troops have been added and field hospitals and equipment in recent days. just breaking. the kremlin is now concerned about a flare-up in violence in eastern ukraine. earnings alert we will hear from walmart. and surprising from the leader from the faa steve dickson stepping down halfway through his term details ahead. we will get to see phil early. it's thursday, february 17th "squawk box" begins right now. good morning welcome to "squawk box" here on

cnbc i'm rebecca quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. let's look at the u.s. equity futures. we have seen movement on the headlines coming from russia you can see dow futures are down 144 points s&p down 20. nasdaq off 86. dow and nasdaq were down for the fourth session in a row yesterday. s&p up four points if you look at what is happening with the treasury market, you will see it looks like the ten-year yielding 2.014% joe, this news from russia is the big story of the morning. >> i heard brian talking about it i love brian i think he had the wrong take on which headlines were more important. news breaking out from russia. kremlin says with the straight face it is seriously concerned about a flare-up in violence in eastern ukraine. they have to do something about that i guess is what they are implying you know, it takes weeks to deploy forces for military

exercises and it will take time to withdraw them it can't be done in a day. those comments come after the senior official in the biden administration told reporters that russia has not withdrawn tropical storm from the border with ukraine deskisputing the moscow claim 7,000 more troops have been added in recent days bol dester the 150,000 already there. they could launch a false pre-text against ukraine at any moment andrew, we just kcop to it. the battle with the west and moscow has been all about signaling. we keep signaling an attack is imminent and russia keeps signals they are moving back the term gas lighting. it's a great term.

i realize i've been doing it for years. >> you just realized that? >> is that not gas lighting? they seem concerned about violence in eastern ukraine? that's the pre-text. if it turns out they're lying about withdrawing troops -- some of this looks obvious. it looks like a bad soap opera they expect us to believe the patently false propaganda. i guess that's russia. that's the soviet union. that's what we have been seeing for decades. if they finally invade, this is distasteful. >> the other concerning thing that andrew pointed out. they wouldn't do it during the olympics because he doesn't want to offend xi jinping we are getting ready to end the olympics what are they doing? adding troops or pulling back? >> i worry we're getting played.

>> it's not us they're playing. >> we're not getting played by our administration >> you think we're playing them? >> no. >> i don't think it is equal. >> signaling on both ends. somewhere the truth is in the middle >> gas lighting is like it's raining outside and i tell you it's sunny somehow that's what is happening here. >> gas lighting is -- suddenly it is like there's still hope a conflict moscow says, can be ave averted. you are the conflict there was nothing going on at the border until you sent 150,000 troop there is to begin what might be a conflict then they say there are things happening in eastern ukraine that we're uncomfortable with. violence in eastern ukraine? >> what about they want to recognize the separatists in

eastern ukraine? what do they think is happening? >> if it finally happens, all of the stuff, poisoning and disappear answers and navalny. all of these things. i'm afraid i don't want to get an umbrella stuck up my rear for saying that you remember that? i don't know bad actors >> bad actors. let's talk about other news that's just out. it relates to the defense world, but increasing in the corporate world. palantir out with quarterly results. adjusted quarterly profit of 2 cents per share compares to 4 cents. you will see that stock already off 3% this morning. revenue did beat wall street forecasts. we will keep our eye on it as we are speaking, literally,

off 5% of the miss we're going to keep watching this this is one of the more heavily bought stocks by some of the retail community high flyer we have been talking about for some time. are you looking at that literally in real-time come down close to 7% or 8%. that is something to watch viacom yesterday that stock came off close to 20% to end the day this is going to be one to watch this morning. in the meantime, surprise announcement from the faa late yesterday. administrator steve dickson is resigning. phil lebeau has more on that front. phil, good morning >> reporter: good morning, becky. the resignation is effective march 31st he sent a letter to president biden saying it is time to go home he sent a letter to the faa outlining reasons. it is purely personal.

he wants to spend more time with his family in the email, he says after sometimes long and unavoidable periods of separation during the pandemic, it is time to devote full-time and attention to them. this is a rough two and a half years for the faa and steve dickson has been front and center as they have taken really a lot of heat for what happened with the certification of the 737 max, which, by the way, all of that happened before he became the head of the faa his tenure was marked by the 737 max grounding. he was called to capitol hill who lawmakers said what is going on and how is this plane approved that is the criticism for the lack of oversight on the max look at boeing shares. a couple of days ago, the faa took away self certification status from boeing with the dreamliner which the faa has been in discussions with boeing

since may of last year about the manufacturing and inspection protocols of new 787 dreamliners. this has been a rough two and a half years he was appointed by president trump shortly after the second 7 737 max crash. that five-year term is halfway over and he says it is time to go back to georgia he worked at delta before appointed to run for the faa guys. >> phil, what does this mean for the industry >> reporter: a bit of turmoil as the biden administration will figure out who it wants to appoint as the head of the agency that will take time. several months i suspect in the meantime, they will tell you and i talked to people at the faa. they say we go forward with business as usual.

there are a lot of things that need to be resolved. notably what is happening with boeing and the 787 dreamliner. you also had the unruly passengers issue and mask mandates and squabble with the airlines and 5g. that has been a pressing issue there is a lot of work that needs to be done and a host of future technology issues that need to be addressed in some fashion over the next couple of years. >> phil, i apologize for my ignorance on this. historically when the head of the faa has been named, and i'm thinking of possible successors, they have come from inside the faa? come from outside? how important is it from the continuity perspective given what is happening in washington and this administration, would you ever pick somebody from inside the industry?

how do you see it playing out? >> reporter: it's a mix, andrew. there's no certain way it always happens. there have been people from within the faa by the way, the deputy administrator bradley mimms, he was appointed by the biden administration is it possible we want him to be the head of the faa. that is a possibility. is it possible they could go outside of the agency and pick somebody with an aviation background or works for an airline? sure that's a possibility as well someone who did work for an airline? those are all possibilities that are there. there's no blueprint if that is what you are asking. there is no blueprint for how the process will play out for picking a successor. >> phil lebeau with the news appreciate it. thank you, sir. coming up when we return, we have morning movers. why nvidia is falling and cisco is rising after earnings we'll talk about that next.

and a closer look at the federal probe into short selling. we will talk to jay clayton. you are watching "squawk box" on cnbc ♪ get a head start in investing with the new schwab starter kit™. new investors can open an account and get $50 to split across the top five stocks in the s&p 500®. you can also unlock short videos, step-by-step guides, and other easy-to-use tools designed for people just getting started. plus, investment professionals are on standby 24/7 if you ever have a question. it's the smarter way to start investing. ♪ [sound of helicopter blades] it's the smarter way to start investing. ugh... they found me. ♪ ♪ nice suits, you guys blend right in. the world needs you back. i'm retired greg, you know this. people have their money just sitting around doing nothing... that's bad, they shouldn't do that. they're getting crushed by inflation. well, i feel for them. they're taking financial advice from memes. [baby spits out milk]

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our producers and writers are watching shares of nvidia. 1 p $1.32 a share beat estimates

i'll hit it up now and start watching it so i can join in current guidance above expectations and the company's ceo -- i'll tell you who is watching it. jim cramer mad man. he liked it for 3,000% >> i know he talks about it constantly i didn't see it this morning >> when i get up in the middle of the night to do whatever. >> you check twitter at midnight >> i check twitter all the time to see if cramer is up >> he is. >> i check it. >> really? >> jim, 1:30 a.m >> when i was nursing after one of my pregnancies, i would be up every three hours. i would sit and do the same thing. i would be on twitter because i would be there for a while jim was up all the time. i would say i'm up too i don't do that anymore. no way i can win >> you hit wordle.

>> then you start thinking and you can't go back to sleep. >> supply constraints are easing at nvidia and the supply of products would increase in the second half of the year. as you can see, the stock is down about you see what's in the prompter now? do you see these smart -- >> well played, control room >> i, joe kernen, am sincerely watching the shares of cisco let me quickly do that i'm not lying. i am earnings up 84 cents a share revenue beat the quarter gui guidance the ceo said the global chip shortage is preventing cisco from revenue growth. they are raising prices to offset the cost of compoponent

prices and speed up shipping that is another way the companies are dealing with price increases and shortages. >> let's make sense of this. it has opinion a rough earnings season for tech stocks roblox and shopify is down this week we have elliott robinson with us he focuses on cloud companies. elliott, you know, put up palantir we talked about it in the past five minutes that stock is off 10% this morning off earnings report when you look at the revenue growth, you say, would yw, that is great in a world where expectations are off close to 12%, elliott, this is a company that just reported earnings 17 minutes ago. what's going on here

>> the key word that you mentioned is expectation let's look at shopify. $1.3 billion a 4% beat. subscription revenue up. merchant services up 27% all in all, solid quarter and solid year for the company at the same time, the stock is taking a beating following guidance that year over year revenue growth in 2022 would be slower than experienced in 2021. everyone knows online consumer spending habits were enhanced by covid and government assistance. if you look at 2015, it was $7 million. if you fast forward, the fundamentals are strong.

again, the word and name of the game today is expectation. there is a growing consensus that the platform is still the best solution for merchants and direct to consumer brands. '22 guidance is not as strong. >> you are not blaming the company s. you are blaming the analysts >> a lot of the companies. expectation in 2022 is a new environment. the new normal that covid is easing a bit and we are all getting outside. the buying patterns are different. roblox for example $770 million bookings in q4. if you look against q4 last year, growth is expected to

wane they had a miss on earnings per share which ties in the expectation. i love the product not as much as the younger members of my family or friends. every year, i'm still buying roblox the core product still works $77 million of free cash flow in the quarter was about 50% of the street expectation that is the word again i love the product and company expectations in '22 are supposed to be lower than '21 >> as you watch the stocks fall, is there a moment you say this is fair value or maybe this is better than fair value this is actual value where are we in that >> i think we are probably in inning six or seven of getting back to fair value in 2021, the stimulus and if people sitting home and buying

habits and online experiences were changing. those companies and some of the stocks we talked about were priced to perfection a lot of that pricing in '22, the same trends happen it is good for all of us we are getting back outside and getting to a new normal. people are not buying online at the same pace in 2021. for kids, they going back to school parents are shoving them out of the door and saying get off roblox. >> if you think we're in inning six or seven, you think there are two innings on the down side >> if you look at the fed notes from yesterday, we know there will be a rate hikes i like the approach of the meeting by meeting basis we have to expect that rate hikes kind of combine with the new normal of people getting back outside different from 2021. we still have about three innings left in the ball game to get back to fair value.

