&p 500 looking for its 71st record close of this year. it's back above 4800 >> that big 7-1. we will keep watching it 30 minutes into the trading session here are three movers we're watching today starting with biogen. shares sinking after samsung denied a report it is in talks to buy the company the stock giving up most of yesterday's gains after the initial report said deal could

value biogen at $42 billion. kroger getting a boost with the company's board of directors approving a $1 billion stock buyback plan that name up more than 40% year to date, up about 1% right now and a dip for chip giant micron, warning that a covid lockdown in the chinese city of xian would impact production. samsung issuing a similar warning. scott? >> leslie, the dow thihitting another record high as we close out years. for more on the markets let's bring in harris associates partner, cio of international equity, david herro, nice to see you again. >> good morning. thanks for having me on the show today. >> yeah. we appreciate you being here we're talking about ending the year so strongly, why should i think about investing internationally when right here, right now looks pretty good? >> for that reason you've seen a strong uptake in u.s. stock

prices and valuations, and what has basically been ignored is what's happening in the overseas markets, in the european markets and to some degree even some of the chinese companies have been -- continue to do well in terms of earnings growth and business success, very strong business funds, but these valuations are at near 20-year lows in terms of a differential between non-u.s. and u.s. stocks all you have to do is look at the efa index performance for say s&p and you see the huge gap continues to open and i believe at some point this becomes extremely unsustainable and you have a closure of this huge valuation gap. >> i'm wondering, let's take europe, for example, first i'm wondering about the elevated risk there covid and otherwise, relative to what's happening in the united states, i have had people come

on, you know, my show and we've heard from others who say europe presents a tremendous opportunity in the year ahead in a number of sectors but how do you deal with the prospect of shutdowns and closures and even though valuations seem attractive at the current time, you do have to deal with those potential risks? >> yeah. i think you have these risks all over the world, but what appears to be happening, especially with, you know, this latest move, is that people are beginning to come to the realization that we as a society have to live with this you see it happening in the united kingdom, which in the past has been very quick to jump to restrictions, they have really tried to back off and take steps to adapt to what's happening. i think as this begins to happen more and more, you see less reactive in terms of economic shutdowns, this actually becomes one of the opportunities when you add this to the amount

of pent up demand in high savings and really what has been the lack of consumer expenditure in the last year, especially in places like europe, you see the potential for this fuel to lead to very strong economic growth the fuel being the pent up demand in high savings people basically have been sitting on their bank accounts looking for things to spend their money on, and as we get to the back end of this pandemic, places that have been slower to open, like many of the european countries, will see some of the stronger economic growth, helping corporate earnings in europe >> do you think, david, that given that picture, we could see higher inflation in those regions as well with the exception of the uk, many haven't been experiencing the same type of inflation that we've had here in the u.s. >> yeah. there's been an uptick you may have seen the spanish inflation number today it is picking up everywhere as we know, and i think we are

going to continue to see this. i think more importantly is the impact this has on interest rates. you're starting to hear a lot of noise, even out of europe, that we -- it's time the noise saying it's time to end the negative real interest rate experiment which has been in place post-the global financial crisis. i think what people really haven't gotten their hands around is the fact that combined with the end of the pandemic, the slow end of the pandemic, higher inflation, higher economic growth, means that we're going to have at some point in the medium term, interest rate normalization. if this happens, a lot of these european financials, for instance, which are trading at valuations well below book value, and who should start to see higher earnings and higher distributions to shareholders, look to be extremely attractively priced and i think one of the key places to be

going into 2022 and 2023 >> that's interesting. what do you make of the situation in turkey? do you think that has any carryover effect to some of the regions you see opportunity? >> you know, it's interesting that in the past, something like this would have really caused more of a market impact of those surrounding neighbors to turkey. this seems to be isolated and you have the unusual isolated policy, you know, of this really benign neglect of what's happening in terms of inflation, but i think for the most part it has been contained and will continue to be contained because it doesn't have, you know, so much economic interaction with some of these other places in a meaningful way, which would lead to contagion i don't really think that the turkish situation, which has been on the rocks by the way for some time now, i mean they've

