declines jack ma steps off the board of softbank last year, two years ago. i guess this was kind of in motion if it does materialize. >> we'll keep an eye on it to your point, one of the greatest investments of all time. >> oh, yeah. >> no doubt about that that's will do it for us right here on "squawk on the street. "techcheck" starts now ♪ ♪ good monday morning. welcome to "techcheck. i'm carl quintanilla with jon fortt and deirdre bosa today the harsh calling of winners and losers is this the metta market or the apple market nasdaq trying for its sixth positive day in the last seven. plus, should peloton be peddling a sale? who makes sense as a possible buyer. we'll discuss. bitcoin up 35% since sitting

low 35k in late january. we'll answer a key crypto tax question this hour with bitcoin back above 43k, dee. >> we start with a stock rocketing higher today that of course is peloton, up 21%, just this morning, which given the company's downhill turn just takes it back to where it was trading, oh, two weeks ago multiple poll reports say amazon is floating an acquisition and nike bidding as well and one asking if apple is natural buyer. it raises new issues for tech investors in big tech should the biggest companies be acquiring growth especially given the huge draw downs we have seen in valuation. microsoft lost out on tiktok but certainly been ann acquirer more recently is that why we're seeing $10 billion of metaverse investment? peloton's market cap, guys, near $10 billion and that's close to what am von is spending on mgm

we know amazon is all about the prime fly wheel. the question is does it want or need a peloton to make that prime subscription more attractive jon, we just got a price hike from amazon and the cfo saying that it was confident in its platform offering. so why would it really need this >> need, i mean, who needs peloton except for those of us who maybe were eating a little too loosely during the pandemic. but, i mean, could amazon use sort of the lower level peloton subscription and content to sweeten prime and then have a higher level for those who get the hardware, maybe even build different tiers? sure it makes more sense for them than say it does for an apple which already has a premium subscriber base both in iphones in general and then the apple 1 subscription tying in icloud and fitness plus and tv plus and all that stuff, carl so i mean, just because you can buy peloton and you're into health, i don't think that

necessarily makes it worth it for you to buy it. but certainly for some players that don't already have a premium demographic could make sense. >> yeah. it's funny every scenario, jon, kind of -- you can kind of make it make sense with apple it's through health and fitness even through some of the media names being thrown around, dee there is a large media generation component to peloton. they make a lot of television essentially. but -- and of course the valuation argument is where webbush got really constructive over the weekend and truest as well trying to compare to other smaller deals like lululemon and mirror. >> right there was that deal that sort of came before it media companies thrown in the mix as well, jon you raised an interesting point, could we see kind of a lower cost peloton, just a subscription we know prime has the affluent customer, but they're trying to move down to the lower income. that's an interesting idea now i can see it. let's stay with this and bring in lo tony what did you make our conversation what do you think is the fate of

peloton? we should ask the basic question, perhaps nobody buys it and what happens then? >> well, first, thanks for having me. i think carl brings up a really interesting point around there really is a way to craft almost any scenario to be able to show who could actually be an acquirer what we saw during the pandemic services like peloton had this massive tail wind and now that things are opening up a little bit, hey, look, i'm one of those people i bought a peloton because i was getting a little too covid heavy and decided to go back to the gym once things opened up. i think apple would be a very interesting acquirer because of the strides they've made on the health side. this will be another brand that's kind of in line with how they like to think about the design element but look, apple doesn't make a lot of acquisitions. their biggestacquisition to date is beats. so i don't know. this one is kind of up in the air right now. >> toney, you said you bought a

peloton, i bought a regular treadmill and put my iphone on and that's how i use peloton if you look the fiscal q1 subscription revenue, up nearly 100% year over year. 500 million. so, you know, what are you buying it for? are you buying for that arr, that reoccurring revenue or for the hardware >> yeah. i think in the case of really apple in particular, they're buying it for that arr, the ability to continue to move the business to be able to have a higher margin offering from reoccurring services you know, nothing -- it does nothing but increase the mote, locks in a premium customer. i suspect there's a big overlap between the peloton users and the iphone users any way, so i think it would make a lot of sense. but i can also see it makes sense for amazon as well as nike. >> yeah. i was going to say nike. lo, you used to work for them for a bit. it's one thing to talk about the tech players moving into health.