>> you are not buying? you are waiting? you will market time this? >> the fundmamentals for nvidia or roblox or shopify the expectations are 2022 are softer these are great companies to think about from the long-term perspective. i might sit on the sidelines for another quarter to see how the global macro environment impacts the business and where multiples come in. >> elliott, good to see you. when we come back, charlie munger is speaking out on the u.s. tension with china and why he is doubling down on alibaba and tom fanning is here to weigh in on earnings he will talk fed and energy prices and much more of

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daily journal chairman and vice chairman of berkshire, charlie munger held court yesterday. here is what munger had to say about the tensions with the u.s. and china. >> the chinese government is worrying all of the capitalists in the world way more than it used to and, of course, we don't like that. we wish that china and the

united states got along better and if you stop to think about it, how massively stupid the united states and china have been what ban will happen to the united states or china if we make did friends from the chinese and vice versa, who in the hell will ever bother us i don't think we should be criticizing china which has terrible problems because they're not just like the united states they do things better than we do they should like us and we should like them. >> it is russia that seems to be closer to china these days mun munger says he is comfortable investing in china

doubling the stake in alibaba in the fourth quarter >> we got more strength per dollar invested in china the companies we invest in are stronger relative to their competition and priced lower that's why we're in china. >> charlie has been known for speaking his mind. yesterday, he probably offended a lot of groups because he says what he thinks he is 98 he thought about climate change. his thoughts were not popular. >> i'll be surprised if global warming will be as bad as people say it's going to be >> why >> the temperature of the earth went up 1 degree centigrade in about 200 years. that's a heavll of a lot of coa

and oil burned and so forth and 1 degree i'm skeptical it is as bad as the calamity speakers are saying >> he actually looked into it. that's a start that's a start it's exactly 1 degree celsius since 1850 you know what? it's friday. thursday it's friday to me. i don't need it. >> best day of the week. don't ruin it? >> skeptical of calamity of global warming many people are. i don't -- do i want to throw my lot in with the 98-year-old? super boomers? >> he's not a boomer he's greatest generation >> super boomer. the fathers of the boomers are worse than the boomers coming up, assemble.

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good morning welcome back to "squawk box. let's show you the futures dow off 165 points nasdaq looking to open down 103

points s&p down 25 appoipoints they moved an hour ago after the kremlin is seriously concerned about the flare up in violence in eastern ukraine they said it will take time to withdraw troops from the border. this is after the biden administration reporter said they were lying about withdrawing troops it sounds like there are boots on the ground. joe. andrew, there has been a lot of talk about the fed put being dead to paraphrase mark twain, the issue is dead. the issue is the fed is conscious of the stock market. when the actions become a little dicey or cause the market to become dicey, sometimes in the past they backed off and instead

using the dual mandate people said they have done that. whether they have done that is actually true or not they have come to the aid of the markets over the years >> joe, i have evidence in this. i have been crunching data the last couple days i want to show you this. there is the debate about whether the so-called fed put is dead or way out of the money will the fed not step in to save the market because it wants stock markets to cool down to bring down inflation the fed put is not dead yet. the fed is taking stimulus away more gingerly. the fed tightened and eased at the same pace. that has not been true since the great financial crisis and not the plan what markets fear is aggressive. it is child's play compared to the 1980s or '79 when volker

raised rates 17 basis points per month as the cutting cycle that ended in '92. that was true in 1992 and 2002 and 2006 then the crisis and the fed easing cycle doubled to four easing points per machonthmonth. it never got back to the old level. there is the fed put the fed reached a new level in the pandemic driving down rates by 1.5% in a single month oi it will take the stimulus back at 20 basis points per month the same is true for the balance sheet. over seven years, it boosted the balance sheet by $46 billion a month. reduced by $13 billion a month from 2017 to 2019. then it stopped.

it bought out during the pandemic 120. fed survey suggests they bring it down by $83 billion a month the question is whether this part of the fed put survives as the fed an dddresses inflation reach into the older playbook and take back stimulus with the same speed or faster than provided that led, joe, to the big debate that the 50 in march or not 50 in march >> i left my journal in the other room a piece today, that you really do believe in magic in terms of what we can spend at times i think that is part of it there is a reckoning it does matter how many dollars are out there. i think we are starting to believe with mmt and whether we can spend enough fiscally where that actually brings down inflation. that is deposited a lot.

we need to spend more to handle inflation. you heard that a lot i've heard that 180 economists agree. i don't know who signs on to that thank you. >> there are definitely ways we can spend to make the economy more efficient, joe. a lot of that depends, larry summers was talking yesterday with toomey. you can do things and pay for them and not provide the kind of stimulus that ends up pooboostig infl inflation. raise taxes to i mprove the economy. the question is can we do it without consequences and without paying for it? i think what we learned, joe, from the great financial crisis, we learned we can cut too much from this crisis, we learned we can spend too much mmt is wrong, but mmt suggests

we are not at the limit of what we could do financially or physically we are learned we have gone over it that is clear. the fed went in too long and stayed too long and we have to take it back and now all of the pain associated with it. the idea, joe, the rate of taking it back is interesting here >> i guess it wasn't in the journal. i look at so many things before i get here it could have been anywhere that i saw it you will have people i heard politicians say the federal government has the ability to print as much money as it wants. since we generate dollars and create dollars, what's the problem? let's just create a bunch of them and use them for good >> joe, that is true that is true we can print as many dollars as we want up to the point we can tolerate the inflation generated by the dollars if we wanted to print dollars and pay off debts, you know,

look -- >> sometimes we don't believe, sometimes i think we don't believe it comes home to roost if you are paying back the debt at half of what the dollar was worth when you did the debt, you are getting a good deal. >> it's a deal joe, what is fascinating here, joe, is you have a political consensus against inflation. the democrats support fighting it the republicans support fighting it we have reached societal limit whatever the financial limit is, people don't like inflation. they want inflation to go away powell has a blank check to fight it we will see the pace at which he does it. >> there are things we never experienced here we hope we never do with the wh wheelbarrow full of money. thanks, steve liesman.

>> joe, that is the problem reading. i knew where i read it when you read it electronically, it becomes mush. when we come back, we are looking at regulators probe of short sell jay clayton will join us next. plus, banking committee republicans continuing to boycott a look on the president's nominees we will talk to kevin kramer for his take on this we'll be right back. >> announcer: currency check is sponsored by interactive brokers. the professionals gateway to the world's markets.

the department of justice probing short sellers. carson block and andrew left were served with search warrants joining us now is former sec chairman jay clayton jay, it sounds ominous what could be happening behind the scenes here? joe did wopoint out that it is something that the people who are bidding up stocks and writing positive reports do all the time they try to get other people to come in and buy the stock.

what is the problem doing that on the down side >> good morning, becky let me say i'm looking forward to seeing more of the interview with charlie munger. we talked about this joe made a good point. short selling is a technique you use when you think a company is over valued. we have a lot of history of seeing companies over valued for what i would say improper market analysis and things like fraud you can go back to enron and rece recently wired there is a benefit that short sellers bring to the market just as joe pointed out as activists on the lineong side companies are not run well and they come in and raise values.

what could be going here is three things in combination. if short reports are recklessly produced or fraudulently produced to drive the stock down, that is problematic. we also heard about potential coordination people coordinating activity around perhaps the release of one of those reports hoping that report, as you noted, will be market moving then lastly -- >> on that point, meaning they hope it is market moving and as soon as it is, they cover their shorts and get out of the position >> fair enough stock trading at 10. you put on a short fposition you cover your short you make $3 a share. less any costs that's the trading strategy. >> the opposite of pump and dump >> exactly right opposite of pump and dump. like i said, if the information is accurate, this is a benefit

to the market. if the information is reckless or fraudulent or otherwise, that is problematic what we see in the reports in addition to that is the addition of short-term trading strategies, that people believe are manipulative at extremes, they certainly can. they are spoofing investigated here you put in orders on the opposite side of the market where you want to be say you want to buy a stock. you want to have as low a price as possible. you may put in a sell order that gets canceled. that sell order drives the price down allowing you to buy it more cheaply. that's a classic example of what spoofing is. to the extent that is done on coordinated basis in connection with what i would say more

traditional short selling, that seems to be what the regulators are looking into here. >> jay, you will recall and this will take us back 20 years to the spitzer age. analysts put out reports on the long side. there were reports that they were sharing that information or positive report prior to putting out the positive report. the report comes out stock would bump everybody would sell we saw that game the question is do you think whatever was happening then is pervasive on the short side or does it exist? >> april indrew, this is where w is nuanced let's start with the positive rather than the negative on the long side, you do all the work you think the company is actually run poorly.

