on shares of citi. we've had investor day tomorrow. oil has to be a continuing story today, as well you saw wti up as much as 9% that'll do it for us on "squawk on the street. let's go to "tech check" which starts now ♪ good tuesday morning welcome to "tech check." i'm carl quintanilla with jon fortt and deirdre bosa first day of march, russia bears down on the capital of ukraine then some gloom. stocks 70% off the highs an analyst defends his buy rating this hour. crypto gets more controversial.

the debate on whether to be bullish or bearish on bitcoin, jon. we begin this morning with volatility the bounce we're seeing in growth stocks, to some extent, though mike santoli joins us now. >> primed for a bounce in the hard-hit areas you had the more than 20% pullback in the nasdaq 100 i think it was the average pullback in nasdaq composite stocks reached 40% clearly a lot of damage done let's take a look at how sits up in the broader context to your chart of the naz sdaq 10 it shows the lows of last week, basically went back to the beginning of 2021. remember that late january or early february of last year, that was really when you saw the peak exuberance, cloud stocks, all the rest of it it tends not to look like much you're looking at this down trend line that needs to be broken even a very short-term technical indicator like the 20-day average is above it's around 351 right now.

there's plenty left to be done in terms of proving this is more than a bounce. take a look at the cloud stocks, an exaggerated version of what we've seen in the nasdaq 100 you see the deeper downturn. that's what, you know, a bounce off the lows looks like right there. in terms of a valuation adjustment, some of the things that have gone on, yields lower and real yields more negative because inflation expectations and inflation itself have not declined as yields have. that's one cover story for why you might get a little bit of rerotation into the growth sector and away from value and cyclicals. a lot still left to be proved, folks. >> mike, i was wondering if you make anything of the way that zoom reacted after hours and is this morning it seems to me like, back in january, if you had had guidance like zoom presented, it would have been down double digits it's down more than 5% this morning. i think lows of the session. it kind of is falling now. it seemed, perhaps, notable to

me that a stock like that wasn't falling more does that represent, perhaps, the idea, at least, that there might not be that much farther to fall for some of these stocks that have been so punished lately >> i do think it is a hint in that direction, jon. i mean, zoom, you know, itself down something like 70% off its highs. clearly got somewhat washed out. interestingly, too, if you just look at the fundamentals for zoom, it is no longer one of these kind of, well, a ton has to go right for this to become a good business. it's a good business it is 30 times forward earnings. it is not crazy expensive anymore. however, we're talking about no growth there earnings this year. it is in a little bit of an in between spot the growth investors lose interest value folks say it is still too expensive. that doesn't mean it is out of the realm of the way stocks normally are valued. that's a difference from what we were looking at 12 months ago. >> mike, appreciate it a lot to get to in the coming days as the week rolls on mike santoli for more on how we might be restructuring our portfolios

amid geopolitical tensions and how tech factors in, lo joins us. >> good morning. thanks for having me. >> it's been said some of the action in legacy tech is one of the more constructive things going on right now whether it is how it changes the fed's calculus or just valuations, as mike was saying i wonder, i mean, how much would you put that in the win column for the moment >> i would i think there's just so much that we have moving right now. you know, we have a humanitarian crisis, unfortunately, happening in europe. we still have the concerns the market had prior to this unfort unfortunate event in europe. the headwinds of inflationary pressure, how the fed is going to react i don't know we've completely seen the data points that we need, and perhaps we'll see some of that from comments this week from chairman powell, but we still have a lot to digest from the market >> that's interesting. for the time being then, you

would argue you're net cautious? >> i would say there needs to be a little bit of caution exercised right now. in particular, i think what happened is, you know, obviously, a lot of these companies -- and i kind of call it as jon pointed out -- you know, we need to almost decouple these mega-techs, in particular. i think people started to just think about the drive towards growth, the search for yield, and lumped all these companies together without really looking at them fundamentals. now, it's increasingly important as we see looming on the horizon an increase in the interest rates, which we know puts pressure on growth stocks, in particular technology stocks the discounted cash flow method used to value them and the interest rates increasing, driving a higher cost of capital. we'll see multiple compression i do believe that once we have a little bit more of an indication, we'll get some clarity. but, look, the fed is going to try to maintain their

