survey is that 42% of this new generation, they went to reddit and other places to help craft their decisions versus just 19% for others so interesting that social media is a big factor there. >> dom, thank you very much. thank you, everybody, for watching "power lunch. what do you say next, kelly? >> i say "closing bell" starts right now. ♪ thank you, kelly and tyler welcome, everyone, to "closing bell." i'm sara eisen a strong start giving way to another choppy session here on wall street. the dow was up triple digits at one point now in the red as we head into this final hour of trading. >> good afternoon, i'm wilfred frost. let's have a look at what is driving the action today earnings season kicking into high gear with reports this morning from bank of america, morgan stanley, and procter & gamble treasury yields moving lower for a change but remain well above where they started at the year and the action in tech remains front and center

chips falling again today, and the nasdaq now down around 10% from its recent highs. 59 minutes left of the session, sara >> down 120 on the dow ahead on today's show, bank of america's ceo brian moynihan will join us for a first on cnbc interview to talk about today's earnings report and what he's seeing in the broader economy and from his customers right now. plus, we'll ask investor eric jackson where he is finding opportunities in the sector. and president biden slated to host a news conference next hour as he marks one year in office we'll take you there live as soon as it happens first of all, let's focus on the big stories we are watching today. mike santoli is tracking all of the market action. i will tell you about the highlights and sara's covering the popping p&g. but, mike, start us off with the big picture. >> pretty apprehensive trading today. we're sort of churning near the lower end of this range, actually made a new low on the

s&p 500 for this pullback, a little bit below where we were a week ago monday. a lot of things coming together right at these levels. there were a couple of weak rally attempts but everything seems to have slowed down just a bit as we get around this area here. we're barely above where the market peaked out on september 2nd of last year so clearly not a lot of net movement and we've always repriced for a new fed regime over that period of time. we're stepping down in terms of earning growth the overall s&p 500 has weathered a lot. right now it's sort of nip and tuck as to whether we hold also it's around the 5% pullback level. that's usually been where last year you'd see the dip buyers come in. it's been slow to happen this time around. there's a lot of clustering of activity, and it's an options expiration week. a lot of people saying that's one reason the market seems a little bit heavy right now take a look at the long-term treasury bond.

we usually look at this from the yield point of view. a modest balance right here. this is 20 years and longer maturities of treasuries there's 20-year auction today. pretty well received so yields are slipping back a little bit this level that we're seeing right here, it kind of separates off this little kind of zone back there in the summer when yields in the long end were below 2% for a while in the 30 and the 20-year. so we'll see if this actually makes any kind of a stand which would calm things down on the yield front. obviously not a great looking chart but hasn't fallen apart just yet now in terms of within the equity market there's been some kind of a call to go toward quality-type names, capital return stories among companies it's kind of working so far this year of course this year is only 2 1/2 weeks. but the dividend and buy-back etf, basically companies with these very impenetrable franchises not really strictly tech are working pretty well you see the nasdaq for the most part has actually done some damage to the s&p itself down 4

plus percent year-to-date. >> mike, thank you so much for that we'll see you again shortly. all of the big banks in the books now for the quarter. and despite soaring rates and volatility, this quarter was all about costs and who would have thought that coming into the new year jp morgan and goldman sachs disappointed wells fargo and bank of america positively surprised as did morgan stanley here is their chairman and ceo on the topic of cost >> we are a different business model. just take our wealth management business, which is 24 plus billion in revenue those advisers are paid on a grid there is no inflation, it's based upon what they produce most of our bank is paid on bonus and that's based on what they produce we've invested a lot in technology but we've also bought companies. we didn't just buy e-trade in advance, we bought technology businesses within them so buy versus build, we made that tradeoff.

>> the other takeaways, still strong investment banking though slowing trading revenues strong performance in wealth management allowed them to set an impressive long-term return of 20% bank of america highlighted that income is simproving it hasn't done so significantly yet. their loan growth stood out compared to peers which we look forward to discussing with brian moynihan just shortly. if we look at a year-to-date chart of bank of america, the market got a little ahead of itself they pulled back from a few weeks ago. though bank of america up nicely today. year-to-date and this earnings season, the very clear winner is wells fargo. declared losers, jp morgan and goldman sachs. at the moment worst performing sector down 1% for financials. but mike sorgan stanley up >> we'll move from the banks to

the staples because p&g is the best performer right now in the dow. you've probably noticed the cost of basics like paper towels and paper towels, the price has gone up it was a beat on the top and bottom line. the owner of tide, crest, and bounty said sales rose 6%. profits were up as well. but margins down on the plus side, the company did raise its outlook for sales growth about half of the company's organic revenue growth is coming from price increases and more of those are coming p&g telling retailers to expect price hikes on fabric care products like tide detergent and downy dryer sheets and some personal healthcare products will see higher prices as welcome mid-april but executives are saying that they are confident they can pass it on, and it hasn't scared off consumers just yet p&g's also benefitting from factors like the flu season and

the pandemic, which is boosting healthcare by 20% as vic's and nyquil are in demand febreze and mr. clean are in high demand. not all of these higher input and commodity costs are getting passed on. because for the second quarter in a row, p&g did lift its inflation forecast the company expecting to pay $2.3 billion after tax and commodity costs. and that was up from 2.1 billion last quarter but the earnings forecast, importantly, was unchanged and the stock is jumping 4%. its best performance in at least a year and a half on this idea that p&g is passing it along very well and raising its sales forecast on those higher prices and of course higher volumes, which they appear to be doing if the stock is near a record high. >> and staples the best performing sector on the s&p as things stand up a percent, financials down about a percent. after the break, bank of

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welcome back bank of america shares off their earlier highs after rallying on earnings this morning. for more on those results let's bring in chairman and ceo brian moynihan brian, great to see you. thanks so much for joining us. >> wolf, good to see you, and

happy new year i haven't seen you since the new year, and happy new year to sara also >> well, a very happy new year to you great to get your outlook for the year ahead but before we get to the outlook, maybe let's just touch on that fourth quarter that's in the books. and i guess we got a glimpse of what you've been talking about for a long time that when rates do rise, you see the net interest income and the revenues pick up. costs went up, too but, importantly, less than revenues >> well, i think, wolf, just back up big picture, revues up, costs up 6%. a lot of that cost related to the market's related businesses whether it's wealth management or capital markets rates have not risen yet our driver of rate increases coming from that has not come through yet. that's ahead of us largely because we're so sensitive o the short rate side. the fourth quarter rates moved

up a little bit. but the real value that comes as the fed raises the short-term rate because when you have $2 trillion of deposits and a trillion dollars plus a consumer deposit, a trillion-four of deposits with american consumers more broadly out of our retail segment and a wealth management segment, those stay at zero because they're not bearing billions of dollars in transactional accounts we made a billion dollars in first quarter and fourth quarter without any rate changes in fact, they came down a bit. >> if we do get that environment that'll benefit your top line in the year ahead and rates go up, would you expect costs in the year ahead to go up by the same magnitude or significantly less? this quarter there's been a huge focus from investors across all the banks on cost forecasts for the year ahead >> we've got a decade plus history of managing the costs in this company we do it by constantly investing in improvements of what we do. we told our shareholders to

expect costs to be relatively flat for 2022 versus 2021. we're confident we can do that like we've been. we continue to take money from the operational process. you can automate our customers' behavior automates across all our businesses and we take that money and invest it back into growth and expansion, whether it's new branches, whether it's $3 billion plus of incremental code development every year or whether it's more relationship management to help draw that $50 billion loan growth. this year we can do it in 2022 with relatively flat costs of 2021 and we're confident we can do that >> let's touch, brian, if we can, on that loan growth it stood out relative to peers i guess the question on everyone's lips is can it continue in the year ahead, and if there are any factors you're looking out for that can derail it including, of course, raising rates. >> well, i think if the reason why rates are going up is economy is going to grow 4%,

