maxar, through its satellite imagery for russia and ukraine and the going-ons there. all major averages are lower flt tha "tech check" starts now. ♪ good tuesday morning welcome to tech check. i'm carl qukwquintanilla with jn fortt. dee dierdre is off today one guest says it is time to buy back in on some software and cloud. finally, so much for a safe haven. another volatile session for crypto amid all of these geopolitical tensions. that's where we are going to begin. we go live to wachshington for e

situation in ukraine >> the white house is facing pressure to block the in order steam 2 pipeline from moving forward as world leaders toughen their stance german chancellor olaf scholz will pull the pipeline after months assessing the move. it's in light of russia's deployment of troops into the donbas region of ukraine jen psaki says the u.s. has been in close conversation with germany, and it welcomed the announcement she also said the u.s. would take action on nord stream if russia were to invade ukraine. two sources are now telling nbc that is how the biden administration is characterizing the situation now, as an invasion the white house is preparing to announce additional measures targeting russia today, but it remains unclear what the scope of the action will be. so far, it has stopped short of the full-fledged package of devastating sanctions that biden has threatened against russia.

on capitol hill, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are urging the white house to move quickly and incoordination with our allies already, we know the european union is working on a packet of sanctions including limiting russia's access to capital and financial markets. and the uk sanctioned five russian banks and three billionaires guys, we will learn more about what the u.s. is planning this afternoon. secretary of state antony blinken will be meeting with ukraine's finance minister here in washington. of course, president biden will address the nation at 2:00 p.m back to you. >> yes, clearly a serious and unfolding situation. my impression is that this has been perhaps more than people were expecting, a gradual invasion and gradual sanctions it's not as if all of a sudden, russia has invaded and the full sanctions are on but it could end up there. is that how it is being talked about in washington? >> yeah, absolutely. the administration was very clear that the moves it announced yesterday in order to prohibit trade, finance, and

investment within those two breakaway regions, within the b donbas, that was related specifically to that move in russia russia's recognition of those two areas. however, it looks like the administration is going to be moving to add some additional measures to that b, because we' hearing rhetoric from leaders across the world now, the u.s. has to facethe question, which is, how much of that full-fledged package of sanctions does it roll out now, and how much does it sort of leave in its pocket in case we see the worse next to come >> even the term breakaway given scrutinized, given the covert operations of the past few years. appreciate that. how should we think about this relative to stocks, specifically when it comes to tech our next guest thinks valuations in the sector reset to levels worth looking at joining us this morning, head of global technology, cole bader. welcome back good to have you to start with, we're removed from fundamentals.

how are we approaching it given the distractions >> thank you, carl, jon, for having me on today let me start by saying valuations have come down, no question we're facing headwinds geopolitical instability is not good for valuations, especially for stock. we're coming off a tremendous year in m and a, tech, raising capital. over $5 trillion in m&a last year over $1 trillion in tech itself and private firms. i think the positive trends have come down, but i see stability as long as we don't have geopolitical war, tremendous negatives coming against us. through there are a bunch of positives happening in tech. adoption rates amongst consumers and businesses are nowhere but up we're seeing that the private

equity firms raised an unprecedented amount of capital. they're going to continue buying public and private companies as a result, i see a floor happening in the public markets. >> interesting you don't believe, for example, that higher borrowing costs or, as you say, inflationary worries or geopolitical worries suppress consumer adoption, suppress corporate confidence the secular growth stories don't get interrupted at all >> listen, those are definitely headwinds. we have already seen the valuations have been hit it over the course of the last three months in technology the secular trends are going to continue adoption rates by consumers, whether in auto tech, consumer tech, bank tech, insurance tech, everywhere is going nowhere but up while i see short-term impact on valuations and potentially the m&a markets, over the long term, i see the trends will prevail. >> cole, you said as long as we don't have war what is your bar for war it looks like we have it the extent to which the u.s. is