credibility, and we suspect that, you know, some investors haven't yet fully had that, you know -- come to that realization moment. >> lo, what does more clarity look like? what are you looking for to determine whether or not you sort of -- this idea, again, of legacy tech being more constructive has anything fundamentally changed here yes, the macro environment has, but do you think that ibm and some of the other legacy names are innovating on the same level as some of the newer companies like snowflake and others? >> yeah. look, they're forced to innovate because of what's happening in the changes in behavior and the new technologies, the new threats that present new opportunities. so these legacy tech companies are forced to go after them. you know, some of these legacy tech companies do have the ability to kind of think about it from a build versus buy perspective. look, i think there's just so many moving pieces right now companies need to maintain steadfast on their north star. >> do -- >> but still falkctor in the

geopolitical factors. >> for the long term, do you want to be invested in a company forced to innovate versus a company doing it on its own and looking ahead already? >> not for my portfolio. >> right. >> not for my portfolio at all we are mainly investors at the private stage. we like innovation the reality is these legacy tech companies, they have their moment they had their time in the sun often, they are not able to continue to compete, which requires rapid technical innovation so, you know, from a personal portfolio perspective and my personal belief is that the biggest drivers are coming from the innovation companies the companies that have their -- and this is where the challenge lies, right? when you think about the companies that are really going to drive innovation moving forward, right now, they're getting punished because they're seeing that the rise in interest rates puts a compression on their multiples.

so, you know, do we fundamentally believe that the smaller dpaen er companies are l going to out-compete and out-innovate legacy tech absolutely it's just that right now, with so much uncertainty in the market, we know that that is what's putting pressure on them. now, what does that mean it does present, you know, a buying opportunity i go back to some of these old adages don't try to catch a falling knife. i do believe caution needs to be exercised today until we are able to have more clarity. then i think what we'll see is the ability to drill down and understand which of these companies are really going to be positioned to drive future growth there's going to be some amazing buying opportunities. >> lo, that's my big question right now in this market environment that i keep trying to poke around and ask people for their perspective in different ways fed aside, right, given the tough quarterly comps that we're coming up on, and given the demand headwinds from the uncertainty in europe, that

former treasury secretary jack lew was talking about last hour, should we even assume that good stocks deserve to trade at the multiples where they are right now? i mean, not just is it justifiable, but is it likely that they continue to trade there if the comps are tough is and if they say, oh, well, we're seeing a bit of a slowdown in europe and, therefore, our growth rate is going to come down, you know, a percentage point or so. do they stay here? are you thinking about that? >> absolutely. jon, i mean, those are great insights we believe that when we see what's happening both in the go i don' geopolitical and the macros, there is a lot of headwinds. there's a lot to digest. is it the case that maybe the stocks are still a little bit -- i don't want to say they're overvalued, but could we see additional multiple compression? i think the answer is yes, in the near term. >> so what happens to private

companies? what happens to ipos in an environment where there are these types of questions being raised are you pushing as hard as you otherwise might for some of these companies that are even on the cusp of being ready to join the public market? >> yeah. look, i think the biggest driver for the ipo market is always what's happening in the stock market so, you know, when you see multiples being compressed and declines in stock market, the general indexes as well as the individual names, what ends up happening is, you know, the board, the investor, they start to rethink whether or not the right time is to enter the public market is today do i believe some of the best names will continue to be able to go public absolutely but i think the other names that are kind of on the edge, there's a lot of capital still available in the private markets, what we will likely see and kind of what's happening, the whispers behind the scenes is that some of the companies that may be as recently as six months ago thought they were going to file

are now turning back, raising additional capital in the private markets, just to wait things out and to see where the market runs, so that they can have additional clarity and see if we can get back to a more favorable window for ipos. >> finally, lo, we're all waiting to see how much the chinese are going to stick their neck out to maintain global stability. stability has long been their number one interest. i wonder if you think it removes a lot of the regulatory risk that has crushed china tech. do you think in the future, from here on out, they'll try to do as little as possible to make that situation worse, and does that make some of the names interesting? >> yeah. you know, china is going to be one country to watch for sure. you know, i think just given their increasing prevalence and really dominance in the global markets, it is going to be important. and i do think, you know, could they go a little more insular? yes, of course, that's always possible there's such a big, you know,

producer they're important from a demand and supply perspective i do think there's going to be interesting names to watch but there's so much pressure right now. i mean, when you think about what's happening with the ability for a lot of these chinese companies to get global exposure on the public markets, it's a lot tougher than it was. >> that's for sure a lot of cross currents, lo. such little visibility always good to start the hour with you thanks lo toney. >> thank you. meantime, tech chen companis with a presence in ukraine is working to get employees out of the country. there is a significant presence of tech workers there. >> absolutely. it's grown in recent years ukraine is a valuable and growing tech hub for tech talent the country has become well-known for engineers and computer scientists and companies have been drawn in by that and a tax-friendly environment. it's the fastest growing country in eastern europe when it comes to the tech workforce.

