good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm becky quick along with andrew ross sorkin and joe kernen, who is just back from the home of the new national champions. that's right, congratulations to the georgia dogs welcome back, joe. good to see you. >> one more day. >> i couldn't believe you came back the day before that happened poor planning on your part. >> anyone notice that hershel is now back in the spotlight. it's all weird, isn't it. >> the last time they won, was it 42 years ago, 1980. >> you're asking me because you think i was -- no. yes, it was, it was 1980 i think it was -- i had been at merle lynch for 80 years no 1980 is when i graduated from grad school. how's andrew doing in what's going on sorkin, i

didn't see you the week before i left either. you look bright eyed and bushy tailed. >> i haven't seen you for two weeks. two long weeks. >> time flies. >> welcome back, my friend welcome back happy new year. >> it is good to have everybody back and we're going to start this morning with the markets you saw yesterday some chaotic things happening there was an average rebound that erased some massive losses in technology stocks and pushed the nasdaq from a decline of 2.7% to a small gain actually eking out a gain which was a small victory. the dow and s&p 500 both fell by less than one half of one percent. what looked like a bleak day for the bulls turned out to not be so bad right now you'll see the rebound continues for the tech stocks in particular the nasdaq indicated up by about 88 points right now. the dow is indicated up by about

95 points, the s&p indicated up by 18. these are some rebounds after some significant losses for tech stocks the nasdaq down about 8% from its all-time high even with the gains you saw yesterday. also keeping an eye on the treasury market. this is getting ever more important. you have jay powell going before the senate today to start talking and making his case for why the fed needs to be more aggressive, raise rates to fight off inflation. may be a tough sell to the democratic senators there who are concerned about the fed raising rates, making sure they keep things low so it's not too expensive and you can continue the free flow of what's happening. but jay powell is going to be emphasizing that inflation hurts the poorest people the less wealthy people and that's the biggest issue he wants to make sure he's protecting the this morning the ten year is lower at 1.764%.

this is where the real world is starting to pay attention to this as rates have climbed so rapidly so quickly you have seen big things, the 30 year mortgage yesterday, the average was priced at 3.64%. up from 3.5% on friday and 3.29% on monday a week ago those are significant moves that mean things to people trying to buy houses right now those houses got a lot more expensive over the course of the last week. >> they did. we will see whether there's a real impact over time. >> we will test the theory that the first couple of rate increases typically don't necessarily derail what's going on in the equities markets, because it indicates maybe the economy is solid you didn't settle anything while i was gone with covid? are we looking for a peak this month? >> we settled things >> looking for maybe some --

>> i think we might very well have peaked, joe, in the new york area, or new york city at least. you've actually started to see the numbers go down, it was up 18, 19%, and they started, manhattan specific, have started to fall. the question is whether it holds. you know, look, if we can get past in this area, the next two weeks. i think there's another six weeks nationwide, though, before you're going to see the full -- the full peak. >> crazy notions, though, that entered my mind. one was i guess i really hadn't thought it completely through that people go to the hospital all the time i mean, hospitals are crowded. and if you're testing every single person and half of them have covid, covid hospitalizations are going to go up -- >> we've been talking about that. >> you have. and that is -- and also the 75% of the cases were at least for

comorbidities. 175, i'm surprised we could be at 2, which it seems like we need to be there this year. >> ten year you're talking about. >> yeah. on the ten year. i don't know whether that derails it scary what's going on in crypto. have a crypto person coming on i know you've been talking about that as well too. >> you heard jamie dimon saying, him personally, he'd be surprised if it's only four rate hikes this year. he thinks the economy can handle it i'm not sure if the market can but the economy looks like it's in shape and ready to do it, according to him. >> we saw goldman sachs yesterday they pulled forward their -- they went to four but pulled forward to start, i believe, in june or july, right? >> yeah. >> right so what -- >> meanwhile -- >> you could go to three and it still seems friendly friendly interest rate environment and banks do a little better.

i don't know what -- we're in 2022, i missed all the first week forecasts where are we going where's the s&p going? in did you give your targets >> my target, no we were waiting for you to lead the way boldly forward. >> yeah. wait you go first you go first let me think about it. let me think about it. >> very dangerous. >> you think about that, joe we'll talk about the covid cases. we can also -- we can make some covid predictions if you like. but the u.s. reporting more than 1.3 million new cases yesterday, breaking the previous record of just over a million from a week ago, that was on january 3rd, bringing the seven day average to a new high of 741,000 new infections per day joe? >> that's significant -- that is a significant number, but have we decided omicron is definitely not delta. what's the delta-cron? is that real or a mistake?

we'll find out we may need another alphabet eventually or maybe go back and use xi, or x-i let's not do that. also new, the teachers union in chicago voted 63% to end the walk out sparked by a clash over covid protocols ahead of the chicago public schools said teachers are going to return today and in-person classes will return tomorrow. mayor lori lightfoot said the key will be the metrics for triggering a shutdown of individual schools at this point. these tests, try getting a test. >> that's just it. i will give everybody a hint for the early viewers of "squawk box," the tip of the morning, walmart.com has tests right now, i just bought them -- they're gone already i literally got them at 5:58

you have to check early. >> unbelievable. >> the biden administration said private insurers -- >> what are they charging? >> i don't know. i didn't look. i was clicking so fast to try to get it they are charging -- one second. shoot. i got to find my order i'll find it for you in a minute it is $20 -- yeah, $19.99 apiece. >> 20. >> yeah. >> that's what they said they were going to do last week. >> still cheaper than cvs, walgreens or anybody else. amazon has its own fda approved one, you can get ahold of that often on amazon as well. and the biden administration says that private insurers are going to have to cover the cost of 8 at-home covid tests per member per month they'll get plans at retailers and pharmacies with no out of pocket costs or buy the test elsewhere and file claims for

reimbursement. it will not apply retroactively. still for many americans paying for tests hasn't been a problem lately it's been the run on supply. manufacturers are still racing to try to restock the shelves. the other thing you realize, if you have a family of four, five, six people, in our house there's six of us. if somebody gets a positive test or gets exposed you need a lot of tests to figure out when and if it's moving through the household. >> crazy. >> yeah. it's not okay to have a test per person or two tests per people. >> the first test doesn't mean anything if the other person just got it. you have to test tomorrow. you never know >> but the real question is why didn't the biden administration do this a long time ago. should the insurance companies be the ones to pay for this. should the government be subsidizing the tests so they're

cheap and available. you go online and look at the experiences of people trying to find the tests and people trying to get reimbursed, you can't until after january 15th so everybody stocked up or trying to do this responsibly gets disincentivized -- i mean, the whole system is broken. >> do you know people that know people that were unable to get reimbursed, is that what you're saying andrew? >> no. there's been -- if you go online, there are articles, lots of articles about people who have attempted to try to get the reimbursement, people have taken to twitter to explain their situation and what they tried to do and how it appears that the insurance companies won't do it. in part because i think the date had not officially been set. i thought the date was originally january 1st, now it appears january 15th is there a difference between how many tests you're supposed to be able to get, none of the

insurance companies know the answer there are insurance people out online talking about it. there's a whole sort of complex around this right now. >>, you know, let's worry about supply first get them out there where you can get them and then we'll worry about reimbursement. >> i know people who are still waiting for pcr test results five days later, six days later, seven days later it's usefulless if you can't ge test back within 48 hours. >> have you ever tried to call a pharmacy >> i did so yesterday. >> local the chains are tough the chains are tough you might be on -- they say like, you know, 16 minutes, 17 minutes and then you wait long enough and sometimes they never come here's what we talked about earlier, the georgia bulldogs are college football national champions finally getting that

saban monkey off their back. it's tough to beatn nick say ba. stetson bennett led georgia to a 33-18 win. georgia leaned on the defense, it should have been there the previous game, the s.e.c. championship when those guys got so tired they're on the field the entire game, and that didn't happen last night. saw the first half andgeorgia was actually able to stop alabama on some of the third down plays and get off the field. because, man, beating alabama, that's tough alabama's heisman winning quarterback through an interception late in the game, that sealed the deal for the bulldogs i can tell you, 42 years a lot of people were watching closely, and really hoping this time would happen and georgia, did you guys know that georgia was favored

i was kind of surprised. i took georgia, and i only had to give two and a half points. i couldn't bet i was fine but i couldn't bet for ten days, 11 days, but i was fine >> not that you were count the hours. that's why you came home. >> now you can do it sitting in the chair. >> like i had the over -- >> back in new york. >> 53. 53, so i didn't win because 33 plus 18 is 51 if you do the math i had the right team. >> so close. >> it's a moral victory, so i lost $6. but georgia, that's big. for people down there. >> i'm surprised they were up in the -- you know, only because the only game they lost all year was to alabama earlier >> favored yeah and alabama had some uneven -- they lost to texas a&m, just barely beat, who was it, mississippi state? one of them.

auburn maybe auburn, yeah back and forth with auburn great -- that should have been maybe the har binger, the way, michigan man handled ohio state and then georgia beating michigan like that great game i wish i would have stayed up for -- i couldn't. >> because you're here with us now, which is important too and we're glad you're here >> yes >> we do tip our hats to the dogs when we come back, fed chair jay powell is going to be testifying on capitol hill today. this happens as the senate considers his renomination for another term we'll tell you what to expect next. and later, dr. scott gottlieb will join us with the latest on the surge of covid cases and the biden administration's response. you're watching "squawk box" and iss bcth icn