had economic malpractice for some time, and i don't think this is really going to have such a major impact on the greater european economy. >> david, i do find interesting and maybe the better word of what i'm thinking of is surprising, that when you look at chinese tech names, you suggest that they look over sold obviously they've come down a lot. we've talked about names like baidu or alibaba down 50% on the year and you can go down the list and you would probably see similar declines just given all the regulatory issues that exist, how can investors feel comfortable inning investing in those stocks even at what looks to be depressed levels >> it's a good question. what every investor must consider is risk return. you can't just look at risk, you can't just look at that pie in the sky return, you have to combined those two concepts and make a balanced decision, a balanced choice. wlu look at the valuations of

the -- some of these chinese companies and their growth prospects -- and by the way the quality of the businesses themselves as far as where they sit and cloud computing and e-commerce and financial services, i mean very, very well-run, high quality businesses, so then you have to risk that, you have to balance that against the risks the risks are increased regulatory oversight, increased government involvement, some, of course, which one might argue has been needed and others might be a bit over handed so you have to combine the two concepts i think when you combine and look at the whole package, when you look at the price movement, the price you're paying for these businesses, more than incorporates the risks of this increased regulatory onslaught on these companies i think at this stage, and you mentioned 50% alibaba, from the

highs some of these companies are down 60, 70, 80%, and they are good businesses that, yes, they do face translucent regulatory situations, but i think given the valuations, it's -- you're getting paid for it you're getting paid for it in terms of the quality of businesses, the price of the businesses, makes up for the additional risk factors. every business faces these risks, but, of course, china is a bit worse because, you know, the chinese communist party has their thumb on the economy and sometimes they're possible at regulation and sometimes they're not. sometimes they're petty. >> it's going to remain one of the most investment questions i think in the new year, how investors take a look at these stocks and think that there is value there and certainly worth the risk that they may be taking david, i wish you a happy new year, healthy one as well, and see you in the new year. >> thank you very much happy new year to you as well.

>> i agree that will be an interesting question for the new year. turning to the omicron variant continuing to spread as the u.s. sets a new record for daily coronavirus cases yesterday, dr. fauci joined our colleagues at closing bell predicting the omicron wave will hit its peak by the end of january and in the coming weeks we'll see more accessible and free at home testing made available. take a listen. >> it will get much, much better in january, where there will be 500 million tests available within the first couple of weeks in january, followed by the availability of 200 million to 500 million tests per month together with about 10,000 testing centers as well as the ability to go online, order a test, and have it be delivered to your home free. so right now at this moment, we're not where we want to be

for sure, but this is going to change pretty quickly. >> all right joining us now to discuss howard university hospital ceo anita jen kins thank you for being here i'm sure you're busy these days. i was looking at statistics on campus and appears students have a positivity rate of about 35% faculty and staff 10%. howard made the decision to push back the start date for the semester to january 18th and everyone who returns has to have a pcr test, a negative pcr test within four days prior to arrival and worth noting 99% of students were fully vaccinated in september given all of these factors in what dr. fauci was saying about things getting better by the end january, how are you looking at the semester with regard to safety on campus. >> howard university, i'm the ceo of the hospital, howard university is being safe we have to continue to make sure

that we isolate our students and patients in our community to make sure that this fast-spreading omicron does not spread any further it is wisdom and caution that university is keeping the students away as they've come home from christmas, keep them away interest from gathering together and keeping the spread down. >> how would you describe the sentiment surrounding the doctors and nurses and staff members at the hospital at this point in time? you know, wei hear things will get better in january and heard that before, of course here we are two years into the pandemic how is morale at this point in time >> we are working every day as leadership and as hospital organizations with d.c. health and d.c. hospital association to address just that. our teams are tired. this has been just a long, drawn out process. we have as many patients today close to as many patients today

with covid as we had a year ago. and so we are fighting that same fight again. what's different is, we have less critical patients, but it is still filling up our hospital walls. we're doing everything we can to make sure we have enough staff, enough agency staff, to make sure we can give our team time off, but it's a lot of work. >> anita, this is scott. nice to see you. >> hi, scott. >> you've spoken quite honestly and thoughtfully over the last many months about distrust of vaccines in some parts of your community, in the african american community you faced some controversy within the community for supporting the vaccine, and i'm just curious, when you hear someone like dr. ka vitae patel who came on "squawk box," a former white house official, basically say the messaging of the vaccines from the start was flawed and had public officials from the outset been clear that vaccinations were not meant to stop covid from infecting you,

