plus senator bernie sanders asking warren buffett to step into a labor dispute by a company owned by berkshire how buffett responded. it's friday, december 31st, 2021 and "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, and welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm steve liesman along with wilfred frost, joe, becky and andrew are off today you're looking live at the new year's celebration in new zealand, a light show over the bridge pretty nice. >> do you know what -- >> traditional fireworks displayed cancelled this year due to covid >> i heard a lot of people were watching the light display

many others are tuning in for this great anchor partnership, steve. >> yeah. it's been -- it's decades in the making decades in the making. people have been clammering for it, writing in you have your lies-maniacs, frost-mans you're not wearing your jacket for the first time. >> i thought that's what we were meant to do in squawk. it's our show we can do what we like, steve. >> maybe i'll take mine off. >> i'll sit back and listen to you interview the guests for a bit. let's have some fun. it's an interesting show we have coming up. a lot to do here let's look at the market before we really go off the deep end here and get into cul-de-sacs we can't get out of the dow falling by 90 points yesterday, snapping a six day

winning streak, the s&p and nasdaq both fell marginally. here's where we stand for the year the numbers you've been waiting for, the dow higher by about 19%. the s&p 500 up 27% nasdaq up by 22% stop right now and bank those earnings for the year. i think a lot of people would be pretty happy let's look at equity futures for this hour. it looks like the dow would be down on a fair value basis about 43 points. nasdaq down 22 and the s&p off just 5.5%. not too bad. if you can just stop right now and call it a day, we'd be just fine, right. and have, what, the third year of triple digit earnings >> well, i mean, realistically, i know famous last words wie'll see what happens by closing bell today. i don't think anything is going

to derail that and you'll be banking gains. but the question is should we be banking it for the next five year period, three years in a row of 18% total return for the s&p 500, pretty much 30% total return for the s&p 500 this year without a single 10% pullback. not a single pullback of more than 6%. that is pretty extraordinary i don't know makes you think how can it happen again but the last decade has continued to have years where it has just surprised everyone and the party has kept going >> i'm focused where you might imagine i'm focused, wolf, which is i'm trying to understand what the market understands and thinks about what's going to happen next year with the fed. we have mark grant, i guess, on the other side of the break but i'm looking at a set of numbers i'm holding onto and what i look at constantly which is where the market is relative to when powell did his big pivot, the

two year up 16 bases points. the nasdaq only off half a point since the pivot and the s&p is up 3%. so i think mark is going to tell us that the market -- we'll wait for what he says but the market is not hearing what the fed is saying or doesn't much care. so i've been very, very in interested in how bond yields and stocks have been reacting to what seems to be a built in trajectory for federal reserve and interest rates over the next 12 months. >> i think the market, obviously, doesn't like to be surprised. that's one key factor, he did telegraph it well when he did the pivot in front of congress rather than at one of those meetings where the questions he's asked are less specific because it's elected officials not paid for experts like yourself steve that get the questions at the press conference the other point is markets continue to perform quite well even through the first rate hike

in these types of cycles so even if the market doesn't necessarily like what's coming, maybe it wouldn't have reacted yet. i guess we'll have to see. you know what's interesting? i was thinking once i knew it was you and i hosting this morning we can go wonky on things like interest rates and banks, our venn diagrams where we come together. >> god help us. >> but why so many people wrote in to request this anchor partnership is they're looking forward to our views on everything outside our areas of expertise, to get two nerds i think we can call ourselves nerds, to get our views on everything >> can i go a bit afield here, because i was watching a couple of episodes of the monty python documentary. i didn't realize that your dad and the guys at monty python

were pretty close. so i want to know, when you were growing up, did you know those guys >> yes. >> if so you go higher in my -- so you knew those guys >> dy. >> were you hanging out with the monty upon think guys. >> john clezy is my god father. >> i didn't know that. >> but roni was my other brother's god father whenever you see any documentary like that where those people are interviewed, palin, chaplain, cleese, they all say if not for david frost i would not have the career i had he was a great broadcaster in front of the camera and a great manager and finder of talent as well and started as a comedian and satirist himself there we go, one tangent

already. >> that was news to me, your dad that i knew as a serious person, has this sense of humor. we'll see it has rubbed off on you in the next three hours. >> he was not an expert on the yield curve, on banks' regulations, so i have that on him at least, not much else. >> you have outdone your dad, especially things like the vopa rule and if your dad could only see you now talking about the leverage ratio and those sorts of things. >> exactly priced to book earnings. >> how proud he would be. now we must move to cruise lines. bad news cdc recommending that people avoid cruises even if they're fully vaccinated and seema mody has that story. >> that's right. avoid cruise travel that's the recommendation from the cdc as more ships disclose covid case

on board, roughly 90 ships the cruise lines are not happy with this development saying it's particularly perplexing considering the cases identified on cruise ships consistently make up a very slim minority of the total population aboard. the move is seen as a setback for the industry that just restarted sailings in june after being shutdown for nearly 15 months due to covid. putting pressure on their balance sheets and pushing cruise lines to take out debt and issue stock. but the story in recent months has been about recovery as passengers set sail and cruise lines bring them back to sea carnival says the announcement from the cdc has not impacted current sailings, bookings data in the coming weeks will tell us how the cruise line's loyal customer base are responding to the cdc, putting cruises in in

the highest covid risk category, level four, this is a recommendation not enforceable >> seema, it's interesting that you're getting the cdc making this recommendation, yes, specific to cruise ships which do have different dynamics to a broader recommendation which is to relax quarantine rules and not saying that i want them to tighten rules across the board or to add other sub sectors like aircraft or trains as well as cruise ships but it's confusing, the messaging. what are the cruise lines saying to you in terms of how annoying this is and the mixed message aspect that the cdc is giving out? >> it's a great point. i've been speaking to a number of executives overnight and the overall reaction is that they're disappointed, frustrated they feel they've spent the last year coming up with protocols that will keep passengers safe on board, isolation techniques,

more medical staff to ensure if people test positive they have a plan to contain the number of people who test positive and ensure that we don't see a repeat of march of 2020. i should point out, even with what we're seeing right now, 90 ships with covid cases on board, it's still a small percentage of the total number of passengers, which suggests that their covid protocols are working, right so that's where the cruise lines sort of stand right now. i think they understand where the cdc is -- what they're doing, given what they're seeing at sea i think the cdc in general is afraid of what happened in march 2020, happening again. the cruise lines would argue that won't happen again we have protocols in place but we have to see what happens. another thing to take into account we're seeing more ships with covid on board but hospitalizations still low royal caribbean yesterday in the business update said while they're seeing more covid cases on board, no one who has omicron

is being hospitalized. >> seema, great stuff, thank you so much. we appreciate it >> thanks. and that's a big part of the next story here. the new spike in covid cases sending children to the hospital in the u.s. in near record numbers. the week of december 21st to 27th, 334 children age 17 and under admitted to the hospital per day, a 58% increase from the week before but children still represent a small percent of those hospitalized with covid. but more help for kids could be on the way multiple reports say the fda planning to expand pfizer vaccine booster shot eligibility for 12 to 15-year-olds as soon as this coming monday. younger children, age 5 to 11 would be authorized to receive booster shots as well. regulators are also considering shortening the time required to wait between a second shot and the third shot from six months down to five months for both

adults and adolescents the decision come comes as schools are set to reopen after the holiday break. meantime, south africa has lifted a curfew that had been in effect between midnight and 4:00 a.m. to reduce the spread of covid. officials say they believe the country is past the peak of the fourth wave driven by the omicron variant. the country also lifted restrictions on alcohol sales and loosened restrictions on the size of gat eherings. i didn't know they had restrictions on alcohol. if you coop people up, lock them down, to throw in an alcohol restriction is harsh they've lifted it. it's encouraging to see they lifted it and the numbers are encouraging when we look at the data that is available south africa, in general, coming out of the broader wave but the uk is probably two or three weeks ahead of the u.s. and hospitalizations and deaths have not spiked to the same extent relative to the case numbers in any way at all as previous

spikes, steve. >> i think you're missing maybe one point there, which is that as far as i can tell at this point, the mask has not been invented that allows you to drink with the mask on and so i think that's -- >> if you're quarantining at home you don't have to wear a mask >> i agree when you go out, you take your mask off and you drink i think that's maybe one thing that was behind the alcohol ban there. i'm just guessing. i'm just guessing. but there's something to invent. coming up, futures ticking lower right now. we'll get you ready for the final trading day of the year. mark grant is going to join us after the break. right now a look at the biggest year-to-date winners and losers in the s&p 500

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welcome back to "squawk box" on this last trading of the new year let's look at where futures are right now. the dow implied open about 52 points down. the s&p about 6 -- call it 7 points the nasdaq about 28 points to the negative side after a strong year for equities almost across the board. how will forecasted fed rate hikes impact your portfolio?

joining us now mark grant. mark it's really great to see you this morning, thank you for joining us there's so much to talk about. >> great to see you. >> i want to -- let me start off with your outlook for inflation next year, which i think sets the table for all the other stuff to come. do you think that the market, in general, the federal reserve are underestimating where inflation is going next year >> clear that chairman powell's word "transitory," hasn't been as accurate as it might have been inflation rates, the way i look at it is a little different, steve. i look at both the ppi index and the cpi index, put them together, average them so i see inflation at 8.2% which means either through appreciation, by buying stocks that go up more than 8.2%, or through income you have to beat that number to stay just even

with inflation clearly bonds aren't doing the trick that they used to do for many years the -- even the high yield index, the barclay's high yield index is only yielding about 4.2% and inflation rate between the ppi and cpi is running at 8.2% what i've done is pivoted with my clients, steve, and you might find this interesting. i'm using exchange traded funds and closed end funds i'm getting yields of 10% and some more in about 20 funds, and most of them are paying monthly. and that's the way i'm dealing with what's going on i totally agree with you, inflation is going to be the key indicator of what's going to happen in the coming year. >> where do you get 10%, mark? i don't really care about much else where do you get 10%