which is our team's prediction this year. that's good for loan growth. think about before the pandemic, it got nearly a trillion dollars of loans on the books. and the commercial customers drew the lines of credit at 35% just on average. that dropped to 25%. that's like $40 billion of loans. we've gotten half of that back and that's coming through. and then the new loans we're doing on the consumer side we're still half a billion dollars off of credit cards we had coming into the pandemic $50 billion of loan growth in the fourth quarter but 35 billion was in the core businesses in the first three weeks of january that's grown from there so we feel good about loan growth largely due to the fact that we have this incredible franchise which has cranked back up after the pandemic got more manageable >> hi, brian it's sara. just a follow-up from me on what you just said about our economy being in a healthy place, and

that's why the fed would be raising rates. you painted that picture in your earnings, we saw it in your card spending, your comments on the call my question is how resilient do you think this recovery is, and can it withstand at least four interest rate hikes this year without going into recession >> well, that's going to be the question of the accommodation being taken out in a way that the economy can continue to grow but what we see, if you think about the american economy in what drives it is, the american people, consumers, their wages are rising, they're spending more, there's a lot of construction, there's a lot of pent-up demand that hasn't been fulfilled because of the delays in the supply chain that'll continue on. and there's a lot of borrowing capacity left. consumers have a lot of capacity to borrow in their home equity lines and their lines of credit on the card side companies have a lot of capacity to borrow because they made money, they paid down their lines and paid down their debt

but the key what we talked about today is looking at the u.s. consumer and how they spent the fourth quarter of '21 versus '19 or '20 up 30% in dollar volume spent, up 10, 15% in transaction volume which means consumers are out doing things they're doing things a little differently. they may not be flying on planes quite as much as they did back then, but they're still going to hotels for the weekends, they're still traveling around, and the rental markets and stuff are strong so, consumers continue to spend. and as you looked at what's happened so far this year, that rate of increase is still well above 10%. if you go back to when the fed funds rate was at 2% and the economy's the same size it is now, and the expectations grow at 2%, that would have been about a 6 or 7% spending rate. so you're much higher than that, which bodes well for the u.s. economy going forward. will the fed get it right? that's the question, and the markets will ebb and flow on that every day but i think they know how to remove the stimulus.

they did it from '17, '18, '19 and our revenues grew strongly during that time >> related question. what about inflation do you feel like we are out of control right now on inflation or do you ultimately see this problem as manageable? >> you know, i think at the end of the day the inflation has been here since last fall. it has just now become more agreed to. this is where the accommodation has to be taken out to bring the inflation down the market says four times will it be a 50-basis point bump versus a 25? the reality is that the accommodation has to be taken out. that's actually great news why is it great news that means that the level of economic activity can sustain without fiscal stimulus or monetary stimulus, which is good news that means the pandemic effects are largely behind us.

now, the actual virus we're still dealing with, will another variant come up that causes some change in the ability of customers to spend money and companies to be profitable we don't see that, the experts don't see that but that's really the worry, not the inflation at this point. they'll take it on, and it may bounce around, but the world knows how to adjust to that. >> brian, i wanted to ask you about overdraft fees i know you've been reducing and removing them steadily over the course of a decade or so but i think it's fair to say that you and your peers have made bigger more significant changes in recent months and years. i just wondered what the rationale for that was was it because of political pressure or to preempt political pressure >> i can't talk about other people because i don't know. we've been on a decade-long continuous process of driving down this as a percentage of

fees and taking it out we have a no overdraft account, 3 million plus customers have that that's a good-sized bank on its own. we've limited how many times you could do it. we had the ability to move money from other accounts. so, the big news, we're moving the $12 fee which is when merchants hit our customers' accounts and say try to get the money, we're taking that fee out. we're taking the transfer fees out, and we're reducing the overdraft costs from 35 to $10 but this is part of a schedule that we're on. why do we do it? we did it to stabilize a franchise from a time we started, our customer accounts have gone up 50% fees went way down that's why we can operate our consumer business with a trillion dollars in deposits, a hundred basis points a deposit, which is far below anybody in the peers. we're a third bigger than others it's good for the consumer, it

helps them live their financial lives better but also pays for the shareholder in the end of the day. >> i wanted to ask as well, brian, sort of related topic on the threat from fintech, what your view was on one of the bigger players in that space so far deciding to go ahead and get an fdic bank charter and whether you think that that's something that you welcome because now they're going to have to share similar levels of regulation, or whether it's a kind of new added step of a threat from a fintech company getting that type of fdic insurance and backing. >> there are two types of questions. but the key question is if somebody does an activity that relates to financial services for consumers or companies, it takes deposits, makes loans, holds money, they have to be regulated. that's why we have the banking regulation we have so i think anybody coming into that brings most are and more under the tent, so to speak, as

they call it and that's a good thing, whether it's mortgages, whether it's securities accounts into the sec registration and broker/dealer registration, investment/manager when things go on outside the system that's different. in terms of any competitor, we're very comfortable with our position we measure what we do against all those different types of competitors. our new account growth is strong 525,000 new accounts that is multiples of what's going on out there and then the average balance of all the accounts is well over $100,000 it's growing fast. so, all competitors we pay attention to and try to figure out if they're doing something we should do better. we don't have the temerity to say they can't be valid competitors and beat us up but the reality is none of them scare us either. >> brian, always good to see you. thanks so much for stopping by >> thank you, wolf thank you, sara. >> brian moynihan there-chairman and ceo of bank of america

the stock up 2% or so and still up 6% year-to-date, which can't be said for all of the banks after that recent little pullback >> great to get his thoughts, especially the bullishness on the economy as well and what we're seeing from the consumer right now. we've got just under 40 minutes to go here before the closing bell the market attempted a recovery a few times, but that didn't stick. s&p giving back 0.2% the nasdaq down a quarter of a percent. and small caps hit even harder after a 3% decline yesterday, down almost a full percent pedal to the metal, gold is hitting its highest level since november that's helping a number of gold-related equities in a major way. we'll break down the moves next. check out some of today's top search tickers on cnbc.com 10-year yield right on top where it has been all year long. sofi on that news that wilfred hit on the banking charter, up

18%. bank of america on earnings up 2. morgan stanley up 3. and tesldoa wn about 2.25% we'll be right back. umpire: ball! good eye! good eye! eyes are good for lots of things. best, caleb! umpire: ball! good eye! good eye! statistically impossible, caleb. umpire: strike three, you're out! you'll get 'em next time! or you won't, probably won't. and it won't impact your future whatsoever! talk to us about college planning today. feel comfortable about tomorrow. massmutual.

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navigating pandemic headwinds, and the outlook for investors, tomorrow 6:00 a.m. eastern watch "squawk box" any time on demand welcome back dow down about 120 points. gold prices are getting a boost today, hitting their highest level since november kristina partsinevelos here with the story. kristina >> you've got gold attempting a win for the first time in four sessions or as a td securities analyst wrote today, quote, gold still has game the precious metal hit a high of just north of 1,843 bucks. that's driving up the gold miner's etf. already surfacing its 30-day average. all of those 12 components are up well over 10% including harmony gold and a few silver players too. but precious metals are seeing interest that pretty much goes

beyond just an inflation hedge you've got stronger demand coming out of china. a softer u.s. dollar which makes gold cheaper to buy, higher oil prices that add to that inflationary trend and lastly some geopolitical troubles in russia and the united arab emirates, all reasons drivers for the yellow metals safe haven appeal today and that's almost 2% swing higher still to come, the nasdaq having an up and down session but remains around 10% below its recent highs we'll ask tech investor eric jackson if he thinks the worst of the selling is over here's a check of bonds yields the 10-year briefly hit 1.9%, it then pulled back it's at 1.83 as we stand we'll be right back.