to give you a sense of this scale, like you mentioned, one in five fortune 500 companies use ukrainian i.t. services. you have microsoft, google, s samsung, oracle, ring, a division of amazon, and snap right now, they're moving to get employees out of the country or provide support. uber is offering some employees temporary relocation assistance. lyft, meanwhile, is providing its team in ukraine with financial support for emergency preparedness and time off. amazon just posting an update this morning they say they're expanding support to employees in poland, as well, and giving additional time off also working with ukrainian nationals to expedite immigration visas if someone has relocated. others are paying months' worth of salaries in advance a startup sent employees two months of paychecks in advance and doubled the frequency of payouts to developer a san francisco-based online

platform that connects people with experts for professional device, that company has a third of its workforce in ukraine. the ceo says they've been preparing for months >> brought in diesel generators in case the power goes down. before the war, we were expecting this war did hit, russia would try to take out power. we expected russia would take out communication systems. we have satellite phones and different methods of communication for our employees. and we started moving people from the east to the west, all those that wanted to move. >> supporting employees joining the military and trying to organize relocation of women and children abroad. >> it is a fascinating story it also works on the flip side, right? their community of tech expertise is actually helping in that -- in those war efforts we talked a little about this yesterday. the uses of social media for things like cyberattacks,

too, it is helpful to have that knowledge inside the country. >> absolutely. i spoke to the founder of near protocol yesterday it is a crypto company his friends in ukraine right now are using tech expertise, software know-how, to exactly what you mentioned, things like cybersecurity, mobilizing on social media they're staying in the country to fight but it might not be the hand-to-hand combat you think about. it is the cyber warfare and software. >> in a digital age. >> absolutely. >> kate, thank you very much. meanwhile, zoom, workday, hp target winners and losers after the break. plus, a watershed moment for crypto for "hek tech check" in a momen. stay with us (jane) we really expanded our family... for the wireless savings. then, my sister told me about visible. (sister) get unlimited data for as low as $25 a month. no family needed.

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two earnings movers. workday and hp guidance was good. h p hp seeing gains. workday inked all the gains. it was the second best performer on the nasdaq this morning, although still down double digits for the year, jon. let's talk another earnings mover. we mentioned it earlier, zoom. shares are lower this morning, down 3%. had been down more than 5% growth slows at the company. zoom beat on the top and bottom lines, but the pandemic stock is

now down 77% since its 2020 high is this an attractive entry point, or has zoom's 40-minutes of fame run out? senior research analyst will power joins us now has an outperform rating on the stock, though cut his price target to $180 from $190 this morning. will, welcome. $180/190 would put it what it was at the start of this year. it seems to me the question is, how much can zoom expand its enterprise presence as it rolls out these new services, and how loyal will its existing customers be in adopting those services is that how you see it >> yeah. jon, good morning. thanks for having me look, without question, it's been rough sledding for some time there's been a lot for investors to digest. the good news is, despite what we knee were tough cops, and that was manifested in the guidance, our bet here is that

estimates now have been sufficiently reset it went toward greener pastures ahead, i suppose, so to speak. i think really the bet, as you pointed out, is on the enterprise segment and growing opportunity there, not only to gain greater penetration for the core meetings product but to cross-sell products like zoom events and contact center over time the big bet longer term, jon, is this becomes much more of a platform play. we do like the longer-term setup from here. >> if we take a handful of enterprise collaboration names, microsoft teams, sysco webex, which has been redesigned. why don't we throw alasian in there, for example you could do salesforce and slack, as well what does zoom have to do differentiation wise versus those to win enough?ploiting tho

advantage that made them a consumer favorite but now on the digital and retail side as a headwind for them? >> those are great questions there's a slew of big competitors there, not the least of which is probably microsoft and its teams platform look, as you look at the innovation that zoom has demonstrated, r&d engine, you know, that it has, that it can continue to take share from many of the legacy providers. i think you're in an environment where, you know, teams and zoom can continue to take share from webexas and some of the other players. they've differentiated themselves on building on the customer base, the global brand they've established to build a broader platform and really be a dominant provider within this cloud communications suite of products that's really the sweet spot they're not trying to be all things to everybody. really capitalizing on the meeting space, the movement to phone, contacts, things that are