>> there are 4,000 funds, exchange traded funds and closed end funds, give or take. i do a tremendous amount of homework, and i found 20 funds most of them paying monthly, which is a huge advantage for people, and about 20 of them are yielding a little over 10% and that's what i have been using with the portfolios of both the institutions and the people who i help. and you just can't find that kind of yield in bonds, period, as you know. >> give us a name. give us one thing yielding over 10% now that on a risk adjusted basis makes sense. >> i'll give you one name even though compliance will probably get mad at me for doing this i will, just one you can look at pdi, one of the pimco funds and it's yielding around 10.5% currently. >> check that out.

okay now let me get to the topic i wanted to ask you more about which is, is the bond market at this point correctly reflecting what's going to happen next year with inflation and the federal reserve? have you been surprised you have a ten year near the 150 level? the two year obviously is up, 25, 26 basis points since the pivot but yielding 76 basis points, are you surprised by the failure of the bond market to incorporate inflation or the fed rate hikes in. >> i think what's going on -- i've been on wall street 47 years, steve, and i think what's going on is that the fed, as you know, as established by the federal reserve act 1913 and part of the u.s. government. we talk any number of times about the presidents and the governors of the fed being independent, which they are, but the institution itself is part of the u.s. government, and with the current administration and all of the things they're trying

to do and the tremendous amount of money that they're trying to put on the table, the fed has been holding interest rates down by buying securities and while that may change to some extent in the next six months or so, it isn't going to change enough to catch up with what i call the inflation rate, which i peg, as i said, at 8.2%. we're not going to be anywhere near that, period. >> mark, i'm going to ask this questionto almost every viewer this morning, i'll give you the first crack at it. as the market correctly incorporated the potential risk here that the fed may have to do more than is currently forecast or built into the market in order to get control of inflation? >> i think there are two issues there, steve one is the covid issue of the

situation deteriorates from here with the new variant, the fed may be forced to shift its position and two, the inflation rate historically when we have a producer price index, which is an all-time high, it influences the consumer price index in the months to come and so we're going to have more inflation i make a joke. i say that the fed's word "transitory" just means that inflation is transited from one sector of the economy to another with food up almost 20%, with gasoline up 60%, this is taking a real toll on a lot of americans either when they go to fill up their car or when they go to the, you know, grocery store. and it's -- it's a serious event, as far as i'm concerned

>> so is there a risk that they may end up having to do more >> the risk that they're going to slow down, in my opinion, because of the variant what it's going to do to the economy do i think they're going to up the taper amount, no, steve, i don't. >> okay. mark, thanks for joining us. >> thank you, steve. happy new year. >> all right you too. >> a lot to talk about in that regard we can maybe have time during the morning to talk about that but it could go either way i guess is what grant is saying there. >> i know. it's the big question of the year ahead but importantly, also of the liesman, frost show. still ahead senator bernie sanders asks warren buffett to step in to a labor dispute at a company owned by berkshire we'll tell you how he responded next

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welcome back warren buffett told senator bernie sanders he'd not get involved in a steelworkers strike at a company owned by his firm, berkshire hathaway earlier this week bernie sanders wrote to buffett and asked him to get involved by west virginia special metals buffett wrote back telling senator sanders he would not step into the negotiations, he cited the policy letting companies deal individually with their own issues at issue about 450 special metal workers in huntington, west virginia walked out on october 1st over a contract dispute. health care is one of the major

sticking points. the union is trying to avoid paying more for a higher deductible insurance plan. as we saw, often these disputes become a bit public, steve, particularly when it's a high profile figure like warren buffett, but it doesn't look like it's going to snowball in a major way for buffett. >> no. but the more interesting question is what's happening with unionization around the country. that's a theme, the extent to which workers are asking for higher wages and doing so, at least in part, we had starbucks development this year and maybe that's a bigger theme for capital and labor next year. >> and ongoing efforts in various regions from amazon workers as well. as yet not too much of an issue for amazon but i'm sure those types of votes will continue, as you say, into next year.

>> right anyway, news out last night, capitalists purchased a 75% controlling interest in hunter dou douglas, the company's founding family will control the other 25% on completion of the deal. a senior partner on the 3g capital expected to take over as the current ceo of hunter douglas. the deal values hunter douglas at $7.1 billion. the deal must still be approved at the shareholder meeting it's the first deal since combining kraft and heinz in 2015 news crossing from the uk this morning, regulators have approved pfizer's antiviral pill as a treatment for people with mild to moderate covid at high risk of severe disease shares of pfizer fractionally higher in the pre-market of course we've been following

the progress of that treatment here in the u.s. as well for quite some time. >> another thing for next year, the extent to which the pail yaive part of the treatment for covid is going to replace or otherwise -- we have someone coming up to talk about this later this morning, that the pills and treatment of covid becomes the focus for markets and investors than the vaccine for next year. that's another interesting topic for the morning here. >> absolutely. i think this week as well with various guests we've had on cnbc, the debate comes back, which is how many people are going to continue to get numerous boosters. we've kind of shifted from get vaccinated and one booster will keep you going, to the -- the conversation being around multiple, multiple boosters. if it's only omicron type of severity of variants that are still to come, people may have a lower willingness to continue to

get boosters if the requirement is four, five, six, seven. and we'll see if people start to just pivot, and the recommendations pivot, how keen they are to do that. of course, most of us will continue to follow the recommendation and the science but there's definitely an apathy that's starting to appear. >> i think so. i think this is a kind of historic moment here where because of what is perceived to be, and i don't know that the scientists have put a period or exclamation point on the studies yet. but the perception that omicron is less severe than the other variants of the virus, people are willing to take a little more risk. i think what's historic here is people are beginning on this, i guess you call it, the fourth wave to treat this endemocrat c endemically and going about their business, even if they

know they're at high risk of getting it so i think that changes the effects out there. people start to say, all right, getting this virus is part of the risk of, i don't know, getting up in the morning, driving to work, crossing the street kind of thing. >> totally i think the big, big question for me that remains and we don't know the answer to this yet, that's why we absolutely, of course, cannot be celebrating in any way, shape, or form yet, is whether people who have caught omicron, and thankfully for the most part not been hospitalized, get proper herd immunity, lasting herd immunity, even if various new variants arrive, which is pretty much inevitable. seems to be good news from south africa and the uk on this variant. i know tons of people back home who had it, they haven't been too sick we don't know whether when the next variant comes, or when it

continues to spread around the system, if people have decent herd immunity. we're not there yet but fingers crossed. >> all you have to do is answer these questions, figure out what's going to happen with the economy and figure out how to position your portfolio for the next year. >> easy. yes. here's another big issue for next year, climate spending and diana olick looks at her playbook for 2022. and as we head to break, a look at yesterday's s&p 500 winners and losers hey businesses! you all deserve something epic! so we're giving every business, our best deals on every iphone - including the iphone 13 pro with 5g. that's the one with the amazing camera? yep! every business deserves it...

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happy new year and welcome back to "squawk box. a record amount of money pouring into climate spending, and that can ramp up with the build back better bill if it ever passes. diana olick joins us with the playbook for 2022. good morning, diana. >> reporter: good morning, steve. that's right the business of climate in 2022 will depend

largely, in the u.s. at least, on the fate of president biden's $1.75 trillion build back better plan which was torpedos recently by joe manchin of west virginia, who has ties to the coal industry there there were tax incentives for producers of wind, solar and nuclear power. there was also a $12,500 tax credit for buyers of electric vehicles about $12 billion aimed at making buildings more energy efficient and more research for clean technology like pulling carbon dioxide out of the air. parts of this could be passed outside the bill meanwhile, venture capital is spending on clean tech, that will increase in 2022 for sure in the first half of this year, there was record investment of $60 billion, a 210% increase from the previous 12 months.

climate tech now accounts for 14 cents of every venture capital dollar and the average deal size has nearly quadrupled. one regular flag to watch, supply chain issues and rising costs for materials in the solar industry that's causing solar panel prices to rise in for the first time in the years. the solar installation forecast reduced by 25% because of that and there's the lithium cobalt pr batteries for electric vehicles >> does the private sector boom in this kind of venture capital spending for climate spending continue next year whether or not the government comes in with this money from the build back better bill? >> absolutely no question. i mean, we saw it earlier this

year at cop26 in glasgow at that enormous forum where venture capital was everywhere, big banks were everywhere, private spending was everywhere, so it's important to get government money, talking government money we talk about billions we talk about private sector money in the trillions. and i believe that will only increase in the coming years >> still to come, another day, at thousand flights cancelled in the u.s. we'll talk to the former ceo of spirit airlines about the travel nightmare. and later, jeremy siegel joins us to give his predictions for 2022 you can watch us live any time on the liesman/frost app we'll be right back.