it was meant to keep you from the hospital and suffering severe disease, i'm wondering as a public health official yourself, ceo of a hospital, how you think about that and reflect on where we are today relative to where we could be in terms of vaccination numbers? >> that kind of language might be true, however, we have no idea how covid was going to act and how covid was going to respond to our patients in our community. we certainly knew that we had to advocate for vaccinations. vaccinations are still, you know, whether you look at it retroactively, vaccinations are still our best weapon against controlling covid, against controlling the worst of the disease process. >> what do you make of this kind of debate over what it constitutes to be fully vaccinated howard has decided to require a third booster or sorry one booster, third shot, to return to school. what has been the response from

the student body and faculty over that decision >>, so i can't speak for the student body i can speak for the employees and us at the hospital we do know and we follow the science. the science is telling us that it gives us an added protection and an added layer what we do know is, that it is not perfect. but it certainly helps if this helps, that's the direction that we're going to go we follow the science that cdc is giving us and the cdc is working very hard to stay current and give us current information. >> all right anita, thank you very much for joining us we appreciate it >> it's been my pleasure thank you. all right. as we these break here's a look at our road map for the hour it's been another blowout year for big tech apple, microsoft, nvidia, outpacing the s&p. good news priced in for the names in 2022? >> chicago businesses bracing for vaccine mandates starting next week. we'll discuss with one of the

city's major restaurant owners run morgue than 100 names in chicago alone. and we'll speak with the ceo of vista outdoors, up more than 500% over the last two years hear how they're combatting supply chain issues, inflation and more more "squawk on the re" stig aad don't go anywhere.

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january. our josh lipton is looking at buying opportunities that investors should be looking at in the new year. hey, josh. >> we're looking at three tech stocks and whether they are buys in 2022. start with apple that stock is up about 35% this year trading right around it always time highs here. now skeptics will say that stock does not look cheap and next year they bet is going to be slower others say they should bet on apple's loyal customers and think tim cook will take the stage next year and introduce new products, perhaps a mixed reality headset. bulls say that positions apple for a rerating, investors will be willing to place a higher valuation on apple's earnings. microsoft, another name to watch. big run in 2021. that stock up about 50%. i checked the with rbc and says microsoft is still a top pick for next year, saying it's

levers of powerful trends, migration to the cloud, benefitting azure, the transition to business, benefitting office 365 and hybrid work models benefitting teams. we'll end on nvidia. what a run, that stock up about 130% this year matt bryson at wedbush does maintain a neutral rating and the fundamentals are excellent undeniably but the good news is priced in. back to you. >> all right josh lipton, appreciate it very much let's stick with apple joining us on the cnbc news line, tom forte. how should we be thinking about apple as investors heading into a new year after what's been a really good 2021 >> yes, 2021 has been remarkable for apple. shares have flirted with almost $3 trillion on the market cap side the good news in '22 the company remains in the midst of a multiyear school, consumers upgrade to smartphones and the

5g network what's remarkable lastyear and this year the subsidies offered by t-mobile and verizon to get consumers to upgrade so i think that really is working in the company's favor in 2022. >> what about the $3 trillion market cap does it mean anything? i mean no one really talks about the law of large numbers anymore for any of the mega cap tech companies because there are so many there now in the space and they just continue to go higher? how do you view it >> yeah. great point, scott we wrote a white paper on what could slow shares of amazon, and we did talk about the law of large numbers how amazon needs $3.9 billion for 1% revenue growth for apple, i think happened was investors were willing to bid up the stock on the expectation they would come out with an electronic vehicle or as you talked about earlier, a more significant product for ar/vr. with apple, investors are willing to bet on the expectation of new products.