they could restructure ordo some kind of investment, et cetera you put out a report establishing a long position you say i'm in this for the long haul and improve the company you know, that's what we want. we want people to dig in we can't all be passive investors. we want people to dig in and find value and unlock that value as shareholders. same on the short side the question you are asking is if i have that information and i'm going to release it and i want to make those price movements happen, appam i share that in a way that is manipulative or leads to an insider trading case a lot of that depends on the insider trading side on whose information it is. for example, if i'm at a company

and i know the company thinks another company is under valued and we will make an offer to buy it, and i share that information with, you know, a friend of mine and the friend trades, that's not my information to share. that clearly creates an insider trading problem. if i'm insider trading problem. but if i'mgist an investor who has done my work and i want to share my work with somebody, that's my information to share on the manipulation side, if you coordinate your trading activity at the time of the release in some way to artificially drive prices, well, that's something we would look into so i hope i've kind of outlined it there >> it does if you're doing one thing in the markets, that should be cause for the regulators to look into it it's great to see you today. and we'll talk to you soon coming up, the ceo of the country's second largest utility is here to weigh in on earnings, energy prices and the fed.

southern company's tom fanning, going to join us next. ♪ ♪ nice suits, you guys blend right in. the world needs you back. i'm retired greg, you know this. people are taking financial advice from memes. [baby spits out milk] i'll get my onesies®. ♪ “baby one more time” by britney spears ♪ e*trade now from morgan stanley. check out this vrbo. oh man. ♪♪ come on. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

southern company out with quarterly earnings just a few minutes ago beating on both the top and bottom lines. the recovery is evident from the pandemic in your numbers we used to take to waste mana management trash like you can measure with how much trash there is or box makers or

traffic on i-75. but electricity, why there are people sitting with their lights off during the pandemic and how does that work? >> i think that's why i've had this association with the fed for so long. electricity consumption is a wonderful indicator of the economy and shows you some very interesting trends i'll just give you two from this last year. i think we way underpredicted the consumptionin the residential sector we thought there would be this great return to work instead i think what we're seeing is kind of a lifestyle change, that is much more predominant hybrid work lifestyles that was a big uplift. another one that's interesting is industrial sales. we are seeing momentum statistics that would essentially be the first derivative of year over year sales. they show that this tremendous

growth we're seeing is slowing a bit. but if you peel the onion one more layer in our numbers we had two enormous plant closures, one in the chemsl sector, one in the newsprint sector ex those items we still see really strong industrial growth. and in the commercial sector it's all about data centers. >> we've got to talk cyber, i guess. you're leading that task force, and when you talk energy and the grid you can get really scared about the possibilities. what do you think is happening right now in ukraine it used to be in the old days you would soften up a target, i don't know how they do it but now you do it with cyber do you think russia involved right now, the actions you're seeing over there, is that a

prelude to something more -- i mean is there going to be an invasion based on what you see with the cyber attacks >> let me not speak to the invasion because we have been working around the clock in fact, you know, i chair the cisa advisory committee. she is terrific. i look at the national cyber director inside the white house, chris ingles, these are terrific people and we've been working around the clock to make sure we're as prepared as we can be. you know, joe, this is something that happens all the time. companies like mine get attacked millions of times a day. certainly when there are sanctions or geopolitics that give rise to higher tensions we see spikes in even those numbers. and when you look at thebig four, of course russia, china, iran, north korea are always out there. and i would argue the emergence

of the new worry -- i like to use movies as metaphors for some of these things -- but in james bond the emergence of specter, that is worldwide criminal enterprises that procure cyber weapons on the dark web and use them almost as state craft representing russia or somebody else in order to achieve their criminal objectives. look, this stuff is all the time and yeah, i think from now on as a matter of national security the private sector now is the battlefield. it isn't a tank battle on the plains of poland it's our telecommunication networks it's our electricity grids, our financial system we have to collaborate with government to protect america. >> let me ask you this can europe actually take a tough stance are they so dependent on russia now for gas that they just -- they almost have to just stand down >> you know, i like to say

borrowing from casa blanka, you know, i run a saloon we run the southern company in the southeast. but i will say this, as a manner of good national energy we should be an exporter and -- >> you meet with president biden and the other day i heard, well, we may need to ask for help from other countries around the world if something happens in ukraine because we can't do it on our own. didn't we use to do it on our own? weren't we much more energy sufficient a couple years ago or not? >> yeah, that's absolutely right, joe and look, we should be there for them this blessing in the united states as compared to other nations around the world that this is a really important piece of our national economic program. and son of a gun we should be

making sure our friends are able to take advantage of it and not get addicted to the energy supplies of people that don't have our interests at heart. >> the specter -- i was thinking of thrush. you remember thrush? >> yeah. >> for the removable of undesirables and subjugation of humanity thrush was a bad group of people, too. it's 7:00. we've got earnings coming. i want to talk more about all these things and the fed, we didn't even get to that. but we don't have time so we've got to get to wal-mart so come back, we'll talk to you. you're like a renaissance man. you know all this stuff. >> always good being with you. >> you're not like one you are one. say hi to chris for me >> i sure will see you. >> see you it is just after 7:00 a.m. on the east coast and wal-mart is reporting quarterly results any moment with the dow futures indicated down about 143 points.

s&p futures off by 20 and the nasdaq off by 85 this is four days in a row leading up to this morning we've seen both the dow and nasdaq lower. s&p was up yesterday but only about 4 points, so we'll continue to watch this, too. in our headlines this morning we've been watching and talking about a bunch of things, too, andrew >> that is true. one of them is this. activist investor daniel lobes saying there's about a trillion dollars in untapped value at amazon he says the value of amazon's web services unit by itself is worth nearly as much as the company's current market value of $1.6 trillion it's going to be very interesting to see what happens next there meantime door dash shares surging in the premarket this morning. posting a quarterly loss but issuing a strong quarterly outlook. door dash revenues surging 69%

for all of 2021 with the company maintaining strong growth for deliveries even as restaurants reopen for dine in service it's another busy morning for economic data with a trio of reports coming up at 8:30 eastern time initial jobless claims expected to decline from the prior week the philadelphia fed manufacturing index also expected to fall from a month ago. and by the way, i kept my eyes here that stock is still off over 10% this morning off their earnings which did not meet expectations. joe? >> some of the real -- the slightest thing and it can be 10, 20, 30%. maybe some air pockets, that's where we're seeing it occasionally the cdc is reviewing its mask guidance now saying they want to give

people a break from mask wearing when the metrics are better. the cdc is shifting its focus to covid hospitalizations now as the measure of a severity of an outbreak and that metric will weigh more heavily now in determining whether to tighten health protocols current guidance calls for people to wear masks in indoor public places regardless of vaccination status many states have already begun to ease those rules. and wal-mart is reporting quarterly results. let's get over to courtney reagan >> yes, wal-mart out with results for the holiday quarter. earnings beating by 3 cents. the street was looking for 150 the company also raising its quarterly dividend by one penny to 56 cents a share. this is the first time we've seen $150 billion in revenue for

a quarter and the first time that wal-mart u.s. topped $100 billion. that's coming in at about $105 billion. wal-mart's advertising business generated $2 billion for the full year. the company is giving guidance but it is above consensus. wal-mart's u.s. comparable sales x fuel were up #.6%. that does match estimates. transactions grew as part of this comp sales metric while some of this is inflation, there is unit growth in here as well and net u.s. e-commerce sales, though, up just 1%, up 7% over two years, but perhaps we've got more folks going back to those wal-mart stores. the retailer is taking steps to, quote, manage the price gaps, saying we know customers are focused on inflation and we're continuing to watch key item

pricing to ensure that we help them through this. but this type of environment plays to our strengths and while he wouldn't go into too much item by item detail about pricing, did explain wal-mart always took a basket approach to pricing. quote, we're still investing in roll backs, making sure we're sharp on those items gross margin did grow 54 basis points in the u.s. and did have about $400 million more in supply related cost than planned for the quarter. separately there was $300 million more of unexpected covid leave cost as covid peaked during the quarter he ended the conversation by saying, quote, i've never been more optimistic about where the business is and the business model i see developing over the next few years reaction now about 1%. >> we'll check in with you a little later in the meantime joining us for

more is j. roger nippen's worldwide ceo. these are strong numbers coming from wal-mart. you might anticipate when things get a little rougher with inflation this is going to be the company able to address it yeah, i didn't think we'd see much in the stock price either way no matter what they said so what they said seemed nice to me and their base business is very well run today compared to what anybody would hope in this kind of environment they're doing all the right things they're competing really effectively with amazon. they're fighting the battle on inflation every day and the customer is telling them every day we like what you're doing. so, boy, i don't think it gets much better than this if you're wal-mart, but i still think during 2022 we're going to be facing some pretty substantial

inflation here i think wal-mart will handle that and the supply chain best, but it can't be easy for anybody. >> meaning you think corporate profits or corporate profit margins are going to get eroded? >> well, eventually, the customer has to say i can't keep taking price up until yesterday they just said, fine, put it on the shelf i'll buy it at whatever price that's out there, and even if it's not exactly the right thing i'll buy it anyway and they've been saying all last year and now saying it right into this year how long can that go on is the question and inflation tops out here 7, 7.5%, 8%, okay, fine but if inflation moves onto 11 or peaks out at 9 and stays there all year, we have a really big problem on the retail side because that's when the customer finally starts saying i just can't do this anymore. i'm personally very optimistic on 2022 because i think we will see inflation slow

i think we'll continue to see growth in jobs i think we'll continue to see growth in the willingness to come back to work. or we could get down to 2.5 or 2.9% or something like that on unemployment if we don't see growth in the work force those things will keep the party going, and the customer wants to be at the party. they want to buy experiences and they'll continue to buy apparel, accessories, shoes, jewelry, all of that. wal-mart, on the other hand, will be still the winner whatever happens because they're managing all of these problems better than the rest of the retail world >> the big question is the one you just illustrated, this idea is inflation peaking here? is it going to come back down, or will we hit higher levels when you speak on this i listen because you're decades in the retail industry. what makes you think -- what are you seeing right now in the supply chain what are you seeing in terms of

pricing expectations, wage gain expect eggs that makes you think that we are peaking at this point and it's not going to get worse? >> well, the supply chain problem is unwinding at least we don't have 131 boats out on the water anymore now we're in the 86 range or something like that. so that's going to continue to get better in the first half so i think that's a big deal for inflation. that's too few goods for the too much money chasing it. the too much money chasing it going to slow down, too. it's melting down to $660 billion. so we're going to see less money pushed forward if the fed does what they're supposed to do, if we all listen to bullard, i think we'll see this gradual catch-up and the inflation will gradually come back down. but i played this game before in the 1970s and 80s, you know? i watched all this happen and until the fed finally put their

foot on the break we couldn't get inflation to slow down this time some of it is going to naturally slow down because of the supply chain issues, but the other piece is the money supply and the fed is going to have to deal with that one >> jan, thank you. great talking to you today >> you, too. and still to come this hour north dakota senator kevin cramer joins us next on the gop's boycott based on a couple of president biden's fed nominees then we're going to hear from america's largest retailer, autonation ceo michael manley is here to break down quarterly results. "squawk box" will be right back.