but what about the health and lifestyle players moving more into subscription, more contend, more direct relationship, would this be bad in that it draws nike perhaps into too much competition with, you know, gyms and things like that or might it be good? >> yeah. i think it's very important to note that -- i tried to bring this up at one point, nike is really a culture company and if we think about what peloton has done, peloton has created this interconnected community that really is an element of culture around those that are passionate about fitness. and as we see people trending a little bit more towards healthier lifestyle, you know, this would make a lot of sense for a company like nike. and i think, you know, kind of looking directionally where nike is going, the investments they're making into digital, you know, the addition of john donahue who i worked with at ebay, his leadership, they're really driving much more towards

interconnectivity and that means having a large digital footprint and presence >> you know, lo, more broadly, it's getting interesting here. you got lots of companies that are loaded up with cash, right they made the best of a window where rates were really low. and now whether it's gaming in activision or airlines or peloton, these companies are beginning to sense that balls are going to come in over the plate and it's going to be fascinating to see which ones they want to swing at. >> yeah, especially that's true -- especially when everything is on sale. so, look, a lot of these valuations are going to start to become a little more attractive. things will probably become a lot more interesting i think one thing to keep in mind mentioning microsoft and activision blizzard, the regulatory environment is a little different than it was say, five, ten years ago i wouldn't necessarily say that the government is asleep behind

the wheel right now. they're going to keep a very close eye. i suspect there's going to be a lot more scrutiny in order to be able to get these deals across the finish line. >> right which raises the question which big tech could actually pull this off amazon still has to close the mgm deal lo, we can speculate all we want about who might be the buyer the ceo has veto power, he controls the votes for this company. he once said this was going to be a trillion dollar company perhaps. what is his incentive to sell if he still believes that, you know, perhaps this is a momentary lapse that they can create value again >> well, this is what ends up happening when we have the situations of these very in-depth and passionate founders that then create a structure supported by the venture capitalists where they can have, in essence, control after the company enters the public markets. in this case, this is one of those situations where we look at what's happening and we have

to ask ourselves, would the board support a sale if it weren't the structure in place with peloton that's something that remains to be seen. i think in his case if it's clear that there's going to be an important role for him, the ceo of peloton, within this new acquiring company f he decides to let that happen, then it could. i think he would look towards something where it's going to be extremely additive and important component where he would have a meaningful role and be able to realize his vision in a way that couldn't be done as an independent company. but at the end of the day, look, in essence it will be his decision that's one of the challenges when we have these different structures where the governance really rests in the hands of the founder/ceo. >> lo, stay with us for a moment it's not just peloton we want to discuss with you

investors are discussing very large and very fast swings mike santoli, i'm thinking of two universes the netflix, peloton, paypal metta element and snappins last week. >> right i think the bigger separation, carl, those companies that manage to retain the benefit of the doubt that they built up over the past couple of years and those that suddenly lost it. now, when you talk about snap and pins in particular, i think we're talking about these reflex bounces from super depressed positions that there was a pile-on effect after metta and reversed some of that. amazon to some degree there, too. look at the big ones, apple, alphabet, netflix, metta and amazon they were all pretty much clusters well together into late summer of last year, let's say and now you had the big separation now, alphabet have been steady as she goes, good quarters but not surprisingly so. the others lost a little bit of

that valuation premium that we keep talking about unclear if this is going to be the die verging paths that are going to continue for a while, but i do think this is kind of how valuation compression happens. it doesn't happen necessarily with a constant ratcheting down of p.e. multiples and earnings going up and prices going flat it happens sometimes in a big break like this. we have seen that at the moment. so, a lot more diversity within the nasdaq and the growth sector in general >> yeah. mike, i wonder what you have made of some of the pandemic high fliers that really didn't bounce back that much to start february i'm looking at some names like shopify, netflix, paypal, roku, all of those still down about 30% year to date is that kind of what you're talking about? even outside the category of big tech and, you know, these things getting re-rated all at once >> yeah.