involved, the extent of the sanctions that are involved and what the ripple effects of those might be is unknown. to me anyway, it looks like the base case is we have some geoplg geopolitical conflict between significant powers. >> no question listen, i'm not a geopolitical expert by any means of the imagination, but the impact on tech, i do believe,is going to be short term. i do believe it is going to be more focused on the uncertainty of what's happening opposed to the certainty of something happening. my personal bias is we're going to see sanctions as the response i don't know that for sure, obviously. if it's sanctions, they'll be coming back into the market. over the course of the next several months and next couple years, people will focus again on the fundamentals of the tech companies opposed to the shor term, gee opolitical impact. >> this list includes meta,

salesforce, paypal, is that a decent screen to start >> listen, i'm aen ban banker, a research analyst, so i avoid talking about specific stocks. but i'm much more focus on the mid-cap and small-cap arena. those companies in particular have been hit relatively hard over the last couple of months those are companies i believe have tremendous capabilities going forward to generate earnings and generate growth, particularly on the revenue side and i do think the current crop of companies that have gone public over the last 18 months are incredibly strong. these are companies that have shown fundamental growth, good customers, good technology, and as a result, i do believe that subsector in particular is going to show well over the course of the next 12 to 18 months. >> when you say they will show well, what particular metrics do you see they're going to be measured by? because if investors get a bit more cautious and perhaps aren't paying as much attention to the top line as they judge health,

what do you expect they'll judge these guys on? >> well, historically, tech has always been focused on growth. sometimes at the expense of profits. i do think we're going to continue to see the secular growth amongst the tech companies. they already faced these headwinds. labor shortages, of supply chain issues, and they're overcoming them i do think, as a result, we're going to see continued top line growth a number of the quality tech companies, particularly small and mid-cap, are going to show an increased profitability, those who have been unprofitable historically going forward will show profitability as a result, investors are going to recognize the strength, the fundamental strength of a lot of these small and mid-cap companies. >> one of the debates is, to the degree we focus on that part of the spectspectrum, is m&a and hw companies build operations to take advantage of these secular growth stories versus buy them

out right using cash or stock. what's your view on that >> if you look at what happens happened in m&a the last several years, yes, there's been activity amongst the large-cap players. obviously, amazons and googles and metas of the world but a lot of the activity has been amongst the smaller players. what's happening is the capital formation that has occurred, the capital that's been dispersed, private companies to small public companies who have found a technological edge, who have found the right ip, who found a way into a consumer or a customer that the larger cap players have been unable to do so, and they've got to play catchup. either they spend the billions of dollars necessary to do that catchup or they get in and make an acquisition and do it quickly. so as a result, we're seeing a lot of these small cap, both private as well as public players, getting snapped up by the larger players the consolidation that's occurred is tremendous in the mid market i think larger players have realized that they're falling behind sometimes when it comes to the technology play, and as a

result, they've got to byeuy quickly to catch up. the build can take two, three, four years, and you'll behind the curve when it comes to the smaller players. >> something to watch on mondays. kind of like today, cole really appreciate it it's a difficult road map right now, but we're working on it with your help thank you very much. >> great thanks for having me on. we mentioned crypto earlier. whatever happened to the narrative about it being a safe haven in inflation and geopolitical uncertainty kate rooney has more on a volatile session this morning. >> hey, jon. the bold case for bitcoin not playing out lately dropping below a key psychological level, $40,000, over the weekend the big drivers, it's similar to what is happening tech stocks. risks associated with fed rate hikes expected in march. and fears about the conflicts in ukraine. bitcoin, like you said, not showing itself as an inflation hedge or any sort of uncorrelated safe haven in the

face of all that uncertainty as crypto prices slide, analysts tell me the probability of a sustained bear market is going up glassnote analysts point out a few bearish signs for crypto markets. one, lack of overall network activity they call this on-chain activity think of it as money moving in and out of accounts. this week, activity has been, quote, languishing, which they say is not a great sign of demand for bitcoin there's more retail investors underwater according to glassnode, roughly 29% of all the supply out there is holding bitcoin at a loss it is even higher for what they call short-term holders. that's basically investors that bought bitcoin in the past five months or so for that group, more than 54% are now underwater not part of the market is also statistically more likely to sell bitcoin finally, glassnode points to an uptick of zero balance addresses. meaning over the past month or so, more wallets have been

completely sold off and gone to zero investor sentiment taking a hit. the bitcoin fear and greed index is now back at extreme fear levels that's a 20 out of 100 compared to 46 just last week analysts compare this downturn to some previous bear markets, which we've seen before in crypto they say there's at least one bright spot. investors are more likely to hold on to their bitcoin and use derivatives to hedge rather than selling their holdings all together guys >> thank you, kate. we'll see what happens, if they need the money tied up in bitcoin. spcheck out sofi. it is roughly equivalent to 10% of the market value, looking to buy technisys. shares are down about 7% "tech ec wl rhtacchk"ilbeig bk.