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charlie munger the vice chair of burkesure hathaway and the chairman of the journal company appeared at the company's meeting yesterday by live stream. i moderated the event and took questions from many sent in by daily journal shareholders including inquiries about stock market liquidity >> when i was young we had a stock market that was way less liquid, way fewer shares when i was at the harvard law school we seldom traded on the day and now we trade billions.

we don't need a stock market that liquid. what we're getting is richer access and danger for the country. and everybody loves it because it's like there's a bunch of people getting drunk at a party and they love it because they're so busy getting drunk they don't think about the consequences we don't need this wretched access >> a few years ago i think he called it rat poison, maybe rat poison squared the 98-year-old is still not a buyer of bitcoin in fact, he remains skeptical of crypto investing overall >> well, i certainly didn't invest in crypto i'm proud of the fact i've avoided it it's like some venereal disease or something some people think it's modernity, and they welcome a currency that's so useful in extortions and kidnappings and

so on and so on, tax evasion and -- and it -- and of course the envy everybody has to create his own new currency, and i think that's crazy, too. so i wish it had been banned immediately. and i admire the chinese for banning it i think they were right, and we've been wrong >> andrew, that part of it, the idea this is really a moral decision coming from him and less of an investing one i hadn't really put it in that context before he's never been a fan of things like gambling, companies that do sales of liquor, not that he's a non-drinker, but i just don't think he likes business in some of those aspects and that kind of cleared it up a little bit when he talked about some of that yesterday >> becky, first of all, you did

an awesome job and i was fascinated, riveted throughout everything he says is provocative in one way or another. but what i was going to ask you was there was a moment where the crypto bulls actually -- there was another moment where you're talking about inflation. as you know where he effectively said that the dollar over the next hundred years was going to go to zero, and so they -- the crypto bulls and the bitcoin bulls are saying, well, if that's going to zero then bitcoin then kcrypto is the way to go. >> i saw a lot of them retweeting his comments. he's saying he's very concerned about inflation. >> i thought the same thing. and ascribing moral issues, and i understand because it is used for money laundering, used for a lot of things. but, you know, that's humans that's human nature doing

something with this -- you know, it's not inherently in bitcoin to be used in nefarious ways and i would say it's much more immoral and much more dangerous to just keep trading something that goes to zero. >> he's opposed to both of them. >> it's a simple distributed ledger that really can take the place of other things for caring monetary value it's nothing more than that. and all these nefarious things that are done with them aren't due to itself. >> he doesn't like providing things that help appeal to the worst designs of human nature. and he talked a lot about human nature and greed and envy. >> i know that but all currencies are used for nefarious purposes >> but some are easier than others >> some are easier, but bitcoin, it's not its fault it's so effective to use on those things it's the people that are using it >> yeah, but that's not many

built in -- it's a longer debate and i'm sure we'll continue it we've got a lot more coming up this morning, though the north dakota senatoris going to be joining us, kevin cramer, next on the gop's boycott of president biden's fed nominees before we head to a break check out shares of nvidia, beat estimates. revenue jumping 53% from the prior year also beating the street. the company ceo said supply constraints are easing and the company supply products to increase substantially in the second half of the year. that's the good news the bad news, the stock off about 3% because expectations were even higher squawk coming right back

banking committee republicans are standing firm in their decision to boycott a vote on president biden's fed nominees joining us now with his take, senator kevin cramer, a republican from one of the dakotas. i still get them mixed up. i want to visit both isn't badlands are in one and rushmore is in the other >> oil is in north dakota. >> they're definitely on my bucket list. you know what we should point out, senator, this is not unprecedented. supreme court justice amy coney

barrett, senate dems boycott that committee vote. scott pruitt, the former epa administrator, republicans got that through despite a dem boycott of the committee mnuchin and tom price also boycotted or wouldn't vote on it eventually all those people got confirmed but never in a 50-50 senate can you actually prevent sarah bloom raskin from getting this appointment? >> well, it remains to be seen, i think. but the easy way to move things forward would be to take the sarah bloom raskin nomination, which is a very important one. that's a ten-year appointment to the -- to supervisor, and that's -- set that aside we could move onto five other fed nominations, well, really

four fed nominations and one for the federal housing agency and we'd be happy to vote on all of those not that we'd vote for all of them but we'd end up having to vote on all of them. what we did by not attending the business meeting where the markup would take place is we denied the democrats a quorum, and that's one of the rules that in a 50-50 senate happens. >> there are different reasons -- >> but if the chairman would just separate it out, we could -- >> they won't do that because that's acknowledging that maybe they don't get sarah bloom raskin through they want to keep up -- >> but you have to acknowledge that, joe. it isbut they have to acknowledge that because we're doing democrats a big favor. all we're asking for are further answers to really important questions -- >> not you you just think that by definition she's going to use the fed to debank the fossil

fuel industry, and you're from -- >> well, listen, i'm a no-vote for that reason. she's been very clear. she wants to reallocate capital away from -- so those are reasons to vote no we're not denying that we're denying them the opportunity to even have the vote on sarah bloom raskin over the ethical cloud that hangs her head, because frankly i don't know why they want the baggage that comes from an insufficient or rushed judgment to confirm her when her issue is very, very serious. this revolving door issue where the kc federal reserve changed its decision on offering a master account to her fin tech company that she joined the board of after being a fed governor and the treasury official, that's a serious question that has yet to be

answered properly. when it was finally answered by the kc fed they said they reversed their decision for two reasons. one of them is the colorado banking redefined what banking is you all reported it just yesterday i think, the colorado division of banking denies that. they call it a misrepresentation. so we're really doing that administration a favor by delaying her confirmation. >> yeah, i think she got shares in that entity, too. >> made a million and a half, yeah >> and with a lot of increased scrutiny on everyone in washington in terms of interest. >> there sure is >> but you figure if she's able to answer that effectively, you think she eventually gets -- not from you because of your other concerns but is it possible to answer that effectively?

>> the kansas city fed has not answered the dumation why they reversed and gave access to this very coveted account that doesn't mean it's going to change a bunch of minds. i actually think the scandal you guys reported that the feds decision and rationale does not match up with what they are saying with the colorado division of banking. i think that adds more of a cloud. i'm not really sure that every democrat could support that. remember elizabeth warren comes into most banking committee meetings when there's a nominee in front of us and spends five minutes berating them if they've ever worked for a corporation in their life or ever plan to work for a company in their life. she's been the number one opponent to revolving doors, and this one stinks big time because we have actual evidence that she made $1.5 million on a stock trade after lobbying the kc fed

for preferential treatment >> i absolutely agree with you to the revolving door. i want to ask about the issue about debanking and debanking certain industries not necessarily from a government mandate perspective but from an individual private business perspective. how do you feel about banks making decisions about whether it's oil and gas, whether it's guns, whether it's something else >> well, i introduced the fair access to banking act. i think if you're an fdic ensured bank, if your back stop is the taxpayers in this country categorically excluding entire industries that are legal commerce is wrong, and you shouldn't be allowed to do it. that said i think on a case by case basis the assessment of risk is obviously an important part of banking, and i think banks ought to have some leeway to do that but the risk assessment should not be categorical exclusion of

entire industries. >> so this is where it gets more complicated, and i understand why you would support banking, for example, oil and gas or maybe the gun industry for example, should a bank -- should a bank be able to decide they don't want to support the pornography industry would you support that in deciding that? or the gambling industry >> i would support that if they have a moral obligation or a moral objection to and there's a risk assessment that says, hey, this has risk, reputational risk and other things i think that's certainly relevant obviously i would support that but there's a big difference between the pornography industry and providing enough energy to grow an economy and to secure a nation and a world very, very big gap between those examples >> senator, then you get to debanking the meat industry if certain entities that think, you know, pita industry -- andrew,

you're onto something. i disagree with you because you always say fossil fuels and guns cow don't want to defund planned parenthood, do you, andrew take some of your pet causes, andrew do you want to defund those. >> first of all, those are not my pet causes. >> you've got plenty of them you always mention fossil fuel and guns >> i raise the issue of pornography or by the way lending to an abortion clinic. >> think about that. it's a slippery slope and i don't think you want to go down that slow, do you? >> i don't know if you saw the bank was loaning money to the ceo was effectively debanked, and they decided he was a reputational risk to the bank.