that's always been the case but that's why you see a premium multiple for the stock. >> tom, do you think -- >> looking at the cash for it -- >> leslie, i'm sorry forgive me. >> all good. do you think that apple the narrative surrounding the reputation as a safe haven stock continues next year? >> absolutely. and the other thing, though, the big challenge for apple in '22 which could persist for '22 is the supply chain you look at the september quarter costing $6 billion in revenue and the december quarter expected to have a bigger impact so yes, i think there's a safe haven element to apple but 2022 still will be challenging from the supply chain standpoint. >> lastly, what about the $200 billion in cash they're sitting on that's north of that, obviously? do they do anything meaningful with it? i don't mean small acquisitions. i know they're going to continue to buyback stock, et cetera, but is a big acquisition in the card or hoarding that cash to make a

play either in the meta verse with an automobile or something like that? >> yeah. what they use the cash for in addition to buybacks is vertically integrate the company when you think about their chip efforts, they're less reliant on intel. they will invest in something to take advantage of the metaverse opportunity to get a virtual reality, investing the cash and buying back shares to a lesser extent. >> appreciate it wish you a happy new year. managing director. >> as we head to a break robinhood is rebounding though the stock remains almost 80% off its recent high with a share price of less than half its $38 ipo price. you can see shares up 4% today we're back in two minutes.

vista outdoors up 85% in 2021 and more than 500% over the last two years, looking to expand through m&a completing its seventh acquisition in the last 16 months however, like many supply chain

challenges and rising costs have proved a headwind. with us ceo chris metz thank you for being here let's get into this acquisition strategy you recently announced a new one, stone glacier what are you trying to accomplish, a roll up strategy or something bigger than that? >> lessy, first of all, we're generating record profits and cash flow and utilize ing that grow our brand, 10 brands in $100 million in sales, 39 iconic brands in total. that is our overwhelming priority we're generating enough cash that we're able to expand into other platform acquisitions and acquisitions that help our great brands today we've expanded into ebikes, into outdoor cooking an now expanding into back country ultralightweight technical apparel and gear with stone

glacier. terrific brand, iconic following and a well-managed team we're excited to partner with. >> do you plan to continue this buying spree >> well, we do we've set up a center of excellence around strategy and m&a work if you will, and so part of our strategy going forward is to be the acquirer of choice in the outdoor space. as you said, we've acquired seven in the past 16 months and we're going to continue on that trend and our leverage ratio, one to one half times right now gives us the ability to continue to grow organically and inorganically through acquisitions without increasing our leverage. >> do you feel as though you're at all if not a stay at home type of name, a stay near home type name and how are you thinking about that relative to where we are in the pandemic and what other side of that may look like if it's relevant at all to your business? >> well, scott, you know, because of the diversity of our

brands, we play well at home or far away if you will so, you know, we're in to back yard cooking with our camp brand, we're into bicycling and what have you, big into skiing and back country cooking, we're the leader in back country ebikes and now with the ultralight gear and packs and camping, so we're near home or far from home or vacation, we're ubiquitous in the outdoor space, so whenever you get outside your home that's when you should think of the vista outdoor brands. >> you have supply centers, if you will, around the world, not all in the united states how are you dealing with component issues and supply? >> well, scott, one of the things we did a few years ago when i walked in the door, is set up centers of excellence one of those centers of excellence is around sourcing and purchasing we've got well over 100 folks in

various countries outside the u.s. that do nothing more than work with our vendor community to ensure that, you know,we're getting our fair share of supply if you will. no question, it's an issue and, frankly, we can't meet the ongoing demand that we see, but we know we're getting our fair share of the supply of materials and finished products. >> what's the margin impact, given some of those supply chain constraints and when do you think these issues will abate? >> well, listen, inflation is increasing everybody is seeing it, everybody from manufacturers to consumers. it's anybody's guess as to how long this is going to continue so i think the companies like ourselves that have terrific brands have great innovative new products and have, you know, cult-like followings, are able to, you know, share with some of the price increases, so we absorb some, drive product

projects every week and ask consumers to pay a bit more through the breakthroughs that we're developing. >> your stock is up 500% in two years. what are you thinking about in terms of 2022 to keep that momentum going >> it's a good question. a couple years in a row now, over 100% and 500% in the last two years itself we're just getting started i think we're one of the cheapest stocks in america today. we're trading at six times ebitda and we're generating record ebitda. i think the -- we're just seeing the beginnings of the value of our stock and investors starting to really understand how we're differentiating our snselves in tough environment. we're going to win whether there's inflation, no growth in the u.s. or setting up our stable of brands and go to market nomodel to win in any