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back to march of 2020. we are on our way to 15% unemployment, a lot of people died from covid and no known vaccine. now we have unemployment around 4%, the consumer is in good shape. business in good shape and, you know, those things are really good. the fed, you know, you could say they should have started doing it earlier and stuff like that but if we're lucky they can engineer a slow down and you'll see inflation coming down. a lot of people say it'll be 2.3% by the end of the year, i don't, it'll be higher but the fed will slow things down and have a soft landing. >> that was jamie dimon speaking to cnbc yesterday. fed chair jay powell will be speaking on the hill today e ylan mui joins us right now with what to expect good morning. >> reporter: good morning. inflation is sure to be front

and center during fed chair powell's confirmation hearing this morning in his written statement he tried to pre-empt potential criticism saying we know that high inflation exacts a toll on those meeting the essentials he also talked about persistent supply chain bottlenecks that led to elevated inflation. though he does not mention rate hikes or asset purchases in his testimony but he does acknowledge the economy will be different post-pandemic and that monetary policy will have to adjust to it keeping what he calls a broad and forward-looking view democrats don't want him to hit the breaks too soon. senator sherrod brown plans to warn powell that the fed must not allow wall street to recover while working americans are left behind we've seen that story unfold too many times before. meanwhile the republicans say

they're on guard against fed mission creep. pat toomey plans to argue that the central bank does not have a mandate to advance politically charged causes like carbon emissions or racial justice. still powell is widely expected to win bipartisan support, guys, and he's been upfront about making regular and frequent meetings with lawmakers a priority as a way to earn their trust. back to you. >> it does sound like a tricky way to navigate through some of these questions he's going to be getting today. he's made it clear in what we've heard from those remarks he's going to make that inflation is the enemy of people who are the least wealthy. the people who are lower down on the income scale are hit hardest if inflation continues to climb at this pace do you think there's an audience for that among the democratic senators who have been warning that the fed shouldn't move too quickly? >> reporter: i thought it was

interesting in his written testimony at least that he only mentioned the labor market, job market one time to say that the labor market is strong, because manyeconomists feel we may already be at full employment or be there very soon and so, even though democrats from what we've seen of their line of questioning so far will make sure and sort of press powell on whether or not that recovery is reaching all groups, you know, he's pointing out that inflation inequality is becoming more of the buzz word, maybe more of the thing that economists are going to be worrying about because for the lower end of the spectrum, a larger share of their budget is spent on essential items like food, et cetera. even though we buy gas and food for higher income folks that's a lower part of their budget than lower income folks obviously the way to make the argument is stand behind the

little guy rather get in the weeds of monetary policy. >> i was struck by -- i don't know if anyone else noticed, maybe i hear things differently. but the irony in the notion that the fed needs to make sure that they don't help wall street at the expense of the normal person out there. they may be a little bit behind the curve on preventing doing that that's the biggest criticism of the fed over the past ten years is that you keep rates low, assets go up, anybody who owns assets, they're the ones that do well we talk about income inequality every day. what is sherrod brown's point at this point be careful you don't let that happen. is he saying stay accommodative and that will help main street, where we know that being accommodative exacerbates income

inequality what's the point that's why we're in the soup already. >> reporter: right we don't have his full remarks we have excerpts of his remarks so far that does seem like what he is suggesting, that's the catch 22 for democrats. the argument from the fed has long been the way the fed -- the channels through which monetary policy works tend to inflate financial assets that's one of the sectors that's going to see a stronger recovery before you get to the job market and maybe what's happening for the little guy that being said, you know, democrats have long been pressing the fed to make sure they hear from a broad constituency not just wall street, that's why the fed embarked on the listening tour, traveling to different communities to hear what folks have to say about how they're recovering from the pandemic you can see the way the pressure from the democrats has changed

what the fed does. i remember when the fed started talking about the unemployment rates for different minority groups inside the fmoc minutes, that was a big deal they started adding that and honing in on that you can see the ways the pressure has made the difference i think the point the democrats are making is you have to have a full picture of the economy not just what you're hearing on wall street, though, of course, the fed primarily works on monetary markets. for more we're joined by jim grant. jim you have long been critical of this fed for not moving more quickly. we're now hearing from wall street firms and others that the fed is likely to make at least four moves, four hikes this year is that enough in your view? are they going to be able to catch up from being behind, at least in your opinion? >> i don't know. i think the fed's principle error in this cycle is to

arrogate to itself the idea that it is in charge of events, not conceding that events actually have been largely in charge of the fed. and i think i can interpret senator brown's remarks. they are exactly 106 or 7 years old, around the time of the founding of the fed, carter glass was railing, he's a founding senator of the fed. he was railing against wall street and against how the fed would certainly stand up to the concentration of the financial tower and the excesses of private finance. and here we are, 100 years plus later and we are hearing more or less precisely the same ideas, arguments. with this difference that under the fed, interest rates as determined in the marketplace have -- are now receding fast. and is in the rear view mirror, we have not had them for many

years. i think that is something that chairman powell ought to be asked about. what ever did happen to interest rates one might ask him, we missed them. certainly the thrifty missed them. >> people who are relying on income they might get from savings accounts and other places like that, cds are probably missing higher inflation. but there is a price to be paid by consumers if you're watching mortgage rates climb, which we have over the past week pretty significantly. if you're going to start paying higher credit card interest. if you're going to see other places like that so the battle that powell is going to be facing today before the senate is to try to explain that inflation can be a bigger problem for the masses than higher interest rates itself do you think he'll be able to make that point? >> yeah, of course there are two kinds of inflation one is the very pleasant wall street variety, in levation of

earning assets and that is, for many people, not at all a problem but a fine livelihood. but that is on a collision course, it seems to me, with -- more newsworthy for inflation that of the cpi. so how do you navigate that? the fed now is talking big about its three or four rate rises it means to shrink its grotesque, its large balance sheet. without upsetting the financial structure, which is highly leveraged and quite precarious for that reason. one symbolic but nonetheless, i think, striking and indeed important feature of our financial landscape is the leverage of the federal reserve itself it is a bank and it has assets and it has capital and the system itself is leveraged more than 200 to 1 and the flagship branch of the

fed, the new york fed, is leveraged 316 to 1 that's compared to like 12 to 1 for the big banks such as j.p. morgan chase so this only is a reflection of the i mmensity of the fed's instruss and widely but little remarked turn that jay powell made ten years ago when he was a newbie he said i really do think that we are actually at the point of leading people to take more risk and he enumerated some of the excesses that then new qe program was introducing in the marketplace. we call it the toppy markets and the like, here we are ten years later and nobody is asking him about the structure of finance

of the in discipline of fitnnan and the fed's contribution of that discipline of finance nfts and cryptos, public capital, venture public capital, zero profitable tech firms, a whole index of them. so how you raise rates to suppress inflation on main street without upsetting the apple cart of ininflation on wall street is a good question i wish someone would ask the chairman -- >> yesterday. >> sorry >> yesterday jamie dimon said he thinks that the economy is very ready to hire higher inflation, they have money in their savings accounts, checking accounts. wages are higher anybody who wants a job basically can find one at this

point opinion he said the economy is ready for this. the market maybe not so much you may see a lot of volatility. is that what you're anticipating too as the fed pushes ahead? >> yes if you look back at this episode in disbelief here we have unplummet rate of less than 4% and we have all these markers of a terrific gust of prosperity in the real economy and interest rates are still, ostensibly, at zero, to say funding rates, short end of the curve. the fed is still, for the time being, monetizing an immense amount of debt, turning those securities into money. ed highman talks about success of savings over the usual 8% saving rate. something like $2.2 trillion of excess savings available for purchases of things and

services so never before, never before have we seen this alignment of forces, this terrifically bouncy economy couple d with interest rates and zero rates it'll be great television, ladies and gentlemen, great copy for some of the financial scribes. i'm not sure about the outcome for real people. but certainly for the financial crisis it's paradise. >> it will be something to watch and record jim we appreciate your time today. good to see you. >> thank you, becky. save the tape. save the tape for the moment it happens. coming up next, we'll tell you what senator rubio is accusing intel of cowardice, what that's about. and later the ceo of the u.s. chamber of commerce will join us "squawk box" returning right after this

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welcome back to "squawk box" this morning shares of intel jumped overnight after the company confirmed the appointment of david ziner george davis is going to be retiring from intel in may but joe, maybe the bigger news is this back and forth between rubio and intel. >> you mean we have a new section now, andrew, it's our new profiles in courage section. separately intel has deleted references to china's xinjiang province after the company faced

backlash in china. i understand it's a reality, a huge market, what are you going to do. last month in a letter to suppliers intel wrote had, in its words, been required to assure that its supply chain does not use any labor or source goods or services from this region, the xinjiang region, following restrictions imposed by multiple governments. but according to a router's review of the letter that paragraph has been deleted along with any reference to xinjiang whatsoever or china. the letter now says the company prohibits any human trafficked or involuntary labor such as forced, debt bonded, prison indentured, or slave labor throughout extended supply chains and a change to the letter brought a rebuke from rubio

saying intel's cowardice is yet another predictable consequence of economic reliance on china. beijing has repeatedly denied human rights claims specifically there. and intel is saying they had to say it because of the law. nobody's got -- andrew, nobody is without some blame at this point. >> the most interesting thing that rubio said was not just he was upset with them on the rhetoric or jawboning side he said intel shouldn't be eligible to be part of the chips program which would subsidize intel and others to create semiconductors here in the united states as a result of not speaking out more publicly that's where it gets to me, from a business perspective, really complicated. we've seen it with voting rights

in georgia where companies like delta and others were denied tax benefits because of the position they took. now it's applied in a different way to a company potentially like intel in the context of china. and so, boy are you stuck between a rock and a hard place if you're the ceo of intel this morning. >> well, it -- what are we going to do as a country what is the line we need to walk with china i don't know you see the latest, ray dalio. i don't know what to tell you. one guy, freedom, that changed his name and took a stand and everybody else is -- >> i don't know what the right answer is. >> by the way, if we -- if they did that, if they did that, if they prevented intel from being able to get access to those funds you would be shooting us in the foot in terms of trying to deal with the problem itself,

which is get more manufacturing in the foot. >> all of these issues there's going to be a lot of feet shot right? you're cutting off your nose to spite your face. it's a very difficult -- in the modern world and i think in defense -- i don't want to defend ray dalio he said trying to figure out the perfect morale approach to all of this is above my pay grade. it couldn't be above ray's pay grade, nothing is. coming up the reddit ncr llion, it's been a yea sie gamestop mania jolted the markets. a closer look is coming up hey lily, i need a new wireless plan for my business, but all my employees need something different. oh, we can help with that. okay, imagine this. your mover, rob, he's on the scene and needs a plan with a mobile hotspot.