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lots of accelerating here. dow down 176 as we head into the close. let's check in on some individual market movers for you. atlantic equities upgrading electronic arts to overweight. the firm says the microsoft/activision deal could be a catalyst for further mma in that sector. stock up 6.2%. and keybank out with a new note on home builders the firm downgrading dr horton to sector weight from overweight, downgrading lennar and toll and kb home keybank says inflation concerns are superseding favorable housing fundamentals and those stocks are all lower today on the back of higher

mortgage rates as well you can read more about the call on cnbc pro. mortgage rates near a two-year high is going to be a threat to some of these home builders and the tremendous games >> sector down today as you were saying meantime, the rest of the market slipped a little bit as well back down to half a percent of declines for the s&p 500 time though for a cnbc news update rahel solomon has it for us. >> here's what's happening at this hour. the faa has approved more commercial jets to land in poor weather at airports with new 5g services rolling out wisconsin's supreme court hearing arguments over redrawing the state's political boundaries democrats say that the republican-backed redistricting map is too partisan. one justice agreed and said that other maps can be accused of the same thing the court and its conservative majority has said that it will

not make significant changes to the current maps and nbc universal says that its olympics coverage will include information about the, quote, geopolitical context in which these games are being held the coverage details are being announced after human rights groups and a congressional committee called for coverage of china's human rights violations during the olympics. cnbc will be broadcasting some of the games and is part of nbc universal. you are now up to date sara, i'll send it back to you >> rahel, thank you. we've got 26 minutes here before the closing bell. here's where we stand, a little bit leg lower here on the s&p 500. we are down now about half a percent. staples, utilities, communications, services and materials are higher everyone else is down. consumer discretionary getting hit the hardest. up next tech investor eric jackson will be here to tell us the two names he's favoring this year plus, president biden set to speak at the top of the hour as he marks one year in office. we'll bring you there live as soon as it begins. sales are down from last quarter,

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the nation's earnings score card covid's impact on consumer spending, demand, and the bottom line protecting your investments, funding new potential. team coverage and analysis all day. watch or listen live on the cnbc app. it's been a turbulent start to the year for tech stocks. that's an understatement nasdaq down more than 7% for the year, underperforming the broader market and down about 10% from its peak joining us now is tech and media investor eric jackson, emj capital founder, and president eric, it's nice to see you i'm curious how you've been navigating this pretty steep selloff in some of these high-growth names, which you like do you add on the weakness, or are you having to sell out of some of them >> hey, sara good to be with you. it's definitely been a blood bath for the last two months, especially but really starting next month it's really going to, that the one-year anniversary that growth

and tech stocks have really entered a bear market. these stocks have not worked basically for a year so, yeah, to answer your question specifically, nothing's changed with most of these names operationally. but as an investor you have to be prudent to some of them because they have just been sold relentlessly, whether they're part of factor baskets that hedge funds are selling. and shorting other names i think short term, the names are compressed so much that -- and, again, 50 to 60% in some cases that i think, you know, things don't go to zero immediately. i think we're due in the sector for a short-term balance but i am worried that even though the nasdaq is 9% off from its highs, this bear market

hasn't really spread to the big tech names and others. >> i'm just looking at some of the charts of some of the names you've given us in the past like upstart. they've come all the way back down cathie wood today put out our quarterly newsletter where she repeated what she's been saying which she thinks the market is overreacting to inflation, that this innovative technology is ultimately going to be deflationary, the good kind. and once the inventory levels come back to normal, the market is going to realize that and the very disruptive names that she likes, many of them high multiple names are going to come back into favor do you agree with that view? >> some of the names that she's long, i'm short. obviously i don't see the world completely as she does i do agree with her, though, that -- i'm not so much worried about disinflation, but i'm worried about slowdown in the

near term. we're going to start to get earnings tonight and into the next few weeks and i think what's really going to be interesting to watch is especially in the consumer sector, i think you mentioned, they're down a lot today as we get further and further away from the stimulus that happened several months or quarters ago, is that going to start to play out of the results of some of these companies whether it's an e-commerce company or whether it's a retail company. and is that -- are we at the beginning stages of just a not cat clizic slowdown but a slowdown that the market still isn't pricing it >> eric, give us a name. what's a high conviction long that you have that you've bought or added toin the recent pullback >> well, spacs are kind of a profane word for most investors. but obviously every case is different. and i love a spac named fryer battery. the ticker is frey they're basically an electric

battery supplier they're still prerevenue we've now hit a tipping point of 10% of the cars sold in the past year were electric vehicles. that's only going up and the most valuable part of any electric car is the battery. so who's going to supply the batterys are all the automakers of the world going to buy them from china? or are they going to prefer to look to ones that are made in the e.u. or in the u.s.? and so freyr has got a jd partnership with coke and building giga factories in the u.s. they already are building giga factories in norway they've got an esg angle in terms of the batteries that they make are not only cost-effective, but they are made with far less environmental waste. and they're positioning themselves really well, and they've had a couple of big announcements including one this morning that they basically have announced 3 to 5 billion in revenue over the next eight years with more to come. and this is a $1 billion market

cap company with $600 million of cash sitting on the balance sheet. it's not well known, it's kind of overlooked. but that's a name that i think investors should look to >> it's up 12%, just to clarify are your exposures there >> i am long, i am very long it's one -- you know, a couple of months ago when the evs were going crazy, this probably would've been triple the value where it is today. i think eventually as more customer announcements come this year, investors will take a deeper look at this. >> good to see you, as always, eric thanks so much >> thank you both. up next, sofi makingmoves to become a national bank, and shares at ford hit the brakes. those stories and more when we go inside the "market zone." and at the top of the hour we'll hear from the president as he marks one year in office. we'll bring you that press conference and speech live as ons binso aitegs. ere to tell people that

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tonight, president biden marks one year in office highlights from his news conference plus, the first-of-its-kind criminal case tied to a tesla autopilot crash. autopilot crash. >> the

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to help you find opportunities, 24/7 support when you need answers, plus some of the lowest options in futures contracts prices around. [ding] get e*trade and start trading today. ♪ with 14 minutes to go in the trading day, we are now in the "closing bell" "market zone. cnbc senior markets commentator mike santoli here to break down these crucial moments of the trading day as always. and today we've got ritholtz wealth management ceo josh brown back as well welcome, josh. we'll kick it off with the broader market stocks are near session lows right now. the dow is in the red for the fourth day in a row, mike. looks like those attempts at some gains were lost and now we're headed south again, down half a percent on the s&p. some of the things that are

working are defensive groups and materials. is this a sentiment thing, or is it just following rates, which are moving ever higher >> rates are doing nothing so today you can't really pin it on rates the yields are softening up a little bit i think in general the narrative of the fed has to hustle is getting a little bit overwhelming, and it sort of has, it's in everybody's ears right now. that has been part of the story. i just think the market, it's very lethargic, it clearly came into this year with a bunch of house money having built up, and you had this combination of deferred profit-taking, and then just really cross-currents about the fed tightening into a soft patch because of omicron all those things thrown together, you have the history of years when you've been up 25% a given calendar year. i don't think there's anything much beyond that, except the market's not really showing the same character it did last year when it was a rush to buy every 5% pullback and you didn't really have these prolonged periods where you went without a