and i think people are on the defensive in terms of wanting to wade back in and say, you have to have some kind of a clear view that these stocks can rebuild back to those premium valuations in the next several quarters, let's say. and i think that when you see something like paypal the stock was already on the defensive people already were moderating their expectations for near-term growth and got a report that said actually we hadn't priced it in yet. i think until that dynamic breaks a little bit, maybe it's in the process of doing that we have seen some of the real once growth stocks try to find their footing it's understandable they would not necessarily spring back. look, an old saying the stock doesn't really care where it's been you know, in terms of when you buy it it doesn't have some kind of objective to get back there. so you better be pretty confident in how it's valued today and what the company can deliver against that >> mike, thank you we're going to bring back lo

toney on this. the chart that santoli showed us, the diverging fortunes over the last week, everyone is focussed on the ad business in the wake of apple's privacy changes less so than alphabet. it's the more dominant player and biggest competitor was hurt. should anti-trust regulators be more focussed on alphabet than they should be on metta? does that change the regulatory risk thinking that you may have? >> it could unfortunately. look, i'm not a proponent of heavy handed regulation happening in this market because i just don't believe that the current composition of most of the folks that go into the government that's regulating has the ability to kind of fully understand and grasp what's happening. i'm much more of a la sai fair approach person. i think there will be scrutiny

in general independent of what's happening in the market. both within the existing core businesses these companies have to future acquisitions as well. >> right does it make it harder for an alphabet it is notable even on the call metta's team called out the fact that google doesn't face the same head winds because safari is not covered by the privacy changes from apple >> i mean, look, when pressed oftentimes one will reach out and scream and try to point the finger in the opposite direction at the person that's being -- that's competing against but this is not new. right? so, you know, i think this is just now that metta is feeling the pressure and now it's trying to better understand or try to highlight other elements in the competition that it's struggling against. look, this is the result of competition and that's just what happens. don't cry foul >> lo, we have been watching

corporate spreads, credit markets. there is some discussion over the weekend that if spreads and credits start to get really dicey, there might be a rerotation back into software where people once again start trying to get away from leverage and looking at names that have a ton of cash, revenue visibility, obviously little to no debt and then software evaluations have come in and would make a second life for them in a way do you agree >> you know, i think people should be extremely cautious trying to take a blanket approach what we're really seeing is a tale of two cities when it comes to this earning season it isn't over. we have a long way to go to get through this earning season as well as get to a point where the fed starts to make the moves that they indicated they're going to make with regard to the interest rates to be able to curtail inflation. i would say going back to something that i was told when i was very young don't try to catch a falling knife. look, if you're a consumer, trying to trade on when we will

hit the bottom far lot of these more speculative names on the software side, i would not take that approach. leave that to the experts. i would say looking at those companies, like the alphabets, like the amazons, like the microsofts, i think those are high quality names that we know over time are going to continue to perform well. they've proven to be the bell weathers they do have a lot of cash and i think those are the companies that have been able to most efficiently use that cash to be able to generate and drive growth >> lo, back to metta, facebook, what was your take on the way they handled that quarter? it felt to me like maybe they were trying to get all the bad news out at once and generate all the bad sentiment they were going to get so it could just sort of bottom out and they could build from there how many times can you mention tiktok on one earnings call? what was your take on that >> well, i think going back to

what we were talking about government nans structure with the stock, it's a good thing that mark zuckerberg is a strong founder ceo nota hired ceo because he might be reviewing his employment contract for termination without cause right now. but look, i think at the end of the day you know, yes, that is a tactic it is important to be able to try and get as much of the bad news out as possible i don't know if that's really going to change anything the fundamentals are what they are with metta right now there are structural challenges they have and we're now seeing how important and valuable data really is. now that people have the ability to press that little button that says, ask the app not to track, that's very powerful and that's clearly punished the ability for meta facebook to be able to capitalize on what's been the big growth driver for that business, advertisement. >> it's remarkable to look at shares of meta and see after the huge fall last week they're not bouncing back.

lo toney, thank you. we'll talk to you soon. >> thank you. >> fresh 18-month low on meta this morning. still to come why our next guest says she is still looking to sell more meta. semiearnings and big upgrade of snowflake "techcheck" is just getting started.