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cyber names, cutting price targets for crowd strike, cloud fair, and zscaler due to multimu multiple compression the companies continue to face pricing difficulties and some shifting demand. some argue, jon, that demand could increase if this all continues. >> indeed, carl. speaking of sentiments, eyes are on stock in light of the conflict surrounding russia and ukraine. bearish bets are surging the "journal" reporting short-sellers are adding to their positions against the s&p at the fastest rate in nearly a year here to discuss, the "wall street journal"'s gungen we've been hearing about it, and kate rooney was talking about positioning in crypto, what's happening with the big tech stocks >> when you look at the broader market, you can see the caution out there, right, with the

volatility we've seen throughout the year when you look at, you know, certain pockets of the market, whether it is short interest or options activity, it seems even more bearish people have taken an even more cautious stance and really slammed the brakes on a lot of the trades that flourished over the past year. they're turning to bearish put options on major indexes and high-yield bonds, rather than the bullish bets on individual stocks that we saw for a lot of the past year. >> gunjan, what does this mean months ago, you were telling us we were in for more volatility than usual because of the way people were using options, you know, the way some retail traders were leveraged so given that now there are these bets against the s&p, more short positions there, what does it mean for volatility overall >> traders i've been speaking to

this year have pointed to options activity, at times, as a source of the volatility we've seen in major indexes, in some of these intra-day reversals i think the overarching factor behind the volatility we've seen this year in individual stocks, particularly some of the growth names, has been monetary policy and the growth outlook for some of the stocks, whether it is facebook or netflix or roku. what we're seeing is that index options have kind of been surpassing some of the single stock options on meme stocks and tech stocks that we saw last year. >> gunjan, i feels like what is keeping a lot of strategists from expressing more confidence is we haven't had what they'd argue is capitulation. there hasn't been the flush out. why do you think that is, and how do flows sort of explain what's happening to that mindset? >> there's some mixed signals out there. i think one thing that is really

important to keep in mind is that the ten-year, despite all the talk of changing monetary policy this year, is still around 2%. that has, you know, led people to say, hey, there is no alternatives to stocks is still a i alive. there's been an exodus from bond funds and growth funds, and a lot of the money that hhas gone stocks and value stocks, in particular that's helped the market of course, some traders i was talking to about this bearish options activity and the shortages have said, hey, that's actually a sign that maybe things have gotten pessimistic we think these huge reversals might be a buying opportunity when people are getting so bearish. >> yeah. i wonder, what are you hearing about that idea of the tina trade? i get it, given what's happened to bonds when you see what's happened to a lot of stocks and the punishment they've taken, i understand you don't want to

hold cash long term, but the value of my dollar is not eroding as fast as the value of the growth stocks. maybe there is an alternative after all. >> the fang trade has crumbled look at stocks like roku, facebook, they're down a ton what i'm hearing is people are getting more selective you've seen money leave the growth funds, and it's gone into value stocks which have out performed this year. i think when it comes to the trade, people are getting choosier about which corners of the market they might be going into. >> are you hearing about what people expect to happen next, just in terms of what the next signal might be for where things are headed i understand there's more bearish positioning, but whether it is geopolitical or whether it's maybe even just domestic political, given midterms coming up, what are traders looking out

for? >> you know, i've been hearing from traders that that's short-term noise i think what remains front and center is monetary policy. yes, the threat of war in europe has stoked volatility in recent days, but i think the overarching factors remain inflation and monetary policy. just think how quickly we went from, you know, zero to three interest rate hikes this year to maybe seven, and talk and chatter of intermediating hikes. things have changed on the monetary policy front quickly, and traders said that's what we are focused on, rather than some of the geopoli polpolitical con >> meantime, there's been a lot of work, specifically at morgan stanley, about looking for past analogs that would sort of explain where s&p is headed next 2018 continues to come up. which implies a little more pain in march there's been some surprise at just how well these analogs are