tang tangential we think we have sustainable advantages. >> will, looking at cash levels, $5.4 billion, i mean, i wonder how much of that goes into r&d they've shown they're not adverse to m&a the buyback says they're also interested in cap itital return. how would you spend it >> that's a great question look, i announced a $1 billion buyback this is a company that generated almost 1. -- $1.5 billion of free cash flow it is quite profitable a year and a half ago, it was trading 20 times revenue now, it is 20 times free cash flow so they do have opportunities to invest they just generated 40% operating markets. they don't intend to sustain that level because of some of the r&d efforts under way. the end of the day, carl, i think it'll be a combination of investing organically, looking at tucking acquisitions. i'm not expecting anything larger at some point, they can upsize the buyback if it make sense,

given the cash generative capability of the firm >> yeah. in some cases they don't have a choice but to grow organically, like with the call center. you said a moment ago that the bet is that zoom becomes a platform and not just a feature. what is it now, and how big is the threat of microsoft or how big is that obstacle in becoming what zoom calls a unified communications platform? >> well, this is the opportunity and the challenge in front of them, right? it's capitalizing on the meeting space. look, as i look at some of the early indications, particularly around zoom phone, they are capitalizing on that they had a record quarter on zoom phone, adding 550,000 new seats this last quarter alone. that's a business we think is growing triple digits year-over-year still a single digit percent of revenue, so it takes time to become more meaningful to the top andbottom line i think a clear cross-sell opportunity, as you look at their growing global customer base, and extending beyond that. zoom events.

to zoom rooms, right enabling and enhancing the conference room opportunity as folks return to the office there are multiple things they're already starting to execute on some are further along than others we do think there is an opportunity there. look, they are going against microsoft teams. that's the 800-pound gorilla in the market again, zoom, as you think about user-friendliness, price points, et cetera, i think it still stacks up well. >> will, one more for you then is zoom better off pursuing product-led growth and less sg&a spend, or are they better investing to beef you have that go to market so should they be more competing with alasian on the lower cost and letting the product lead, or should hathey become more of a traditional enterprise player with more of salesforce and the infrastructure to go against microsoft?

>> well, jon, i mean, it may end up being some of both. i think without question, they want to beef up go to market, become more of the enterprise play i think they are going to go head-to-head war with microsoft teams. that's really who they run into most often most cases, it's this frieenemy element. some companies use teams and then zoom for the meeting part they can co-exist. enhancing and bolstering a huge opportunity. growing the capability, i think, is where the focus is. >> all right will power, thanks for the insight. >> thanks for having me. meantime, we have bitcoin back to 45k this morning, a three-week high. both sides in the russia-ukraine crisis turn to crypto.

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welcome back to "tech check. i'm carl quintanilla with jon fortt and deirdre bosa resetting near the bottom of the hour tech checks are just low the nasdaq is allow the least of the major ones netflix is one of the media companies taking action amid russia's invasion of ukraine more on that in a moment after a news update with rahel solomon. >> good morning. here's what's happening at this hour u.s. crude prices nearly $104 a barrel as sanctions against russia mount that's despite reports of an international agreement to release 60 million barrels of issue from strategic reserves. japan's industry minister says half the oil released will come from the u.s. msc and maersk, the largest

shipping companies in the world, halted shipping to and from russia in response to the invasion of ukraine. the transportation of food and medical supplies will not be affected a cargo ship carrying thousands of luxury vehicles that caught fire two weeks ago sunk it included porsches and lambo lamborghinis volkswagen says the loss will be covered by insurance and shares of target up about 12% in this down market. q4 revenues were slightly below estimates. earnings were above forecast guidance for this year is also strong even with today's big gains, target shares are more than 15% below their 52-week high you're up to date. deirdre, back to you. >> thank you. the u.s. and allies are punishing russia with the most extreme set of sanctions put on a g20 country. ruble is in free fall. equities are barely traded at all. will the sanctions work? that is steve leesman's story. he joins us with more.