condition. >> seems like the market agrees with you thank you for joining us today happy holidays. >> happy holidays to you thank you. all right. time for a news update rahel solomon has that for us. hi. >> scott, good morning what's happening at this hour, nearly 490,000 new covid infections were reported wednesday, a one-day high for the pandemic more than 500,000 cases were recorded on monday but that included data from the holiday weekend and wednesday's numbers probably an under count because testing has slowed during the holiday and positives from at home test kits were not included. jetblue does not think its covid related staff shortages will ease soon it is canceling almost 1300 flights through january, 1,000 u.s. flights have been canceled today. three weeks after they spoke on the phone about ukraine, president joe biden and vladimir putin will take again later today. this call requested by putin u.s. officials tonight know if the russian leader wants to

deescalate tensions with ukraine or get a response to his demand that ukraine be kept out of nato. iranian state tv showing the launch of a rocket government officials say it carried three research devices into space the u.s. worries iran's space program is actually a cover for its development of ballistic > yorees >>u' now up to date. more "squawk on the street" after this. i'm searching for info on options trading, and look, it feels like i'm just wasting time. that's why td ameritrade designed a first-of-its-kind, personalized education center. oh.

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we are worried about inflation we talk about it on tv and our google habits say otherwise. even as we're faced with the fastest price increases in decades, research shows google searches for words like cheap,

croup upon and discount are actually de cling. specifically searches for the word cheap hit their peak at the start of the pandemic in march 2020 and similar patterns in march 2021 but vol always for cheap have come down holiday shopping couldn't get consumers interested in finding lower priced gift options. this bodes well for corporate earnings and many companies are, of course, taking advantage. egg producer callmain said prices increased 12% year over year, chipotle increased menu prices this past summer alone and consumers seem to be taking the price increases in stride with mcdonald's ceo pointing out price hikes have been well received by customers and contributes to profits u.s. corporations aside from those in finance posted their fattest margin since 1950. goldman sachs economist warned in a note, quote, the inflation

overshoot will get worse before it gets better a statement reflected in companies who warned about further price hikes like kraft heinz, mon daless, campbell's soup why are we willing to stomach the price hikes? economists say it has to do with wage growth although real earnings, wage growth less inflation turned negative in the last two months and we might start to notice the pinch going forward. scott? >> we'll see thank you. kristina partsinevelos let's stay with the inflation conversation and bring in the ceo of let us entertain tain you enterprise kevin brown joining us nice to see you. thanks for being here. >> thank you nice to be on. >> number of things to discuss with you, but let's jump where we left off on the inflation conversation can you tell us what you're seeing from a food inflation standpoint how much you've had to raise menu prices across your restaurants, if at all

>> i can just echo the previous segment where we have seen price increases since the first of the year anywhere from 10% to 100% on proteins and then supply chain issues, things we just can't get, but i also agree, we've had to raise prices but there has not been a lot of pushback from the consumer so far, it's been good the demand is incredible >> yeah. i was going to ask you how business is overall, just because you're in major cities for the most part. we're talking about condensed areas, lots of people dealing with record number of covid cases. we've got staffing issues all across the business landscape. how does yours look at this snoints. >> -- point? >> it's the same the demand couldn't be stronger and the employee base, we can't take care of all of it all times. making sure we're taking care of our employees. we were very strong in october and november and all the way up, we had our best week the first

week in december and it's sort of fallen off from omicron and our -- we're getting hurt most really right now on large parties. anything from 10 to 100 are dropping back, either canceling or they're shrinking the size of the party and that's mainly because of the virus however, the encouraging thing about that is almost all are rebooking for the end of january or somewhere in the first quarter. there's a mindset this might not take as long and they want to continue going on with their life after this. >>. >> you know, what about your own employees? we've heard about disruptions in all sorts of businesses. transit authorities around the country, fire departments, police departments, airlines, they can't staff because staff is sick. how does it look from your standpoint are you having an issue there? >> we certainly have that issue across the country we've had restaurants that have had to close one, two, three