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welcome back to "squawk box. we have some news just out just capital is out with its rankings of the most justice companies in america of the nearly 1,000 companies measured, alphabet, formerly google, as we know, is at the top of the luist, this for the first time then followed by intel microsoft, sales force, bank of america, paypal, apple, nvidia, verse and cisco, they

create more jobs and are more likely to disclose demographic data by race and ethnicity, as well as pay gap and analysis and use 20% more renewable energy. companies in the just 100 had a 4.4% higher return on equity and paid 19.2% more in dividends i know we've talked about esg over the years but just capital is not really just in measure of esg per se what they do every year is they go out and do a poll of americans across the country about what's important to them in terms of how they think about things and then they measure it and weigh it, and that's how they come up with the just 100 list we're going to talk a lot more about that list and what goes into it and what comes from it that's going to happen at 8:00 a.m. this morning. we're going to speak with julie

sweet from accenture, ranked number 17 on the list. and justice capital's co-founder paul tudor jones joins us. you can check out the list now by visiting cnbc.com paul jones came on years ago and said it'gog s into out perform and it has worthwhile investments "squawk box" right back after this vice, tools and a personalized plan that helps you build a future for those you love. vanguard. become an owner. amazing. jerry, you gotta to see this. seen it. trust me, after 15 walks... gets a little old. ugh

turning now to the gamestop saga, it's been a year since the reddit saga. this morning robert frank has an update on where things stand robert >> good morning, andrew. it all actually started with ryan cohen in august of 2020 he started quietly buying shares of

game stop for around 4 to $5 a share. by the end of 2020 he invested $76 million for about 13% of the company. now that $76 million original investment is worth $1.1 billion that gives him a 1400% return. he hasn't sold any of his shares of course, he became chairman and remains the largest individual shareholder of gamestop in a recent tweet he wrote deciding between two options fo my gme stake, hold or hodle. other directions have sold, james wolf sold $17 million of his shares last january around 21 bucks a share other directors have sold over $3 million in shares one big investor got out right before the run up, that was donald foss. he invested $13 million in the company. he sold at the end of december 2020 for about $60 million

if he had held onto that stake, it would be worth over $450 million today cohen has actually been a really good investor, his other big bet is apple, investing $250 million in apple shares starting in 2017 that stake today worth over $1 billion the guy who kicked it all off, ryan cohen proving to be a great investor not just from gamestop but also in apple and some other shares. >> very much so. he has a much higher hurdle now, though, going forward. robert frank, thank you. appreciate it. becky? >> thanks, andrew. when we come back we'll talk about a rough start to the year for bitcoin, down more than 9% we'll talk to the ceo of a crypto connected fin tech right after this

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it's been a rough week for crypto as you probably know.

bitcoin down more than 9%. it's even worse for etherium, down more than 18% joining us now the co-founder and senior vp of operation at block buy. block buy is a thin tech with sweet until tools for retail and institutional investors, including a crypt credit card. dplor why, each year we kind of look forward and look back around this time of year, mid-january, early february. we are seeing a little bit of a pullback nothing new for anybody that's had any experience in crypto, year after year. what are the differences that you see? is this a significant pullback or are the significant things this year more positive in your view about crypto? >> it's great to see you, joe. and i would definitely say that i'm excited for 2022 and whenever we talk about crypto returns, i do like to pull back and look at the big picture. so if you look at what you can

call the pandemic returns for bitcoin. so the two-year return as of today, bitcoin is actually up 416% so this 40k level is actually very exciting for most crypt investors. in that time frame, schools and the s&p 500 respectively have returned 15% and 42% so bitcoin is definitely a volatile asset but as we look forward to 2022, there are two key things that i am really excited for this year. in 2021, we saw a record amount of d.c. funding go into the crypto space it's up 450% increase from 2021. so i do think that this year you can going to see crypto companies hiring stronger talent and really good momentum as products begin to mature second, i do think crypto has become a clear setup for

innovation in the u.s. at a time when we are looking to stimulate the economy. so if you look at last year, crypto-related job postings grew 395% if you compare that to the tech industry, tech came in at 98%. so overall, it is a volatile start to the year. it's definitely something crypto investors are used to. i'm definitely excited for what's ahead. >> the space is changing, obviously, you are kind of at the forefront of that in terms of all these ancillary products that you are offering. regulatory issues front and center again, you think that goes from a negative overhappening to resolving itself in a positive way eventually, this year in >> up, absolutely. so can't give you the exact time lines for regulators but what i can say is since the beginning, regulatory clarity is

any of the founders or building in this space definitely needs if you come in from financial services, you know the rules come first and in order for this space to really grow, i do think that consumers and investors alike need clarity from regulators in terms of how investors should be investing. i think a lot of consumers and investors alike have been siting is on the sidelines waiting to either move into the space from an employment standpoint or an investment respective. they have been waiting noer this to come about. if we get clarity from regulators the beginning of this year, i do know it will move to a level 2 in terms of how we build and how much we can grow >> do you think we're setting ourselves up for a retrenchment

year or is it three steps forward, two steps back every year for crypto? because the reason i bring it up, the fed is probably headed the other way at some point. we know that and that's you know the popularity of crypto is a currency that won't be debased, but just i think the general speculation that you have when the fed isn't moving up. either one will be a tailwind at this point can the whole space withstand change the fed is then very important can it fan this change in. >> i think one of the main aspects of why people are interested in bitcoin is the fact that it is a deflationary asset so there is a limited amount of bitcoin that will definitely be printed. that's something that makes it attractive to hold a small

percentage in most portfolios i think in any technology it's three steps forward, despite vol tishlt tilt -- volatility if you take a company like block cut, for example, two years ago at the beginning of the pandemic, we had 80 employees, today we have 850. so there has been massive growth in this industry there has been a lot of investment that went into it with more regulation into this space, we are poised for a year of continued building and potential growth >> all right so you are a megastacker i'm going to end it there. i can hear it in your voice. that's what you wanted to say and there are what does michael indicate, some kind of

megast megatracker on steroids. >> i understand most of our investors at block buy are buy and hold >> buy and hold. gloria marquez, thank you. quick growth to your company that's staggering and the great resignation in your view, people are moving to crypto crazy. very good. thank you. coming up, fed chair j. powell headed to capitol hill for his nomination we were talking about him. the impact on crypto we'll be right back. we'll be right back.

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. the internet higher after rising comeback. we'll get you up to speed on what you need to watch in today's session. fed chair j. powell's confirmation hearings is just hours away we have a preview of what investors should expect from banking committee member senator pat toomey plus the state of small businesses across america. labor shortages, inflation, shutdown ceo suzanne clark joins with us an update on what's impacting the american economy the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now good morning welcome back to "squawk box"

here on cnbc i'm andrew ross sorkin i'm here with becky quick and joe kernon it's two-and-a-half hours before the market is set to hop this is where we stand, nasdaq looking to open up about 78 points higher. the s&p 500 looking to open higher, 16 points higher, joe. >> yep, let's get to domment dom chu watches the premarket movers. >> good morning. if you take a look at the movement, a lot of the analysts, commentarys, coming out with the themes that they're seeing early on in 2022 are kind of reverberateing we focus a lot on evs because there is a lot of search interest, not just on our website, the industry, in general. tesla is the industry leading. this morning it's getting help, it's getting some help, in part from analysts over at morgan stanley led by adam jonas auto

analyst over there, who basically, keeps his overweighting on the stock and the target price from a prior $1,200 a part of the thesis is that tesla is expanding its lead over everybody else in the industry they think those q4 deliveries that blew away expectations will drive some of that performance going forward so tesla shares up about 1% right now not much is happening with the biggest premarket mover in the s&p. this is juniper networks it was up as much as 3-to-4% early on, on thinner trading bank of america is taking it to a buy. they think increased spending from service providers, computer networking companies will help this particular company. they think management and guidance on the revenue growth is a little conservative

crypto currency is always a big focus. continued interest in what's happening with bitcoin we do know that bitcoin prices up two-thirds of 1%. at the low point defending on which measure, which exchange, bitcoin prices got to 39,750 or thereabouts. that's importance. what it did is it took out the september lows it seems without support there for the time being but at that level 39,750 you got to go back to the beginning of august for the lows there. the it's certainly something we are watching here on the bitcoin side of things >> we had a long discussion about that we shall see we shall see what we shall see it's funny, dom, how quickly sentiment can change with bitcoin and 65, it's like, oh, it was this at 38. why didn't i buy it at 38? then at 38, it's, woe, under 40.

where is this headed who steps in and buys it i guess real long-term believers. you just wonder, maybe that's good that they're still in the back of certain people's minds you still hear it. there are some smart people that have questions there are some smart people 100% in, dom, but that's what makes the market right now after all, 40, you know, it seems like down so much but look at what it was a couple years ago. that's a lot for what people view as intangible >> so what's interesting to me is we focus on bitcoin right fly so they're the biggest by market cap crypto currencies out there. if you look at the price action, a stuff that draws a lot of people in isn't in places like

bitcoin. maybe etherium you can make that space. in the smaller ones, people talk about solana and places like cardano, all of those are more enticing for investors whether you see that interest in bitcoin start to moderate, it's not to say returns will go negative it means there is more oomph or octane. >> that's the question if it did become stable, say 40,000, does that make it more attractive to use it as a currency because it's less volatile or does it attract less interest because you will not get a 400% return? >> joe, remember that goldman notes two-and-a-half weeks ago, if there was a case if the use case for bitcoin is a store-owned value versus gold, 50-50. if it does become more stable,

maybe that stored value so to speak argument becomes more compelling for someone like bitcoin. >> all right dom chu. thank you. it's january, the new golf season, kapalua, so i know you are paying attention to that. >> we will talk about that offline. yeah >> but not now see you later. federal reserve chairman j. powell's confirmation taking place today elan moy joins us with more. he's done the tough work with messaging the markets. he may face a more difficult task today going before the senate, miamiing them what his plan is, by the way, saying, please extend my nomination, confirm me more a second go-around? >> reporter: becky, j. powell is widely expected to get confirmed today as fed chair as you mentioned, there could be fireworks. democratic senator elizabeth warren says she plans to vote against him and in a letter to

powell yesterday, she accused the fed of a deep-rooted ethics failure, following new questions about vice chairman stock trade. we saw that letter came out in the morning. at the end of the day, clarida will be stepping down. white house press secretary jane jen psaki was asked about this move >> all agencies should be held to the highest ethical standards, including the suggestions of conflicts of interest >> reporter: now in his written testimony, powell pledged to make decisions as fed chair with integrity and impartiality he made no mention of rate hikes or asset purchases and he spent almost as much talking about the fed's mission and responsibility to congress as he did no cushion on monetary policy and on the economy. back over to you.