steve? >> deirdre, thanks breaking news on the sanction front. the bank for international settlements, the so-called centralbanks, sent cnbc a statement. quote, will not be allowing avenue for sanction to be circumsta circumvented it is not subject to swiss law, even though it is in switzerland. it previously said to us it wouldn't comment on the issue. there are significant holds. russia earns foreign currency through sales. they could have some access to the sales perhaps through china. ordinary russians buying russian goods will feel little impact since the ruble is a ruble if you buy bread for a certain amount of rubles, there's no change the sweeping sanctions, though, imposed on russia are hitting almost every place of society. the ruble devalued

flights were canceled in europe. and several russian institutions will be blocked from networks. imported goods and trappings of western life that russians are accustomed to, they'll grow far more expensive and become unavailable. russians have endured ruble valuations worse than what's happened before. the ruble devalued by 32% in the great financial crisis never recovered. fell by 45% against the dollar with sanctions after it took over crimea. it declined by 18% as a result of the pandemic and lower oil prices now with strengthening of the rural this morning, it is off 26% since the beginning of the ukraine invasion not the worst. with a brutal putin regime that suppresses opposition and jails critics, sanctions that make russian people suffer economically be only go so far in changing the course of this war. jon? >> steve, thanks. now from money to content. restrictions for russia and its state media machine racketing up

this week, as companies across the media space take action. ju julia has the latest. >> movie studios are the latest to take action in response to russia's attack on ukraine disney was the first to say it is pausing releases at the russian boxoffice, including "turning red" scheduled for a march 10th release warner brothers followed by pulling the "batman" and sony followed by saying it would not releas rel release "morbias," set for release in russia in late march. the question is what impact this could have on a movie industry that already suffered major losses during the pandemic analyst crockett noting that "spiderman no way home" brought 2.4% of its global box office in russia saying, quote, the studios can afford to skip the market. also noting that disney plus has not launched in russia saying investors, i am confident, would be fine if

disney and other studios skilled t -- st -- skipped the market netflix would not comply with a law requiring it to stream russian tv stations that could spread prop gpropaganda to viewn the states roku is removing rt from its channel stores in europe now, ukraine's ministry of culture and information policy has called on international tv providers to turn off russian news channels. roku has not removed its rt channels from its u.s. platforms, and directv and dish, which carry rt america, are being pressed on this, as well dish saying they are closely monitoring the situation, but they have not taken any action yet. no word back yet from directv about whether they plan to remove rt america from their platform

guys >> julia, it is interesting, the moves they're making the studios, platforms i wonder if it invites criticism of those companies later on, like in other areas of the world where maybe there isn't military aggression but legitimate complaints about government actions. they'll say, well, you pulled out of russia. why aren't you doing so in x-country? >> look, i'm sure all of this going to open up a lot of these companies to issues and complaints you just have to wonder here whether or not it is worth it. russia is not a meaningful piece of the box office. if you look at these movie studios, whatever blowback they might get from releasing a movie in two weeks in russia is probably not worth it at this point. so i would say the movie studio is under a lot of pressure right now. but in the grand scheme of things, the russian box office is relatively small. it will be interesting to see how this plays out i mean, china is a country which tightly controls the movies released there that is an issue that has been

hard in terms of the u.s. studios being able to get access to what is now a major box office force we'll see if there is ever a situation like this which follows. this is relatively unperecedent in terms of studios all holding back releases. >> thanks for bringing that, julia. we mentioned this story yesterday, but we have an update uber holds a significant stake in russian internet company yandex the company is, quote, trying to exaccelerate the sale of the holdings in the company which operates a ride hailing service in russia a. the end of 2021, they owned a 29% stake in the venture russia's prime minister temporarily banning foreigners from selling russian assets. unclear how that'd work, especially for a company that trades publicly on the nasdaq, jon. meantime, today's sell-off picking up a bit of steam in the last few minutes the dow is down, you know, more than 550 points right now.

as the volatility continues. the nasdaq is lower by about just over 1% the amount on the dow amounts to about 1 2/3. s&p 1 1/4 down "tech check" is back in two.