fitting right now. i wonder if that's taken some traders by surprise. >> that's right. i had been hearing a bit about 2018, as well. i think what some of this recent positioning tells you is that people think there's more pain in store i think that's what the options market has been telling you. that's what these ramped up short bets are telling you i think investors are positioning for more volatility in the bond and the stock markets. >> all right great perspective, as always gunjan, thank you. >> thank you meantime, markets are obviously moving amid the ukraine crisis we are approaching not quite back to session lows here. dow is down 300. "tech check" is back in a few nus.

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coming up, stocks are retesting the january lows is this the bottom, or could there be new major risks on the

horizon? our next guest says cloud names hit the floor. that's next on "tech check." ♪

welcome back i'm jon fortt with carl

quintanilla. averages were briefly in the green today but fell quickly toward the lows of the session, where we still are the nasdaq and the dow both down almost a percent s&p down over a little more than a half percent airbnb, tesla, netflix are lagging. maybe we'll get a check on what's happening live on the ground in ukraine, and the then the possible impact for the market first, let's get a news update from rahel solomon. >> at this hour, as mentioned, stocks are down on the day major indexes are still well above the overnight lows, even after president putin asked lawmakers to use force outside of russia. oil and natural gas prices are well-off their earlier highs shares of home depot extending their losses despite quarterly results that mostly passed estimates sales were up strongly, but

gross margins fell as labor and transportation costs increased home depot is by far the biggest loser in the dow right now macy's up nearly 10% before pulling back it surpassed estimates with help from surging online sales. the retailer gave strong earnings and revenue guidance for this year. and consumer confidence is down for a second month in a row, but the drop was smaller than expected. fewer consumers are planning big purchases over the next six months, including major appliances, cars, and homes. carl, i guess you need to find a home to buy a home part of the problem there. i'll send it back to you. >> we definitely need to build more that's for sure. rahel, thanks. rahel solomon. back to the story out of ukraine. the white house calling russia's actions the beginning of a, quote, invasion, as troops move into the country erin mclaughlin is in kyiv with the latest as quickly as we keep coming back to you, erin, more he headlines keep hitting the table. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, carl i'm hearing from my colleague in

moscow that president putin has asked the upper house of russia's legislature for authorization to deploy the russian military abroad, and perhaps unsurprisingly, this was approved no details on what this could mean it could be a formality, or it could signal yet another escalation in this crisis with all eyes being on the line of contact there in donbas, to see if russian troops, when they get there, will cross the line of contact into a government-controlled territory which would essentially be a further act of war in the meantime, ukrainians here in kyiv calling for sanctions, calling on the west to take ac action because they know, according to experts i've been talking to here, the way in which president putin makes decisions, he tries something, tests it out, sees

what the response is before calibrating his next move. the coming hours are going to be critical we've already seen sanctions announce bid by the german chancellor east he's canceled the nord stream 2 project. sanctions from the united kingdom and europe we're expecting sanctions from the u.s. later today all this in kyiv is critical in determining what happens next in this crisis. carl >> erin, some headlines just now that putin says the minsk peace deep deal concerning those regions of eastern ukraine was killed off long before their decision to recognize those regions. in his words, they were killed off by ukrainian authorities how authority is that, as he tries to dismantle some of these accords that were meant to stabilize the region >> reporter: well, certainly, it's not a good sign there's a point of rare agreement that his actions last night essentially killing the minsk agreement in the eyes of people here in kyiv as well as

western officials, which was really seen as the main diplomatic channel to resolving this crisis. although, there were serious problems with those agreements different interpretations on both sides, essentially seen here in kyiv as a back door, a way for president putin to control the constitution here and control a political move such as nato membership, going forward. by declaring to minsk and donetsk its independence he's removed the offramp, which signals to many here in kyiv that the situation is potentially barrelling toward war. carl >> erin, thank you so much for those important updates. meanwhile, these tensions raising flags on the global supply chain, already exacerbated by the pandemic. could these issues get worse for some key commodities frank holland is with us to break that down. frank? >> hey, jon. aluminum and nickel hitting