>> elan, he is stepping aside, leaving this friday, a few weeks earlier because of all those controversial issues around trades that he made back in february of 2020 originally we knew about the move to buy market securities right before the fed made its move and we didn't know he sold a few days before that, which raised questions whether there was planned in advance or an average rebalances taking place. jen psaki nodding to that. what about congress? they can trade securities, nobody's raised questions. not that that will stop them from shooting things at jay clayton today. >> first of all, we don't know why that's y.clarida, we don't know if that's why he is leaving two weeks early. he said he is stepping down

early and talked about how proud he was of working at the fed during the time of the pandemic, everything nearing sort of the biggest response to a crisis in recent stocks, certainly that is a debate that will be had i think over the course of this year there was some new reporting this morning that minority leader in the house, kevin mccarthy believes congress should be banned if republicans take the house in november there are democrats who feel the same by a. they have been pushing for stronger limitations on either how congress trasd stocks or the disclosures occurs there is a little about congress' financial holdings as well as the fed's. >> we shall see. thank you. when we come back, the nasdaq doing an about face and finishing in the green we will talk about the turn around right after this.

"squawk box" will be right back. 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. sorry, sir. i will aim straight at your next step. see that you do. would you like some coffee? workday. the finance, hr, and planning system for a changing world. ♪ growing up in a little red house, on the edge of a forest for in norway, world. there were three things my family encouraged: kindness, honesty and hard work. over time, i've come to add a fourth: be curious. be curious about the world around us, and then go. go with an open heart, and you will find inspiration anew. viking. exploring the world in comfort.

welcome back to "squawk box. our next guest is the tech and biotech stocks just got a whole lot more attractive. joining us is the chief investment strategist at icapital good morning to you. you bet tech stocks have become more i don't know if they're more attractive boy are they lower, so, here we

are. the question is, are they going higher or are they going to continue to go lower >> well, andrew, good morning to you. i do think they're a whole lot more attractive because we seen a big chunk of this correction play out over the last couple month. the average stock is down close to 30 or 40% and the stack ware space is in a bare market territory and has a 20% correction if you look at the multiple, we seen a major adjustment play out, for example if you look at ev enterprise value, next 12-month sales that was at 17 times a few months ago now it says ten times. are we night to prepandemic levels of technology aims. we're in that early 2020 levels. that's a whole lot more attractive for sure. when i think about who else is going to be selling tech here? frankly, i'm kind of out of options here one of the things we look at is

hedge fund positioning and what they are doing and they have been very heavy selling technology over the last number of weeks so much so that a lot of those hedge funds are under weight technology i think that's cool for other investors as well. then i have to step back and say fundamentally something changed about technology and the answer for a lot of the software companies is no if i look at software spends for next year, for this year, rather is going to grow at twice the space as the overall i.t. spending. it lot grow at 11/12% versus 5.5. data privacy spending and cloud spending is really having sell-off fundamentals. so the fundamentals have not changed. what has changed is some multiples and they've corrected for what i call a hyperactive fed that we're likely to have this year. those that resulted at i think are a lot more attractive. >> are you not alone, goldman

sachs overnight saying he believes tech the disconnect is what he is calling the single greatest mispricing in u.s. stocks at this moment. the question, though, for investors watching us right now is how to play that. clearly i imagine you would tell folks to buy an index. the question is should you be doing it on an index basis or an individual stock level basis >> andrew, it's interesting. if you asked me a year, i would have told you you have to be selective. in software, it may take sense to buy an index on software names. i still like to be a little more granular than that i would zone into a particular area of strength and technology and software spending, which again is cyber security. that is top of mind for everybody. sure, you have names creating at 30, 40 times forward seam. you can probably guess what they are. by the way, they are growing

revenues it's impressive. you have a sweet spot where a lot of names are starting to trade nine or ten times forward sales and growing revenues at 22, 25%. that's what i think i would do maybe buy some index or qqqs at the same time i always pick, construct a shopping list here with some of the names reasonably priced by the revenue growth is outpacing the s&p. by the way, a lot of tech commentators are zoning in on differentiation between speculative stocks or speculative tech versus something that's already cash flow positive and have you great visibility of revenues that's what i would focus on here >> i want to thank you for your analysis as always it's an interesting trade. we will see whether it's a long-term trade, short-term trade. i am sure we will talk to you about it very, very soon >> all right coming up, gamestop's plan to

break into the mist of nftp. the nft market will it who, frank collins is following it with progress. later, ceo of commerce suzanne clark will join us, labor issues d inflation. "squawk box" is coming right back back [copy machine printing] ♪

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co-founder ryan ko enjoined as chairman, his goal to to transform the brick and mortar retailer into gaming how are things working out so far? >> reporter: gamestop shares are up 500% over the last year but they've lost more than 25% since it was announced that ryan koen was nominated to be the board chair of gamestop. wall street bets and resale traders rallied around his transformation strategy to turn it into a retailer, the quote/unquote amazon of gaming many analysts noted the actual physical copies of games gamestop's core business shrunk from 2013 to now only 45% of the market gamestop now plans to open up an nft marketplace focused on gaming, characters, outfits and weapons. e-trade hit 23 billion last

year the web bush analyst says there is one crucial detail that needs to be worked out video game downloads generally do not give the buyer full ownership. >> digital sale is a use license, limited use license you can't resell a digital copy. so why would anybody assume nfts created by game companies will be freely transferrable. no chance. >> the co-founder bringing executives from the online pet retailer and amazon to execute the plan relatively light on details at least until last week shares are down 50% since matt furlong was named ceo him gamestop shares are down with some of the other most talked about names on the wall street bet site since the rebellion >> you think back of the rebellion, have we seen any signs this could ramp back up

again? where are retailer investors today? what have we seen to this point? >> reporter: they're giving wall street bets. not much chatter there if you look at that time volume of the most known quote/unquote names, they weren't that high. not really those big outsized moves when retail investors are piling into a stock. >> thank you very much it's good to see you this morning. >> reporter: thank you coming up right after the break, we will take a look at the morning's big headlines. quk x"etnsa bunch. "sawbo rur with that and so much more coming right back after this. >>

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, welcome back to "squawk" couple headlines, fed chair clarida steps down that's ahead of the fed's pandemic aid announcements president biden previously nominated lionel brainard to succeed him. the irs is warning of delays in processing issuing refunds. it has considerable backlog from prior years due to office closing and new pandemic aid programs a recent spate of airline cancellations is finally easing. flight aware saying only 870

flights were chance emed total cancellations have totaled more than a thousand or more the industry has been hit by staffing shortages as well as a spate now of bad weather still to come, u.s. chamber of commerce president and ceo suzanne clark will join us plus senator pat toomey, and then paul tudor jones coming up in the 8:00 hour. stay tuned are you watching "squawk" on cnbc

the consumer with respect there are some still suffering we're still kind of working through this but the consumer balance sheet has never been in better shape >> that was j.p. morgan chase, ceo of jamie dimon with an upbeat note on the st. of the consumer, let's welcome the u.s. chamber of commerce president and ceo suzanne clark.

later today, she will be hosting the state of the annual business conference but we get to talk to her first. thank you for being with us today. what is the state of the american business right now? >> well, first of all, thanks for having me. good morning the state of american business is strong. it's agile, it's innovative. it's competitive i am optimistic about the ability for business to step forward and solve problems and serve consumers. we have been calling on the speech today for some things we think the government can do to be good partners this that work. >> has the government been a good partner to this point it's been a rough couple of years over all trying to deal with covid none of the science abath. the numbers are reaching record levels right now. >> it's a tough time, isn't it i think we are all so ready to get together if are you a family or a business or you and me. it's just time but i would say the government if some ways has been a good

partner. we were excited to see the historic infrastructure bill past not just on its merits but also proof that we can get things done together as a country we worried, we were on a precipice of some people who think the government needs a heavier hand, more taxation. more regulation. yet, there are things only government could be dock a. more robust trade agenda. addressing the supply chain bought him necks in making sure that overreach and too heavy of a hand doesn't add to inflation concerns. >> suzanne, there will be some that look at that and say, wait a second, the businesses got what they want in terms of additional infrastructure spending what do you say to elected officials that will make exactly that argument? >> well, i'm not sure you mean pay for it on the other side i would say what you are talking about is this reconciliation bill and the next phase of government spending.