>> welcome back. we're in our eighth straight day of major airline flight cancellations. there are already more than 1,000 flights called off today in the united states and the tsa expect 10 million people to pass through airport screening between now and the end of the day on monday -- sorry, over the weekend. joining us now to talk about the sector, ben balldana, the former spirit ceo thank you for joining us we had robin hayes on from jetblue yesterday discussing this topic i wonder what your take was on the broad question of how understanding passengers are at this stage of the pandemic of these sorts of cancellations, it comes at a time when everyone wants to travel and they want to be able to get home and see their families or return to work it's very frustrating on that level, but it's also s

pseudounderstanding what's going on. >> it is pseudounderstanding but it's also frustrating. obviously you can talk about a thousand or two thousand cancels against millions traveling and it sounds like, in total, it's not that big of a number, but if you're the one cancelled, you're the one not making your family dinner or your family get together, or however you were celebrating the holidays so any cancellation is going to be extremely frustrating to the people that were scheduled for that flight. i think the key is doing what some airlines are doing, which is proactively canceling in advance when they know that they're not going to have enough people to be able to run the flights. that at least gives customers time to plan other travel or to make other arrangements.

it's clearly not the best thing, but that's much better than being at the gate waiting to board and then told that your flight is cancelled. >> and what's your view toward the staff, ben, in terms of whether they should kind of do as they're told if the airlines want to embrace the five day rule compared to the ten day rule or if they have grounds saying we're saying people can go back to work where they could possibly still be infectious. >> it's a tough thing for sure there. when the cdc says it takes five days to be safe again, i don't know why any individual should say, i need to isolate longer than that. the real issue or one of the real issues we're dealing with here is that during family-oriented holidays like this one we're in right now, or coming to an end of now. airlines typically see a lot of

sick calls from employees. and now with the omicron variant, there are even more and so i think if there wasn't the pandemic, we would still be talking about an increased rate of cancellations among airlines because it happens every year at this time, unfortunately now when it's sort of mixed in with the pandemic and it's also regionally, you've seen sort of, for example, the northeast be much more affected than other parts, so the airlines that fly heavily in new york have more cancellations than those that don't. so i think what's going to happen is, in just a few days after new years, kids are going to go back to school, things are going to be a little bit back to normal and there's a traditional big dip in the amount of travel that happens after these

holidays and that will give most airlines kind of a breather, if you will, to be able to fly some fewer flights, get people back in shape and airlines are also in a huge hiring mode right now, hiring lots of people. so being able to bring those people on board, train them properly, and get ready for what will hopefully be a busy spring. that's where the airlines have to be thinking right now >> ben, completely different topic, which perhaps we're not talking about enough what's your take on how disruptive, as the airlines have been talking about, this rollout of 5g could be with some of them asking for a delay in that technology being rolled out near airports >>, you know, it's a strange thing that's happening there, in terms of we're not really sure exactly what the issues are in terms of how disruptive it is. the simple thing is that on any phone, i know that on my simple

iphone, you can say, don't let me be on 5g. so whether that enough, changing that setting, just like we put our phones on airplane mode when we get on an airplane, if the same time we can click that setting that says, don't use 5g, whether that's going to be enough, i would hope it would be but clearly there has to be better understanding and better rules around what this problem really could be and how we can help customers sort of understand what they need to do with their devices on board to not create a risk. >> ben, we'll have to leave it there. thanks so much for joining us this morning >> thank you wilfred, and happy new year. >> and to you. now coming up moderna shares down 28% over the last month, even as the surge in covid cases began sweeping across the country. top pharma analyst joins us next

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welcome back covid cases reaching record highs the omicron variant hitting the united states. since then, positive cases and deaths have also skyrocketed during the same period, the stock price vaccine moderna has risen and they say the hospitalizations and deaths have risen sharply. not relative to the rising in cases. senior at global research joins us, very good to see you thank you so much. given some of these tailwinds,

why do you not have a buy rating on moderna >> morning thanks for having me it's a function of valuation we're not negative on the technology, itself it's the assumptions that one would need to make for boosters really to still i think that reflects a high valuation and assumption i think that is not realistic. especially with the orals coming in a much more dramatic pfizer and merck. >> reading some of your recent notes, despite the speed with which moderna was able to produce this covid vaccine and despite a fundamental belief in that technology, you don't think the same sort of speed olympian repeated withhen it comes to th next sets, drug, treatments, other issues >>

>> that's right, the mrna was amazing when you look at pfizer, moderna to get to a skoifd vaccine. but cmd flew kind of the next jen product. it will be fast but not nearly as fast with covid you have to derisk in a larger scale study. we don't have an unprecedented situation like we did last year with covid >> so if moderna is not the pick, what is your top pick next year >> from a fundamental perspective, we still liked, they do have a covid antibody. that's not the story the story is the launch of a diabetes drug and alzheimer's next year. that's one of our favorite in the big pharma space is there what about pfizer?

>> i would say pfizer is not one we are recommending. i do think the oral paxlovid, that may be the asset with longer-term durability fought necessarily the covid booster. it feels like an oral five-day pill that has a 90% hospitalizations or death. that may be something more practical when we think of a global therapeutic that could get us towards the tend of the pandemic >> hey, jeff, i've got two questions. we are talking about action both together, first of all, were you suggesting earlier that these companies can do for the flu with the mrna what they've done with covid that was the first thing second thing, what itself the availability right now and what's the projected availability of therapeutics during the course of next year in >> yeah, good question, steve.

for mrna in flu, the difference is we already have vaccines that are highly effective, so the bar is a lot higher. you have to show difference shaegs you have to show better efficacy the safety we know is obviously pretty good. so that's you know something that's different versus covid and that's going to i would say complicate the development a little bit more from both the risk benefit and a price benefit looking forward. when you think of the availability of some of the orioles for merck and pfizer, pfizer probably takes majority share. they said 80 to 100 million courses next year him they probably can beat that number. they definitely beat the initial number they gave for the covid vaccine. we'll have to see. it's a small molecule. it should be pretty easy to manufacture. we haven't had a path about how

they will get a much higher capacity in manufacturing. it's pretty state forward pharma drug >> jeff, thanks so much for joining us good to see you. >> thanks, guys. happy new year >> all right coming up more on the pandemic and record case counts across the united states and ann winblad on her picture for 2022. what you need to know about? d tare watching "squawk box," enofhe year extravaganza on cn cnbc

. good morning happy new year investors get ready to say good-bye to 2021 the year of mania, a trillion i say dollars and so much more futures pointing lower as we make our way towards the opening bell wall street is about two-and-a-half hours away. don't go cruising unless you are fully vaccinated covid cases grow on board, major industry stocks stabilizing after seeing down days yet, netflix, the industry giant, can

they dominate in 2022? a year when content spend secretary expected to ramp up bigly. we'll answer that question in the second hour of "squawk box" a big extravaganza that you have been waiting for begins right now. [ music [ music playing good morning and welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm wilfred cross along with steve leishman it's lease mania that was scripted. >> it's a known phenomenon, wilfred, as you know >> it's just lease mania, not something with ross in it as well >> because we haven't come up with a name yet.

is it frosttonian? we have a few hours, manic adoration of wilfred frost we don't have that yet but we can do it, i think. >> to be honest, i think they're trying to divide us, steve i prevenr preferred when we were united celebrating the duo >> i wonder whether joe, becky or andrew has phoned in to try to divide us it's understandable. >> it's really going quite well. and you were correct to point out in your tweet this morning, how much people have been clamoring for this i then pointed out that management finally exceeded to the demands of the public. i have something in the prompter here called frosteriveic >> that doesn't do it for me. >> do you like that? >> i go back to what i said earlier in the duo part is much more important, but you know

>> it is true. >> it's funny, it will be funny to see what comcast does today i think it's a smash for the year ahead >> right. >> i think brian roberts, mark kauffman are tearing up the script for next year >> i think we need to point out that the really dark sarcasm is look, this is the b team we need to kind of acknowledge that publicly. that's the keep sarcasm behind this i want to tell greco in the back room to keep working at it >> sorry you don't point out sarcasm. >> and we discussed comedy last hour >> for everybody >> i mean, if someone was watching, then >> yes. >> they don't deserve to have it pointed out to them. they could have gone away and thought such arogant blowhards

>> i think they're both on the phone now urging you to get on with reading the headlines this morning. >> yeah, i kind of hope those two people are watching. if they concluded that, they're fine they're always right they're the best i wish them a happy year i hope they're not watching. anyway, we must move on, there are the futures pointing lower, a start to the end of this year. the start to the week is up 1 to 2 percent for the dow. here's what's making headlines at this hour the centres for disease control recommending before you go on a cruiseship to get fully vaccinated as more ships dispose the variant. the cdc says it's watching more than 90 ships. it's seen as another setback for

the industry, which restarted saveings in june after a 15-month shutdown a. spokesperson for a lobbying group released a statement calling the decision perplexing, given the fact that they have been a slim majority of total ships on board meanwhile, j.p. morgan gave them the option for 20 dwoo, they're not changing the long-term plan and citigroup telling them to start at home in the mid-year. the bank said in december they could work at home if they were able to through the holidays it's interesting that on the big banks, because they were probably the most vociferous for encourage people to come back to work when they became possible there was a difference in view between them, goldman sachs and j.p. morgan and morgan stanley

pushing in the most. less is from the likes of citi in general, they wanted them to come back the coverage i feel has been as if they've all completely u-turned and softened that position. i would argue that they have been flexible with what's changed and they haven't changed their long-term opening him. and by the time we get to the middle of next year, which all goes well and omicron fades and we get into the endemic stage, this won't be a sector that moves with the times of oh, yes, if young people want to work at home, they k. it will literally be what the science and virus allows, if it passes means you are coming back to the office. that's the way we run our business >> wolf, i have a question about the banks for you. they have been sort of more let's get everybody back into the office than other folks have been i always wondered, is that a