1% daily gain or a new record high so you have to be on alert that as we turn around the bottom end of this range that it's a little bit of a different tone. >> josh, i know you're not particularly bothered about the level of rates, but do we need to see the current surge in yields higher to stabilize a bit before equities can find a bottom >> well, if you believe the new equilibrium is 7%, then rates are way too low. rates on treasuries, forget about fed funds. but i don't believe that and i think the fed doesn't believe that and i think politically they have to act as though their hair is on fire and they're going to snap to it of course that's part of their job is to use their mouths but then a lot of what ends up happening is the market starts to do some of their work for them so we know that the consumer spending the way they've been spending is exacerbating the supply shocks that have been with us now for over 18 months we know it's not helpful to keep stimulating people by driving up

the prices of homes and stocks if you want things to cool off or calm down if you get a negative wealth effect from, for example, the nasdaq going from being down 9% to down 15% to start off this year which, with apple rolling over right now looks like it's in site. that's probably going to work in the fed's favor. you got mortgage rates ticking up if you think this spring is going to look anything like last spring, you'll be very wrong the housing market will cool off. so, i don't think the fed has to do as much as quickly so long as financial conditions start to tighten a little bit in and of themselves because of the way the fed has been talking and i'm perfectly fine with that this year reminds me of 2018 we had a fed getting more and more aggressive, they were a little bit further along at this point in the year than they are right now. but everybody else looking and saying, wait a minute, how aggressive do you want to be because this trade war is an absolute disaster for, like,

every single industrial and manufacturing company in the country. and they kept going and they kept going, and at a certain point the market told them they were wrong, and not long after we had a yield curve inversion anyway that's precovid. so, i think there's a lot of talk right now i'm not in the five hikes camp i don't think by the time they get there it will be necessary you're going to see seasonal demand collapse, which happens every year, and you're going to get a little bit of a cooling effect because prices are now starting to decline. so i think on balance we're in an okay place, i told you last week i think this is the real thing, the real correction, we have more work to do the last five days, the only evidence i've seen bolsters that case i don't think we're done, i think some of the biggest, quote, unquote, safest names now are joining to the downside. that's got to play out you can't think this is about your individual names that you hold nobody cares this is liquidation's happening

at the fund level. let the process play out >> one sector that's suffering today is financials. but two names within it are higher, bank of america and morgan stanley after they reported quarterly results it capped off q4 earnings for the banks as a whole earlier this hour we spoke with the ceo of bank of america, and he discussed the prospect of making more money as rates actually do start to rise. >> rates have not risen yet. our driver of rate increases coming from that has not come through that that's ahead of us largely because we're so sensitive on the short rate side, not to get overly technical the fourth quarter, rates moved up a little bit. but the real value that comes as the fed raises the short-term rate we made a billion dollars in first quarter, fourth quarter this year without any major rate changes. in fact they came down a bit >> josh, wondering whether you're surprised by the extent to which banks have suddenly

pulled back. and i think you hold jp morgan down 11% in the course of the last week. despite its numbers not being too bad. >> yeah. goldman sachs is down about 11% too. i think what's interesting about the banks now, yes, they're cheap but they've always been cheap for a very long time the problem is they don't have those loan loss reserves to drop to the bottom line and shock us all with profits that are 80% higher than what was expected. that part has played out they're going to need to hold those loan loss reserves, especially if we see any issue start to rear their ugly heads in the credit market, which hasn't happened yet. but i don't think the banks can do with their loan loss preserve cookie jar what they had been able to do in '21. so that realization is settling on people. doesn't mean they're bad investments, i think they're good investments i'd be a buyer here, stay with jp morgan. i'm long berkshire but the same idea roughly.

but i think what's remarkable is that with a bank stock you're still making a bet on the economy and the consumer the retail etf xrt is already down 25% from its high the xhb, the home builders etf is already in a 15% drawdown like, we're not in the same place that we were in from a consumer sentiment standpoint just six months ago. and i think that is what's dawning on investors in the financials and i think it's still early in that process >> nasdaq's now down almost a full percent losses picking up. sofi shares, though, are soaring today after winning approval to become a bank. kate rooney with the details boy, has this business changed, kate >> absolutely, sara. yeah, the federal reserve and occ approving sofi's bid to become a bank holding company. shares popping double digits following that news last night

this is part of sofi's planned acquisition of a small california lender, golden pacific, that's expected to close in a couple weeks. and by becoming a bank, sofi's able to really cut out the middleman. it gets a larger slice of each transaction and lowers the cost of capital it should boost its earnings by roughly 200 to $300 million annually for the next couple of years. the stock is still one of the biggest laggards among the fintech group, it's still down double digits for the year guys >> don't miss sofi's ceo on "mad money" with jim cramer tonight 6:00 p.m. eastern time mike, investors see this as a bit of a game changer, clearing this key regulatory hurdle how does the stock look? >> yeah. well, it's bouncing hard upto 50% loss from the high so obviously it's coming off pretty depressed levels. it really did trade with the pure fintech group it's a strategy, it's a call it's not as if, you know, we

didn't know if sofi could qualify to become a bank holding company. it's more about did they decide to allocate the capital in a certain way and clear the hurdles and they have done that. and it will probably have a better bottom line effect. it does underscore the idea, though, that fintech is doing boring stuff we already know about in a slightly different way as opposed to really being a new and revolutionary business so i think it distinguishes them a little bit from some of the other sort of, quote, quasior neobanks but ultimately puts them in the game with the legacy guys. >> we are at session lows the last 10, 15 minutes of the session has been fairly negative the nasdaq's now down more than 1% let's touch ford, though it's one of the biggest losers in the s&p 500 phil lebeau has the details of why. phil >> wolf, rough day for ford. remember, just a week ago this stock was trading over $25 a share. it was at a high that it hadn't seen since, i think, 2001.

well, it's changed, and a lot changed today. stock down more than 7%. why? they announced q4 charges after the bell yesterday we're not going to go through all of them. but they included 1.7 billion for restructuring debt that has analysts rethinking their estimates for the fourth quarter in the full year anything ev stock right now, anything related to the evs, it's selling today and that means ford, which has been benefitting from its ev transition is now going to pay the price like other ev stocks analysts becoming more caution look, it still doubled in the last year,or man doubled so it's had a heck of a run. we'll get the latest numbers from ford in a couple of weeks on february 3rd. guys, back to you. >> phil lebeau, thank you very much we are really selling off here into the close with just about a little over two minutes to go here in the trading day. big cap tech getting dragged in. microsoft is higher as well as meta mike, what are you seeing in the market internals >> you know, it was pretty much

an even split for most of the morning. we had those two relatively kind of faeint-hearted attempts. if you look at the new york stock exchange, it has turn pretty decidedly negative, basically two to one to the downside i was looking earlier at some of those groups that really were at the kind of end of the spear for the declines that started over a year ago in speculative growth they actually were showing a little bit of outperformance they still are outperforming to some degree. fintech basically flat it's a very thin thing to grab onto but you want to watch this group to see if the selling is done in the epicenter of the declines, and it maybe has got a little bit more to be mopped up in the standard mainstream of the market that is the big question i think the failed rallies and the selling of bounce kind of

activity is weighing heavily as you see the volatility index also was kind of noncommitical noncommittal the december lows on the s&p 500 are something to keep an eye on. we were just above 4500. and we're kind of right around the closing lows from late december we're basically chopping around these areas we thought we left behind coming into the new year. so it explains a little bit of the kind of sour turn in trader sentiment here sara >> dow is down a full percent as we head into the close about 350 points, biggest drag today is boeing along with caterpillar. some strength though in names like p&g, walmart, and microsoft. as far as the s&p 500 goes, every sector has gone negative, except for utilities and staples. consumer discretionary, financials, industrials the hardest hit along with real

estate and technology. tech down 1.4% it's at the bottom of the list there. that explains the nasdaq down 1.2% we are just spilling here into the close. small caps down 1.6% this comes on top of the big declines that we saw yesterday interest rates of the 10-year yield hasn't done much today the 10-year bund yield in germany. as the talk continues to be inflation and tighter policies dow with a decline of 339 or so points >> finishing pretty much at the session lows there, sara welcome to "closing bell," everyone i'm wilfred frost along with sara eisen and cnbc's marks commentator mike santoli we will bring you biden's press conference as soon as it begins. josh brown from ritholtz wealth management is still with us. mike, in terms of the way we

finished the session, it's really interesting as well to see the stocks that were going up and down with the broader indices throughout the session, and the likes of the ark etf was up 2.5%. apple down over 2% not often you see that, josh mentioned that earlier, kind of signs of that one starting to roll over a little bit >> terms of ark, that's all kind of suspect bounces until proven otherwise until something really can get strung together. very weak-handed actions, and also just a very kind of bids going away from the big index names. that's the way i would read those declines in apple. i don't know in there's some kind of sense out there that we're waiting for a shoe to drop in terms of what might come out of the president's press conference, whether it's ukraine or something else. i don't think that's been a main driver of what's happening in the market the market's been unable to get out of its own way you can't capitalize on the