multi-year highis. platinum and palladium also surging. they're crucial to the tech and manufacturing supply chain in the u.s. from car parts all the way down to your iphone, those commodities are also sensitive to the increasingly volatile situation on the russian-ukraine border the russians produce 6% of the world's aluminum 7% of the world's nickel 2021, russian imports to here in the u.s. increased 33% from 2019 levels there are also more than 1,100 american companies with direct supplier relationships with russian firms. we'd see a majorimpact if this conflict gets worse. oil, agriculture, and especially tech and manufacturing would see major supply chain disruptions according to interos oil prices are being watched by companies in the u.s according to the dat freight ana analytics, the prices are surging. also, the conflict could disrupt

rail shipping from china to the middle east that goes through russia, moving more freight to ocean, container shipping, and moving container prices even higher there are already up 131% near over year. carl, that's the latest. back to you. >> appreciate that >> frank -- >> jon, go ahead. >> yeah. i wonder to what degree this worsens the already tight supply chain situation, or maybe if you have any sense, because so many companies have had to rethink the supply chain, have they factored this in and perhaps figured out workarounds? >> i spoke to the ceo of interos. in the short term, she says companies are going to work around and try tofigure out what they can do with the commodities they have with palladium or platinum, but we may see less consumer goods or other items on the shelves we believes it may also slow down the auto supply chain even more it's already reeling from a chip shortage a lot of the automakers are starting to make their own chips. long term, she says major manufacturers are going to start

looking for alternatives if they exist, or at least alternative sourcing nations and sourcing regions. >> frank, appreciate that. frank holland keeping an eye on an important wrinkle in this evolving story. the igb dipping into the red, down more than 20%. our next guest says he believes there is a valuation floor where stocks become attractive to private equity buyers. managing partner jeff richards is with us thanks for the time today. great to see you. >> morning. >> one of the more constructive things you're pointing out is that the market is being di discdis discerning, and sort of unlike prior periods, you do think there is a valuation where the buyers are waiting when it gets there, they'll be ready. >> as we talked about, throughout january, we saw a pullback in hybrid tech. the one thing that's perhaps different, quote, unquote, this time is if you go back a decade or two decades ago when we had the dot com crash, you didn't

have a floor kkr, a bunch of international players today will step in and actually want to buy these companies if they trade below some nominal value we saw news come out of an offer for zendesk, a terrific company. we think there may be a floor. you're seeing great names, companies like ring central, jfrog, even zoom and ring central, trading below ten times next year's sales, with high growth numbers north of 30%. i think a lot of folks who follow these companies aggressively are looking at maybe january and early february as a time to be picking these up as long as you have a long-term time horizon every time i come on, i mention that >> yeah. i was going to say, is price alone enough to pull the trigger, given sort of the unanswered questions we have regarding the backdrop of monetary, fiscal, geopolitical policies around the world >> you have a lot of folks that are smarter on those topics than i am i think what we continue to see

is really strong growth. if you look at amazon, aws a year or two year s agrs was grot 30%. last quarter, 40%. it's a $70 billion run rate of revenue. incredible business. if it was independent, probably worth over $1 trillion on its own. so as long as we continue to see microsoft, google, amazon reporting strong cloud growth, that should bode well for the rest of the sector another category we highlight is fintech. as the world shift currency, crypto is interesting, but digital payments, square, i continue to be really bullish on those over the long run. >> jeff, what about the possibility, though, that as stock prices come down, that has a demand effect on top of the sort of demand-sacking effect that rising interest rates are supposed to have when they're

meant to curtail inflation might that change the calculus somewhat yes, we can talk about how quickly the hypererscalers are growing at the top line, but part of that is customers are spending at a certain rate, which might be because, right, of the valuations we've seen in the past >> yeah. it's a great point, jon. i think, you know, one of the things that's hard to get your head around, if we go back to 2000 -- and i was in silicon valley '99 and 2000 -- the majority of companies buying technology were other technology companies. what's different today, you know, 2022, '23, going forward, is every single industry is shifting to the cloud, right you've got health care, automotive, government, you know, shifting their infrastructure to the cloud. there was a study a month or two ago, saying only 12% of international bank spend is in the cloud. we're still in the early days of the shift. i agree with you, we could see short-term pressure with interest rates going up, perhaps makes it harder for corporations to borrow and use capital they