compliance issue in the first order? are they worried about people running banking, doing banking from home and have security compliance issues more so than other industries do? >> no, i think it's an added concern, i don't think it was the driving concern. i think they did it well to get text set up in the way our industry did many studios you are operating from i don't know where you are i think they did it and made it possible but there have been other stories and offchutes, that is not the deciding factor. i think as well with some parts of the job like trading, those people are back already. i think it's really a culture decision and they'll frame it, but as we want our young workers to get exposure to the teamwork to the best people around them it's how they operate. they also own these big

buildings, a lot of them they want people coming in i think that's kind of fair enough, they're paid very and somely these employees, if they don't like it. they can come back >> let's come back to that issue of culture during the leishman-foster extravaganza i want to come back too that issue. right now investors are getting ready for the last trading day up 27%, on pace for a third positive year in a row it has more than doubled since the pandemic woes in march of last year. in this comes after the rate hikes of 2022, joining us, brian le it have, global market strategist at invesco. brian, good morning, by the way, happy new year has the mark already incorporated high inflation and the fed reaction and it's cool with it? it says, you know what, the fed

will take care of inflation? >> that's right. if you look at what's going on in the treasury market you seen short-term rates up significantly. that's a treasury market pricing in multiple rate hikes so it's a stock market that's been no cushioning on an economy that's been booming, seeing some science and inflationary precious albeit the high levels. so far the equity market is comfortable with where we are and the federal reserve will be able to navigate this. ultimately, the exe equity market that's kovrtable, the central bank will be able to navigate this any inflationary pressures will moderate. >> should the market be incorporating more risk if the fed doesn't get this under control? or do you think it's got the story right here >> i think the market generally has this story right

look, it's an economy is that recovered quickly. we unleashed a significant amount of pent-up demand before the global economies were back you get that money and get inflationary pressures what the market is trying to focus on is not a unique moment in time but rather the longer-term structural story and we have to ask ourselves, has the structural story for inflation changed? when you think about globalization, you think of automation of the work force advanced technologies, aging populations globally him all of that moderating overtime and so that's precisely what the equity market is focusing on. you also add on to that the fact that household savings rates are down a bit if you survey consumers, they say it's not a great time to build durable goods. all of that leads to moderation

and inflation. >> all right bryant, as you know, this is the extravaganza all their own anything goes this morning so i'm going to ask you a question that i know you have been thinking about this but i have been thinking about this i think let me know your mind on this one here. inflation is up. companies earn nominal dollars margins have been where they have been over this period of time that tells me company cash flow should be pretty high. right now the s&p dividend is negative, right, when you think out inflation. is there a scope do you believe next year could be a year of rising dividends and or buybacks as companies have greater cash flow, flow to their bottom lines from inflation in >> if you quo et the grateful dead i will, too, nothing left

to do but smile, smile, smile. i think that's right companies are very well positioned some of the concern i've heard from investors coming into this year is valuations were too elevated because, of course, the stockmarket moves before the economy moves and the fundamentals of the companies improve. so you have seen a year in which not only the markets have moved significantly. companies are in very good shape. as you said, cash flow positive. that suggests buyback, and dividends, all of which you would expect into a business cycle. all of which should be con conducive. we are unlikely to see returns, we were up 18% and 27% returns are likely to be more modest nonet nonetheless, it should be a good year for the equity market. >> i was speaking to a friend,

anen voir, wait, the dividend yield is negative, the real dividend yield i said, hold on, i do not know where it will end up this year you can imagine with rising inflation, you might get increased buybacks as cash flow from higher inflation, close to the bottom line, of course, attenuated by higher input costs and wage costs coming their way. so far, i have been amazed by it the last word, profit mar jips have held up well. is that your expectation for the year >> profit mar jens come down over time as demand and a slow sum, but there is nothing about a peak in profit margins that portends the end of a cycle or a good time for the equity mark, so, my view at the end of 2022,

it will be an economy that will moderate from very lofty levels, it should allow policy-makers to remain relatively accommodative in the early stages of a rate tightening cycle we continue to favor credit over treasures. >> all right brian, thanks very much for joining us, happy new year >> happy new year. still to come, which giant is poised to dominate the streaming world in 2022? the path more importantly, who is playing the second and third place? we'll discuss that on the final day of the year, here's a key market view 397 ipos have priced in the u.s. year-to-date the most in 20 years and graced the most money ever. but more than 60% of those are trading below their ipo price. we'll be right back.

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welcome back netflix dominated the streaming game as we wrap up the year with many expected to binge, thanks to omicron, we want to know if netflix can compete as champion in 2022. the former chairman and cnbc

contributor, good morning to you. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. happy new year. >> and to you. clearly netflix is in the lead ultimately it's interesting that we framed it there as the winner this past year, which i get that they are. but in a relative sense, the last year or two has seen quite a few others play catch up to some extent. where do you think we will be standing this time next year in terms of who is winning those streaming wars >> you are absolutely right. going into 2021, the big story was will netflix be able to deal with competition from streaming services, coming into 2022 i think it's clear it's pulled so far ahead of everybody else, the real question is among the others, what positions will the other streaming services have? i think we'll come out of 2022 with netflix still very dominant the question really is the number four position, the number five position, we will see

intense struggles there. you remember the old ice cream chant. i've changeed that to i stream, you stream, we all stream for five streams i think there will be five major places in the connected tv streaming home there will be an intense fight for those last couple positions. >> so, just on netflix first of all, do you think they will be or should be raising prices then in the 84 ahead, given this dominancy they have? >> well, they have a pretty clear pace to their price increases. every two years they tend to do that they tend to do it very smartly with not a lot of price increase at the lower end of their packages, raising it more for people that share in the high end premium side but their revenue per subscriber

has gone up every year and that disney plus, for instance, was down about 25% revenue per subscriber year over year. sow see the divergence there netflix dominance is showing up in terms of its ability to raise price. >> tom, clearly netflix and disney plus are already genuine global platforms hbo max, do you think you can achieve the same thing it's in a slightly different position, if you look at europe, individual hbo shows, it's different platforms and countries. the hbo brand doesn't really exist and resonate i'm never quite sure that's fully grasped here do you think they can succeed in transitioning to a global streaming platform in the way netflix and disney plus have >> i think that will be one of the big streaming stories of

2022, with the merger of discovery and warner, what comes together there by way of programing assets, arguably, they cover more genres from big time entertainment from hbo to reality programing, non-fiction programing and sports programing se thigh have a lot to work with there. hbo has been around for years and isn't in as many u.s. homes today at netflix is, which netflix has only been at it the last ten years or so, so hbo max has a way to go. but they have always been at the top of premier buzzed about programing my guess is they will come out of the box of this merger really strong to make sure relative to hulu, relative to apple tv,

relative to peacock, they grab that number four or five position in the home and are able to leverage a global position from that >> well, yeah, the merger is one thing. still in europe, hbo will continue to be licensed through 2025 on sky. people don't know what sky is, they think it's atlantic >> disney had those issues with having to claw back programing from other distribution relationships that it had globally it's not you a nikkei problem to hbo. it is in terms of how quickly they need to make sure the hbo brand is under food is more than it is. you are absolutely right >> let's talk about what you mentioned, the third and fourth and fifth place names. do you think we will see more

consolidation? we talked about it there are kind of more hurdles than past opportunities. comcast our parent companies, cvs, via com, do you think they will be looking for more shapes and form >> i think there will be talks control issues tend to get in the way of ultimately figuring those things out i'm not sure we will find enough desperation come 2022, i think we will see the problems the legacy media companies have with court cutting and ratings devine progress with streaming. 21 was the story of progress was streaming, getting out of the box, getting stuff going, the street didn't have a tie on just

how many issues they will overwhelm it those cracks will become much more apparent. my guess is by 2023, we will see enough to stress there that some of the energyer discussions will come to fruition what i do see by way of merger, i see netflix acquiring a gaming operation that it can attack this whole gaming trust it has at scale i even see apple which has struggles some with apple tv and more am ar indicate gaming service, the single subscription is media and gaming. we say see apple tv around arcade do something by way of bringing those together to be in the same sandbox as netflix is driving for. >> a lot for us to look out for next year. thank you so much for joining us >> thanks for having me.

happy new year again >> same to you >> all right, well, coming up, dr. cyra madad will join us on the exploding number of cases, the company is adding a million new cases every few days now covid vaccine stocks this year led by biontech more than tripling in price. more than pfizer isup 60%. more "squawk box" extravaganza coming up. coming up. more ahead don't be shy, now. 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.