tendency for january to be strong, to make use of the january flows or anything like that and i do think it means we didn't buy the 5% pullback >> we'll be watching >> oh, never mind. i think we are getting the president. he's going to hold his news conference let's go straight to washington. one year in office, president biden. >> good afternoon, everyone. tomorrow will mark one year since i took office. it's been a year of challenges, but it's been a year also of enormous progress. we went from 2 million people being vaccinated at the moment i was sworn in to 210 million americans being fully vaccinated today. we created 6 million new jobs, more jobs in one year than any time before. unemployment dropped, the unemployment rate dropped to 3.9% child poverty dropped by nearly 40%, the biggest drop ever in american history new business applications grew

by 30%, the biggest increase ever and for the first time in a long time, this country's working people actually got a raise, actually got a raise the bottom 40% saw their income go up the most of all those categories we cut health insurance premiums for millions of american families and we just made surprise medical bills illegal in this country. you know those bills you get that you don't expect after 2 to $5,000 from hospital beyond what you thought you were going to have to owe because of the consultation you weren't told was going to cost that much? no more. they're now illegal. thanks to the american rescue plan and other actions we've taken, we've seen record job creation, record economic growth in the past year now, thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure bill, we're about to make a record investment in rebuilding america to take us to be the number one best

infrastructure in the world. well, now we're way below that we'll be creating better jobs for millions of people, modernizing our roads, our bridges, our highways, our ports, our airports, everything from making clean water, removing lead pipes that every american can turn on a faucet and drink clean water. urban and rural and suburban communities. going to make affordable high-speed internet available to every american in urban, rural, and suburban areas we've never done that before now we are we're in the process of getting that done. still, for all this progress, i know there's a lot of frustration and fatigue in this country. and we know why. covid-19 omicron has now been challenging us in a way that it's the new enemy. but while it's cause for concern, it's not cause for panic. we've been doing everything we

can learning and adapting as fast as we can and preparing for a future beyond the pandemic i know that after almost two years of physical, emotional, and psychological weight of this pandemic and the impact it's had on everyone. for many of us, it's been too much to bear we're in a very different place now, though. we have the tools. vaccines, boosters, masks, tests, pills, to save lives and keep businesses and schools open 75% of adults are fully vaccinated we've gone from 90 million adults with no shots in arms last summer and down to 35 million with no shots as of today. and we're adding about 9 million more vaccinations each week. we're going to stick with our vaccination efforts because vaccinations work. so get vaccinated, please. and get your booster

look, we're also increasing testing. should we have done more testing earlier? yes. but we're doing more now we've gone from zero at-home tests a year ago to 375 million tests on the market in just this month. if you buy a test at the store, your insurance will reimburse you. on top of that we're making 1 billion at-home tests available for you to order and be delivered to your home for free. just visit covidtest.gov to know how to get that free test kit to your home. in addition, there are 20,000 sites where you can get tested in-person for free now and now we have more treatments that people can -- for people -- to keep people out of the hospital including life-saving antiviral pills. we purchased 20 million of these new pfizer pills, more than any

country in the world and the bottom line of covid-19 is that we're in a better place than we've been and have been thus far, clearly better than a year ago we're not going back to lockdowns. we're not going back to closing schools. schools should stay open because the american rescue plan, we provided the states $130 billion to keep our students and educators safe and schools open. funding for ventilation systems of schools, social distancing, hygiene for classrooms and school buses in addition we've added another $10 billion for covid-19 tests to be able to be administered at schools. and many states and school districts have spent this money very well. unfortunately, some haven't. i encourage the states and school districts that use the funding to protect our children and keep their schools open, use

it covid-19 is not going to give up and accept things -- it's not going to go away immediately but i'm not going to give up and accept things as they are now. some people may call what's happening now the new normal i call it a job not yet finished it will get better we're moving toward a time when covid-19 won't disrupt our daily lives. where covid-19 won't be a crisis, but something to protect against and a threat look, we're not there yet, but we will get there. now, the second challenge we're facing are prices. covid-19 has created a lot of economic complications, including rapid price increases across the world economy people see it at the gas pumps, grocery stores and elsewhere so here's what we're going to do a critical job in making sure that the elevated prices don't

become entrenched rest with the federal reserve, which has a dual mandate full employment and stable prices the federal reserve provided extraordinary support during the crisis for the previous year and a half given the strength of our economy and the pace of recent price increases, it's appropriate as the federal chairman, chairman powell, the fed chairman powell has indicated, to recalibrate the support that is now necessary. i respect the fed's independence, and i've nominated five superb individuals to serve on the federal board of governors. men and women from a variety of ideological perspectives they're eminently qualified, historically diverse, and have earned bipartisan praise and i call the united states senate to confirm them without any further delay. and here at the white house and for my friends in congress, the best thing to tackle high prices

is a more productive economy with greater capacity to deliver goods and services to the american people, and a growing economy where folks have more choices and more small businesses compete and where more goods can get to market faster and cheaper, i've laid out a three-part plan to do just that first, fix the supply chain. covid-19 has had a global impact on the economy when a factory shuts down in one part of the world, shipments to shops and homes and businesses all over the world are disrupted. covid-19 has compounded that many times over. a couple of months ago in this very room we heard dire warnings about how the supply chain problems could create a real crisis around the holidays so we acted we brought together business and labor and that much-predicted crisis did not occur. 99% of the packages were delivered on time, and shelves

were stocked and notwithstanding the recent storms that have impacted many parts of our country, the share of goods in stock at stores is 89% now, which is barely changed from the 91% before the pandemic i often see empty shelves being shown on television. 89% are full, which is only a few points below what it was before the pandemic. but our work's not done. my infrastructure law will supercharge your effort upgrading everything from roads and bridges to ports and airports, railways and transit, to make the economy move faster and reduce prices for families second thing, my build back better plan will address the biggest cost working families face every day no other plan will do more to lower the cost for american families it cuts the cost for childcare many families including the people sitting in this room, if

they have children and they're working full time, many families pay up to $14,000 a year for childcare in big cities, less than that in smaller ones. i plan to cut that in half that will not only be a game changer for so many families' budgets, but it will mean so much for the nearly 2 million women who've left the workforce during the pandemic because of things like childcare. my build back better plan cuts the price of prescription drugs. so insulin that today costs some people as much as $1,000 a month will cost no more than $35 a month. it cuts the cost of elder care, it lowers energy cost, and it will do all this without raising a single penny in taxes on people making under $400,000 a year or raising the deficit. in fact, my plan cuts the deficit and it boosts the economy by getting more people into the workforce

that's why 17 nobel prize winners for economics saywill ease long-term inflationary pressure bottom line, if price increases are what you're worried about, the best answer is my build back better plan. third thing we're going to do, promote competition. in too many industries, a handful of giant companies dominate the market in sectors like meat processing, railroad, shipping and other areas this isn't a new issue it's not been the reason we've had high inflation today it's not the only reason it's been happening for a decade but, over time, it has reduced competition, squeezed out small businesses and farmers, ranchers and increased the price for consumers. we end up with an industry like the meat processing industry where four big companies dominate the markets pay ranchers less for their cattle they grow, charge consumers more for beef,

hamburger meat, whatever they're buying, prices are up. look, i'm a capitalist, but capitalism without competition is not capitalism, it's exploitation so i signed an executive order to tackle unfair competition in our economy. and we're going to continue to enforce it along with working with congress where we can i'll close with this we have faced some of the biggest challenges that we've ever faced in this country, these past few years challenges to our public health, challenges to our economy, but we're getting through it and not only are we getting through it, we're laying the foundation for future where america wins the 21st century by creating jobs at a record pace now we need to get inflation under control. we have developed an extraordinarily effective booster shots and antiviral pills. now we need to finish the job to

get covid-19 under control i've long said it's never been a good bet to bet against the american people or america i believe that more than ever today. we've seen the grit and determination of the american people this past year. but the best days of this country are still ahead of us, not behind us. now i'm happy to take questions. yes? >> thank you, mr. president. some of my colleagues will get into some specific issues, but i wanted to zoom out on your first year in option signature domestic legislation is stalled in congress in a few hours from now an effort in the senate to deal with voting rights and voting reform legislation is going to fail covid-19 is still taking the lives of 1,500 americans every day. and the nation's divisions are just as raw as they werea year ago. did you overpromise to the american public what you could achieve in your first year in office, and how do you plan to course-correct going forward >> why are you such an optimist?