i think what we would say is infrastructure has its roads, its bridges, its broadband, clear water, a real roi for work families across the country. what we haven't seen in this reconciliation bill is what are the needles in that hay stak in there might be things in there, say child care that might be helpful. take it apart and go through a bipartisan process that allowed us to figure out what's in that haystack and not just add a whole bunch of taxes and a big expanse of government at exactly the wrong time it's really a fragile economic recovery >> the chamber of commerce has supported candidates from both sides of the aisle you don't see a lot of bipartisanship in washington these days does that concern you? >> it's such a good question and one of the thingsly talk about in the speech stootoday is exacy that if we win the future, we got to

come together as americans we can debate, discuss, engage ideas. then we have to come together as americans and do what's right for our workers and for our families i think there are lawmakers and policy makers out there who want to do that the american business community wants to support this really brave men and women. they come together, fight for what their district wants. they are also willing to compromise to come up with durable policy that moves our economy forward. >> have you been frustrated by the breakdown in that, with each party dramatic its line in the sand and punishing any party that dares to go against the party leadership >> no because of my day job, i'm not allowed to get frustrated. i have to wake up every day and find one more person who wants to do the work and put forward a bold idea and work with every single one of them no, i don't get frustrated i get to work. >> in terms of trade, you mentioned that that is an area

that the chamber would like to see more work done on. where do you you see that with the trade tax that we have where would you like to see additional advances made >> look, i think it's so important, post-people want to sell things to outside our borders. so it's really important for american jobs that we open up these markets and we'd like to see the biden administration take on a bolder trade agenda. we haven't been willing to look at a trade agreement with the uk you know, our strongest ally, let alone look at the old tpp. you know, american negotiators wrote 90% of that bill now we've walked away. if we want to engage in a strategic what i with china, we will be having to look at tpp and bold trade agenda that helps american business and american jo jobs >> hey, suzanne, marco rubio is

out with critical comments about intel, specifically calling them out for statements in china, also suggesting that because of those statements, they should not be effectively subsidized by the chips pennsylvania do you agree with that policy what would you say about that? >> look, i'm not going to talk about one particular company or one particular law maker but i will say this. again, we do have enemies out there, they're not inside our borders, the more that we're doing to promote infighting, whether it's between industries or between companies or between parties, we're not solving the problems that we're really here to solve >> i this i the question for a company like intel and so if you want to take it away from intel, we can do that but for all companies that are doing business in china that effectively have to stay mum on certain issues or otherwise risk their business, should they, therefore, either get out of that business or do they rick their business and how do you feel act lawmakers who do lobby

every day in washington effectively then try to president es them on the other side >> i think it's a fair question. i think one of the things we talk about in the speech today is how handling china deftly will define american leadership in the next decade whether that's political leadership figuring out how we compete, cooperate and stand up for our own morals against unfair trade practices is one of the defining moments of our time >> suzanne, let's take a bit about how businesses are being impacted right now by the surge in covid, the number of cases that we've seen, estimates of very high expectations just in terms of worker callouts, worker shortages because of people getting sick, not being able to come in, what have you heard from businesses in terms of how they're faring right now in. >> it's certainly making the worker shortage harder

right. you are talking about the jobs that are filled with people that can't come to work so it couldn't be more complicated time to run a business, serve a customer, provide a systems. we are all seeing it in terms of longer lines we're seeing it in terms of higher prices, wages are up and benefits are up as we try to get more people off the side lines into a job so really complicated time to run a business we have to be patient as consumers. we're also going to have to figure out how to get some of those people off the sidelines and back to work so a couple of things we will calm for in the speech today are what are we going to do about child care what can we do about getting formerly incarcerated people pay their debt back to work. what are we going to do about increasing legal immigration and what are you doing about trimming education to get the skills up? clearly covid is showing us another side of this worker shortage problem that will really lead to increased and permanent inflation if we don't

do the right things quickly. >> j. powell will be going before congress today and the senate and testifying there. his huge concern is inflation. he's made that clear he is going to be looking to do everything he can to battle inflation where do businesses come down on this higher rates also makes it a little more difficult for businesses to operate. is your biggest concern at this point inflation as well? >> absolutely. we worry about it in two ways. one i described as a worker shortage there are specific things the government can do to stop inflation in this moment they include things that i just discussed like the worker shortage like the trade agenda. but there are things we shouldn't do which includes we talked about earlier, this reconciliation bill which increased payments and the size of depryment, this is a fragile economic recovery. getting it right is important.

doing things you can do and you can watch for the u.s. chamber of commerce to stand up for both >> we know that supply chain issues have been a huge, huge problem across the board for just about every industry. around thanksgiving people were thinking the supply chain issues had probably peaked or were going to very soon but now you see shutdowns again, not only here in the united states, but especially overseas and china, the lack of lockdowns happening. i just wonder what that means, how the chamber is forecasting this, how long the supply chain issues will continue to playing us >> analysts i talk to say it's the end of this year before we've gotten back to stasis, where everything goes, whether it's containers or getting the workers back, et cetera. the hope is that we get through this latest horrible round with covid that we get more people back to work that's certainly contributing to the supply chain log jam and that we start to work through the transportation logistic issues that get raw

materials where they need to go, get finished products where they need to go and get all of this moving again it'scertainly contributing to inflation. it's all one big ecosystem right. which is why we are worried about the worker shortage, because it contributes right into the middle of this. if we don't have enough truck drivers and we didn't have enough before the pandemic, that certainly didn't make it better, then we got to find a way and one of those is going to be increased legal immigration. there are people that want to come here to do those jobs, then we should be welcoming them. >> suzanne, some of the tones you are striking today, we will hear more win make this statement and hold all of these things, it just sounds like businesses are a little frustrated with what's happening in washington. it doesn't sound like you exactly agree with either party just in tomorrows of what the priorities are, what should be happening? is this different than it's been say ten, 20, 30 years ago or is this business kind of as usual

right now? >> i think there are always lawmakers and elected officials that care about the economy, certainly care about the jobs and workers in their district. we work with them every day, both side of the aisle, in the administration to figure out what we can do to solve all the problems you j you listed. because business can be a part of the solution. we saw that in the pandemic. we saw what happened when businesses came together, developed vaccines, developed therapeutics, to pivot to you know manufactured pp but also just your main street restaurants, figuring out how to deliver home cocktails one that was important in my household, for example we know what businesses can do when they come together. that makes me optimistic so the question is finding those lawmakers, finding those elected officials who care about the jobs in their district there are a lot of them. one we consider calling on today is for shows like this which are you doing today, to talk about

the issues, to talk about what's working, what can get us to the other side not just focus on this intraparty fighting or this affair, but to really figure out how we come together as a country at a time when we have big challenges >> suzanne, thank you very much. we appreciate your time today. >> thank you all right. coming up, federal reserve chairman j. powell recon firmf owe /* re-confirmation hearing. we will speak to senator pat toomey in just a couple of minutes. the futures are up right now so far up their highs a little bit. 'rcongig bk.

we got great news that will capture the attention of wall street and silicon valley. sequoia will be investing in citadel securities it will value it at $22 billion. the first time the silicon valley has invested in what is described as a traditional

financial firm, if not wall street firm, citadel is based in chicago. the first time ken griffin's citadel securities has taken an outside investor and, of course, by taking outside money, it raises the possibility in the future of a potential ipo or sale of citadel securities i want to mention, this is citadel securities the trading and market-making firm that competes with the likes of goldman sachs and morgan stanley and everybody else this is not the hedge fund but acute endorsement by effectively silicon valley in what kevin griffin has created. i am sure we will have folks on wall street to wake up this morning and say, wow, there is something going on here. sequoia early on was one of the early investors in apple and just about every major company that's come out of the valley and, you know, interestingly, we've interviewed ken griffin so many times on this broadcast

he's often talked about his firm as a technology company. which don't often think about it like that. sequoia is talking about it like that paradigm is another transaction, they're another growth venture capital firm investing in this company. he owns about 85% of the company of this unit on to itself. so, unto itself, he's just, that's just valuing his stake in this of $18 billion. that's not even talking about the hedge fund of citadel investments. so good news this morning in that world yep. >> sure. >> amazing >> we hope to have a chance to talk to paul tudor jones in the next hour and talk to him ab these kind of investments. it's interesting >> andrew, how much of this is a reflection oh >> go ahead. >> how much of this is just a

reflection of what we've seen with robinhoods and the way trading marks move on these things you are right, the idea this is a technology company that's going to be kind of front and center for all of this >> look. they are now the largest market madeer and trading firm in the country in you look in terms of stocks being trade on the institutional side that i have a huge business, clearly on the retail side the retail side is still a small very tiny portion of the business interestingly, i don't want to feed the conspiracy theorists out there, sequoia also owns a stake in obviously gamestop i was going to say, in robinhood so there is obviously lots of folks in the valley who have taken stakes in robinhood and so many of the other trading first, whether it comes to crypto and the like this could also be potentially we'll see where crypto lies in the future of citadel securities so lots of questions but going to put a lot more attention on

citadel securities as a result when we come back, the fed is going to be in focus as we get ready for chair powell's confirmation hearing senate banking committee pat toomey will be with us and paul tudor jones and accenture ceo julie sweet to talk about the new 100 list out this morning "squawk" we'll be right back after this >

. on tap for the senate banking committee, three nomination hearings for both fed chair j. powell and governor lionel brainard to be vice chair. joining us for a preview, pat toomey the lead republican of the banking committee. and it should go i think we know the outcome, senator, at least for chair powell but there might be some interesting tenets i imagine going back and forth in your view, you commend chair powell on his response to the pandemic, but there were criticisms for you to levy it would be how long the fed has stayed at the party s. that fair to say >> that's fair, joe. i think the fed got way behind the curve on inflation worried about this paradigm for a target for some indeterminate

period of time and you combine it with the notion that it was transitory, it's a recipe for get figure trouble if inflation would start as to creep up, of course, it's gone screaming up but to their credit, i think the fed recognized this chairman powell acknowledged these numbers have come in way beyond what they had expected and they've made a major pivot we found out last week, they're even apparently talking about shrinking the size of the balance sheet. i think that's constructive. i think they are in catch-up mode i will be veriy curious to get whatever thoughts we can from him how this particular cycle ends you know, where i'm sitting, the idea we end the bond buying and have three or four 25 basis point increases in the fed funds, that still leaves with you negative interest rates on the shortened. i don't think that gets the job done obviously, there will be data

dependent. i would like to learn more how the chairman was thinking how the neutral rate is, how this is lukely to unif you would >> we every day see lots of evidence of how democrats and republicans view things really diametrically on so many issues, it's quite staggering that both people go to school. they learn the same kind of stuff. go to college, grad school, law school then they come with these different interviews i don't know if you saw governor sherrod brown. what do you think the view of democrats from the view of what the fed is supposed to be doing. you are saying they are behind the curve. what i gather from what democrat brown was saying is democrats want to stay easy even longer. that was one of the reasons powell wasn't unanimous choice for some people on that side of the aisle because he might take

the punch bowl away too quickly. don't you think the punch bowl adds to the problems we are trying to solve we're with income and equality? >> absolutely. look, no question about it and in my mind, it's not really realistic to achieve the mandate of maximizing employment unless you have price stability right. if there is a world in which the value of the dollar is volatile, uncertain inflation is a big problem, you can't possibly maximize employment. i always thought price stability should be the first responsibility of the fed and other good things then can flow from there it's not the way many of my democratic colleagues look at it >> so is lysle brainard, i guess, was there a sigh of relief among republicans that the industry was not going to replace share powell

would we have an easier fed and more regulation? that teams like almost a double whammy >> i think there is a tern that lysle brainard is more dovish when it comes to policy and much more hawkish on regulation as you know, she was the only fed governor to dissent on some series i think there were 20 votes on very modest regulatory relief measures, mostly for small banks. she was the sole governor that voted against all of those so there are reasons that some of us are concerned about where she would like to go on the regulatory side. >> you guys don't agree. you understand, how does that happen, senator? is it a left brain, a right brain? venus and mars can you agree on anything? >> i think it comes down to how you prioritize your, the underlying principles. how important is personal

freedom? how important is economic growth versus the government determining outcomes and redistricting income and where you come down on that question really leads to a lot of policy outcomes >> all right senator, thanks. when we come back, just capital announcing the companies in america we will speak to tall tudor jones and ac senaccentture's cee sweet when we come back. >> become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq