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rising oil prices don't necessarily translate into

higher demand for evs. crude running a seven session winning streak, the longest since february it's up 15% this month close to 60% for the year as a whole, a little more than 60 now until the ball drops in time's square it's relivately warm "squawk box" is back in a couple ♪ ♪ it's a personal trainer that assesses your strength and adds weight as you progress. it's dynamic weight that adjusts for you in real time for a more efficient workout. c'mom and it's a roster of coaches that motivate you to get stronger, faster. the future is strength you can feel and results you can see. and you can only experience it... (sigh) ...on tonal.

they were charged up last month, rivian sparked new interest in the sector as prices at the gas pump were near highs of the year. the end of 2021 has seen ev stocks draw back frank holland joins us with more on the relationship or lack, perhaps, thereof of the investments. frank. >> same to you >> this month alone, a move that would normally really increase customer investor interest in electric vehicles, but instead, ev stocks have largely fallen double digits. work horse down 20% as well.

those declines comes as most see double digit increases in 2022 for example, bank of america saying as much as a 22% increase, they were closer to 10%. it says for fleet operates orrors, ofed-ex, the potential for that volatility in the oil markets should act sell rate ev buying >> that would push even more fleet to adopt electric buses, trucks and delivery vans because the paypack period would be shorter and the price of electricity is pretty static >> research says the recent price volatility of lithium batteries is weighing on the stocks the ten year omicron have investors mosque away from riskier assets they are recommending they buy

the dip on stocks basically ac nostic ways to play this ev groetd for use made like life cycle arc lithium battle recycling company pgg, a pain component, ppg, the batteries needspecialized covering for heated and corrosion and xos is a company already working with fed-ex. washington, back over to you >> tank, so i guess we kind of know what amazon's name is with its delivery trucks obviously long term. what about the other big delivery companies what about the likes of fed-ex and ups. are they headed that way or happy to stick with the most efficient things they've gotten short term >> well, wolf, they're definitely headed that way, that's why there is so much investor enthusiasm. these companies that have huge spikes in their fuel prices, fed-ex 81% increase in fuel prices

all say fed-ex made a recent purchase and are shopping around, looking at all her to options. i spoke to dhl they say they have been working with a rival they are also looking around and kind of believe a major oem like a ford or gm might be better suited for their needs they want to see what companies have the ability not only to produce electric vehicles, but also to scale it up. >> thanks so much. interesting numbers there, up 81% for fed-ex >> yeah. coming up, the u.s. seeing an unprecedented surge of new covid cases, hundreds of thousands per day, disease specialist dr. syra madad will join us, stay tuned you are watching "squawk box" on cnbc cnbc

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. welcome back to "squawk box" and happy new year the fda plaptd vaccine booster shots for 12-to-15-year-olds in the coming days. meanwhile, the cdc released a study that confirmed serious side effects are rare in children ages five-to-11 who took pfizer's vaccine. this comes as kids are

hospitalized from covid in record numbers joining us, the director of the system wide special pathogens program at new york city health dr. syra madad good morning i have a hundred questions let's deal with the first thing we talked about, which is is this unusual what's happening with children right now the number of cases out there for children, is this an omicron variant-specific thing or just in general >> well, let me unpack there first when we have much more virus in the community, you will see more children infected, especially those unvaccinated. so by and large when you see those hospitalized, you are seeing people being hospital sized are unvaccinated i think first a couple different thing. first, our vaccines for children are working, it's keeping children at the hospital that's the intent here we are seeing much higher rates of pediatric infection rates and

hospitalizations, not necessarily because the omicron kr variant is more serves it's because there are so much more viruses. we want to make sure you are getting vaccinated they are effective, the cdc has come out recently in the past week they have two new studies showing they are safe. the likelihood of systemic and local reaction is we have local reaction, which is just fever, cough, as in any vaccine in terms of adverse serious reaction, it's very, very rare >> that's an important message i want to get to something that i think is on the minds of everybody now. which is are the authorities, i guess that includes you as well, ready to come out and say the omicron variant is less severe than other variants on the virus? is thatscience now >> well, i think there is a lot of data that is piling up to

show exactly that. that the severity of illness caused by omicron, the big question here was it intenint intrinsically because of the prior immunity from infection that had those making this variant you know less severe and less pathogenic? so i think we have more data come out, this variant is intrinsically less severe. if there is a whole process that we have that we need to establish that you know this truly is a disease that is causing mild illness across the board across all ages, so while there is more and more data piling up, i think it's still too early for us to say, yes, you need to pay up across all different age groups as well as different countries. as we know here in the u.s., it is a different population in south africa so south africa sees the case may peak, it's very low delta wave

but here in the u.s., we have a much older population that may spin out very differently here >> so you're the one who said, raised the question of across the board. that's my next question here there are so many different types of people now. you have vaccinated and vaccinated and boosted vaccinated and boosted and previously had covid and you have unvaccinated. are you suggesting that, can you say the omicron that looks like at this point is less severe for all of those types of people or just the vaccinated? >> yeah. that's an excellent question that's exactly the information that we need we don't have that exact information by status, by vaccination status, by health status what this means, we don't have this information that's exactly why it's too early to tell. we have good information piling up for those who have been vaccinated primarily with the two doses, for example, and what

this may mean for the omicron variant. we have seeing it, but we don't know exactly what we're going to be seeing. so we have no dose of covid-19 vaccine, not the first, not the second booster dose we have millions of americans that are in that knew eve and what does that mean for them we need more information >> so, yesterday, i was reading an article about what the cdc is saying here and they were pointing out that hospitalizations and deaths have not risen and i think will was talkingabout this earlier, to the extent that cases have risen. do you feel comfortable saying we now have data to say that's the case or are you still worried about hospitalizations and deaths in the total lag of cases,s is that something that's yet to come?

>> first, we know we are in this for the long haul living with this virus how can we develop sustainable and flexible guidance in the policies knowing the fires will be around us we want to make sure the end goal here is to save lives and mortality and that's exactly what you are seeing with some of these new public health guidances that have come out for example the reducing of quarantine time, knowing we will be living with this virus and stay in school these are strategies to show us we can safely live with this virus. so i think we are headed down that way as we look at the decoupling, hospitalization and deaths from cases that is happening. i actually wrote about that early in the summer we will eventually see that. we didn't necessarily see it with delta i am hopeful we will see it with omicron, a little difficult to tell i think all the direction is

pointing us that way. >> doctor, just a specific question here. let's say you were advising a 21-year-old son just as an example, just as a random example here and advising him or her what to do this evening for new years and i'm just asking for a friend here. let's just be clear about that i'm just asking for a friend what would that advice be? >> well, first, i have an 8-year-old, that's different than a 21-year-old i would sigh a 21-year-old needs to know is awant to make sure they are fully vaccinated. of course, kids i see in adults, they want to go ahead and enjoy themselves, i say we can do things safely. we will not tell them to go ahead and stay home. this is not march 2020 as you have been hearing so many times we have been told to engage in activities we enjoy.

i would encarriage them to get together with a small group of friends and enjoy themselves we want to avoid congregant settings and places with poor ventlation anything we can do to lessen the risk and reduce our risk of contracting and spreading the virus, we can do that. and they have them in schools now. >> doctor, tell us what you are thinking about for the coming here here, is it a year people will be prescribing more therapeutics than vaccines is that the trend here i hate to sort of end on this note, do you also think there is maybe another variant to come? >> so, i'll take the last question first are we going to go from variant to variant i think that is the case at the same time it looks much better because we have more of these different types of tools we have anti-viral therapies coming in the pipeline, they will be much more widely

variable we have safe and effective vaccines i think when we add those things up, it matters when i say it matters, we look at year three into this pandemic, i think we are truly going to learn to live with this virus and reduce morbidity in total. i do think we will get over this big hump we are in with the new tools we will have, we will be able to better fend off future variants we know to come so i am hopeful on that front. >> doctor, thank you so much for joining us have a great new year. take care of your 8-year-old see you soon >> have a happy new year all right. coming up, which bank stocks are set to leave the pack next year? we'll talk with a top analyst as another earnings season approaches as we head to break, let's check out the names that made meme stocks somewhat of a household name

it's actually movie theater chain amc up to close, i don't believe this number, 1,300% versus gamestops 720%. stay tuned you are watching "squawk box" on cnbc will will be up next

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$1 billion so millions more students, past... and present, can continue to get the tools they need to build a future of unlimited possibilities. . welcome back a. decent hit for the bank sector. the bank index up 35% so far this year. investors want to know if it

will continue its upward trajectory, especially with the fed deciding to hike rates jeffrey from piper sandler joins us great to see you thanks for joining us. i guess there is an extent you can point to a bullic outlook and a lot of it might be expected and priced in do you think the yield curve will steepen sufficiently to deliver more share prices again for the bank next year >> it's not just the matter of a yield curve. banks and financials in general, specifically bankers and journals have more room here we seem to have more room to run. when you have banks, have you to have a macroview my macroview is the economy is still pretty strong so that is good news for the banks that finance economy. we have some things, the real world is showing up. there is pent-up demand for

inventory filled and capex i think it should be still a good year for the banks. not that they will repeat the great year they had last year. i think we are looking at banks having a strong year in 2022 >> i want to go through some of your calls, first goldman sachs in the capital market exposure group. why goldman sachs over morgan stanley? >> it breaks down to two things. one just an evaluation basis i think morgan stanley's valuation reflects the work they've done, diversifying wealth management to more stable revenues goldman made a lot of progress there. it's moving more slowly. i think the market is under appreciating that. i look next year, i think capital markets will surprise to the upside revenues will be down year over year and that plays into galdman's strength especially if you look at price-to-book, it's trading too

cheaply still. >> i see that you like bank of america. is that back down to their gearing to the yield curve or what >> it's a part of it as i look to next year, i got a favor to scale players in banking that have product sets and national live distribution it's taking advantage. they are one of the large banks that certainly have helped they've also got scale at a time when it matters more than ever before as does j.p. morgan that gives them to lowerunit costs to become more efficient it gives them the capacity to invest in technology and marketing. we should let them continue to gain mark share. remember, banking is a fragmented business. it's right for players to consolidate market share which is good news for b of a and j.p. morgan in 2022. >> if we talk about relative under performance over the course of the last year within the big caps, there is one name