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time now for gut check on semi the chip maker posting q4 revenue of more than $1.48 billion an all-time high record sales for the year as well almost 7 billion up 28% year over year shares surging this morning on those results. you can see them up there better than 6%. semis overall, though, have come back to earth following their huge outperformance from 2021 but off the lows we saw at the beginning of the year. the stock is up 7% since the end of january as we head to another quick break, we want to mention reports that softbank may be getting ready to unload part of its massive stake in alibaba ba ba shares falling 6% on the news

softbank owns 26%. they will report earnings on tuesday morning. we'll keep an eye out on any developments there softbank is down 50% from its peak "techcheck" is back in just a moment (vo) america's most reliable network is going ultra! with verizon 5g ultra wideband now in many more cities so you can do more. hey, it's mindy! downloading a movie up to 10 times faster than before. oh, is that the one where the mom becomes a... (mindy) yep! (vo) i knew it! let's work offsite. public wi-fi? no thanks. 5g ultra wideband is faster and safer. and what's this? 5g internet for your home and business? just plug and play. see ya cable! 5g ultra wideband is now in more and more places. verizon is going ultra, so you can too.

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turning now to back to meta. it continues to ripple through tech our next guest says the social media's guest is falling on its own sword, everybody from nfrsers to users losing faith in mark zuckerberg's vision natasha lam, probably nobody hates the metaverse nar ti more than i do. i have to take the other side on this just because that's the kind of guy i am isn't there the chance that people are underestimating even a fading digital advertising due oply and there is a price that makes sense for facebook here, maybe things aren't as bad as they tried to make it sound on the earnings call?

>> reporter: well, i mean, i think the real problem with meta and facebook's pivot to the metaverse really is what you said, it's meta falling on its own sword. it's facebook's own fault. it's so poorly managed social impact on governance investors are questioning social license to operate in the technology like the metaverse, seen whistleblower testimony, anti-trust litigation, seen congressional hearings and the problem with that and this is the big one is that it's going to be harder for meta to buy growth like it did with instagram, like it did with whatsapp, because of anti-trust scrutiny. wants to buy roblox, it's not going to do that they have to spend a ton of money to develop the metaverse internally and that was $10 billion last year. and more to come >> yes

granted the metaverse is a longer way out than a lot of people might hope, but doesn't meta still have billions, 3 billion plus highly engaged users by industry standards and therefore it's able to learn there's a floor on how much these iffa issues are going to hurt them. they gave a $10 billion head winds, maybe that's aggressive at a certain point might they not tweak their software and come back and say to investors, actually we figured this out, it's not as bad as we thought it was going to be? >> i think it's going to be difficult to do this internally for facebook or for meta to build the metaverse without being able to buy it what we've seen -- we see just the sheer size of meta is a problem in its own right it's on the upside, it's on the downside we saw last thursday the larger they are the harder they fall. it was the largest market cap

fall in history, $232 billion, the stock is down again this morning. that largeness is also a problem on the upside. how do you grow users? younger customers are turning away from facebook and other platforms. so meta has no clear place to go other than the metaverse it's not substantive at this point. it's not profitable. it's that spending that led to the negative earnings growth and, you know, we question whether facebook is able to do it internally. you know, it's trying to compete with tiktok, with reels, cannibalizing its instagram business it's maturing, it's not adapting like it needs to so, i think there's some challenges ahead >> yeah. the key thing, natasha, we are talking about competition, which is what meta would probably like us to do it gets back to the same question that i asked lo toney, from an anti-trust point of

view, does the scrutiny shift from perhaps a meta to alphabet only been made stronger through this move and is also dealing with misinformation issues on the youtube side that perhaps aren't as looked at as greatly as regulators have for facebook and instagram? >> yeah. i think all these big social media companies are going to face a challenge with the metaverse. i will single out facebook as the worst performer in this area we have been engaging with companies on these issues for the last five years whether it's google or twitter or facebook now meta what we saw with meta after the whistleblower testimony is that they changed their name a week later. that's not business strategy, that's a distraction there are reasons to be concerned. the same issues facebook is reckoning with on social media,

discrimination, human and civil rights violation, inciting violation. those all could be worse in the metaverse and not just for facebook, it's for everybody as you say, but because facebook has done such a poor job managing its platform, we really do question their social license to operate and we've filed a shareholder proposal calling for independent study of potential harms from the metaverse and that's whether it's psychological or human and civil rights harms and we're asking shareholders to weigh in on whether meta is able to prevent those harms or throwing good money after bad. that's an open question at this point. >> it's funny you mention that because this morning "the washington post" talks about early metaverse products from meta, in this case it's horizon worlds in which you have children interacting with adult strangers and raising concern among some experts that they're, i'm quoting here, inadvertently