might spend on capex man, i don't see a scenario where we w go back to on-premis software cybersecurity is more important. the fintech category, heavily indexed to small business, which arguably has been depressed during covid i'm on the board of a private company called homebase. we saw 31% of small businesses had fewer worker hours between december and january we've now seen that go up 6% between mid-january to mid-february so i'm bullish on small business that should benefit companies like toast, square, ring central. that's a category i think maybe is underrated. >> i hear what you're saying, jeff also, i mean, we didn't go back to pre-internet, even though we did have the dot com bust, too even though we're not going back, and i was in the valley at the same time, too. >> yeah, yeah. >> newly minted valley resident. i wonder, though, where does that equilibrium set in? sometimes it sets in way lower

than people think would be reasonable. >> well, look at the pressure on a company like zoom. zoom obviously benefitted from the pandemic people shifted to work from home went to video. as we talk about distributed work forces s arnold s around ts that a trend people will pull back i don't think so i don't think people will go back to the office and hire people in the home city. zoom today is trading below eight times forward sales. so, you know, i just think we're in a mode where people are nervous and scared, obviously. as you mentioned, rate increases and geopolitics. in the long run, how can you not be bullish on these categories again, you have to be an investor, not a trader, to ride these out. the short-term fluctuations are br brutal upstart went down 75% and swing back up 35% when they reported strong numbers it's not for the faint of heart. >> yeah. on that point, i was looking at a bulletin this morning, the

staff at the "wall street journal," jeff, was told the company will not be mandating any broad office return. instead, team leaders will figure out what the hybrid and flexible work arrangements will be for their group that's a remarkable turn for a period where a lot of employers are setting a date, suggested to come back. does that -- i mean, i'm struck by that, what it means for zoom. what teledocs replacement means for office visit at the hospitals and doctors and so forth. >> well, you know, as you highlight, carl, i'm the ceo, on the board of a company, and he said, we don't have a return to office because we don't have an office they've shifted their model. by the way, one of the other winners in this category is airbnb a lot of companies are shifting spend they were previously using for corporate office space to using on airbnbs and doing offsites and things like that. there's a bunch of unknowns. not to mention, we dumped, $3.5 trillion to $5 trillion into the stimulus of the economy the last

few years. we don't know how it plays out the next few years, but if you've got the stomach to withstand some of the volatility wer we're seeing now, myself and other folks who see the long-term trends are pretty bullish on the names we've mentioned here we haven't even talked about the cloud infrastructure space with g getlab and snowflake these companies, when spend goes up, they win it isn't like they're going out and having to renew the contracts or sell -- they are selling new customers, but their net dollar retention every year is so strong i'm certainly encouraging folks i know to wade in if they can handle the volatility. >> interesting we appreciate the advice certainly, some of the hard data, jeff, you always bring very grateful. see ya next time meantime, chinese tech tencent falling amid speculation of further regulation from beijing. a company spokesman denies reports. hang seng is down 2% on the

heels of the mooufves out of ukraine. "tech check" will be right back.

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slashes target from 41 to 19 wells is still bullish on the gaming sector. argues the downgrade is specific com to company some of the numbers regarding gaming at large, jon, they've been surprisingly strong, especially in new york state it is expensive to be in that business. >> this is exactly the stock and situation, carl, that investors, it's gut wrenching, right? a lot of what is in draft kings' report is encouraging, you know. analysts saying, hey, it's a beat of our expectations and guidance for q4. yet, you have people slashing their price targets basically in half that's what a valuation will get you, i suppose. the street throwing datadog a bone goldman adding the cloud monitoring company to the conviction buy list. the stock was up earlier, now