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bitcoin is trading higher after yesterday's massive rally. the situation in ukraine setting up a huge debate over crypto current sis. world leaders called on exchanges to ensure russians are not using banks to avoid sanctions. ukraine has called for the suspension of all russian accounts the largest crypto exchange responded saying unilaterally banning users would, quote, fly in the face of the reason why crypto exists. with us now for more on how the case for crypto is being tested, ventures partner sam lessen, who has invested in a number of companies in this space. sam, great to have you with us we are essentially seeing a massive geopolitical test for bitcoin. one, is it passing two, what does it mean for the long-term role of crypto >> look, i think the interesting thing about crypto is you see three different stories all

occurring in the same area and same asset class one is the traditional bitcoin story of value asset case, which a lot of people talk about in times of uncertainty looking to crypto to hold wealth. the second is effectively the tech story or the smart contracting story, the future of technology the third is straight up speculation. the companyreality is what we'rg here, people are going, in some ways, to the first question of cryptocurrency, which is when you think about bitcoin as a story of value, that doesn't exist with any one government, as you think about it as digital cash and the future of that, how do we think about that historically, countries always had currency controls and thought about this stuff the end of the day, you can't keep average citizens from trading cash between each other. you see certain countries and areas, rightfully, trying to create higher currency controls and control digital exchange other narratives pushing back on that from a decentralized

perspective. there is no right answer >> sorry to cut you off. >> there's no -- yeah, after you. >>. >> i wanted you to go into the role of crypto exchanges because what this is showing us is bitcoin isn't exactly anom mo anomanonymous but it is transparent. there is calls to freeze all russian crypto accounts. should crypto exchanges have to do more than traditional institutions like banks and trading platforms? >> i'm not sure they should have to do more, but they need to comply with the laws of the countries where they'll domiciled and who they operate with the reality is with bitcoin, you know, should individuals be able to trade bitcoins between each other without an exchange? local bitcoin style, should i be able to make the exchanges my view is the right to free exchange is fundamental to humanity it is something we haven't historically seen challenged because it was impossible. in the digital world, it is possible

it is like free speech should coinbase follow the laws of the u.s.? yeah >> that's not the question, sam. it's should they suspend all russian accounts, right? i think a lot of the platforms, all of them said they're going to -- all the credible ones said they're going to comply with, you know, people on the sanctions list but the issue of taking off an entire population, that is not something a bank would do. >> no, i agree again, i think this is part of the maturation of the crypto space and some of the financial institutions based around crypto is how do you navigate this? easy anxious is you comply when you get to the issues that are pr driven or policy driven or politics driven, you know, that's where each of them have to navigate on their own some will do it successfully and will do well from that others will probably mess it up and will have serious issues of trust or reputation as a result. it is not an easy thing for them to navigate, that's for sure. >> isn't this, sam, more than just an individual reputational issue?

i mean, there's the potential for this to be crypto's cambridge analytica moment i mean, if crypto becomes a means for russia dodging the impact of sanctions and the world writ large, particularly the western world blames it for that, won't that haven a impact on policy? >> you have to separate out a few of the stories at the order of magnitude we're talking about as a country, crypto is not large enough for russia to dodge sanctions as a country. it is still only $2 trillion that's a whole other level we're talking about, and crypto isn't close to capable of doing that when you're talking about individuals who want access to free exchange digitally, you know, look, i think this is a really big question of our time. which is, we never before thought about governments and currency controls with such complete control as they now have in the case of the digital economy, the digital world

would we want china having the one option where they can make unilateral decisions because of a financial system with a single point of failure, where they can make those calls probably not as americans. would we want, on the other side, a world of absolutely no controls that'd be dangerous and take away a lot of our basically political tools and our tools in this time. so the answer has to be somewhere in the middle. i do think it'll be challenging for individual exchanges, large institutions that have to navigate this. but if you go to the base level of do we believe in free speech, and do we, at a level, believe in individuals having access to free exchange? i know where i sit on the issue, and i think the reality is it'd be scary for the world to come out of this and make the decisions that to indict crypto overall or the idea of free digital exchange, because of this challenging political situation. >> although, sam, it sounds like you agree somewhat that we are testing people's, the globe's, appetite and tolerance for just

pure decentralization. the kinds of things that were in mind. >> yeah. the reality is there is nothing new about this it might be a test that's been contemplated in theory for -- it's been contemplated in theory from the beginning, right? this is now a practical example we'll have to work our way through. again, i do think you have to understand that crypto and bitcoin is an ecosystem. there are lots of points of leverage and points of transparency on it i think grouping it into one thing is a mistake instead, you have to look at the big institutions all the way down to how do individuals interact and trade and exchange with each other. it is all under the heading of bitcoin or decentralized digital currency nothing is perfectly decentralized. if you took out a bunch of the top exchanges, you have to believe you have an impact on the ecosystem. though you wouldn't be shutting down bitcoin that's the interesting part. >> sam, thanks for your insights we'll talk to you soon >> thanks for having me. >> if you're hungry for more crypto content, stay up to date