look i didn't overpromise but i have probably outperformed what anybody thought would happen the fact of the matter is that we're in a situation where we have made enormous progress. you mentioned the number of deaths from covid. well, it was three times that not long ago it's coming down, everything's changing it's getting better. look, i didn't overpromise, but i think if you take a look at what we've been able to do, you'd have to acknowledge we made enormous progress but one of the things that i think is something that one thing i haven't been able to do so far is get my republican friends to get in the game of making things better in this country. for example, i was reading the other day -- and i wrote the quote down so i don't misquote him.

a quote from governor sanunu when he sided he wasn't going to run for the senate in new hampshire. here's what he said. they were all, for the most part, content with the speed in which they weren't doing anything was very clear that we just had to hold the line for two years okay so i'm just going to be a road block for the next two years that's not what i do, he said. he went on to say it bothered me that they were okay with that. so we're not going to get stuff done if we win the white house back why didn't we do anything in 2017 and 2018? and then he said, how did he respond? he said crickets, crickets, they had no answer.

i did not anticipate that there'd be such a stalwart effort to make sure that the most important thing was that president biden didn't get anything done. think about this, what are republicans for, what are they for? and so the problem here is that i think what i have to do and the change in tactic, if you will, i have to make clear to the american people what we are for. we've passed a lot of things that people don't even understand all what's in it, understandably remember when we passed the affordable care act and everybody thought that it really was getting pummelled and beaten and it wasn't until after that next campaign, that off-year campaign, and i went into a whole -- i wasn't in office anymore, i was in a whole bunch of districts campaigning for

democrats. and republican districts said they wanted to do away with healthcare, with obamacare and i started pointing out that if we did that, pre-existing conditions would no longer be covered. and they said, huh we didn't know that. and guess what we won over 38 seats because we had to explain to the people exactly what in fact had passed. now, one of the things that i remember saying, and i'll end this, i remember saying to president obama when he passed the affordable care act, i said you ought to take a victory lap. he said there are so many things going on, we don't have time to take a victory lap as a consequence, no one knew what the detail of the legislation was. they don't know a lot of the detail in what we pass so the difference is i am going to be out on the road a lot making the case around the country with mycolleagues who are up for re-election and others making the case of what we did do and what we want to do, what we need to do

and, so, i don't think i've overpromised at all. and i'm going to stay on this track. one of the things that i remember, and i'll end with this i was talking with jim clyburn who was a great help to me in the campaign in south carolina and jim said he would endorse me, and there was a clip on television the last couple days of jim and it said that we want to make things accessible and affordable for all americans. that's healthcare, that's education. that's prescription drugs. that's making sure you have access to all the things that everybody else has we can afford to do that we can't afford not to do it so i tell my republican friends, here i come, this is going to be about what are you for, what are you for?

and i lay out what we're for abc? >> thank you, mr. president. you mentioned your republican colleagues but right now your top two legislative priorities are stalled, blocked by your own party after months of negotiation. you are only guaranteed control of washington for one more year before the midterms. do you need to be more realistic and scale down these priorities in order to get something passed >> no, i don't think so. when you say more realistic, i think it's extremely realistic to say to people -- let me back up you all really know the politics of this country and your networks and others who spend a lot of time, which i'm glad you do, pulling this data, determining what the american people's attitudes are, et cetera american people overwhelmingly agree with me on prescription drugs. they overwhelmingly agree with me on the cost of education.

they overwhelmingly agree with me on early education. they overwhelmingly -- on childcare. so we just have to make the case what we're for and what the other team's not for look, we knew all along that a lot of this was going to be an uphill fight and one of the ways to do this is to make sure we make the contrast as clear as we can. and one of the things that i think we're going to have to do is to make the case -- i don't think there's anything unrealistic about what we're asking i'm not asking for castles in the sky. i'm asking for practical things the american people have been asking for, for a long time. and i think we can get it done >> you're not going to scale down any of these priorities, but so far that strategy isn't working. you haven't been able to get some of these big legislative ticket items done. >> i got some real big ones done, bigger than any president

has gotten in his first year >> but currently, mr. president, voting rights legislation and isn't going anywhere are you confident that you can get it signed into law before the midterm elections? >> yes, i'm confident that we can get big chunks of the build back better signed into law. and -- should not be those who are being put up by the republicans to determine that they're going to be able to change the outcome of the election so, whether or not we can actually get -- and, by the way, i haven't given up, we haven't finished the vote yet on what's going on, on voting rights and the john lewis bill and others so, look i've been engaged a long time in public policy. and i don't know many things

that have been done in one fell swoop. and, so, i think the most important thing to do is try to inform -- not educate -- inform the public at what's at stake in stark terms and let them make judgments and let them know who's for them and who's against them, who's there and who's not there and make that the case and >> you mentioned republicans and reaching out to them some republicans who may be open to major changes on voting rights instance like mitt romney, he said he never even received a phone call from this office why not? >> mitt romney's a straight guy. and one of the things that we're doing, i was trying to make sure we got everybody on the same page in my party on this score and i didn't call many republicans at all the fact is that i do think that

mitt is a serious guy. i think we can get things done i predict you we'll get something done on the electoral reform side of this. but rather than judge what's going to get done and not get done, all i can say is i'm going to continue to make the case why it's so important to not turn the electoral process over to political persons who were set up deliberately to change the outcome of elections allison harris, please >> thank you, mr. president. speaking of voting rights legislation, if this isn't passed, do you still believe the upcoming election will be fairly conducted and its results will be legitimate? >> well, it all depends on whether or not we're able to make the case to the american people that some of this is being set up to try to alter the

outcome of the election. and it's one thing -- look, maybe i'm just being too much of an optimist. remember how we thought not that many people were going to show up to vote in the middle of the pandemic, the highest voter turnout of the history of the united states of america well, i think if, in fact, no matter how hard they make it for minorities to vote, i think you're going to see them willing to stand in line and defy the attempt to keep them from being able to vote i think you're going to see the people showing up and making the sacrifice that needs to be made in order to change the law back to what it should be but it's going to be difficult i make no bones about that, it's going to be difficult. but we're not there yet. we've not run out of options yet, and we'll see how this moves. >> and on omicron and education,

teachers are in revolt in so many places. parents are at odds over closing schools and remote learning. you say we're not going to go back to closing schools. yet they're closing in some areas. what do you say to those teachers and principals and parents about school closings? and what can your administration do to help make up for learning loss for students? >> first of all, i put in perspective the question you asked. very few schools are closing over 95% are still open. so you all phrase the questions -- i don't think it's deliberate on your part, but you phrase the question when we watch this on television, my god, all those schools must be closing, what are we going to do 95% are still open, number one number two, the idea that parents don't think it's important for their children to be in school and teachers know it as well, that's why we made sure that we had the ability to provide the funding through the

recovery act, through the act, the first act we passed, to be able to make sure schools were able to be safe so we have new ventilation systems available for them, we have the way they handle, they scrub down laboratories i mean, the laboratories kids go to, to go to the bathroom. cafeterias, buses, et cetera all that money's there there's billions of dollars made available that's there not every school district has used it as well as it should be used but it's there and, so, in addition to that, there is now another $10 billion for testing of students in schools. so, i think as time goes on, it's much more likely you're going to see that number go back up from 95% back up to 98, 99% but the outfit of the individuals in the district that says we're not going to be open