that stands out, citi is a lot cheaper. why done you like that name in. >> well, it's one we have an overweight rating on coming into this year, i looked it a lot it's kind of a turn-around story. the time is when things go back, not quite as bad we'll wait billion in they are getting good what we saw is some of the asian exits are taking longer than expected there has been more capital issues from the adoption of more than we thought. you can look out a couple years, citigroup i think will be a home run. it's a matter of your time line and trying to say if it's consensus or regulatory cloud is clear enough, the strategy really plays out over the next 12 months or considers to be 24 or 36 months >> when we talk about disruption from new players in the thin tech players, clearly on payments, the big banks not necessarily missed the trick

definitely missed a big creation of market capitalization that sort of happened a bit in terms of retail brokerages as well are there areas over the next one-to-three-to-five years that you fear for, for the big banks or do they fight back a bit? >> i think besee that they did fight back especially some of the payments and buy now, pay later from some of the credit card funded stocks they were late to the punch. they got it. i think when it comes to payments and the efforts at borrowing, being the providers of credit cards and already being in the payment flow gives them a position to be n. guys especially like b of a and j.p. morgan will spend to get up there. i think the story over the next year or two, will be the banks leave some more ground as opposed to falling behind. in general, you look at the big

bank with a multi-billion dollar budget, it's hard ready to see what will disrupt someone. it's not to say what will mix the consolidators? >> finally, are you fearful of a big regulatory pendulum swingback over the course of the next year? >> with the biden administration coming in, it will be a tougher regulatory environment for banks. it had play out more slowly. it will probably still play out. again that plays into my mind the b of as and j.p. morgan for one. they've got the scale to absorb any additional costs two, it got to scale slowdown in mna approvals would delay other competitors trying to match through acquisition it's almost like an early christmas present for the players that have the scale, with competitors trying to catch up with them

maybe delay them a little more than a year or two ago. >> jeff, thanks so much for joining us much appreciated. >> thank you coming up, taking stock of a big year for marks we will look ahead at what investors should expect next year jeremy siegl from the wartop school is next >

. good morning covid cases in america having another record the fda is filing booster shots for teens as soon as monday. details straight ahead news breaking this morning, regulators in the uk reported the use of pfizer's anti-viral pill to street well e people with mild to moderate travel avoid cruise travel, that's the message from the cdc we'll show you how cruise stocks are reacting the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. [ music playing

>> good morning. welcome to "squawk box" right here on cnbc and by popular demand from the lease maniacs, the wilkeys? you like that? i'm stephen leishman with wilfred frost. i like frostonians how do you like that >> i'll take it. this time of year, frosty the snowman, that kind of thing. that's not quite the same mon moniker. >> well, anyway, check this out. you are looking like i live in sydney, australia. happy new year to our friends down under u.s. equity futures is kind of quiet. let's see where we are we take a look at that there we go it looks like 45 points on the dow, nasdaq down 7 points and the s&p down close to 6 points we'll call it treasury yields also well behaved at least at the moment

now, 151 was last i saw in the ten year let's see where we are now, looks like 150 call it 151. two year up 73 that's up maybe a bit. that's been the shortened of the curve is the one that's been moving recently. will, i don't know if we have a chance to chat here. i thought it was fascinating in the last hour. you talked to bank executives. i have this question for you do the elizabeth warren and once that want to increase banking is prompting people to invest in bigger banks and maybe bigger banks possibly more profitable >> ewe can preferably ask that question to kayla next they know what they're thinking. it's definitely a factor there is two big factors when it comes to banks regulation. one is over the last decade, despite a lot of regulation, the u.s. banks are unquestionable the global leaders

the more you impose here, the more they compete overseas that hasn't prohibited them sufficient lip they're thriving on a global basis. yeah, all this regulation, it's always one of those second group consequence, do you impose a greater relative burden on the players? that's happened. the big guys probably continue to do so >> we push more financial activity outside the regulated system and we increase the dangers in my opinion so i think when you say global leader, as far as i can tell, u.s. capital ratios are among the highest in the world. people will argue, people need to know, wolf, this is the kind of extra added value you get from a leishman-frost duo which is this kind of in-depth wonky

regulatory talks about banks. >> the only other thing as well, i put this directly to senator warren on "closing bell," they do sound aggressive in these hearings like they're fighting a battle from ten years ago. not even from a couple of years ago, where the banks haven't done anything as near as bad you can argue the opposite as they have done in 2007 and '08 it sound like a scratched record, particularly when since 2016 when all sorts of issues were made clear about things like social media companies, whether it's meant to be bipartisan support, they haven't done anything on it seems odd always when you see them perhaps screaming about financial executives as if they're absolute devils and fought acting in other areas >> there is no cost to beating

the banks. i guess we have to get to the aforementioned kayla tausche >> kayla, in three words, answer all the questions that stephen and i just posed no, i'm joking >> i think i will comment briefly on your conversation it's an important one. but i think the quiet part that the banking executives say behind the scenes, they're not saying it out yet. the bufrs helped during the covid and keep the u.s. system sound that's one of the reasons why it's been a safe haven relatively they won't say that publicly that's the backdrop we saw play out over the last few years. >> it's an important part, steve, i was going to say, as these regulations, dodd-frank and the rest were imposed in the first place, they were, of course, crying, murder this is terrible this will kill the banking system

are you right, maybe around the edges things went too far or the rule was necessary and helpful, net-net it is banking has bend they might be free drops >> regulators know the shadow banking system they're looking at the non-bank financial institutions and a meeting between the top financial regulators in recent weeks. the minutes from that meeting means they see one of the biggest risk to the financial system at president, the non-bank financials. they're looking clearly, how they decide to regulate a fragmented market. they haven't received consensus on that yet. but they're at the top of the radar. >> i do think it needs to be pointed out, as well as the banks are capitalized, the federal reserve in the midst of the covid crisis did have to

come in with trillions into the financial system will will say, that wasn't necessarily the banks. the idea you have a shock to the system and once again the federal reserve for a sending time in a little more than a decade had to come in and rescue the financial system does not tell us all is well with the financial system him we definitely need to get to a place and a point where that kind of assistance is much more extraordinary. more like a 100 year flood rather than the ten-year flood >> the final thoughts before kayla plans to be with us, the difference from stwoilth the banks weren't the cause of the problem. i totally agree with you that the level of bailouts we saw across the spectrum. >> fair enough. >> both from congress, the white house and the fed, you could argue benefitted the bank sector as much as any other sector. no question, there are massive

bailouts in general and thus should be doing public service which they would argue they should do and there are some mild punishments or pullbacks in regulatory behavior. no doubt about it, they definitely benefitted from all of that. anyway, we must pivot and get to why kayla joined us in the first place, which is that call between president biden and president putin. >> reporter: yeah, wolf, it was a 50-minute conversation yesterday. it was requested by russia and described as a prologue ahead of talks in geneva ween the two countries and nato that are expected to take place in about ten days time. a senior official said president biden laid out two paths one focused on diplomacy and deescalation another on deterring russia with steep nick sanctionings. a top aide briefing reporters last night warned, though, of a

complete rupture between the two countries if the u.s. pursued those sanction, according to "new york times" that participated in that briefing. the kremlin told reporters, the goal would be to reach a compromise it's unclear what such a compromise would look like with mr. putin wanting a legal guarantee. that is assurance nato will not and cannot give. whether putin will further invade ukraine, that was the wild card. there was no intention by president putin on what he planned to do, certainly, everyone will be watching the diplomacy taking place january soth, 12th and 13th as those talks takes place and whether any sort of compromise can be reached. >> kayla, is there bipartisan support on this topic? would republicans like to see a

tougher line i mean it's a very awkward one where there is such massive consequencesin either direction. is there unity or not? >> yes, there definitely is. there is not only democratic support behind what the administration is doing. they have several agencies, state treasury defense all negotiating a sort of intergovernmental package of these sanctions. also, congress is on board with this on the republican side, too. ted cruz has been sponsoring a bill that would impose sanction and stop operations or prohibit the in order str-- nord stream pipeline 2 there is hawkishness on the effort and unity, there is quite a bit of support but as you heard in my report, that putin allies in russia are saying you are risking a

complete rupture if you pursue this path. of course, that is the path they will pursue if putin further invades ukraine. that is the big question here is whether he, in fact, will do that >> kayla, thanks so much much appreciate it great content on both policy and banks. coming up, we'll get to jeremy siegl iz's from the uk, approving pfer anti-viral pill to treat covid. more on that later in hour here. aspercreme arthritis. full prescription-strength? reduces inflammation? thank the gods. don't thank them too soon. kick pain in the aspercreme. 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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so while you handle that, you can keep your internet and all those shows you love, and save money while you're at it with special offers just for movers at xfinity.com/moving. talk about markets now as we finish up starting the final day of the trading year. a quick reminder the s&p 500 closed at a record high 70 times. for more on what 2022 might bring for the broader market, we are joined by the university of pennsylvania's wharton school of business what a pleasure, thanks for joining us, happy new year to you. >> happy new year to you, too, steve. >> let me get to your outlook here very quickly, which is you see more inflation, more fed than you think the market has

priced in right now? >> yeah. and i have been saying this a long time. as you know, i have been worrying about inflation for a year-and-a-half. i think the fed and the fiscal authorities so way overdid it. particularly the fed on liquidity. they are so far behind the curve that we have a lot of inflation that is embedded in and the fed is going to have to hike many more times than what the market expects. i would not be surprised to see the short rates at 2% or even higher by the end of next year >> by the end of 2022. what happens, stocks can't be priced for that? i don't think the bond market is priced for it. what happens to pe ratios? what happens to all the valuations, professor, in the face of a more aggressive fed like that? >> well, there will be tremors but you know, look what happens