creating a hunting ground for sexual predators clearly the news feed was not the end of the regulatory concerns >> i think it's really frightening. at its most simple, you know, you have people typing kind of nasty things on facebook, right? and that can lead to psychological harm it can lead to user harm we saw that from the whistleblower testimony. now, imagine the metaverse where you have people screaming at each other and you can take that to violation. you can take that to sexual assault. you can take it anywhere we just don't know what it is. and the question is, do we want google operating there will be all kinds of folks in the metaverse, right? but do we want to google or want a microsoft operating in those spaces versus the facebook i don't know the answer to that question, but what we do know is facebook has done a terrible job managing its current platform. and to just expect that they're going to step into the metaverse

and not question it, i think is a real mistake >> yeah. or maybe there won't be one metaverse. maybe that whole thing won't happen natasha, thank you >> cheers. let's get a news update this morning. >> here is what's happening at this hour. the parent company of frontier airlines is buying spirit airlines in a cash and stock deal worth $6.6 billion including debt the merger of the two budget carriers will create the fifth largest airline in the country and the deal will face anti-trust scrutiny from federal regulators but the head of spirit says the deal will improve competition. >> this combination makes a lot of sense it's good for consumers, good for shareholders, good for our teams and for that reason we're really excited about it. tyson foods shares soaring 10% to an all-time high. earnings blew past estimates as the company said beef prices shot up 32% during the quarter

even with higher labor and transportation costs tyson's operating margins doubled over the past year. natural gas prices continue to sink down another 8% today. forecasts call for less heating demand in the coming weeks and output is recovering from last week's freezing weather. natural gas futures are about down 25% fromthere more "techcheck" still ahead don't go away.

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analyst. it's great to have you with us we've been talking about degradation of demand coming out of covid for a while

how dire does it look for you? >> you know, we have a small window into their peloton digital app, and this is one window into consumer engagement we look at and we just looked at some recent data in the u.s., uk, canada and germany the latest data adoption levels dipped further in terms of share of downloads declining more than 200 basis points which is worst than december. peloton views its app growing faster than ore channels so this is just another window into engagement with a platform that we have and it doesn't sort of look great. >> right i assume it's a function of gym's reopening. mask mandates going by the wayside starting today announcements from the likes of new jersey and delaware. i guess -- so we're not even talking about hardware yet we're talking about engagement among those who already bought the hardware

>> exactly and peloton clearly went through a period of unprecedented demand during the pandemic lockdowns when demand was outstripping supply there was clear misjudging of how sustainable that demand is of course capital investment that followed was also based on demand projections that later on proved to be optimistic. the question is how quickly they can right size the hardware business and really what is more normalized sort of customer acquisition costs and whether that marketing spend is sustainable and how much can be funded by the hardware business. >> hey, it's deirdre what is the proprietary technology that peloton has that a company might want to buy? >> you know, it's interesting. i cannot speculate on m & a rumors but i can tell you that m & a has come up, it's a topic that comes up very regularly with investors, but when you think about the value proposition of peloton, it is really in that vertically integrated model of hardware, streaming and content and for any strategic fit, you have to

think about what peloton brings to the table that is strategic acquirer cannot build or cannot do better but, of course, you know, could all of this drive further consolidation? we'll have to see. >> so is there proprietary technology >> you have network effect as i said that vertically integrated model that is obviously, they took from ideation to creating a multibillion dollar company, but the question is could a strategic acquirer do that better this is really the question. >> arpine, i wonder about further peloton business model options here we're talking a lot about selling the bikes with the subscription, which has a nice margin, but what about pushing differently into selling to gyms and selling subscription packages there or even, you know, monetizing on the app side which might not have as big a dollar value, you know, as selling the bikes themselves but has potential.