is always going to get -- and i'm not being critical of any of you -- it's always going to get front page it's always going to be the top of the news. but let's put it in perspective. 95, as high as 98% of the schools in america are open, functioning, and capable of doing the job. how about jen epstein, bloomberg. >> thank you, mr. president. your top firm policy advisers have warned that russia is now ready to attack ukraine. but there's still a little of unity. if the u.s. nato aren't willing to put troops on the line to defend ukraine, american allies can't agree on a sanctions package, hasn't the u.s. and the west lost nearly all of its leverage over vladimir putin and given how ineffective sanctions have been in deterring putin in the past, why should

the threat of new sanctions give him pause? >> well, because he's never seen sanctions like the ones i promise will be imposed if he moves. number one number two, we're in a situation where vladimir putin is about to -- we've had very frank discussions, vladimir putin and i. and theidea that nato is not going to be united, i don't buy. i've spoken to every major nato leader we've had the nato/russian summit i think what you're going to see is that russia will be held accountable if it invades. and it depends on what it does it's one thing if it's a minor incursion and we end of having to fight about what to do and not do, et cetera. but if they actually do what they're capable of doing, it is going to be a disaster for russia if they further invade

ukraine, and that our allies and partners are ready to impose severe cost and significant harm to russia and the russian economy. and, you know, we're going to fortify our nato allies on the eastern flank if he does invade. i've already shipped over $600 million worth of sophisticated defensive equipment to the ukrainians. the cost of going into ukraine in terms of physical loss of life for the russians, they will be able to prevail over time, but it's going to be heavy it's going to be real, it's going to be consequential. is in addition to that, putin has a stark choice, either de-escalation or diplomacy, confrontation consequences i think you're going to see -- for example, everybody talks about how russia has control over the energy supply that

europe absorbs well, guess what, that money that they earn, that makes about 45% of the economy i don't see that as a one-way street they go ahead and cut it off, it's like my mother used to say, you bite your nose off to spite your face. it's not like they have all these wonderful choices out there. i spoke with the prime minister of finland we're talking about concern on the part of finland and sweden about what russia's doing. the last thing that russia needs is finland deciding to change its status they didn't say they're going to do that, but they're talking about what, in fact, is going on and how outrageous russia is being. we're finding ourselves in a position where i believe you'll see that there'll be severe economic consequences. for example, anything that involves dollar denominations if they invade, they're going to pay. their banks will not be able to

deal in dollars. so a lot's going to happen but here's the thing my conversation with putin -- and we've been, how can we say it, we have no problem understanding one another. he has no problem understanding me, nor me him and the directed conversations were, i pointed out, i said, you know, you've occupied before other countries, but the price has been extremely high. how long you can go in and over time at great loss and economic loss go in and occupy ukraine. but how many years one, three, five, ten? what is that going to take what toll does that take it's real, it's consequential. so this is not all just a cake walk for russia. militarily they have

overwhelming superiority as it relates to ukraine, but they'll pay a stiff price immediately, near term, medium term and long term if they do it i'm sorry. okay david sanger, "new york times. >> thank you, mr. president. i wanted to follow up on your answer there about russia and ukraine. when you were in geneva in june, you said to us about president putin, i think the last thing he wants now is a cold war. now, since then, of course, you've seen him gather these troops, 100,000 troops around ukraine. your secretary of state said today he thought he could invade at any moment. you've seen the cyberattacks, and you've seen the demand they have a sphere of influence in which you would withdraw all american troops and nuclear weapons from what used to be the soviet bloc.

so i'm wondering if you still think that the last thing he wants is a cold war. and has your view of him changed in the past few months and if it has and he does invade, would your posture be to really move back to the kind of containment policy that you saw so often when you were still in the senate >> the answer is that i think he still does not want any full-blown war, number one number two, do i think he'll test the west, test the united states and nato as significantly as he can? yes, i think he will but i think he'll pay a serious and dear price for it that he doesn't think now will cost him what it's going to cost him. and i think he will regret having done it now, whether or not -- i think

that -- how can i say this in a public forum i think that he is dealing with what i believe he thinks is the most tragic thing that's happened to mother russia in that the berlin wall came down, the empire has been lost, the soviet union has been split. but think about what he has. he has eight time zones, a tundra that will not freeze again naturally, a situation where he has a lot of oil and gas, but he is trying to find his place in the world between china and the west and, so, i'm not so sure that he has -- david, i'm not so sure he

is certain what he's going to do my guess is he will move in, he has to do something. i've indicated to him the two things he said to me that he wants guarantees one is ukraine will never be part of nato and, two, that nato or there will not be strategic weapons stationed in ukraine we can work out second in the second piece depending on what he does along the russian border in the european area of russia on the first piece, we have a number of treaties internationally and in europe that suggest that you get to choose who you want to be with but the likelihood that ukraine is going to join nato in the near term is not very likely based on much more work they have to do in terms of democracy and a few other things going on there, and whether or not the major allies in the west would vote to bring ukraine in right

now. so there's room to work if he wants to do that but i think, as usual, he is going to -- well, i probably shouldn't go any further but i think it will hurt him badly. >> it sounds like you are offering some way out here, some offer ramp and it sounds like what it is, is at least an informal assurance that nato is not going to take in ukraine any time in the next few decades, and it sounds like you're saying we would never put nuclear weapons there. he also wants us to move all of our nuclear weapons out of europe and not have troops rotating through the old soviet bloc do you think there's space for there as well? >> no, there's not space for that we won't permanently station -- the idea -- we're going to actually increase troop presence in poland, romania, et cetera, if in fact he moves because we have a sacred obligation in

article v to defend those countries. we have great concern about what happens in ukraine thank you. maureen, "usa today. >> thank you, mr. president. i want to follow up on your comment on build back better and also ask you a question about the pandemic you said that you're confident you can pass big chunks of build back better this year. does that wording mean that you are thinking about -- you're looking at breaking the package up into individual portions? and then on the pandemic now that the supreme court has blocked the vaccination or test rule for larger businesses, are you reconsidering whether to require vaccines for domestic flights as a way to boost vaccination rates? >> now, look, first of all, on the last part of the question, the supreme court decision, i think, was a mistake but you still see thousands and thousands of people who work for major corporations having to be

tested as a consequence of the decision made by the corporation, not by the standard i set that is there. i think you'll see that increase, not decrease, number one. what was the first part of your question >> on your comment that you made that you're confident that major chunks of build back better can pass are you breaking it up >> it's clear to me that we're going to have to probably break it up. i think that we can get -- and i've been talking to a number of my colleagues on the hill. i think it's clear that we would be able to get support for the 500 plus billion dollars for energy and the environmental issues that are there, number one. number two, i know that the two people who've opposed on the democratic side, at least, support a number of the things

that are in there. for example, joe manchin strongly supports early education 3 and 4 years of age, strongly supports that there is strong support for, i think, a number of the way in which to pay for these, pay for this proposal. so i think there is -- i'm not going to negotiate it myself as to what should and shouldn't be in it, but i think we can break the package up, get as much as we can now, come back and fight for the rest later um, ken, "wall street journal. >> thank you, mr. president. i wanted to ask you about the economy. as you said earlier, americans are feeling the squeeze of inflation. oil prices have hit a seven-year high recently. how long should americans expect to face higher prices when they're at the grocery store, when they're at the gas pump

is this something they're going to see into the summer, into next fall? and, separately, you talk about the importance of the fed, but isn't that an acknowledgment that you're limited in what you can do if you're relying on the fed to make decisions and you're unable to get a build back better proposal through, aren't you limited in what you can do to deal with inflation >> look, as you know, ken, the inflation has everything to do with the supply chain. and i think what you're seeing is that we've been able to make progress on speeding up the access to materials -- for example, one-third of the increase in costs of living is the cost of automobiles. the reason automobiles have skyrocketed in prices is because of the lack of computer chips. so, we have the capacity, and