with "crypto world" at cnbc.com. we're also doing a "tech check" livestream at 12:30 p.m. eastern and 9:30 pacific meanwhile, do not sleep on today's market action. the weakness is accelerating the dow is down more than 650 points the tech sector is 1.4%. we'll have more after this break. alright, so...cordless headphones, you can watch movies through your phone? and y'all got electric cars? yeah. the future is crunk! (laughs) anything else you wanna know? is the hype too much? am i ready? i can't tell you everything. but if you want to make history, you gotta call your own shots. we going to the league!

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call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance. welcome back th welcome back the nasdaq is down 1 1/3% right now, the s&p 1.5, the dow about 2% that 1 1/3% adds to the 4% drop we saw in february, but a few select parts of tech have managed to escape the sell-off dom chu is wrapping that up. >> in the second half of the month we started feeling the tensions in ukraine and russia driving down those prices, but to your point the nasdaq is down 1 1/3%, and that's 2% down side here so atypically, we do see a little bit of that outperformance in a down market for the nasdaq as opposed to some of the leadership to the

downside that we've seen as of late as we look at the nasdaq trade, maybe no surprise as you talk about the highlights the qqq over the course of february, just the calendar month was down 4.5%, and it was communication services it was technology that two of the worst performing sectors overall, those types of stocks were the underperformers there if you take a look at where there were bright spots it was maybe no surprise. cybersecurity among the best-performing stocks within the nasdaq 100, the biggest nasdaq stocks out there. palo alto networks, fortnet, data dog, all among the top performers within the nasdaq 100 and the larger cap trade february was very much about cybersecurity at least toward the second half where we saw russia and ukraine become a real issue. as opposed to the other side with the biggest names out there that we've come to understand is the leadership of the market to the upside

paypal holdings is down about 35% during the calendar month and meta platforms we know very well about the troubles facing the former company -- the company formerly known as facebook some of the biggest names out there were the outliers to the down side. i also want to focus in on the stocks that matter the most because if you take a look at some of the ones that really, really kind of led the way in terms of market cap weightings apple, microsoft, alphabet, parent company and google and amazon those four stocks you see there. amazon, by the way, the only stock within the trillion dollar club within the s&p 500 and the nasdaq 100, that was actually positive among those particular stocks for the month of february so with apple down 5% and microsoft down 4% and google just about flat and amazon actually positive, it really brings you this notion, guys of whether or not there is certain particular reversal or outperformance that can happen, but of course, this is all contingent upon the risk aversion trade that we can see

playing out and with yields dropping and with the nasdaq falling and with the dow going toward session lows that becomes a variable, guys for traders and investors out there. >> indeed, dom we're watching that this morning. a quick programming note, the president's first state of the union today on capitol hill. do not miss special coverage at 8:00 p.m. eastern by our own shepard smith and the fed chair on the hill tomorrow morning, don't miss that as we are quickly close to revisiting friday's low of 4286 we're back in a memont

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sell-off is accelerating here as we get closer to the s&p. watch lucid as it kruts by 40% logistics challenger there, it missed on a wider than expected loss yet the ceo does remain confident in capturing opportunities ahead given their quote, technology leadership and strong demand for our cars last week's low on the s&p was 4114 we're coming back nah a moment - in the last two years, we quadrupled our team

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one more thing before we go, some chips to go with this dip that we're seeing in the major averages according to a new report taiwan semiconductor warning the chip shortage can last another two to three years as chip names have suffered following the run-up in 2021 the worst performers on the nasdaq today, lucid, zoom and then a bunch of chip names including amd, asnl, marvel,

nvidia, micron, lam research carl, not looking like it did last calendar year for the chips so far >> indeed, guys. in the meantime, a pretty challenged session the vix session high close to 34 oil at 106 let's get to the half. >> carl, thanks so much. welcome to "the halftime report," the tech's moment of truth and that's what it may well about, and the fed getting ready to raise interest rates and you know what's happening in the market at this very moment beyond tech. stocks are selling off once again and let's find out who's joining us today in the investment committee for the hour with me bryn talkington, degas wright, josh brown and jon najarian, co-founder of marketrebellion.com. let's go to the wall 12:00 noon in the east and that's a loss of 7% and the biggest decline today and the most startling thing in the market is th