are there ways forward for them that look different from what we have seen in the past but could be good for them >> of course you know, peloton's rollout of corporate wellness offering and them sort of potentially driving growth through commercial channels is something that drove near-term excitement during the pandemic but when we think about potential household penetration, whether you're targeting that households through corporate wellness, through their workplace or targeting them through an ad on youtube, all of that is still targeting the same household. which to us goes back to the same question of potential household penetration and whether there is upside to what we calculate is something like 3% household penetration peloton had in 2020. of course, there's also the commercial aspect of it, as you mentioned. for example, rolling out peloton machines at hotels, gyms but it remains to be seen how much of that can be a driver of subscriber growth,come is what

s investors are focussed on. >> how much credit do you give peloton for being the strongest kind of internet generation hardware, fitness brand that we have seen? >> sure. here is what's interesting about that valuation right now the reason investors had been comfortable applying a revenue multiple to peloton without much attention to ebitda or profitability is because of its high subscriber growth as that growth comes down and demand is now questioned, we absolutely think profitability and operating cash will become part of the valuation framework. we have been valuing the name on a blend of revenue and free cash flow multiple and sell rating at a $30 price target or so and just took that under review few days ago wait news on the progress they're making. but basically visibility is what matters subscription growth near term. >> almost as if the market is turning the speed up on the treadmill that peloton is running. unbelievable

arpine, thank you so much. appreciate it. >> thank you for having me and now joe rogan apologizing again. this time for using racial slurs on his podcast as many as 70 episodes have now been removed but spotify ceo daniel ek says, quote, canceling rogan isn't the answer how should investors think about this controversy julia boorstin has that. hey, julia. >> reporter: well, jon, spotify shares down more than 12% since neil young and other artists starting to boycott spotify over joe rogan's content, the question is whether more controversy over content is ahead and how that could potentially hurt advertising and subscriber revenue ceo daniel ek writing in a letter to spotify employees that he supports rogan's decision to remove past episodes from the platform but says he is not going to take further action against rogan, quote, i do not believe silencing joe is the answer we should have clear lines around content and take action when they are crossed, but

canceling voices is a slippery slope. looking at the issue more broadly, it's critical thinking and open debate powers real and necessary progress that commitment to rogan's show prompting some analysts to predict more backlash. neil young's protests has brought to the forefront the risk of spotify employing a cavalier personality such as joe rogan and we doubt this will prove his last feather ruffling episode. the next 12 to 24 months we would not be surprised if the jre podcast and spotify decide to part ways but benchmark analyst says it would take a major artist like taylor swift to leave spotify to have a discernible impact. current artist defections should have minimal impact and they don't believe spotify subscribers will defect to other services rbc analyst tells us he is broadly concerned about the threat to spotify's ad revenues

but how material the risk is depends on how the situation plays out. he says if spotify rogan continue to respond quickly and responsibly he does not think it will become a material issue. >> julia, at core, i don't think in issue is new. this about joe rogan saying the n word multiple times. it seems like he's arguing that most of it was in the context of explaining what other people had said but in the era of shock jock radio, audio was ephemeral oh, can you believe he said that but then it was gone even if you recorded it on your tape recorder, you had to hand it out to your friends, it wasn't going to go viral this era is very different so in the legacy of this moment, how much of it has to do with audio perhaps adjusting to the digital era and thin big brands trying to figure out what their policies need to be because of that >> reporter: well, i think you're absolutely right. if you think about the fact that you go back before they started pulling down some of those episodes

could listen to any past episode. access to the library through a spotify subscription service just speaks to the fact that this audio landscape just has so much content right now and there's so much content on spotify in particular. so, i think that if you look at the fact that there haven't been any major advertiser boycotts, that's one reason why analysts and investors are not particularly concerned but there have been issues of boycotts in the past youtube has had to deal with boycotts in the past it just seems like it hasn't come to spotify yet because it seems like they're responding quickly. and that is the thing that has come up in a number of these analysts comments, quick, responsible responses is sort of preventing this from escalating as an issue, deirdre. >> as you said, julia, this is likely to continue to play out we'll see if that stays the case thank you. as we head to break, check out shares of taiwan semi, another upgrade by morgan stanley. significant outsourcing from apple and intel are key reasons to be bullish on the stock remember, this name has already

more than doubled over the past two years. more "techcheck" is back after this

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selloff. morgan stanley now says the growth adjusted valuation has gone from premium to discount and argues it's an attractive buying opportunity in the pullback jon, we mentioned earlier this morning, it's the third upgrade for snow in the last couple of weeks as they say free cash flow generation is within reach. >> yeah. just talking to frank slootman is couple of woeeks ago, he's go-go as ever. this company last quarter reported product revenue growth up 110%. so, if any stock arguably is worth a growth premium in this market, then it's something a bit like this. you know, but then again it's still trading below 300 bucks, dee. >> yeah. it's always that question, what is the level but it is interesting to look at a snow flake versus say c3ai still 85% from its 52-week high. snowflake is just about 30% off. you are starting to see investors be more selective and look to those fundamentals and