days we've had to reduce dining room sizes andclose off rooms and limit reservations we've had to do everything we can to just manage with a smaller workforce. we want to keep them safe. >> how are you thinking, kevin, about vaccine mandates with 110 restaurants, you operate in cities across the country, different cities have different requirements with regard to being vaccinated, fully boosted, staff versus the patrons in your restaurants, how are you thinking about vaccines right now? >> 60% over business comes from chicago and on january 3rd it's a mandatory vaccination for both the guest and the employees, and the employee can be vaccinated or tested every week we're in favor of it we think it's a safer environment for our employees and guests we don't know what kind of pushback we're going to get. what i've seen in new york is they seemed to accept it readily, and i'm imagining for a great majority of our guests are going to be supportive of it we've also seen -- we don't keep an exact number of our employees

of who is vaccinated or not, but we know anecdotally we've gone out and gotten vaccinated based on the news that's coming here how it will affect us next week. >> given the headwinds with regard to inflation and labor shortages and things of that nature, is it helpful to have size and scale in the restaurant industry right now i mean, 60 brands, 110 restaurantses, a lot of restaurant owners don't have that benefit are you able to shift staff around or be able to handle some of the higher costs given just the scale in which you're operating? >> absolutely. you know, we have the benefit, we're a 50-year-old privately held company and been able to build solid infrastructure for a long time. we're able to shift and help each other out as best we can. at the end of the day you want to make sure your people are okay and employees protected there's only so much you can do from a moving people around. you can't do enough of that. you have to manage each store as

they stand >> you mentioned 50 years. congrats, by the way that's certainly in order. i'm wondering as you look out into the future how the pandemic has influenced, if at all, your expansion plans? we mentioned i think 60 brands, 110 restaurants or thereabouts, do you have plans to expand? have they been put on hold as a result of what we've been living through? >> it's surprising that we've probably had the most aggressive expansion plans in the future than we've ever had in our history. we are also seeing some of the better real estate deals that we've seen and we also know that there's a lot of opportunities out there. it comes at a strange time, but a very opportunistic time for us we don't, you know, we want to do things right. we're not in a hurry we don't have a mandate to grow at any size number we want to do the right thing. some of the markets out there that we're seeing, we're in texas, going into florida, las vegas, washington, d.c., the

opportunities have never been better >> yeah. i also imagine as we close, just how in tune you must be as you think about your portfolio, the return to work, in big cities whether it's chicago or new york and plans that have been put on hold ceos across the landscape wanted their employees back in the office in larger numbers and now they've had to scale those plans back as well it's going to put a little bit of a crimp on your business, i would imagine. a delay rather than a destroy, right. >> right think about it, roughly 70% of our businesses are either beating 2019 or at equal or just slightly below, maybe a little bit more where we're getting hurt are in our urban downtown areas where we were dependent on a strong lunch trade or, in fact, a breakfast trade. you see those restaurants have gotten hurt and that's going to take time for those to come back we don't anticipate that being right away

we're able to keep those stores, i can't say they're highly profitable but they're stores important to us and people that are important to us, but that's going to take some time. >> yeah. >> on the other hand, our suburban restaurants on the other hand, have never been busier it's sort of just a shift. there's more people working from home, they may want to go out for lunch or they don't have the transportation time they've lost sometimes before >> yeah. order in, get delivery from one of your restaurants. appreciate it. thanks for being with us happy, healthy, see you in '22. >> take care, scott. >> as we lead to break, watch shares of didi reporting a 1.7% decline in the third quarter revenue. loss of $4.7 billion stemming from regulatory crackdown. the stock set to end the year down more than 60% shares up 3% right now let's get a check on the broader markets right now with the dow aiming for its seventh straight

day of gains so far, fractionally higher. s&p up about a quarter of a percent and the nasdaq higher by 0.6% wel rhtac st with us. o ho! not again. oh no. for the gifts you won't forget. the mercedes-benz winter event. get a credit toward your first month's payment on select models.