i believe the bank has a right to decide as a private ipstulation there are reputational -- and there are other companies and industries possibly within the industry of guns look where remington just spent $87 million to settle a case for sandy hook that's a reputational case >> a specific borrower or specific business, not an entire industry what if that bank said we're not going to fund any pillow industry because we're against pillows. anyway, i used to be a soccer referee. being between you two guys is a piece of cake compared >> it's just, you know, one person's -- look at this country right now. if one side defunded everything they wanted to defund and the other side decided to defund everything, there won't be anything left because it's opposites. senator cramer, nice to have you

on >> well, done. no red flags today on that when we come back, who's winning the food delivery war? john is here and he's got a preview what's coming up on our on the other hand segment. >> door dash is up what 24% in premarket trading, but is reopening better news for uber yes and no i'll tackle it when jury box returns. time now for today's aflac trivia question. the pat gonian toothfish is marketed for consumption in the u.s. under what name the answer when cnbc's "squawk box" continues this idea of making a movie about caring, it resonated with me. and not only caring, but how does that apply to someone from our community? it's about taking care

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now the answer to today's aflac trivia question. the patagonian toothfish is marketed for consumption in the u.s. under what name the answer, chilean sea bass the name was invented by a fish wholesaler in 1977 in 1994 the fda accepted chilean sea bass as an alternative market name.

welcome back to "squawk box. this morning door dash the results that saw the stock pop after hours. even though the stock said they thought uber eats was taking share from door dash john is here weighing in what do you think? >> well, uber is, sure door dash popped more than let's see it's up 24% premarket. but it was under $100 a share, so don't read too much into that and door dash's core business is food delivery. reopening means more ride hailing trips as people venture outside again. and really it's that diversification that investors should focus on. uber has delivery, sure, but it also has mobility and freight. uber delivers stuff to people, people to places and stuff to

places and in the past you hear doordash having better growth that uber eats it looks like uber did very well on delivery with gross bookings up 34% over last year. you've got to consider the labor shortage a typical uber driver can choose to deliver people or stuff or both, increasing the value proposition, and that gives uber an advantage over time, andrew >> so what about the argument that doordash is more focus on uber given that it's -- it's a single issue company >> well, i mean, on the other hand, doordash is still leaving uber in the dust up 36% more important reopening isn't the problem you might think. doordash orders are up in the recent quarter doordash said the strengthen wasn't because of the omicron variant but just a new normal. people are actually ordering

more delivery and not just food. okay, let's talk diversification. you might think it's an advantage for uber because it can deliver more stuff and people 90% of their drivers said they have no plans to drive people and r around it turns out driving with food is safer than driving with people doordash delivers more than restaurant food. the company has expanded into grocery, convenience store items and even flowers this valentine's day. and the demand for delivery isn't going away the question does doordash create amazon prime-like convenience? so far it seems to be working. >> so how long before we know which platforms are really working for the restaurants? >> well, it's interesting. i was talking to toast yesterday, which deals with just kind of restaurant software on premise. they're integrating with all of these. it seems like in the next six months some interesting

signaling. >> okay, appreciate it we'll see. on the other hand. which hand we juggle. thanks, john, appreciate it. autonation just out with earnings we're going to dig through the numbers with the ceo plus we're expecting the latest read on jobless claims in the next hour. futures ahead of that gotten a little better but still in the red. the dow down about 90 points wal-mart helped minimize those losses so far. stay tuned "squawk box" will be right back.

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welcome back to squawk some breaking news on the activist front this morning. a little known investor pushing for some big change at hasbro. leslie picker joins us with more on that. >> good morning, andrew. also fox capital has launched a proxy fight with toymaker hasbro seeking a spin-off of one of its division it's nominating five directors to the 11-person board according to a letter sent to fellow

shareholders in response they said in a statement the board and management team have met and will review its nominees in due course the partner says he and his board candidates want hasbro to spen off its faster growing wizards of the coast division which houses games like dungeons and dragons and magic the gathering. >> our world glass slate of nominees has a vision for value creation that includes simplifying the corporate structure by spining out >> with a reconstituted board they say hasbro shares could more than double to $200 a piece. the current brand blew print strategy hasn't delivered for shareholders this is hasbro's framework for expanding brands like my little

pony into television show platforms. >> we will not stand idly by as they continue to cling, and where they really tout the results of the blueprint strategy, to us it suggests they're detached from reality and have lost accountability to shareholders >> hasbro has underperformed its toy rival matel. chris cots is slated to become ceo of the company in about a week and a half. he certainly has his plate full, guys >> leslie, can i say is there something gross about this in that brian goldner, the ceo of that company passed away, and they've gone through this transition and i don't know how much time you're supposed to give a company to make that transition to start a proxy contest in the middle of that, am i being too

emotional about that there's something very wrong about it and then i was looking through the board, the folks they're presenting as the board members, and very few of them have any experience in this space >> that's -- you know, i think that argument -- i've heard that from other people as well, andrew obviously the board nominees are going to be critical here as the other shareholders determine which slate wins out the shares are up 5.5%, which indicates shareholders are at least somewhat excited by the prospect of changing things up a little bit at hasbro however, to your point obviously there is a management transition afoot. the deadline for nomination as i understand is for this friday. >> i'm not suggesting this -- i'm not suggesting hasbro is the best management company in the

world. i don't know but it just seems to me the timing, and i understand the timing in terms of technical timing, why you do this now, but -- and then the other question i was just going to ask is how much heft do you think that this activist has just in the game it's a relatively new name in the business >> yeah. i think one of the key things we're going to have to figure out -- and i did ask about this -- was whether any long onlies were supportive of the slate and supportive of the changes they were trying to enact here because what we saw last year with engine number one they had a smaller stake in exon than we're seeing in a percentage basis, and they were able to survive because they had this report of some of the major long onlies like calsters and others that came out more focused really this type of thing comes

down especially when you have one of these newer, smaller activists at play here who else is in support of their strategy because you can't do it alone with just 2.5% stake >> final question, does this put the company in play? one of the issues is whether it'll change the company, but does a move like this fundamentally raise the prosprotect of a strategic reaching out and saying we'll just buy you right now, call it a day? >> it's a good question. he didn't actually call for that in the letter. and if you recall back in 2017 hasbro made an unsuccessful move to acquire its rival matel, whether it means it'd be for sale or doing more deals remains to be seen >> mr. potato head leslie, thank you. appreciate it. becky? >> thanks, andrew. when we come back autonation ceo

michael manley talks about auto sales, quarter results and the state of the auto industry right now. then coming up at the top of the hour former house majority leader and moelis and company vice chair eric cantor will join at htih reacon wh'sappening with inflation and much more. "squawk box" will be right back. getting the incredible iphone 13 without t-mobile, makes as much sense - as playing hide-in-seek... - ready or not, here i come. ...in the desert. really guys? t-mobile has more 5g bars in more places. and now, when you switch, you can get iphone 13 on us at t-mobile.

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welcome back to "squawk box," everybody. phil lebeau is here. he has a special guest phil >> becky, let's bring in mike manley, ceo of autonation, joining just a few minutes after the company released its q4 results that beat the street on both the top and bottom line thank you for joining us this morning. i want to talk about your results because you had a huge quarter both on the new and used side as well as with serves. on the new side i was particularly struck by the dprgros profit per new vehicle, a big spike there. what's driving that? is it simply the msrp has moved up on these vehicles

are you charging above msrp? what's driving that at this point? >> the quarter was fantastic and i was pleased with the results for me i put the results in two categories firstly, what elements of those results are due to the supply shortage and what elements are structural and will live beyond the pandemic i think there are new vehicles obviously with the supply and demand equation we have at the moment, that has driven new vehicle prices up to the msrp level. but in the results and i don't want this to be missed, there are a number of things that are going to survive in this pandemic a margin we're now seeing an volyv volume of used vehicles. so strong, strong results. you asked me a question about new vehicle margin, i can tell you autonation last year less than 2% of our vehicles were sold above msrp. so what i think you're seeing is a general lift from the heavy

discounting you saw back in 2018, early 2019 has gone from the market because of the inventory levelch and the speculation is how long will that last in the future and my view on that >> mike, you took over at the end of last year when you came in you were hired last year and you took over early this year. you came from fiat chrysler and you were running north america for fiat chrysler. what's your take on the chip crisis right now when you not just with fiat chrysler but all companies, you deal with auto makers, what's your sense how long this lasts and the supply constraint >> so the very first thing is it's unpredictable we've seen that. we've seen oems talk about what they think they're going to produce in the first quarter and have to correct those production levels i think that's really indicative of where we are. i believe strongly we come into the end of this pandemic,

period, but there are still going to be ripple effects in the supply chain i think about the industry this year in my view i think we're going to get stability maybe in the second quarter in terms of forecasting and get improvements in the third and fourth quarter, but i don't think you're going to see inventory levels begin to recover until you get one into the second half. >> used car revenue up 55%, just a huge psycho. and we know how hot that market is right now do you sense that's going to cool off right now, and/or do you expect this to be the case for all of 2022? >> no, i think what we need to do is just dig underneath that number because people talk about used car margins driving all of that improvement that's not actually the case with autonation. our used volume was up 70% in the quarter, so that was a big driver if you go back 2018, 2019 the average percentage on used vehicle was about 7.8, 7.9 what we've seen obviously is an appreciation in used car prices.