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. good morning stock futures point to gains at the open after the trading week began with a big wall street turn around. the nasdaq in particular was down close to 3% before and rallied all the way back today investors turn their attention to walk. federal reserve chair j. powell facing questions as he seeks the second term of the head of the u.s. bank.

we will talk about the feds, markets and a brand-new list of americas just companies with investor paul tudor jones. the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now good morning welcome back to cnbc i'm joe kernon with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin as we hurdle through january somehow i don't know what happened don't blink. u.s. equity futures at this hour you can see are up a bit up 47 points or so the nasdaq isthat big turn around that is a significant turn around and we reflect on so many things i haven't been able do reflecting with you guys i think this is my first appearance of the new year it's a time we think about the

future, we think about the past and, god, after the last couple of years, i wouldn't even venture a guess what we're looking at >> which dumpster fire this year >> here we are, look at, that's a nice shot of the three of us it's nice to see on twitter. some people they like us, they really like us it's nice and it takes the edge off some of the other stuff. but it's good we're all here together one big happy "squawk" family. but, i need to point out, we do have one and three-quarter percent on the ten year. we'll see whether some of the these cross currents we will be referring to, there is no way you can escape the world and what's going on, this probably sounds ridiculous, but i'm looking forward to what plays out in both the until world and everything else that we talk about. so i guess that's my summary for getting back and starting the

new year it's a little late, isn't it on larry david, curb your enthusiasm, after the second or third, you can't say happy new year. >> it is good to all be toke. >> happy new year. >> yes. >> happy birthday, belated birthday, too. >> oh my god there, tell me there is not a god when my birthday is january 6th? tell me there is not someone laughing somewhere >> yes >> got you >> presented without any commentary andrew, i'm not unhappy i was out that day can i just tell you that much. i don't know what went on here i didn't watch but worse than 9/11? i'm not so sure. worse than pearl harbor? >> i might need a rain check on that >> let's keep the dam party happy.

>> all right that's your story and you're sticking to it pearl harbor him i wasn't there for that, but that seemed like a bad day. >> what's with pearl harbor? >> huh someone said worse than pearl harbor worse than 9/11 and pearl harbor, kamela i think said that >> not anybody here. >> no, no, no, i don't even think andrew would u wsay it >> oh, we're all back together let's get you caught up on stories, first up federal chair j. powell set to face a confirmation hearing for a second term. in written testimony, he acknowledges high inflation and blames supply chain problems for making inflation worse powell is expected to receive generally bipartisan support for a second term, but there could be fireworks today nonetheless sticking with the fed, vice chairman rich clarida will step

down after he corrected a financial disclosure to show he sold a fund and bought it back shortly in a matter of days, there has been turmoil about this and focus on it, too. this morning, bank of america announcing it will slash overdraft fees from $35 to $10 beginning in may the company plans to eliminate what it calls non-sufficient funds fees starting next month. the bank says the moves will lead to a decrease in overdraft revenue of 97% from 2009 levels and remember this is an issue that elizabeth warren has been pushing very aggressively. she first went after jamie dimon for those fees back in may of last year, the fees j.p. morgan made during the pandemic she since said she would like to see federal regulators be more aggressive in policing bank overdraft charges. right now, it's a little over 90

minutes to go on the opening bell on wall street. dom chu. good morning >> good morning, becky, joe, andrew, it's good to see you guys altogether. anyway, from a mover standpoint, last hour, we told you how a double upgrade by analysts at bank of america propelled juniper sales. juniper is jockeying with this stock illumina as the biggest premark mover. illumina is up 4.5%. this is a medical diagnostics testing and equipment company. it does a lot of genetic sequencing work. demands for those types of products have helping its revenue guidance illumina and juniper among the two biggest performers on the upside in the s&p 500. keep an eye on those also, if you take a look at the big technology-related stocks over the course of the last

24-to-48 hours, what you will see is at the lows yesterday there was a massive amount of dip buying so to speak going into the afternoon into the "closing bell. one of the reasons is the nasdaq composite hit its 200-day moving average, the long-term price in a long time. it prompted some people to say maybe it's a chance to get in with discount prices apple, microsoft, alphabet seeing fractional gains after seeing massive moves off the lows of the session yesterday, we'll see if that big tech trade continues there. advanced micro despise and xilinx semi conductors held up relatively well compared to other parts of the technology sector overall then as we do often in this hour of "squawk," we check on the most popular ticker sites from yesterday's full session it was an eventful one a lot of interest in the major averages we tend to see that in big up or

down days in the market. among some of the individual ones to watch, tesla, a top tirk search there zynga to be acquired bitcoin number 8 on the list ether was 28 on the list i know you like to look at those cases, moderna coming back into the following here with some of the news from j.p. morgan. keep an eye on those, the rest of the highlights of the top 50 are on my twitter feed at the domino becky, i will send things over to you >> dom, when was the last time tesla didn't grab the top ten? >> it's been over the course of the last year. i post them every day. tesla has almost always over the course of the left a year been kind of at the top of that list. you can maybe tie it with some of the surge higher in tesla shares, elon musk becoming much more vocal on social media certainly a lot more with the stock sales as of late

tesla, evs in general, rivian as of late, will you sent, all those guys are popular as well >> thank you, dom, we'll see you a little later in the show >> coming up, former fda xhipgser dr. scott gottlieb will weigh in on omicron peaks in areas. next, a special area with paul tudor jones and accenture ceo julie sweet. we will be getting paul's latest insights into the mark, the fed, crypto, right after thbrk.e ea you are watching "squawk box" on cnbc you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. when you sponsor a job, you immediately get your shortlist of quality candidates, whose resumes on indeed match your job criteria. visit indeed.com/hire and get started today.

u.s. capital is out this morning with a new list of the companies that are the most just companies in america members of the just 100 are ranked based on issues like paying a fair wage, cultivating diversity and sustainability joining us to talk about this year's list is legendary co-founder paul tudor jones and accenture share julie sweet is listed number 17 on this year's companies. paul, i want to start with you good morning speak to what this just list is for those who don't know about it and how you decide on the rankings >> well, the just list takes the 954 largest companies in america and we rank them according to what the american public thinkss is the most important issues with regard to what they want to

see corporations do. so, we polled the american public every year. we have been doing every year since 2014 we take the results of those polls and those metrics of which there are 20 and we rank every single company against those metrics. what we're trying to do is create a competition for goodness and let the free market, whether it's customers, employees, communities, manage it whatever providing them the information so that they can again probably corroborate what those companies are doing and move towards those companies that are more insync with the values, the thoughts, the ideas of the american public by the way, forgive me for not on the front end say hello to you. it's such a great way to start the year, seeing you is when i feel a little needy, if i'm being honest, that i wasn't a part of the joe and becky and

andrew grand reunion >> well, thank you thank you for the comment and happy new year to you. before i get to julie, one quick question, alphabet's at the top of this list this year what were the biggest shifts in terms of what you saw with the american public when you polled them were thinking about and how do you think that will reflect itself in terms of returns? because one of the things that has been interesting, you've made the argument, the more just the company is, the better the returns ultimately will be >> well, the data has been clear on that ever since we started polling. there is every single company that is in the just 100 and particularly the top 20 of which julie's is one they are really good on the most important metrics which are generally pocketbook issues and work related the number one component is pay a fair and living wage so all these companies pay

extraordinarily well relative to the rest of corporate america so by definition, when i see these companies in the top ten, they've got work persons taken care of by far and away on a variety of fronts relative to the rest of the corporate america. the most important thing, though, is that being just and being in line with what america's views is just is great business it's fantastic business. these companies on average in the just 100 earn 4.5% more than the rest of corporate america. they have so many things such as they did 19 times more to local communities. they emit 26 million tons less carbon than the rest of the

list they provide pay gap disclosure much more so than the rest of the list and i think most importantly, there is stock price generally outperforms the s&p 500 or russell 1,000. they also pay 20% more in dividends. so there is economic and financial things they do better on there are also social issues that set them apart in a way that make them the most valued companies in america you can't have a value proposition for investors and shareholders in the long run unless are you taken care of and providing a value proposition for the other stakeholders, employees, customers, communities, the planet. >> well, that's a nice seeing way for me to bring julia into the conversation julia, are you number 17 on this list you have a work force of almost 675,000 employees and what are

most diverse boards i should mention from corporate america i am hoping you can maybe speak to those in the audience this morning, business leaders and others, who are skeptical about some of the priorities that may be listed here, people say, is this everybody trying to be woke or is this marketing or packaging? because i think you have been thinking about this for a very long time. >> thanks. it is great to be here with paul palm, paul got it exactly right. this is great for business not just good but great for business and for our people. people let's take the tight labor market last quarter we announced we hired 50,000 people in a single quarter. we are a talent magnet we believe that that is people