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our next guest believes diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in large employers are welcome and great, but the reality is it's going to take a long time for those efforts to move the needle. he is the ceo of community development financial institution lendistry that

provides for business owners and underserved communities. everett sands. good to see you. tell me what's happening as we prepare for a probable rise in interest rates and small businesses have been dealing with so much uncertainty not only with covid, but just what the economic environment is going to be. >> thanks for the opportunity to be here. i think when we take a look at small businesses and we take a look at inflation, covid and obviously possible interest in terms of ukraine we have to think about where the businesses are coming from so low access to capital personal networks generally don't have a lot of net worth and less inherited wealth, typically brings those businesses in into a financially precarious position as they get things started and it will be providing access to capital, but i think there's somewhat of a long way to go i think there's a way where some

of the viewers and large corporations can start to help out. what is that >> so great question we've been looking at this as kind of the great resignation. there's another side to this coin, and i would call it the great business formation if we look at the numbers in 2020, 4.4 million businesses were started and that's coincidentally 25% higher than 202019 we broke a record in 2020 and in 2021, 5.4 million businesses started. roughly, we have 10 million new businesses that were started i saw something recently that 20% of 2020 businesses were created by black women if you add black men and other m minorities into that, there are businesses started by minorities and if we think about opportunities for large corporations, in the past as you mentioned the dei strategy or the supplier diversity strategy was this nice thing to have or

great tactic, i think it feneed to be a strategic positioning that needs to be at the forefront of your mind. >> it's one thing to start a business and so many fail within the so many years and a big capital is a big part of the reason, even if it's a great idea businesses need to be able to survive survive shocks, right? and we're probably trying to head into an environment of those shocks and that's why lendistry's work, and what can be done in the near-term to keep some of those businesses afloat that are about to go through a rough time >> so i think the large enterprises can look at their hr strategies that will focus mental health and work from home and the procurement side of the house which should be getting an influx of different vendors because more businesses are being started. if they leverage that, they can create a unique strategy and we

have the employeed size and to answer your question, revenue is part of the cure-all, right? where lendistry fits into that, we can provide other organizations like lendistry and you have it mixed with the ability to generate revenue. large businesses win because they don't have the hr resignation, and small businesses went long term. these small businesses are different than some in the past. they've got the skill set, and they've got the wherewithal, they've made a decision for personal, et cetera, that they'll create their business and do this different. >> okay. a bit of a specific playbook, everett sands, ceo of lendistry, thank you. >> that was interesting. in honor of black history month, we are asking our cnbc contributors to reflect on moments that shape them and

here's david henderson sharing a memorable moment with his father. >> my dad grew up in birmingham, alabama, during the civil rights era and i asked him, did you ever get to hear mlk speak he said i got to shake his hand. what was the second yours was. no one in the family got to climb that high. that was my mountaintop. my advice to future leaders is know where you come from so you can h can help the next generation understand where we need to go

one more thing coinbase facing a bit of controversy after the success of the super bowl ad. ceo brian armstrong posted a series of tweets all about how the company created the ad themselves without the need of an agency which only came up with, quote, a bunch of standard ideas. only one problem, the ceo of the martin agency noticed and pointed out that they had, in fact, pinched the qr content to coinbase and replying several agencies had pitched the concept to the company, but they

ultimately went with a different agency, accenture interactive. he felt like we were all one team and i didn't realize that outside teams developed the concept. maybe coinbase needs to create some kind of ledger. they did have to throttle some traffic. too many people tried to figure out what that was. >> they did. that's a good problem to have. i remember a few months and years back armstrong said they would have their own news operation about crypto because of the incomplete and inaccurate narratives about crypto. so it seems like he has his own incomplete and inaccurate narrative about ad agencies here not only would an ad agency have come up with an idea, apparently several came up with the idea and coinbase can't keep up with which one they ended up working with >> remarkable. overall, john, a bit of a tough take

i think tesla is interesting today trading in the low 800s and only the second time since august or so and overall we're revisiting early session lows. s&p 43.20 is awfully close to the lowest close of the year at 43.09. let's get to sully and the half. >> carl and john, thank you very much, and welcome to "the halftime report," everybody. i am brian sullivan in for scott today. front and center this hour, what else the crisis in russia and ukraine escalating and creating another volatile day for stocks and your money. we are debating the road ahead with your awesome investment committee. joining me for the entire hour, stephanie link, joe lebenthal, joe teranova and josh brown. oil is up and the communications services sector leading the s&p 500. yes, a lot of red on the screen and the nasdaq down moreha