you are going to see a moderation in that, in fact in the first month i would say we've already seen the signs of that because what really drove that result is the big improvement we've seen in the efficiency of our used vehicle sales plus the additional sites we bought on stream i think there's so much demand >> we're running up against the break so a quick answer mere you had so many people who bought vehicles by ordering them in advance do you see that right now? is that the new way you think people will be buying vehicles in the future? >> i think now what you've seen people got used to that. it wasn't in the industry a few years ago. the next thing you need to do is shorten that delivery time for ordering, and that's something the oems are really focused on >> mike manley, the ceo of

autonation, first time on "squawk box" as ceo of autonation i'll send it back to you guys. just a huge quarter for autonation, and this is not a surprise coming up wal-mart earnings, reaction and other market movers including nvidia and cisco check out the futures at this hour we're still down but we've paired the losses at least "squawk box" wilbeig bk.l rhtac

welcome back to "squawk box" this morning a short while ago wal-mart reported earnings. and we heard from cisco systems and nvidia for insights into these results and more i want to bring in the managing partner and portfolio manager and also a cnbc contributor. and we're seeing lots of sort of markedly different reactions to this kind of news. you're looking at a mixed picture on the tech side you look at wal-mart, it's up on its news you look and it's down big time on its news. how do you think about this? is this just an expectations management problem >> andrew, it's more than expectations right now the market is really looking at cash flows. it's looking at earnings, and it's looking at companies that are going to be projecting better earnings and cash flow. and if you look at wal-mart and cisco, two things they did they

raised their dividends and they're buying back stock. there's confidence in their earnings and about they don't have to go back to the capital markets anymore, and they can actually grow their businesses you look at some of the others that have missed or have future cash flow down the road, they're going to get hurt and interest rates are moving up. and you want your cash flows closer where we are today in the future right now you're getting a lot of revaluation these growth companies until they prove the models work. doordash is interesting. full disclosure we own uber and i uber has this closs platform where 46% of users use delivery. doordash hit it out of the park. i think when you look at that and translate that into an uber

it's positive. and if they're seeing growth and uber is seeing growth, it's positive and going down to 2024 is when their big number was on the market it's a show me story i believe it, but you've got to have both of these stocks in your portfolio you can't just have the, quote, value stocks only. you have to have growth at a reasonable price in companies that can execute i think that's where the potential to make money in the next cup of years is going to be >> so many of our viewers are in various index funds. they're not in the individual names, and so the question for them is if they have cash on the side line, is this a good time it put it to work, or are you a believer as one of our earlier guests said there may be some more room on the down side given where the fed is headed? >> so, look, you could have more room on the down side, but if you're picking individual stocks i think there's an opportunity today to buy some of these really high quality companies if you have a longer term view.

picking the bottom is almost impossible because january 24th we were almost down 24% with the peak by then you might think the market is going to drop 10% because some news hit. i think if you find good companies like the ubers of the world and you want to invest in nvidia, you put money in today, but you also put it so the risk tolerance so if it drops 20% you can either drink more or sleep better at night. >> hoping we can all sleep better at night. appreciate it. >> absolutely, thank you it is just past 8:00 a.m. on the east coast, and you are watching "squawk box." let's take a look at the futures right now. you'll see that things are down in the red but not by as much we'd seen earlier. s&p futures down by 7, the nasdaq off by 37 jobless claims data is less than 30 minutes away, and we have a big interview coming up this morning with former levi's brand

president jennifer sey she says the company pressured her to stop speaking out about her views around covid-19 restrictions she'll be with us to talk all about it >> oh, no, andrew, you're doing that interview >> i've been trying to get this interview going for the last couple of days >> does she know how you feel? he's really coming on? >> she's really coming on. >> all right, let's see what happens. i can just sit back. >> we're going to go through the whole story. >> good. >> what's also fascinating about jennifer you could argue apolitical in the sense she was actually one of the people behind levi's decision to speak out against guns just two years ago. so she's been on both maybe political sides of two very contentious issues

>> i don't think of either of those issues being confined to republicans versus democrats, andrew president biden's fed picks are in limbo definitely as republican senator pat toomey of pennsylvania vows to block a committee vote of vice chair sarah bloomraskin. a kansas city fed granting a master account to a fin tech term where she served as director he wants answers we heard more from the senator this morning for more on this let's talk to eric cantor, now vice-chairman and managing director at moelis and company. do you have a problem with sarah bloom raskin and if so do you have multiple problems what takes precedence with you >> good morning, joe i've got problems and sitting as an observer now looking to see

what pat toomey and the banking committee republicans are doing, obviously i'm in full support of what they're doing, and let's sort of stipulate here this kind of boycotting committees, not showing up to a quorum is not something new. there is like long precedent on both sides of the aisle for this to occur if you listen to pat i kevin i heard earlier in this show and talked about their reasons for doing so, that's fine. but i can tell you now as someone very concerned about our markets, our economy, certainly always about our country, i do not think she's the right one to go on the board of the federal reserve. i don't think that anyone if they really thought about it would think that putting someone on the federal reserve to allow for that entity to begin to allocate capital is something that fits within that body so i think it's a terrible move.

and frankly i think from the biden administration it's not true to their word they want to try and work in a bipartisan way. >> i think ms. raskin has said she would not do that, but with a pretty long appointment i guess you think that you don't necessarily believe that >> let me tell you so, again, i'm not sure what she responded to, and as pat toomey had said the answers that she gave clearly weren't straightforward. and, you know, she had spoken out during right in the beginning of the pandemic. and i think that the -- the comments that she made that came under attack had to do with some of the emergency programs that were setup at the federal reserve. and she had said she didn't think that taxpayers should be funding or allowing energy companies to access those emergency loan or funding programs and then -- if you take that and

that was a specific incident but if that's her thinking, you know, the fed has already said they're going to start to do stress tests of financial institutions and part of those stress tests are going to have to do with climate. as you know the biden administration, the fed, all of washington begins to say, hey, we will look at the risk associated with climate, and all of a sudden if you get somebody like sarah bloom raskin on the board of the fed in term of going after energy companies, the minute a bank holding company or a bank has a loan on the books to an energy company right there the risk profile is going to shoot-up. so, again, there are plenty of ways for her to do i think what she wants with how having direct relevance to those comments she had made under the emergency provisions during the pandemic >> so overall since we're talking about the fed, do you believe that the fed will follow

through with at least four maybe five maybe even a 50-point -- 50 basis point hike given some of the hot inflation numbers we've seen recently? >> look, john, i think certainly have assumed just as market participants have assumed rates are going up but we have to take a step back and look at the historically low level that they are at and so what we're seeing is clearly, you know, credit is plentiful. the volatility in the market certainly present a challenge, but also a lot of opportunity. and as we've seen sort of the ipo and the spack markets take somewhat of a breather i do think that companies are going to be looking for maybe a sale rather than to access the public markets. and obviously for nna firms like moelis that is an optimistic sign because our clients are certainly demonstrating the will to transact.

>> and what do you think the primary cause, underlying causes of what we're seeing with these hot, the ppi, the cpi, what do you think is causing it? and that makes a big difference in terms of whether it's going to be -- be a lot worse and be a lot longer lasting in nature >> well, joe, look, as you know it's all about supply and demand depends on what washington wants to address in terms of trying to control inflation. and for the life of me i don't understand why the biden administration doesn't get serious on tariffs because that's increasing prices, consumer prices for people you know, they lifted the japanese steel tariffs the other week, but instead they put quoteoes that were below the pre-pandemic level why don't they get serious about labor participation rates? that's where i think the real

lasting influence to help spur inflation is job wages wage growth is a problem because labor participation is a problem. we are still, i think, over 4 million people below where we were pre-pandemic. a lot of those, frankly, are parents and moms in particular so if the biden administration want to get serious let them go and direct states to repurpose some of that massive amount of covid money they still have, put it to work in terms of day care priorities so that moms can get back to work you know, obviously energy prices are a big deal. and that's, again, a supply and demand question. and when you hear people in washington on the democratic side talking about a gas tax holiday, you know, listen, the prices are a direct reflection of the lack of supply. and to sit here and say we're just going to cut those taxes and fix all the problems, no problem is not going away until

you address the supply issue and instead of going over to opec and asking them to pump more, this administration ought to get serious on that as well and let's get a more balanced approach towards oil and gas >> all right, eric cantor, thank you. and you remember elections have consequences, eric and don't you mess with me, all right? just keep that -- does that still ring in your ears? >> look, if you think about all that we're at, and i know you just made a comment about, you know, everything now has divided us >> i know. >> every single thing. >> i don't want to get it started. >> it started -- >> yeah, we're all in these little places. and once you're there, you're there and it's just obvious. gentlemen, we have some breaking news just out from reuters on the ukraine front the united states envoy to the united nations says there's evidence on the ground that russia is moving toward what they are calling an imminent invasion they say this is a crucial moment the u.s. secretary of state

antony blinken has changed his travel plans last minute to speak at a u.n. security council meeting today. you can see the futures ticking lower on this news, down by about 85 points. again, these are marginal declines at this point but certainly the opposite direction from where we were headed a few minutes ago. this has all been following up on news we've been hearing from russia saying they are in fact on the front line and it will take them some time to remove the troops after the united states called them out saying they've not seen any troop movement moving away from that the 10-year yield above 2% but just barely. 2.003% not sure if we looked at the oil prices but we should keep an eye on that as well. the futures moving lower on this and antony blinken changing his travel plans this morning.

jobless claims are out within the next half hr.ou we'll bring you that news as well stay tuned "squawk box" will be right back. every big idea every game changer every "how'd they do that?" starts here the blank page artists and writers know the tyranny of it well but so do developers, data scientists, ctos the new creators to them, we say let's create something that changes everything ♪ ♪ ♪

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welcome back to "squawk box. not that bad

down 121 we were down about 50. we were down 100 earlier on the dow. the futures have sold off recently on renewed worries something might be imminent over in ukraine with some reports that what we've heard the word imminent over the weekend, and we've heard it for weeks actually that a move could be imminent meanwhile gold hitting its highest level since last june. take a quick look at the pre precious metal you can see now $1,892, andrew meantime back to some corporate news they're planning to hold a unionization vote next month the workers and e-commerce giant reaching an agreement to hold an in-person election in late march. amazon is opposing unionization efforts and says it is skeptical it has sufficient support.