want to go to companies that korea it the values, pay the right pay equity and salaries, also lead with values, who have sustainability so we've added $140 billion in mark cap since the pandemic began while meeting our commitment to get to 50-50 gender parity by 2025. we're at 46% to be net zero by 2025, we are at 50% renewable energy in all our facilities our core business strategy is to not only do this for our stakeholders, but also for our clients. we believe our results intertwines completely with our commitment to being a just company and that's why these times of metrics are so important. i think it's exciting to see that competition for goodness. >> a part of what the just 100

list is suggesting a basic disclosure is important. that's something you have taken to heart and anuanced this 360 degrees value recording experience i think it's something you have been promoting to your clients as well. again, to the skeptics out there, who are running businesses who said, why do i want to disclose this stuff? first of all, it's more paperwork. second of all, it may not put me always in the best light what do you tell them? >> transparency builds trust we see that absolutely every day. i know when we first publicly disclosed our inclusion diversity metrics back in 2015, we were the first in the industry to do so. our numbers weren't great. yet our recruiting improved in all of our diverse categories because transparency builds trust. we launched our 360 degrees

values experience which we noted. what we did there, we said, we are going to report against every major framework. it took 15 months to get all the data, we believe whether it's investors, clients or people that kind of transparency makes people want to partner and join you have paul, i want to speak to the returns issue around operate ac business. i remember having a conversation with steven schwartzman from blackstone this was right after the business roundtable chose to shift what they decided was going to be the purpose of a business not just about profits but to include so many other constituent parts if you will. he said he wasn't willing to sign along to that statement not because he didn't believe in all those other constituent sis, but because you needed to actually focus on one thing. that if you could actually nail the profit piece, you'd be able to name the other pieces

what do you make of that >> well, i think history has proven that's wrong it's economically wrong the problem what milton freeman said the only business purpose for a company is to generate a profit f. that's your only motive, it creates the ability to be amoral in your decisions. a classic example would be purdue pharma. right. their only business purpose was to make a profit in the consequence of that was an opioid crisis that killed 400,000 americanles. so you can't have, you can not distinguish between a business purpose without bringing in ethics and morality and the social consequences of your actions. so, yes, making a profit, actually, you can't say that making a profit is economically

the greatest way to create a production system. again we lost 400,000 workers in that opioid crisis with elost 4.5 million jobs between 2003 and 2011 to china because the fact the only purpose at that point in time was to make a profit if i look at the second most important component justice is to create american jobs. jobs in this country so again i would argue there is a variety of social and economic things that have proven what milton freeman said is patently false. >> we were talking earlier about intel and this debate over intel and what's happening in china. they do a lot of business in china and have been effectively muzzled. we had senator rubio this morning or yesterday criticizing them for effectively taking some

of their language back which had been critical at least ac nonld why they made some of the comments they made how do you think the companies in this day and age are supposed to deal with the moral and ethical dilemmas that may have bottom luan impact >> i don't think that everything is black or white. clearly, there are going to be shades of grey, clearly there will be benefit cost tradeoffs the most important thing the just dialogue does is it brings in those shades of grey. right. it brings in the idea a business purpose is not just to make a profit if we did that, there are huge consequences. we had the greatest income and wealth disparity with that comes the great divisiveness we've had capitalism under threat, a third of millennials think that communism is better than

capitalism so clearly we have to do something differently than we've done i think we've seen great stride over the past few years towards a much more just economy and we've seen corporations do i think a much better job of trying to take in the social consequence of their action and what they do >> the best thing we can see, we've seen rage growth go up right? the number one issue for americans with regard to companies is pay a fair living wage and last year you saw an egg plosion in wage growth which is a good thing. particularly since profit margins over that same time frame have went from 6-to-12%. so, yes, letting workers share more in corporate revenue is a good thing it's good for business also. >> hey, paul, i want to pivot to

the economy right now. the last time we talked, we were having conversations about what the fed was going to do, j. powell on the hymn what do you think the fed is going to do next how do you think about the outlook in terms of equities and bonds for the year >> i think j. powell will play catch-up the last time that we had an unemployment rate 3.9%, fed funds were 1.75% on the way to 2.5% and ten-year rates were 3% versus where they are right now. so he's going to play catch-up he has a lot of catching up to do i this i that's why you are seeing them talk about quantitative tightening. because i don't think he can catch up fast enough to try to deal with inflation problem that he has right now i kind of feel with regard to markets, it's a bit like remember in animal house where right before the scene with the

death mobile one of the gals, they're all sitting around and the guy goes, it's over, man, warner just dropped the big one. and i think that's kind of where we are right now with fed policy we're getting ready to see a major shift and it's going to have a lot of consequences for a variety of asset prices. >> so what are you doing about it, though would you be if equities you and i talked about kroichlt you caught it around 10,000. bitcoin is at 40,000 what do you do >> well, i think a lot of it again you have to watch what the central bank does. clearly, all the inflation trades, the pandemic era are going to be challenged right now. if you just think about where we were again the last time the unemployment rate was here, the pe and the nasdaq was around 26 or 27. it's 38 today.

so atombing, fast forward. we're back at 2% on fed funds and 2-and-a-half to 3 on ten-year rates what's the multiple on the nasdaq going to be is it still going to be 38 on a training basis or back at 26 or 27 if so, obviously that has huge consequences for flu is what do you think it's going to be >. >> i think it's tough sledding the things that perform the best in march of 2020 are going to probably, probably perform the worst as we go through this tightening cycle but on a relative basis, i don't know whether that means they go down or up i think they're going to be, clearly going to be challenged right? if you just fast forward two years and we're at 2%, again you have to think about what are the

price of assets that today are dealing with zero free money how much still adding to the balance sheet? it's going to be a different story 18/4 months out. >> julie what are you seeing we just spoke with jamie dimon yesterday on this network, he seemed remarkably bullish about the rest of the years ago you have your tentacles into so many businesses around the globe. >> i know. it's a great question, because we're all watching the latest round of volatility. what i would tell you is that the leading companies around the globe are head first going straight for continued compressed transformation. right. they are looking at all of this uncertainty and saying, we're going to be in control they're doing digital trance f tanzan transformation they're betting stability in that transformation. they know it's the path to profitable growth. our research shows the winners

of tomorrow a that will do cc companies and global beauty companies, bold ambition in skin care they're investing to upscale their people, put sustainability in their products and enhance inclusion and diversity. best buy, digital leader today they announced a thousand new jobs in the u.s. and committed to 30% diversity can i go on and on because with the leading companies, the ones that you want to make the bets on, are full steam ahead on compressed transformation with sustainability embedded. >> hey, paul, it's good to see you. you know, looking at your career in terms of so many things that you've done and i'm just saying, because i respect what you think about commodities so much. i'm just wondering whether you think that we're at a point here, where we could see something ugly in the next five

years and whether for financial assets you would just maybe downgrade the overall return because of what seems to be an inflexion point or a second derivative that we switch with the fed. i guess what i'm saying is do supply chain issues, if they abate, do commodities come back under control or would the fed's balance sheet where it is right now, can they not get out without some pain in the next five years and have we crossed the rubiconon how bad we may have messed things up, monetary funds? >> it's a really good question i mean, here's one way to frame it commodities relative to financial assets are so incredibly undervalued and one would think on a relative basis as we go through this tightening, the commodities would outperform

financial assets by a wide margin another way to think of it is, the stockmarket relative to gdp in the united states is about 210/215% the stockmarket relative to gdp for the rest of the world is 54%. so we value equities in the united states almost four times more than the rest of the world values their equities relative to their gdp now, there is a critical reason for that the reason for that is that in the u.s., we have a contest of ideas both in our political system and we are seeing that in spades right now, but in our capitalist system also and that contest of ideas compare and contrasts that to china where effectively you have one man now xi jinping dictating

all policy it's extraordinarily for me it's the greatly backward for that country. because they don't have that contest of ideas when you've got one person at the top where everyone has to sub just gait their thinking -- subjugate their thinking they are relative to gdp because of the fact we had that dynamism, capitalism and democracy go hand-in-hand and dynamism is one reason why if you were going to make a bet on the economy for the future, clearly, you'd bet it here in the united states rather than any other country in the world having said all of that, four times valuation in the rest of the world is extraordinary yes, the real trick here will be hand fed unwind by many appearances are a financial bubble without there being huge

negative economic consequences and we'll watch and see. it will be interesting to see. i'm nervous because where at such lofty heights >> paul, we have to complete the conversation there i want to thank julie. congratulations for being among the just companies paul, thank you for giving us this list this morning it's great to see all of you i hope to see all of you in person very, very soon we can mention that you can watch right here on cnbc the next several days. we will be featuring more 1 luchjust 100, delta ceo, you can check out the full 100 list. you can scan your code on the screen or visit

cnbc.com/just100 joe. all right. coming up, former fda commissioner dr. scott gottlieb will join us with the latest developments does anybody talk about covid much today maybe that's good. including the time line for when omicron might peak also atome -h tests. don't go anywhere. "squawk box" will be right back.