when powell pivots, we had a week of top stock and then people said, hey, where am i going to go? where are you going to go in an inflationary environment stocks are a real asset, i want a real asset i don't want to hold cash. bonds, are they've held up because bonds have become a hedge ac against short-term fluctuations, they have a short-term heavy demand. that's one reason their rates haven't gone higher. basically, people will shudder and we'll have what you call taper tremors. i don't think you will have stock records, clearly not the first half i think once they begin to say, we got to go much faster than what we thought we did, then it's going to be tougher i think in the second half of 2022

still, i think will you have enough market for stocks next y year >> i just want to back you up on this, i have a running total on this, the s&p is up 3% since fed chair powell on the 30th of november came forward and said we need to be more aggressive here and it's actually up 2% or 1.8% since the fed meeting, where they increased the taper so the stockmarket, by way, that's in the face of 26 extra basis points on the two-year note so it's taken that and the question about the other piece but professor, all right let me get to one other call you've made here you think finally this is the don of value stocks here over growth and that's because of the environment that you see out there? >> yeah. i think -- i don't think nasdaq is up. certainly those high flyers really that don't have earnings really got it since the policy

of it. and i think what you are going to see in a higher yield environment is that people really are saying, hey, do i want to own these stocks that have no earnings, no dividends, no cash flows? discounted all the way out to the future, you know, listen, you guys know as well as i do, steve, today they're negative 1% which you lose money by investing in them. where are you going to get positive after inflation yields today? maybe some real estate and stocks it's just not going to be bonds. so people i think in their shift, where are we going to get positive after tax, real returns, real rotates still to the stock market and likely rotate through the value stocks and away from the growth stocks that have done so extraordinary in the last two years. >> professor siegl, clearly as

you mentioned, those small cap expensive on probably tech is corrected in a big way already what are the chances that the megacap profitable yet still quite expensive on a pe-type names correct as well. at the moment it seems like a fairly consensus call, yes, microsoft will keep going because it's stable and it's got growth, et cetera, et cetera >> yeah. well, we have what's called the conservative tax and then the high price tax and there was a rotation now, they are high priced. the market is selling for about 22 times earnings with certainly above historical but given interest rates, given the alternative, listen, we have been saying for how many years, tina, there is no alternative when you look around at what is

available in a fixed income market don't forget the fixed income market is tense of trillions of dollars, there is nothing attractive so, you know, i think 22 times earnings is certainly not expensive and that's what we have on the s&p, a little bit higher on tech sector, not too much on the conservative tech sector outside the tech sector, you have 15, 18 times earningles i think that's a bargain in a minus 1% real interest rate world that we live in. >> professor, are you concerned the dividend yield on the s&p 3500, the real yield is negative with that question i want to ask you this commerce earn nominal dollars, not real inflation dollars. as prices go up and companies charge more, should their cash

flow be higher do you expect a year where some of the pressure on stocks is offset by higher dividends and buybacks as companies put greater cash flow to work from higher inflation >> let me answerer your second question first first of all, friends have been easily able to pass on their higher costs there is so much money around. there is so much demand around that, yes, they have more costs than they are able to pass it on that's one reason we say stocks are, in fact, real assets. so i don't have any problem with that by way, it is be very careful. the dividend yield is not negative now because history has shown that cash dividends rise actually more than inflation and so really really you will get, i think you mentioned that earlier.

you will get those, there will be a large number of dividend increases that will be in excess of that inflation. so, yes, we have negative yields on bonds, bonds are promises with no correction but stocks are able to pass on those higher prices, so, there is a positive dividend yield that yield has to be considered after inflation and we know there is record buybacks which actually boost earnings even more than inflation. again, the valuation is certainly higher than long-term history. but we've never had interest rates as low as we have now. certainly on an after inflation basis. therefore, the balance still tips towards stocks. >> professor seigel. i wanted to ask your views on commodity. i know there is a lot in that

term, it's been really interesting on two fronts. the way that gold has not really react today inflation and then on the flipside or alongside that, we saw lumber and oil and others pull back quite a lot in october and november but they've really started to ramp, once again, this past month and generally your views on commodities and what people should have exposure to in the year ahead >> well, i think a lot of people talked about how commodities have come down from the heights like lumber, and even oil. but you are right, oil is, you trade 50% and i'm still hearing experts a lot of them say it might really hit 100 next year and the commodity industry if you take the goldman sachs index, there is still 20-to-30% above pre-pandemic levels. now, about gold and that has

been disappointing and let's face the facts, i think bitcoin as an inflation hedge in the minds of many of the younger investors has replaced gold and we see a comeback in bitcoin certainly, i think digital coins are the new goals for the millennial's and the old, you know, we older people remember the 1970s. that inflation time goal soared, this time, it is not in favor. i still think it's a good investment i think you should hold commodititys probably by investing in emerging marks, which are commodity tentative. by the way, that dividend yields of 4 and 5% are selling for 15 to 20 times earnings, disappointing certainly in the

last two, three years, maybe they'll be a star next year going forward. but i think the story of gold is the fact that the young generation that regarded bitcoin as the substance >> all right professor siegl, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you, happy new year >> thank you washington, maybe when we come back, we can have a discussion about the extent to which stocks are inflation adjusted, not protected. inflationed a judd asset. >> we should, indeed, people should take professor seigel's word over ours. coming up, avoid cruise travel, that's the recommendation from the cdc. we'll tell you what it means for cruise stocks. winners and losers for the year as a whole. we'll be right back.

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. pullback news from the uk breaking early is this morning regulators approve pfizer's anti-viral pill as a treatment for people with mild to moderate covid high risk severe disease shares up a fraction or so this morning. of course, following a very strong year performance.

>> thanks, washington, bad news for the cruise lines, the cdc recommending people avoid cruises, seema modi joins us now, another blow to a hard earned industry. >> reporter: yeah. it certainly s. good morning, the cdc says the chance of getting covid on a cruise ship is very high and is discouraging americans from crucian even if have you all the shots covid cases on board they say is a small percentage of the head count. hospitalizations very low. pointing out no setting can be immune from this virus i spoke to admiral brian salerno who said we're obviously disappointed at the cdc's level especially given the overwhelming level of everythingiveness of cruise

protocols that are resulting in significantly lower levels as compared to happened that itself the opposite we saw at the height of the pandemic, cruises were still trying to figure out how to deal with covid outbreaks. the story has changed. since summer, nearly all cruise passengers are fully vaccinated around 95% that's higher than the u.s. average. guests have to present a negative test prior to getting on board we're seeing 90 ships, a number of them are horrible royal caribbean, norwegian ships as well as sir branson's lady which i got to witness and view a couple months ago in miami overall, it is seeing this stuff happening a. setback for the industry, cruise executives including royal caribbean have replicated that the longer-term booking story is very strong we're looking at carnival and norwegian to end lower

royal caribbean higher about 3%. back to you. >> hey seema, let's pick up where you left off what is the practicalesque of this this is not a ban on cruises, this is a recommendation by cdc not to take -- what has been the immediate effect are people canceling are they continuing with their plans to go on these cruises >> reporter: yeah. it's a great point and it's important to highlight here. this is just a recommendation from the cdc this is falling short of any type of restrictions or putting a dent on sailings by any means. in terms of the impact of omicron on bookings right now, the latest commentary we have received from the major ceos, including royal caribbean yesterday saying is yes we are starting to see some cancellations related to omicron. the longer-term story, the second half of 2022 going into 2023, the cruise lines are

hoping to turn a profit either before or at the halfway point of next year those will be the key targets to watch for wall street. >> thank you very much happy new year to you. will still to come, get your portfolio ready for the new year we'll talk to tech investor ann winblad and what she is focused on with ibm, you can do both. your business can unify apps and data across your clouds. so you can address supply chain issues in real time, before they impact your bottom line. predicting and managing operational issues that's why so many businesses work with ibm.

welcome back to "squawk box" a. record amount of money is pouring into climate spending. na could ramp up next year, depending on president biden's build back better bill diana olick joins us with a playbook for next year. >> reporter: will, the business of climate will depend on the u.s. on the fate of president biden's $1.75 trillion build back better plan which was originally toorg

orpedoeed by senior manchin. there was a tax credit for buyers of electric vehicles. about $12 billion aimed as making buildings more efficient and pulling carbon dioxide out of the air parts could be passed outside the full bill. all that spending hangs in the balance. meanwhile, venture capitalist is spending big time on clean tech. that will increase in 2022 in the first half of this year, there was record investment of $60 billion, a 210% increase from the previously 12 popths, climate now accounts for 14 cents of every haven'tture capital dollar and the average deal size has nearly quadrupled. one red flag to watch is supply chain issues, especially in the solar industry that's causing solar panels to rise for the first time in

years. the solar energy association just reduced the solar installation forecast by twen 25%. solar stocks under performed with invesco solar etf down 20%. that after rising 223% in 2020 then there is lithium, cobalt and nickel for batteries >> and diana, clearly, time and money as you outlined there already was and it's growing fast, pouring into this area of bcs, have they already made a lot of money as well from those investments? is that what they're expected to continue to do or is it a more noenl reason why they're doing it -- a more noble reason why they're dock it? >> their earnings are at risk. yes, they're making a lot of money. in fact, black rock fed said he

sees climate as a huge investment he says next thousand unicorns will be climate related. that is a climate agricultural and clean energy, clean tech, clean biofuels, et cetera. these are amazing opportunities for all businesses and, of course, they do it with higher returns. wolf >> diana, thank you. all right. cocking up on this new year's eve day celebration at "squawk box" here, tech investor ann winblad joins us with her outlook for the new year and investment idea. as we he ed to break, here is a look at the winners and users in the nasdaq for the year.