when it is what you say in your private life a reflection of your employer that is the question up next we're going to speak with a former eli strauss brand president jennifer sey who says she was pushed out of her advocacy to keep san francisco schools open during the 'sndemic it an interview conversation you do not want to miss, it's right here on squawk when we return carl, say hi to nina, our schwab financial consultant. hm... i know how difficult these calls can be. not with schwab. nina made it easier to set up our financial plan. we can check in on it anytime. it changes when our goals change. planning can't be that easy. actually, it can be, carl. look forward to planning with schwab. schwab! ♪♪

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and right now, save big with up to $750 off a new samsung device. switch today. welcome back to "squawk box. the top executive at levi strauss resigning this week after more than 20 years with the company. former president jennifer sey say people at the aparnl giant pressured her to stop advocating against pandemic driven school shutdowns in san francisco in an essay published monday she announced her resignation and said she turned down a mill yr dollar severance package so she could tell her story levi said since she resigned she wasn't eligible for severance or offered that package

this was especially true during the global pandemic. this all raises questions about free speech and who gets to say what in their personal and professional lives and this morning jennifer sey joins us to discuss all this jennifer, thrilled to have you on the broadcast i was fascinated to read your essay and your experience. i want to go through it, but speak just to this you decided to resign. the question is did you resign, or do you really think they effectively pushed you out and fired you? >> i was absolutely pushed out it was made very clear to me that there was not a place for me going forward given the controversial nature of what i'd said over the last two years about kids in schools. i made the decision to leave on my own -- on my own accord and on my own terms so that i could speak freely i feel like, you know, the issues at stake here are not just kids but free speech more broadly, and accepting a package

to stay silent would fly in the face of that in my mind, so i didn't want to accept that package. i wanted to leave on my own terms. >> jennifer, like you i imagine i hate the idea of mob rule, but i also recognize that context matters, and that when you work at a company you may have to follow both the rules and the values that that company espouses levi's i think if we're being candid has always been a relatively liberal and progressive company. so i'm curious how you reconciled with those things >> well, i've been a liberal and progressive person i've been a democrat my entire life i've been outspoken in the past on liberal and progressive issues including common sense gun laws, racial equality. i've been very outspoken on those things and i've even been outspoken about democratic

candidates i supported, which included elizabeth warren in the democratic primary, and so i don't think this is an issue of necessarily aligning with the company or not being progressive enough but i would argue it shouldn't be a condition of the employment to 100% align with your employer's views, and i don't think that's a viable path forward. a lot of people work in companies, there's a lot of different views and it shouldn't be controversial or an hr violation to stand up in defense of children. >> and this is the question, i think. and by the way i wasn't questioning your politics per se but really questioning more the issue of being inside a company that clearly has a particular view, the company had taken a position, if you will, when it comes to covid and vaccinations and then being not just privately outspoken, speaking maybe to company leaders or to school leaders privately but to doing it publicly. and i should also say not only did you do it publicly, and this

is a very interesting philosophical sort of question, whether people should be held to account or whether people should even think about this. your husband was speaking out quite vociferously online as well, and that raised also some other concerns inside the company. again, the question is where the line and bar should be for all of this. >> yeah, i think that is the question and i think it's complicated, and i think it needs to be resolved i would make the case that i did not undermine company guidelines i am, in fact, vaccinated. i tested when necessary to be at work i masked at work i encouraged my staff to do the same so everything i was outspoken about was something the company had in fact not taken a stance on i was not in conflict with it. and in fact when i was very vocal about schools, public schools needing to be open in san francisco many of our executives had their kids in school it was private school, so they weren't opposed to sending

children to school they were opposed to taking a stance that conflicted with where the democrat k ic party ws standing in deep blue cities which was close public schools the line is complicated. i agree with you it's a very messy sort of situation. but as you all know companies are taking a stand around diversity and improving the diversity of their work forces because there's value in that. diversity enables us -- a company to align better with our consumers and our fans and i would say that has to include also diversity of viewpoint not just racial and gender diversity >> so but here's the question. this is the part i don't know the answer to. so i think everybody should be able to have their own personal views. the question is when those personal views are in conflict either with the company or as i said there can sometimes be these mob rule situations. but when an individual at a company takes a quote-unquote public position, right, takes to

social media, other places and is very vociferous with their view publicly, and if it's in conflict with what the company thinks how the company should handle it, i was thinking to myself about apple if an employee at apple started deriding china publicly, and i'm sure there are people inside apple who have real questions about the human rights issues in china, i wonder what would happen and i wonder what the policy should be. and it's not to say that people shouldn't have these views or should be able to speak out about these views. the question is if you want to speak out about these views, should you speak out at these companies. this to me is sort of one of the great debates of our time. >> yeah, i completely agree with you. and i think there is a way fooendorse free speech and open dissent and disagreement and to say we may not agree with her

views on everything, her being me, but we support her right to speak out. and i would just state that privately people did agree with me it was really just considered too controversial. and in answer to your prior question about my husband, you know, we don't agree on everything i don't think any married couple does he doesn't work there. so to my mind it's sort of irrelevant >> it brings to mind the issue of the conway family, kellyanne and george, of course. separately i just wanted to ask you there have been some comments that levi strauss, the company has made since your essay was published disputing a couple of things and i just wanted to ask you about it so we can try to clear it up. in the essay you said they'd made a million dollar offer effectively for you to leave they say it's not true in the essay you also say you were effectively offered the job or told you were going to get the job of ceo of the company,

that you were in line for that role they say that you were not offered the ceo position i don't know if you think that's splitting hairs in terms of the language they're using, but speak to it if you could >> i would say it's splitting hairs a little bit i would agree. i was not officially offered, but it was definitely the conversation that i was in line and i was the primary candidate. and i think all you have to do is look at the structure of the organization to understand in the chair i sat i was absolutely one of the most viable candidates so -- i don't dispute there was not an official offer. there were active conversations that i was the primary candidate but that i needed to tone it down in regards to my advocacy for children >> and how do you think about going public now and the reason i ask you is obviously you're no longer in this role, i imagine and we can talk about it, whether you want

to get back into the corporate world. maybe you want to get into the political world. i don't know but in terms of the calculus to go public with this. >> well, i definitely don't want to get into the political world, so i can answer that definitively my plan right now is not to go back into corporate life i think as you state it's a sticky situation, and i don't want to be held back in saying what i believe and if those are the conditions of employment, if standing against the orthodoxy or the mainstream view means that that's an hr violation, i will choose not to work in corporate america so that i can retain my vo voice. my plan -- i'm sort of gathering myself as to what's next i would like to make a documentary. i made one in the past that came out in june of 2020, and i would like to write a book that just is about the experience of using your voice in difficult situations and how hard that is. >> jennifer, what do you

recommend to employees who may have views that run counter to what the company's let's say culture or an internal view who may not have the means you do to step away? >> yeah, that's a fair -- i mean i am lucky i was able to step away. i can take a breath and decide what i'm going to do next. here's what i would say. the san francisco voters voted decisively to recall the school board just two days ago, so i would say there was a silent majority that actually did agree with me. and if those folks had felt they could speak up, what i was saying would not have been so controversial. so i would argue and encourage folks to speak up on issues gnat they care about that affect their family if it was clear there was a lot of support from my view i don't think it would have been so problematic, but people were afraid to do so for fear of recrimination like i received. >> jennifer sey, we really appreciate you joining us this

morning for saying what you've said, and we look forward to following your next steps. thanks >> thanks for having me. >> you bet we are just a few seconds away from january housing starts data and the initial jobless claims numbers, too. ahead of that you are seeing some weakness in the futures dow down about 120 points, the s&p futures down about 20. rick santelli, take it abhach. >> we're expecting our january read on housing starts and permits and looking for continuing and initial claims. on initial claims 248,000. this is 30,000 more than expectations, sequentially following 223,000 which still might get revised. but continuing claims still a different story. 1,993,000, that is a bit better than expected. on philly fed a february

release. we're expecting 20, we end up with 16. 16 basically is the lightest number since december when we were around 15.5 a disappointment there on housing starts 1,638,000, easily adjusted analyzed units that is about 60,000 light to ex expectations and if we consider that interest rates, of course, make a huge difference in the housing sector, and i'm sure diana will speak to this and also give us the break down between single and multifamily, the issue with supply being so tight even moving interest rates might not bite as hard as it used to listen, gang, i do not see building permits out yet so i'll picket back to you and maybe diana has that >> we'll get to diana in just a moment we've also got instant reaction

from our own steve liesman and diana. and what are you seeing? getting any of those numbers just yet >> yeah, and i do have those building permits number. you're seeing building permits actually outpacing but a little disappointing in the starts. what's interesting to me is i'm breaking down between the multifamily and single family. single family in permits was up 6.8% multifamily down, but single family is weaker year over year compared to multi family we need more multi family yes but in the single price category single family we just need more. so the pricing numbers are good especially for the single family what i'm concerned about here is you see a big jump in the number of homes under construction but not yet finished to see that that's all your supply chain issues. so things taking muchlonger to

get in, and some of the builders slowing concerns because they can't build fast enough. i'm pleasantly surprised i was expecting to see a drop in the permits and future construction because builders might be concerned about those rising mortgage rates seeing those single permits higher bodes well for now. but, again, the sharper increases for mortgage rates were in february so, again, a pretty good report, i would say. i'm liking the permits the starts not as much back to you guys >> in terms of how long it typically takes to fleet a house, is this something beyond anecdoteal we see completion on these things >> absolutely. and you see it in the big name reports. they're all saying they're slowing sales because of that production so if it was taking six months before it may take 8 to 10 months depending where they are labor shortage playing huge into this right now

they're slowing down the pace of their sales because they don't want to sell a home they can't deliver on time. then you have the issue of people who can't lock in a mortgage rate right now until that home is finished. so if you purchased a home, that is signed a contract last fall and your rate was expected to be around 3%, now you're looking at 4% on the three-year fix you cannot lock that rate ipuntil it's almost finished so we might be seeing more cancellations on the builders as well >> steve, more take on the numbers? >> i'm trying to get a feel how hot or not the economy is on these numbers. diana does such a good job talking about the complexities of the housing market. you have supply problem, you ge a beat on what's happening i wonder just how sensitive the housing market is going to be to higher interest rates. mortgage rates are 100 basis points higher.