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welcome back, everybody. we have news, 300 employees are positive for covid, they are reducing to meet the flights they do keep on. joining us to talk about all of this is dr. scott gottlieb, former fda commissioner and cnbc contributor who serves on the boards of pfizer and moderna this news literallyhitting i was looking to see how many employees in 2019 they had 93,000 this running 3% testing positive, not able to work probably at times through all

of that that's probably not dissimilar from what you can see from a wide swath of companies from hospitals to schools across the country at this point. how big of a deal is this? ply when you start looking at the healthcare system? >> look, this is the reality of the moment we are in we are probably affecting 1% of the population, at 18 e any given point 10% is actively inf infected an employee base of 93,000 is probably below the estimate nationally i suspect they're not picking up all of the cases they're speepsing. we're in the peak right now. you look at new york, washington, d.c., connecticut, new jersey, the positivity rate starting to decline. we are peaking, hospitalizations will continue to rise. the epidemic will move to 'mid-west and plain states you will see high case loads nationally this is the reality. there is a lot of infection around the country right now at the end of this, probably 30-to-40% of the u.s. population

will have been infected by omicron. >> the cdc guidelines have been confusing, befuddling, seeming to defy science in some ways i guess this is the reality why they changed those guidelines to reflect what we are seeing i don't understand why they didn't say that at the time. but knowing that are you going to have what did you say 1% of the population being infected, having 10% infected at any point in time as we have been moving through, is that what the cdc saw and move is that why we've gotten this crazy guidance >> i think the cdc guidelines reflect, the lie spread is by people mildly asymptomatic and aren't turning over their infection. a small percentage getting self isolating isn't been to control this epidemic. a lot of schools aren't making recommendations to quarantine students but because there is so much infection you won't be

driving there epidemic by the infections are you turning over. with respect to the guidance, generally, the reality is the cdc is not accustomed to talking to the public. they talk through public health agencies to providers. in this epidemic they were thrust into issuing recommend eights to consumers. it's not something they do i think we made a mistake all along looking to the cdc for guidance thousand we were going to live our lives when we should have been looking to local guidance we need some kind of federal public health agency cape annual of doing this. it's very hard for an agency to self organize in the setting of a crisis the cdc has been unable to do that >> are businesses schools and other organizations following the cdc guidance and recommendations been doing the right thing? i ask because every organization i know right now is copying what the cdc is telling them to do. including saying, you can come back after five days, with or

without a test you can wear a mask. but the type of mask you choose is up to you if you want it to be a cotton mac, that's fine, too. literally every organization i know is following that it's not a problem in a lot of places like schools and other places maybe it is a problem win get to places like hospitals. because they are pushing to have doctors and nurses come back quickly. that's going against what nurse's unions requested against the american medical association has said, what against the american cancer society and americans are about having cancer patients in close proximity to people who come back knowing they still are probably infected and not even telling the patients tant. >> look, this is the challenge private businesses, local governments want some authoritative entity they can tie their decisions to and inform the guidance they put out to the local community the people look to the cdc for that guidance. the reality is it is general in

nature they don't describe why they make recommend eights. you can't de couple or tweak them they're always slow to update those recommendations based on evolving science now you hear they will try to seek out higher quality masks. that's something that should have been done a year ago wendell that emerged and it wasn't spreading but was more an airborne virus more like measles than flu we need to use the masks to protect themselves to seek out higher quality masks because a cloth mask isn't going to be effective. it might reduce the risk of transmitting the virus, which is the original reason so that asymptomatic people wouldn't be transmitting it in public that cloth mask won't protect you if you are in a confined space where the infection is circulating in the air individuals need to seek out higher masks and the cdc is

considering updating that recommendation to consumers. >> i'm curious if you could comment on where you think we are in terms of production of rapid tests and the value of rapid tests by an administration, the biden administration announcing families will be able to get up to eight covid rapid tests insured or forcing the insurance companies to do it, which is different i think than the free program which still seems to be challenged because we haven't seen the website where that's available. what do you know about the production when will they be available at scale and, frankly, will it be too late given where we are in the peak >> yeah. there is substantial supply in the market abbott is talking about producing a million tests per month. there is supply. if you go to amazon, you can access high quality rapid tests. they're still expensive. i think with respect to making them available to consumers. it's still cumbersome to

purchase the test if you can find it and file an insurance claims w. we know we want more people to be doing routine testing. consumers will seek out the test and file an insurance claim aren't the ones having trouble it's the ones that won't finds the time to do that and for those consumers, i think distributing them at a very low cost $1 a test $2 at a pharmacy. you have a min mus amount or you give it away free. even if you charge the min mus amount, you subsidize it at the point of purchase, like pharmacies that's what they're doing in the uk and germany do some tests the get wasted absolutely do people who can otherwise afford a test get access to free tests, yes, that's going to happen but if you want to make this ubiquitous and widely available you have to push some of that to push these directly to consumers. >> are we too late in terms of

where we are in this particular cycle for using these tests? i don't know if you think this is going to go, we got another two months of this, three months of this more, less >> yeah. we're probably touching the tail ends of it once these policies get into placements i don't want to say we're too late. they may provide value in some parts of the country here in the east coast, when probably have another two or three weeks before the epidemic curve really is at its low.. i don't want to say decline, but it's going to take two weeks for the virus, three weeks to actually shake out, that's what we saw until you get to low levels of circulation. so there is still some value in testing over the next two or three weeks. there are people that will get infected a. lot on the back end of this ep dig surge even if it's starting to decline right now. other parts have a week or two

to go in that. in the mid-west plain states, they're not in the thick of the omicron wave maybe you'll touch the tamend with these new test availabilities >> scott, real quickly, you saw the comments about the four co-morbidities and 75% had more co-morbidity i'm wondering your best guess, not original delta covid, omicron covid, years from now, what do you think the statisticians will point to as the mortality rate versus the flu, for example, and the global response do you think it's twice as bad, three times, ten times what the do you think it finally comes down to? and is it possible really to come down to a number that's apples and oranges >> with respect to the cdc director's comments habit the

75% of patients had the four co-morbidities, she was talking about hospital patients vaccinated who also succumbed. they were patients with significant co-morbidities she was making the point vaccines are very protective tell only people who are dying after vaccination are those who are very sick going into that covid infection. i think the study she was referencing was a study of 102 million infections that involve i think about 40 who passed away who were vaccinated. so there were very few people in that cohort to begin with. the ones that succumbed were patients with significant co-morbidities in terms of the case mortality rate, if you want to look another the crude mortality in the u.s., more than 800,000 deaths, you can argue how many from from covid or with covid, assuming most are from covid, that's probably right. that gives you an estimate of the crude mortality risk is,

even if everyone had it, which isn't the case at the end of this, 60% of the population will have had covid >> all right thanks, doctor bad. it's beenan ongoing two years that we could not have predicted since 1919 coming up, jim cramer, maybe w pdiitasrect ltd jim cramer's first take on the trading day. "squawk box" will be right back. >> esg is responsible investing. who's responsible for building esg into your investments? at pgim, the pursuit is on for outperformance. as active investors, to outdeliver with customized strategies, integrating esg best practices into our investment decisions. as asset managers and fiduciaries, to outserve, with our commitment to better esg outcomes.

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get down to the new york stock exchange jim cramer joins us now. how can you not -- you don't like that rebound yesterday, jim, in the nasdaq does it make you -- how are you feeling about it is it ready to retest or should we be ratified. >> i think we have to watch interest rates if the ten year ticks back, then suddenly we repeal i do think we've seen the draft

of powell's speech that's not going to change anything but i think if rates tick down again, people are going to be surprised at how much this market can go up i think if the stocks went down, people would be afraid of missing something. we forgot what it was like to miss something it's so critical you can make so much money if you buy them low so i think that the mentality of the market did change yesterday. >> i saw trying to get -- i know you probably saw that. do we expect less for the next five years because of -- we've paid it forward with what the fed has done for us, or can technological change in innovation, can we catch up quickly enough to sort of pay down what we've already borrowed against? >> i'll tell you, when you look at the companies that are just, most of them are companies that reinvent themselves. what i would have liked to hear a little bit more of, look,

these companies, they get the right people, they do the right thing. they're going to triumph over what you hear about when it comes to the fed these companies have been so immune to what the fed is doing that i would have loved to hear these are companies that transcend the fed. i love paul and i've done a lot of stuff with him. it's not his job it's my job. my job is to say you can't bet against them >> someone did write in that, is alphabet doing well because it's just or because it has a monopoly and i thought about that maybe the monopoly is better that the woke stuff they do, in terms of the bottom line i don't know >> they get great people these are companies that get the smartest in the country. when you get the smartest in the country, you do well >> cnbc and those companies, jim.

anyway, thank you. >> sure. good to see you back thank you. >> i was hoping the eagles -- the eagles are good this year. you don't need to hang your head >> no, but your team has records. >> yeah. i don't know who is great -- >> the best -- jamar is the best receiver i've seen in the nfl in years. >> georgia, that was pretty good beating saban. i didn't think it would be done. >> most of those guys are going to play pro. most of them >> like eight of them, i saw you heard some of that discussion, i think, dan what do you think? if things are moving with such great pace, and i really do think huge discoveries are coming quicker and quicker than any time in mankind's history, does that validate the valuations >> look, that's our thesis we're in a fourth industrial

revolution and i've covered tax stocks for over two decades, and i think it is -- when you look at cloud, cybersecurity, 5g, apple, among others, the fed is going to do what it's going to do you're going to see some of the froth taken out of the market. saying that the tech party is over, we disagree. we think we're still in the middle of it which is why we're not just sitting here, looking at stocks. we're hand-holding investors in terms of what are the winners and how to navigate. >> is the metaverse next in your view, really >> look, in my view, what's next is the cloud transition. we're talking about a trillion dollars that's going to still be spent on the cloud that's why we're bullish on microsoft. that's why amazon, in terms of aws, is going to benefit there google and you look at cybersecurity.

cybersecurity, it's a golden age for cybersecurity, and the metaverse, i think, is a web 3.0, and we'll see that in the next two, three years playing out. right now, the most underestimated themes are cloud and cybersecurity in this market i think them and chips lead tech higher, especially going into earning season >> but you probably it back to the cloud and that's how you would position yourself and who are going to be the biggest beneficiaries for that >> i think microsoft is going to benefit. you look at names like snowflake, you look at names like z scaler, those are going to be the significant beneficiaries in terms on cybersecurity. in our view in terms of 5g and everything we're seeing play out, apple continues to be the best way to play that.

>> all right so you're not going -- if you do want to play the metaverse, what's your favorite >> i think it's matter port or names like microsoft ic it's a roller coaster you buckle the seat belts. tech stocks are up another 20% this year. this is not the time to throw in the white towel. even though many are yelling fire in a crowded theater saying it's over. >> throwing in the white towel i don't know whether that's real -- i think you're mixing that a little bit, dan you either do the wave the white towel or throw in the towel -- anyway, dan, we got to go. maet backed off a little bit. throwing the white towel i love that. we listen. like jack. he wanted a streamlined version

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♪ good morning welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber futures are steady after monday's upside reversal and ahead of powell's confirmation hearing today. some curve flattening. ten-year yield dipping closer to one and three quarters we begin with the tech turnaround >> it has been one year since th