welcome back the number of consumer bankruptcy filings is the lowest amount going back to 1985 and may record fewer than that for the first 11 months of the year, there were over 373,000 total bankruptcies the low figure can be attributed to macro factors including covid related forbearances and low interest next year there will likely be mo nor pandemic relief and inflation and higher interest rates will be economic head winds for consumers and businesses alike says american bankruptcy director amy krakenboss but the markets don't appear to price in the potential for stress yet according to reuters, the u.s. proportion of loans 80% below

face value an indicator was just over 1% in november according to an index compiled by s&p global comment taper rir and data unit and junk bond prices have gained looking to recoup losses from november scott, i think the interesting thing as we reflect on 2021 is role that retail investors have played here. when you look at what happened with companies, you know, it's hard to say in hindsight but the anc and hertz of the world, companies that could have been in distress, had it not been for an army of retail investors who say i see value here, i'm going to drive up the stock price, it's interesting to think about what could have been >> yeah. no doubt it's a great point that you make one frankly that i wasn't thinking about because as you mentioned, let's say, you know, amc, for example, you use the added interest and your stock price to raise the capital that you've needed and had maybe not the same kind of avenue to do it so it's a great point you make i do think to your point as

well, stimulus and relief of many factors has played into the reason why those numbers were lower than they have been in prior years. >> if we look at kind of dry powder and fundraising, distressed funds have been waiting to get into the game and start investing in real distressed opportunities they have still been on a fundraisinsee if next year prese opportunity for them as well >> yeah, good stuff. >> don't miss another edition of our cnbc special "your money 20 it 2" helping you strengthen your financialla f t nye pnsorhw ar that is tonight at 6:00 eastern time we're back here in just two minutes. ♪ b

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the year, led by peloton, down more than 75%. a lot of pain. and coming up on the halftime report today, dr. jay is with us with unusual activity and we're going to talk about what kathy wood is saying about inflation in the new yaear and what it' going to mean to her portfolio of stocks. many of which have gotten cl

clobbered of late as you know are down significantly from their 52-week highs. n igoing to ask the committee ifows finally the time to buy some of those beatendown names. we'll be right back. don't go anywhere. b

welcome back to. 'tis the season for returns. but this yaear, more retailers are telling consumers just keep their items. this happened to me. i didn't realize how frequent it was. >> yeah, it's definitely depending on a variety of f factor but items bought online have three to five times the return rate of items bought in physical stores, and b stock estimates around $140 billion worth of goods will be returned during the holidays once a consumer initiates a return, algorithms weigh a folot of factors retailers tell a shopper to keeps it return funds will total $4.4 billion. walmart says its return decision considers supply chain costs, efficiencies, sustainability, and quote, most importantly

what's going to lead to the best possible customer experience 84% of shoppers will reject retailers that deliver a poor returns experience, according to happy returns. >> we let you keep it because then we can work into more of a consumer who will now hopefully talk about this and hopefully become a loyal promoter. >> here is an example from our partners of different return decisions. a shopper paid $40 for a 40-pound bag of dog food and $700i for a dining table both ordered online 29% from the table $8, and $200 respectively. when a shopper wants to return both it shows the cost of shopping ri and leads to a loss but still a positive margin for the table so the shopper is told to keep the dog food but return the table. leslie and scott >> i wonder if there are people

here who are taking advantage of the system i didn't know. my son got a toy that wasn't working and they sent him a new one. but are there people who are geig to game this out and have a whole bunch of things that they didn't know that they really needed >> yeah, so that's a really good point, lesie and when we talked to people that really understand the al organisms that go into these return decision factors, it kind of varies customer to customer if you have along history of ordering a bunch of items and always trying to return them, you may not be getting that decision that we'll give you your money back but just keep the item so it certainly can vary from customer to customer, item to item, situation to situation i know that i'm in one of these low hyper local facebook groups and there are a lot of people that end up with extra items that got sent in a grocery order and they triy to give it to somebody else in the neighborhood so it doesn't end up in the landfill scott? >> all right, appreciate it very much

see you soon let's take a look at the market here as the dow jones industrials average goes for sen in a row today the s&p 500 tries to notch its 71st record close of the year. by the way, it's only the first time since 1990 that the s&p is going to beat the averages for a year return. s&p is sitting over 4800 that's going to do it for us today. been fun t"techtech -- "tech check" begi right now. ♪ >> good thursday morning welcome to "tech check." heeditor and chief and host of e podcast joins us once again this hour today