we're going to do everything in our power to do it, to become self-reliant on the computer chips that we need in order to be able to produce more automobiles. that's underway. we've already passed within the context of another bill money for that in the house of representatives. but i think there's a way we can move to -- if we can move to get, for example, that one thing done, it can make a big difference in terms of the cost of the total cost of living. now, with regard to the whole issue of energy prices, that gets a little more complicated but, you saw what happened when i was able to convince everyone from including china, india, a number of other countries to agree with us to go into their version of their petroleum reserve to release more into the market so that that brought down the price about 12, 15 cents a

gallon some places more there's going to be a reckoning along the line here as to whether or not we're going to continue to see oil prices continue to go up in ways that are going up now relative to what impact that's going to have on the producers and, so, it's going to be hard i think that's the place where most middle-class people get hit the most instead of paying $2.40 a gallon, they're paying $5 a gallon that's going to be really difficult. so we're going to continue to work on trying to increase oil supplies that are available. and i think there's ways in which we can be of some value added in terms of the price of gas, natural gas and the like to take the burden off the european countries that are now totally dependent on russia. but it's going to be very hard but i think that we have to deal with -- for example, like i

said, you have a circumstance where people are paying more for a pound of hamburger meat than they ever paid well, one of the reasons for that is you don't have that many folks out there that are controlling them all so you're going to see more and more, we're going to move on this competition piece to allow more and more smaller operations to come in and be able to engage in providing buying in, providing the access to much cheaper meat than exists now but it's going to be a haul. now, and i assume the reason you said if i can't get build back better, it relates to what those 17 nobel laureate economists who said if we can pass it, it would lower the impact on inflation, reduce inflation over time, et cetera so, there's a lot we have to do. it's not going to be easy, but i think we can get it done

but it's going to be painful for a lot of people in the meantime. that's why the single best way to take the burden off middle class and working-class folks is to pasd back better piece that are things they are paying a lot of money more for if you get to trade off higher gases for putting up with higher price of hamburgers and gas versus whether or not you're going to have be able to pay for education and/or childcare and the like, i think most people would make the trade their bottom line would be better in middle-class households but it's going to be hard, and it's going to take a lot of work >> you mentioned china do you think the time has come to begin lifting some of the tariffs on chinese imports or is there a need for china to make due on some of its commitments in the phase one

agreement? some business groups would like you to begin lifting up those tariffs. >> well, i know that, and that's why my trade rep is working on that right now the answer's uncertain i would like to be able to be in a position where i could say they are meeting the commitments, more of their commitments and be able to lift some of it but we're not there yet. um, nancy, cbs >> thank you so much, mr. president. this afternoon the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell said the midterm elections are going to be a report card on your progress on inflation, border security, and standing up to russia. do you think that that's a fair way to look at it? and, if so, how do you have that report card looks right now? >> i think report card's going to look pretty good if that's where we're at mitch has been very clear. he'll do anything to prevent biden from being a success and i actually like mitch

mcconnell. we like one another. but he has one straightforward objective, make sure that there's nothing i do that makes me look good in the mind -- in his mind with the public at large. and that's okay, i'm a big boy, i've been here before. but the fact is that i think that i'm happy to debate and have a ref renderendum on how i handle the economy whether or not i've made progress on -- look, again, i'm taking too long to answer your questions, and i apologize i think that the fundamental question is what's mitch for what's he for on immigration what's he for? what's he proposing? what's he for dealing with russia that's different than i'm

proposing and many of his republican colleagues are supporting as well what's he for on these things? what are they for? everything's a choice. i think -- look, i've laid out a proposal on immigration that if we passed it, we'd be in a totally different place right now. but we're not there. my buddy john mccain's gone. so, it's just -- it's going to take time. and, again, i go back to -- i go back to governor sununu's quote. how long -- rhetorical question, i know this is not fair to ask the press question i'm not asking you but think about, did you ever think that one man out of office could intimidate an entire party

where they're unwilling to take any contrary to what he thinks should be done in fear of being defeated in a primary? i've had five republican senators talk to me, bump bump me, or sit with me who have told me they great with whatever but joe, if i do this, i'm going to be defeated in the primary. we've got to break that. i down, you're all well informed, more informed than any group of people in america, but did any of you think that you would get to the point where not a single republican would diverge on a major issue

now one? anyway -- >> those five republican senators are >> sure -- no, are you kidding me i maintain confidentiality, but i'm sure you have spoken to some. >> reporter: on voting rights, sir, ten months ago i asked if there was anything you could do beyond legislation to protect voting rights. at that time you said yes, but i'm not going to lay out a strategy before you and the world now. now that legislation appears to be hopefully stalled, can you now lay out your strategy to protect votingrights i'm not prepared to do that, but we have significantly beefed up a number of enforcers in the justice department who are there

to challenge the -- these unconstitutional effort, in our view unconstitutional effort on the parks of the republicans to stack the election we have begun to organize in ways we didn't before. to make the case to the rest of the american people what's about to happen. what will -- if i had talked to you -- not you -- if i talked to the public of the whole idea of subversion election i think people would have looked at me, whoa, i taught constitutional law for 20 years, and on saturday morning when i was a senator, and i never thought we would get to a place where we were talking about send

different electors to the state legislative bodies to represent who won the election i doubt anybody would have thought that would have happened in american, but it's happening. i guess what i'm saying is there are a number of things we can do, but also we would be able to get significant pieces of the legislation if we don't get it all now to build to get it so we get a big chunk of the john lewis legislation as well as the fair election laws >> reporter: you touted the number of americans who are fully vaccinated, but even some of your advisers say people aren't fully protective unless they have that third shot, a booster. why hasn't this white house

changed the definite figures of "fully vaccinated" to include that third booster shot? is it because the numbers of fully vaccinated americans would suddenly look not that impressive >> that's not it at all. i every time i speak of it, everybody get the booster shot it's the optimum protection you can have you are protected, but better protected with the booster shot. >> the definition right now? >> i'm following what the the better protective. >> thank you, mr. president it's

one thing if it's a minor incurring -- are you saying that a minor incursion would not lead to the sanctions that you have threatened or are you effectively giving putin permission to make a small incursion into the country >> good question the most important thing to do, big nations can't believe, number one number two, the idea that we would do anything to split nadeau, this would have a profound impact on one of i think would be to weaken nato, would be a big mistake

if it's something significantly short of a significant invasion -- not even significant, but major military forces coming across -- for example. it's one thing to determine if they continue to use cyberefforts well, we can respond in the same way, cyber they have fsb people in ukraine now trying to undermine the solidarity one -- within ukraine about russia but it's very important that we keep everyone in nato on the same pain. that's what i'm spending time doing. there are differences in nato as to what countries are willing to do, depending on what happens.

think we will, if there's something whether it's russian forces crossing borders, i think that changes every, but it depends on what they have done >> reporter: a just wanted to get your thoughts if it's still possible to reach a deal, or if it's time to give up on that thank you. it remains to be seen.

>> kristin nbc. >> reporter: very quickly on russia i do have a number of domestic policy issues. on russia, it seemed like you said you have assessed, you feel as though he will move in. has this administration, have you determined whether president putin plans to invade or moved into ukraine, as you said? the only thing i'm confidence of is that's solely a putin decision he's making that decision. >> i suspect it matters which signed side of the bet he gets up on so exactly what he's going to do. i think it's not irrational, if you wanted to, to talk about

dealing with strategic doctrine and deal with structures in the european parts of russia but i don't think whether he has decided whether he wants to do that or not. so far in the three meetings we've had, they have not produced anything, because the impression i get from my secretary of state, my other senior officials doing these meetings, there's a question whether the people they're talking to know what he's going to do. but based on a number of criteria as to what he could do -- for example, for him to move and occupy the whole country, particularly from the north, he's going to have to wait a bit until the ground is frozen to where he can go, to move in a direction he wants to

talk about what's going -- we're continues to provide for defense capacities to the ukrainian. we're talking about what's going on in both the baltic and black sea, et cetera there's a whole ranges of things where he's calculates how quickly can he do what he wants to do. he's an informed individual. i believe he's the long term of implications will be >> you've gotten a lot of questions about voting rights, mr. president, but i want to ask you about black voters i was in congressman