snowflake is a name we have been mentioning a lot in the last few weeks. bitcoin is now back above 43%. up more than 43% just in the last few weeks everything you need to know about crypto and taxes is next we are back in just two minute

welcome back tesla's out with this new s.e.c. filing showing it now holds

$2 billion in bitcoin and when you own that much, changes in price start to become material, so company says it's also recording $101 million in impairment losses related to changes in value last year they also said they made a gain of $128 million in a sale. of course, elon musk announced that tesla would accept bitcoin for purchases last year, before then walking that decision back, citing environmental concerns. still seems to be a considerable amount on the balance sheet and we're going to scour every filing from now on to keep track on where they are. >> yeah, we are. the bitcoin-tesla journey, and dogecoin journey is an interesting one. tesla wasn't alone in buying bitcoin last year. corporations and retail traders alike got into crypto. the irs is now asking you to disclose if you've received or sold any virtual currency in 2021 robert frank has more on how you should answer that question. surprise, surprise, robert, it is complicated >> yeah, leave it to the irs, right, dee well, more than 20 million

americans own crypto andthere is mass confusion around this first question on the 1040 form, the irs asking, at any time did you recall during 2021, did you receive, sell or dispose of any financial interest in any virtual currency you're required to report all the trades and pay the necessary taxes. because the question says "receive" many investors assume they have to answer yes but in a separate guidance, the irs says, if your only transactions involving virtual currency during 2021 were purchases of virtual currency with real currency, i.e., dollars, you're not required to answer "yes. so here's the guide on how to answer this very important question you can answer "no" if you simply bought crypto with dollars or received it as a gift you must answer yes if you sold crypto, used crypto for any purchase, including an nft, if you received crypto from mining or staking or you traded one

token for another, say, you bought etherwith bitcoin now, all of these are taxable events and must be reported, of course, to the irs, even if you don't owe any taxes, failure to report your holdings with this question can be seen as fraud by the irs, so you can't just click on "no req "starting in 2023, crypto exchanges will have to report all their holdings until then, it's an honor system, which we know means there's a lot of tax evasion going on in crypto >> this sounds like the kind of honor system from purchasing stuff from e-commerce sites before the taxes kicked in, so when you say, 2023, is it 2023 tax year so people are going to be worrying about this in early 2024 or what? is that clear? >> that's right. so, you're going to really have to start worrying about this during the 2023 calendar year,

report it on your next year's taxes, so still got a year to kind of use the honor system here >> yeah, and i'm sure everybody, as always, will report every taxable transaction. robert frank, thank you. don't forget, follow and subscribe to the tech check podcast. you can listen any time, anywhere and "tech check" will be back in just a moment.

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one more thing before we go, bumble looking to buy some love, announcing the purchase of european dating app fruits for an undisclosed amount. it is bumble's first acquisition and comes almost exactly a year after the company went public. stocks struggling to make a genuine connection with investors, though, it's down 60% since the first day of trade if you saw the deal this morning and asked, what makes fruits different? don't worry, tech check has investigated it has four emojis you use, cherries, grapes, watermelon, and a peach. >> you know, right before you had the segment, our producer told me what each of them remit

represented. for the life of me, i can't remember so good luck >> i think you want to stick with the cherries. i don't speak french, but i can kind of deduce that watermelon is not the direction you want to go in. >> i think that's right. >> carl? >> guys, things will heat up beginning tomorrow with dupont and pfizer earnings. for now, let's get to the half carl, thank you so much. welcome to "the halftime report," i'm scott wapner. sell the rallies or buy the dips what is the best strategy for your money right now we'll debate that with the investment company bryan, steve weiss, joe, jon najarian, let's take a look at where the trade is at 12:00 noon in the east. a mixed bag, dow's hanging on to gains, s&p, nasdaq, modest losses, ten-year note yield 192 so we continue the creep toward 2% joe, you think we're going to retest the january lows? >> i do. and i think what's happening right now is whe