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welcome back to "squawk box. taking a look at the futures right now. it looks like the nasdaq has turned positive. the dow is down 46 on the implied open s&p a little stronger down two-and-a-half ly call it unchanged china's biggest city, meanwhile, is getting serious about the metaverse, the city of shanghai, including the first mention of the virtual world using 3d

avatars that listed the metaverse as one of the four fronteers, they call the encouraging of the metaverse in areas, business offices, social entertainment and manufacturing, production safety and electronic games. city wants to increase r&d of the underlying technologies, including sensors, blockchain and real time interaction in the virtual world. wolf, i didn't just read that. that wasn't an avatar right there. >> no, they should change the name of their city why go halfway companies are doing it so they should, maybe that will attract more investment. we will see. for the first time in five years, the nasdaq on track to lag the s&p 500. tech investors still, of course, comfortably strong returns this past year. megacaps, apple, alphabet and

tesla led the way as a whole let's move ahead to next year. ann winblad venture partners joins us now great to see you thanks for joining us. i mentioned the meg fwa caps just there, it's probably the key determining factor of the headline indices next year this time next area, do you think they'll be on a richer or poorer multiple than they are at the moment >> blanket caps are pretty well positioned, especially microsoft. in a letter published recently, you can see he's laid down the road map of projects that are not just futures but they are already in progress from iot integration and metaverse, all these companies will be participants there in the enterprise metaverse, these companies, including amazon and microsovietway laid down a future roadmap from the

enterprise metaverse to space tech so i think these companies are in a great position to have continued strong growth in 2022. >> what is the enterprise metaverse? >> the enterprise metaverse is quite a bit different than the consumer metaverse what that means is the basically the visualization, stimulation of physical assets we talked about improvement and sensor technology, confused platforms and also the ability to enrich these platforms on the cloud with lots of data and ai there was a recent ipo the company samsurra, particularly iot. that's a good example and operating platform their first market was weight management and recently amazon indicated they're going to have

the first digital twin, meaning a metaverse into an area google indicated recently supply chains would be their focus and microsoft said everything with the internet of things, meaning anything that has a sensor on it can be brought into their metaverse. so these new operating platforms are very different than just the standard old erp software, et cetera what people need to visualize and seemingly have ai have been anticipating what might happen in physical environments and we call this in the enterprise, we call it building digital twins. >> and sticking a little bit more on microsoft, which was intertwined with all of that were you worried when you saw satya nadella selling half of his stock? >> yes i'm surprised he hasn't sold much stock before. but, you know, i think he's really committed to leading this

enterprise and i don't think it's significant given how much stock he still owns. >> to what extent do you worry how much some of these calls, i mean, not enterprise metaverse, but the broader kind of software as being stable and high margin and still a growth area for next year being already a bit of a consensus call >> well, you know, i think the valuations are extremely high on these companies. at the same time the growth that these companies at scale is unprecedentled i usine accent your, they raised their guidance, they gave extremely high guidance for the future they are the ones that are helping lift all this stuff into

the enterprise from these megacap companies and other companies like salesforce, for example. so i think for 2022, we've got some, a lot of work to do on the enterprise we saw during this pandemic year that salesforce arc lot of places where we could use a lot better software, supply chains are a good example we got a lot of changes going on you mentioned climate tech new energy platforms, electric vehicles all of these will have different software platforms coming forward. one other thing that mention is most software developers build software by downloading components from repositories, open source repositories, this year, it's anticipated there will be 3 billion downloaded that's over 70% more than the year before. so there is an enormous amount

of new software coming to market, more than we've ever seen before. so that's an opportunity for everybody to continue on their technology invasion to build some of these new industries we need and that means more revenue for software companies >> hey, ann, i want you to pick up on that, as my question, which is to what extent do you see what's driving this industry coming from inflation and the attempts of companies to reduce their costs that otherwise either replace workers because of wage inflation or increase productivity generally because of higher input costs? >> i think most of the growth won't be coming from lowering the costs of operating or lowering personnel costs it's really going to be to transform their industries so they can participate in the future you look at the automotive sector, really they are transform, their work force. they need different workers to

run their kind of operations they have for electric vehicles, for networks of stations that power these vehicles, for maintaining vehicles so the real challenge here is not lowering cost of personnel, be up finding personnel. everybody is competing for the same type of personnel it's very technical rich environment that all of these companies will end up with, we are all competing for the same resources, whether venture capitalists, microsoft or ford motor. so it really is not lowering the cost of ownership. it's the ability to participate in the future so it is still the broader theme of digital transformation and really moving your work force to a different level of competency. >> ann, to what extent do you believe 3d, whatever we want to

label it, will take significant mart share in market share and what's the best way to play it from listed entity >> well, much of the large banks are some of the technical leaders. if you look at to it at the i.t. budgets, for example, of morgan stanley, or jpmc, it's really about $15 billion a year these companies are not lagging. they are leading in the new technologies i think when you think about web 3.0, it's kind of a mushy term, but what are changing is consumer patterns. we really do have the payment platforms have changed already most of the large banks have incorporated those you have the participants in the financial markets being broader. we have all seen that. banks have anticipated that, so i do think that we as venture

capitalists also are visited by these large banking annually they want to see our portfolios early, so i don't think we need to really worry about technology sweeping over these banks. we really need to worry about, can we deliver enough technology from the enterprise software industry to actually keep up up with where the enterprise will follow the consumer? it's not really web 3.0, but keeping up with the new model of customer engagement, customer experience that is just not in the development platforms, in the payment platforms, it's the engagement platforms like from salesforce and others. >> ann winblad, thank you for joining us happy new year. >> happy new year to you, too. thank you. we'll talk about the potential market catalyst in

2022 next, and we'll be watching shares of exxon mobil, thanks in large part to stronger oil and gas prices, crude prices this year up 55%, just a few moments left in the frost/liesman new year's eve day extravaganza. full prescription-strength? reduces inflammation? thank the gods. don't thank them too soon. kick pain in the aspercreme.

okay we can back, ahead of the start of the final trading session of the year the futures are indicating a still positive, increasingly positive on the nasdaq, down a little bit let now on the dow, down 41. s&p down two points there. we're joined by imona mahajan, thank you for joining us this morning. >> absolutely. happy early new year >> happy new year. great. listen, you know, with deep respect to my colleague joe, if he were here, we would be talking about 2022 is it the year of the reverse to the mean we've had three extraordinary years. are you thinking 2022 is another

extraordinary year, or is it time to give back a little just because it's time? >> yes you know, your colleague joe is probably thinking much like ourselves. after three phenomenal years in the market, the s&p looks poised to close at 27% up this year we do think 2022 will be a year of what we call moderation not only will we get moderating earning and economic growth, perhaps rating inflation moderating fed policy report, also likely moderating returns we still think the bull market has some legs here, but return will probably be more in line with what we see as earnings growth, which is single digits, and likely increased bouts of volatility as we all know, we only got one

5 march correction this year but, you know, as we said, the good news is investors will have money to put to work in 2022, just like every year it does seems like that tina effect, there is no alternative, in an environment where investors are looking for large liquid markets, u.s. equities once again will come to the forefront. >> we don't have a lot of time here give us two or three bright ideas where people should be if they're not there yet, or where they could go now? >> absolutely. we think the first half of the year we could get a bit of reopening 2.0. but we think the wrest of 2022, you have to think about balances your portfolio, especially with areas that really investors look towards when growth is slowing or moderating, that includes tech names, as well as some

defensive names. inflation will be invested next year so think about staples, health care in that environment overall a balanced approach. equities are a great hedge for inflationary environment the only point i might make is the u.s. has done great. we do think there's an opportunity to pay complement your portfolio with e.m. and mid and international small cap as we might get a global reopening and stability out of the china. >> and you have 27% gains in stocks, should people rebalance two a better balance of stocks and bonds, and if they do that, are they rebalancing in a place that looks set to lose money >> we don't think investors should completely give up their bond portfolios.

in fact, investment-grade bonds held up pretty well. bonds do offer a bit of pickup in yield versus treasuries, and a lot of them are levered to very strong corporations that continue to have strong leveraged positions, good balance sheets are healthy we do think a good bond portfolio, especially when it depends on your life goals, where you are, you know, what you're looking for out of your financial portfolios don't give up on those goals if you are later in life, and you think you need some income and you're looking towards bonds, we still thing that bonds can offer a good defensive hedge and offer a pickup in income ago well keep in mind next year we think equities will be the outperformer mona, thank you very much. a happy new year to you. >> happy new year. wilf, it's been an amazing new year thanks to everybody behind the

camera for a great year respect extraordinary year, for making it all possible. >> indeed, i say that to all the -- i still have another show to come. steve, it's been a pleasure. i can't quite say you're my favorite, because sara is probably watching, but you're right up there fractionally behind happy new year to all squawk virus. stay tuned cnbc continues throughout the day. good friday morning, women to "squawk on the street." i'm here with leslie picker er d mike santoli there you go we're down on the dow, down on the s&p, marginally higher on the nats gab our road map this morning starts with the bull market of