you think that would cool the market, but you have demographics and all kinds of things going on. people may have delayed doing certain things during the pandemic so you may not have the sensitivity in the housing market the jobless claims i'm a little puzzled about. we still think the job market is very strong. the component actually rose to 32 from 26 the fed a bit weaker than they were a bit in expectations there's an expectation and i'll finish this way, that the economy was going to cool in the first quarter. then you had that blow out retail number yesterday, and you do have people coming back it is still the pandemic and the rhythms of the pandemic and the waves dictating this economy so it's very hard to get a beat on what's going on fundamentally. >> what's the next big one coming that will really be okay?

where's the next marker am. >> i think right now the two things that matter and it's so interesting because we didn't use to do anything with the cpi report oh, it's 2%, it's 1.5% the next cpi is going to be key. and i'll be bringing in "squawk box" viewers the high frequency data as it comes in to get an earlier read what's going on >> steve, rick, thank you. becky, do you argue with your husband you guys agree on everything see, my house, wow with my wife and especially my daughter, so contentious. they're so far right they're so much. just a lot -- it's a lot of tension, lot of arguing. coming up, much more on the markets. the futures are lower this morning. it seems down 124. programming note, don't miss an exclusive interview.

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coming up, charlie munger on america's tech giants and anti-trust concerns. speaking with becky quick yesterday, we've been hearing comments from burkesure hathaway vice-chairman all morning. but first as we head to a break a few of this morning's top business headlines wal-mart shares rising this

morning on better than expected results on the fourth quarter and announced a dividend hike. and chip giant nvidia lower. investors seem concern about flat profit margins stay tuned say yeah. and they stay there, up, down, up, down. never lose confidence in how you run your business. intuit is bringing quickbooks and mailchimp together to help you set up and grow. dj khaled: man, i love this scent.

welcome back to "squawk box," everybody. yesterday shareholders of the daily journal newspaper company got the chance to ask questions of chairman charlie munger it was this year's virtual annual meeting u i moderated the event to took questions from shareholders. those questions came across a wide variety of topics including the megacap tech companies >> i'm not trying to weaken the companies in the united states i like the fact we have strong national champion that are big strong companies and i think other nations are proud of their big, strong companies, too so i don't think bigness is bad in the end i don't want the whole internet

to be dominated by foreign companies. i want big strong american companies that stand well in the world. so i'm not as worried about anti-trust aspects of the internet >> andrew, we did talk a little bit about leana khan and the administration and some of the ways they've been pushing for some of these things and again his theory on this is he's less concerned than the current administration is on this, and he's rather see strong american companies coming through. >> he's a national champions guy. i wonder how much of that is a result, though, thinking around china and the national champion strategy they have >> probably a good deal of it. to see your competitive nations kind of doing things, although you could argue china has been really cracking down on the big tech companies there charlie doesn't want to see that copied here even though he's an investor in alibaba. >> what do we know about his

diet it's working there's people at 70 like i need prevgen, i need prevgen, and he does not apparently. does he eat bacon? does he embibe >> he does i don't know if he does recently i know in the past he has. >> he eats peanut brittle. >> yeah, i've seen him eat regular breakfast. i can ask and find out, but, yeah -- look, he didn't know what questions were coming he would pause for about a second and a half, think it through and then he'd have a pretty thoughtful answer on everything that came out >> a logical answer at 98. >> i want to hear you when your last filter drops out. when you're 98 i'd like to hear what you come up with then >> with no filter? okay >> is there a filter now >> that's the point.

>> i should ask and you're not 98 okay coming up much more on the markets. jason trennert is going to join us we are in the red this morning as new concerns emerge about the tensions between russia and ukraine. we're going to talk to jim cramer, get his first take on the trading day ahead. and a programming note don't miss cisco ceo chuck robins next hour and talk about his company's top and bottom line beats that stock moving higher stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc dad, we got this. we got this. we got this.

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futures have deteriorated. let's get down to the new york stock exchange, and cramer joins us now we were held hostage a little bit, but the other day even with that ppi number, it was so hot when we thought ukraine was easing, the market kind of ignored the ppi number so it does look like ukraine is important. but in the past how many times have we seen this where it seems like it's always a buying opportunity. you know how initially the market goes down and usually it shakes it off even if there is a worst-case scenario in ukraine would that happen again? >> i think so. i think it's possible for people to say that it could be a fait accompli, but maybe the president of ukraine could call putin and say, listen, i pledge not to go to nato, our country is not going to join nato if you

withdraw your troops and i don't understand why he doesn't do that. why isn't there some negotiation between the people who run ukraine and putin as opposed to being just biden i mean, there's a deal to be made you just have to declare you're not going to go to nato. this there something >> i thought it was right. i thought nvidia's call was as great as it gets it got unbelievable demand for every single line. they have great auto coming. the gaming is unherald they tom -- dominated the center i wanted to say do you know what

wang is up to? he has a march conference laid out where companies like pfizer and disney are talking about how important the work they do is. so, yeah, i think nvidia is down because it's a high multiple stock that just doesn't matter sisco, mby the way, it was an amazing quarter. it dropped to 55 when we heard bad things about ukraine there's opportunities here, joe. you and i both know it we have to keep track of the companies doing well versus the companies doing poorly it's easily figured. i've got tell you that ukraine is making people sell sisco. i don't buy that not one bit. >> all right, jim. thanks. >> thank you. >> we'll see you in a couple of minutes. the new cnbc investing club. sign up and find out more at cnbc.com/joiheubr int ntcl opo

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over a half hour until the opening bell on wall street. investors have been digesting the fed minutes and there's the

geopolitical front this morning firing shells across a cease-fire line. joining house for the market impacts is jason trennert. jason, the futures for the dow down by about 220 points on the headlines. which can give you whip saw reactions to some of these things how do you handle this as an investor >> well, listen, i think that, becky, i think in december we talked about omicron and the fed and at the time, i said the fed would be more than omicron i would say fed and the inflation worry me more about the situation in russia and ukraine. it's not to diminish it. in my opinion, what is happening in the markets generally over the last couple of weeks or since the start of the year, there's a general since that the bearish free money is over that changes everything. it seems to me the conflict between russia and

ukraine. i knew nothing about it. it seemed safe to say it would be a bad development for a consumer for oil prices. i also think there are other issues that are keeping oil prices higher longer ultimately my view is that you want to be careful you want to gravitate toward quality in this environment for a long time. i think us snapping back to the types of markets we've had over the last couple of years is unlikely. >> let's focus on the fed angle. the inflation and fed. free money is over and i don't think anybody would argue that we have not seen extreme reactions in the market. sure, you have treasury yields higher significantly higher than 10 year above 2% for the first time you're talking about the major averages not that far off from the all-time highs, in most cases. >> that's all fair i think one thing sometimes not

preeshlgted even though the futures markets are factoring in fed tightening, the fed is still buying securities. the fed is easing. the size of the balance sheet is increasing and so i don't think any of us know what the real risk-free rate is. we won't know until the fed steps away from the table. it might not be until april. it won't be after the fed starts increasing rates and so me that's the biggest risk in the market is i think most people are somewhat bearish on bonds if you press them, they'll say, well, you know, maybe rates can go to 2.25 or 2.5. my view if cpi is 7.5, the risk is that 10-year treasury yields go to 2.5. the risk they go to 3 or 3.5 or something that changes the mixture and, again, we won't know that until the fed steps out of the picture. >> yeah. the 10-year is trading above 2%.

it's not i should point out it's 1.79%. pointing out with the headlines today there's flight to safety and that is creating lower yields for the treasury market all of these headlines coming out on russia and ukraine. in terms of what happens with the inflation picture, what do you do differently as an investor, jason? if you worried about inflation and it's not to be you would think the stock market is the best place for the money you won't get anything in a savings account, at this point at least bonds are not a favorite place for a lot of people. you don't want to keep cash if inflation is eating away at your spending your spending ability with that cash every day. >> yeah. amen i think that's why i think, though, that's why people started talking about we started talking about equities and almost bond-like terms terms of duration to say there are certain companies that are trading that have no dividends that aren't repurchasing stock that are trading at 10 times sales.

those are almost -- those are basically like 0 coupon bonds. you want to stay away from companies like that. so you enormous reinvestment risk all the benefits come in terminal value of the company and so long way of saying higher interest rates hit the companies between the eyes. >> sure. >> other companies i would say financials, energy, basic materials to maybe certain extent industrials some consumer staples they're going benefit, it seems to me, from higher inflation. the multiples may be lower but it'll be a good way to get some of your inflation back. >> quickly, what do you do with tech stocks? they may not be dividend buying stocks but they are buying back lots of shares, at least a lot of big companies >>well, the shareholder yield, i think, is really important there. it's not just dividends. it's an ability to buy back companies. so very high quality tech companies are clearly going to

be, i think, still a good place to be. it's there's a lot of other types of companies that, again, are trading at big multiple of sales where there's very little chance of you getting your money back in the short term. >> jason, thank you very much. we'll see you soon. >> thank you we thank you for being with us today. we'll see you tomorrow time for "squawk on the street." good thursday morning. welcome to squa"squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer david faber is on assignment we have decent results from walmart and sisco and door dash. road map begins with walmart shaking off the inflationary head winds and posting stronger sales on the